What is it?

My definition of "quiet moment" has changed.  At this very second it means that I am sitting.  Lily is, I believe, rolling up the carpet in the hall so she can pull the cloth-bottomed laundry hamper down the hall into my room.  I decided to let her attempt it, and she is very pleased with herself.  And now she is replacing the rug.  I will take all the help I can get.

I am learning to harness Lily's desire to be helpful.  This morning I asked her to teach Jack to put all of his laundry into his laundry basket (it had been in service holding some clean laundry)--I returned to find it all neatly placed in the basket.  Lily had finished the job.  She's great at finding "old juice" (sippies from earlier hours) around the house and placing them in the sink for me.  She'll take a stack of kitchen towels and place them in the baskets in the kitchen.  I find that if I give her one task, she's great.  It's more a matter of training Mommy than training Lily in some jobs, because I cannot say "Please clean your room" and expect anything to be finished.  Gotta break it down.

Which is not a bad lesson for me, too.  Breaking tasks down into more manageable parts is about the only way I can get things done.  Right now I am typing.  I am also holding a stuffed lambie who apparently scratched his leg.  I am holding him while Lily gets things together for drawing.  And now I am being asked to help Lily to work on her drawing.   It's a very orange picture of Lambie crying.  Oh dear.  That may be the end of this post.