A zoo night and Maya's chores

Last Wednesday we had some drizzly weather with very little of humidity so we decided to take the kids up to the zoo after Nick got home from work. I was pleasantly surprised to have found out that the zoo is open until 8pm on Wednesdays. It was a perfect night! No mosquitoes, comfortable weather, and my sweet family surrounding me. Couldn't have gone better.






Picture courtesy of our little photographer, Maya.

I noticed a few weeks ago that Maya seems to have no concept of consequences. She will come into a room like a tornado and tear it all up then expect me to clean up after her. We decided it was time for her to start doing some chores on a daily basis. For the first week she had the same chores every day; tidy her bedroom and make her bed, sweep under the dining room table, and help fold the dishtowels after I did laundry. She became very excited about marking her completed chores off of her list and started asking for more things to do! It was great! The next week she got bored with the same chores and became disinterested in helping again. So this week I came up with 3-4 different things to do every day. I think she's finally understanding that SOMEBODY has to clean up after her when she makes a mess, and it shouldn't always be me. She gets a little allowance every Friday, so we are teaching her about money management as well. We have to ask her each week, "do you really want to buy 3 cheap toys at the dollar store, or save up for a few weeks and get a cool toy at Target?" Currently she is saving up for a mini Dalmatian puppy Furreal pet which costs $8 bucks. She is doing great!

One day during quiet time I told her she could fold some of her dishtowels in her room and she said, "no thank you mama". Then she came out about 15 minutes later with her laundry basket and her folded towels! She was so proud of herself and I was too, it really does help me! It's cute because she doesn't fold them all the same size, she folds them to fit the open areas in the bottom of the basket. So some are long and skinny, and some are extra small. Whenever I pull them out of the drawer I can't help but get a huge smile on my face. Cute girl. We hope she makes her goal this Friday so she can get her Furreal pet. (Because this girl really needs more stuffed animals!)


Working hard!