When I was a little girl (I can't remember how little) my parents had the basement set up as the kids play room which means it was ALWAYS a DISASTER. It drove my parents crazy but it was too big of a mess to keep cleaning up on a daily basis just to have it destroyed again by 8 little children. One day I decided I was going to clean it but when I started I became extremely overwhelmed at the mess and decided to just gather everything up and put it in a huge pile in a corner of the room. That way it would look clean and it wouldn't take as much time. I remember feeling bad that I wasn't able to put everything away but I decided to show my parents anyway. When they came down they very convincingly acted like I had done the greatest thing in the world. The part I remember the most is when my dad said "Now there is so much clean space down here that it makes me want to dance and twirl." Then he began to do just that. I don't know why but watching him dance and twirl around the room made me feel so good about myself and I have never forgotten that.
About a year ago, Lily and I were cleaning her room and she (being only 2.5 years old) was so overwhelmed by the mess that it took a long time to convince her to keep working. Finally it was clean and as I looked around the room I remembered the story of my dad so I said to Lily "YAY now we have all this clean space so we can dance and twirl." She thought that was the greatest thing ever and now every time we clean her room we dance and twirl in celebration of our victory. She is now to the point where she cleans it by herself with out even being asked and she always comes and gets me when it's done so that we can once again dance and twirl.
Now that she and Jake share a room she has included him in the cleaning process and the other day I overheard them celebrating their accomplishment and I was able to catch it on video.
She is singing a song from Sleeping Beauty if you can't tell.
This has nothing to do with the above story I just wanted to remember something. Lily has developed quite the imagination and I love to hear her play. She spent this particular afternoon playing with her doll house. She is extremely dramatic so unfortunately the family that lives in the doll house go through many trials and tribulations on a daily basis. Sometimes I don't know how they survive.
Oh, and Jake spent his afternoon trying to figure out how to enclose himself in a plastic bin.
Here is Jake laying on the floor at my feet. No matter what I'm doing weather it's the dishes or on the computer or in the bathroom(a mother has no privacy) Jake is always right there laying on the floor waiting for me to be done.
Here he is in the babies car seat. I was getting it all set up tonight and he wanted to "snuggle" in it. He definitely still thinks he's a baby. 
