Things I have learned this week

This was a great learning week for me for a few reasons:
A) Stubbornness runs in my family (or Tim's) and now my little one seems to be developing it.
b) Even if mopping the floor with your 22 month old seems like a good idea, it may not be.
c) If you DO decide to mop the floor with your 22 month old, don't give her a bucket of water.

Let's explore these further, shall we??

A) While I am glad that Emma is strong and voices her opinions, I am really started to wish she didn't know the word NO. Every night she seems to want to go shopping, which is fine because there are times when we need to go shopping. However, Tuesday night Tim had to run to Gander Mountain to buy an ice fishing shack. (I believe that makes the total 4 now at the cabin, nice....) So, Emma and I went to Wal-mart to find her some rain boots. One would think that finding rain boots at this time of year would be easy, but not the case. So, I bundle Emma up, get her in the car and she REFUSES to let me buckle her in. "No, Mama - no shopping." So I figure, okay, she had a busy day at daycare, we won't go. So, I take her out of the car. However, once in the house she has a fit because she wants to go shopping. So, I sit her down and tell her that if she gets back in the car, we are going shopping. "Uh huh -shopping." But, once in the car, she has a huge fit again. TOO BAD! She cries half the way to Walmart, but then gets excited once we are in the store. They did not have rain boots, but we did get her another pair of shoes. Unfortunately, she had to walk around the store with me, because she kept kicking her legs so I could not put her in the cart.

We did eventually find her some rain boots at Marshalls, along with a cute rain coat. She really needs the boots as she has to stomp in every puddle she can find when walking outside.

B) I needed to mop the floor. Mopping the floor is a necessity with a little one as they are constantly getting it dirty. I didn't have time during her nap yesterday as I was vaccuming and cleaning up toys, so I thought "How fun if Emma could help me. She loves playing with water and is always mimic-ing me. So, I get her a bucket of water, a sponge and take off all of her clothes, other than the diaper.
She loves it! I remind her how she is just like Cinderella cleaning the floor, which makes it even better! So, we start singing "Sing Sweet Nightinggale" like they do in the movie and mop the floor. First, I notice that I put way too much soap in my bucket, so I am leaving foamy streaks. That frustrates me. Then, I notice how much water Emma is using, which is leaving an even bigger foamy mess. No good. Which leads to:

C) I knew there was a chance that Emma having a bucket would make a much bigger mess AND that she could potentially dump the bucket of water over. Which, she did both. Now, mind you, I didn't put a LOT of water in her bucket, just enough for her sponge. Either way - when it spilled, it still got all over. She thought it was hilarious and instantly starting stomping around in it. I quickly got a towel and starting soaking it back up. Interesting experience.... It was fun - just a wet experience.