<\/p>\nLucy has always seemed to enjoy vacuuming, “in utero”:\/news\/2006\/camera-ready\/, in the “Baby Bj\u00c3\u00b6rn”:\/news\/2006\/bunny-cide\/, as a “crawling baby”:\/news\/2007\/whatever-blows-your-hair-back\/, and now as a fully-mobile toddler. Lately, it has become one of our “go-to” fun activities. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
As soon as I mention the word “vacuum,” Lucy starts with the sound effects: “vroom, vroom!” She squeals with delight as soon as I turn it on and likes to be chased with it. It’s fun for her to try to sit on the canister (just about her size), and of course she’s always enjoyed the “blowing of the fan on her face”:\/news\/2007\/whatever-blows-your-hair-back\/. (Hmm, is this healthy?) Every once in awhile she’ll figure out how to turn the machine off or reel in the power cord enough that it gets disconnected from the plug, but these are the prices Mama has to pay for a clean floor. Not bad.<\/p>\n
p{color:gray}. Photo: Here is Lucy’s official floor-cleaning get-up. Not really. Just being silly.<\/p>\n
More recently, we’ve been enjoying mopping the kitchen floor together, too. For many months, I avoided mopping with Lucy around — it just seemed too hazardous, too wet, too many chemicals. But I’ve finally invented a toddler-friendly system that works with my life. Lucy has the order of events down pat, and likes to remind me where to go next, as soon as I say the word “mop.”<\/p>\n
# First, get the mop from the attic stairs (our version of a broom closet). I use a mop I got from Target (I think it is Real Simple brand) with a removable and washable microfiber sleeve.
\n# Next, get a new microfiber sleeve from the basement stairs (the other part of our broom closet). We keep three of these sleeves in the house. Attach to mop.
\n# Look under the sink to find a large spray bottle of 1:1 white vinegar and water. I got this great spray bottle from The Container Store — it sprays a good stream onto the floor even from standing height.
\n# Spray vinegar and water onto the floor, and start mopping away! Bonus giggles: Try to mop Lucy’s feet in the process.
\n# When you’ve finished, toss the mop head into the pile of dirty rags so it can be washed for next time.<\/p>\n
Now I’m usually big on cleaning with disinfecting solutions, but I love cleaning my wood floors with vinegar and water — Lucy crawls around while I’m doing it, always underfoot, and I don’t worry at all about her getting into toxic chemicals. She’ll maybe get a little pickled, but that’s OK.<\/p>\n
It does smell a bit like you are making a big salad while you are washing the floor, but it dissipates pretty quickly. And hey, I’m not in my first trimester anymore so odors don’t bother me! I’m just glad to get the kitchen floor clean — at least for an hour or so, until Lucy throws banana from her high chair again. Sigh. Maybe she’s trying to dirty it up so we can clean it together?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Lucy has always seemed to enjoy vacuuming, “in utero”:\/news\/2006\/camera-ready\/, in the “Baby Bj\u00c3\u00b6rn”:\/news\/2006\/bunny-cide\/, as a “crawling baby”:\/news\/2007\/whatever-blows-your-hair-back\/, and now as a fully-mobile toddler. Lately, it has become one of our “go-to” fun activities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kids"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/boydsnest.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/boydsnest.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/boydsnest.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/boydsnest.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/boydsnest.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1531"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/boydsnest.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1531\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/boydsnest.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/boydsnest.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/boydsnest.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}