Cleaning and Uncleaning Your House

Photo: L. Navarrete

Lately, my house is cleaner than usual because it is for sale. So it has to be ready to show on short notice. However, I did not get any calls to show the house for several weeks, so I started to slack off with my daily cleaning chores. Then the call came: "Can I show your house today? We can be there in 20 minutes." My response? "Yes, but I have lots of kids including a newborn, and it would be great to have a little more time to prepare." Thankfully, they were viewing houses again a few days later, so we arranged an appointment for noon on Thursday.

I woke up at 7:00 on Thursday morning to my sweet 7-week-old crying for milk, of which he had also woken at 1:00, 3:00, and 4:30 am. But no going back to sleep for this tired supermom because I had a house to clean and five hours to do it! Thankfully, three kids were going to school, and my amazing mom was coming to help out with the babies and with the cleaning.

The second floor was my first task: making beds, putting clothes away, dusting, cleaning the bathrooms, emptying trash cans, putting out the white towels/comforters/soaps, turning on lights, opening the blinds, hiding all the clutter that was on every table and dresser. All this is because, of course, you can't show a house that looks lived in. But this home is more than lived in when we have five kids including a newborn with reflux, a 2-year-old that loves to bring her sippy cup onto the carpet, and three other kids that track in dirt. Plus we have a beagle that runs away every day, jumps on dining room tables, steals our food, and knocks over Caleb's full cups of milk. Despite the reality of our crazy life here at home, it has to look like a model home if we expect to sell it.

The baby was tired from waking up all night, so he slept most of the morning, enabling mom and me to complete the house preparations! And Sadie was entertained by Mickey a little more than I would usually allow. I had not completed all the vacuuming, but it was time, so I loaded the car and set out to pick up Emma. Mom let the prospects in and waited on the porch while they examined the property, hopefully noticing how perfectly clean it looked.

As soon as they left, I spent a few minutes uncleaning the house to make it ready for kids again...

Dysfunctional Stroller Miles From Home

Photo: R. Navarrete

I was walking the parkway for my hour's worth of exercise for the day. My double stroller can fit the infant car seat and another child, so I took my 6-week-old and my 4-year-old for this excursion. I had walked about a mile from home when I realized that Emma was sleeping. The problem is that her left foot kept slipping off the foot rest, so it kept waking her up. Every time her foot slipped, it either got close to the ground or blocked the wheels. With my rapid walking pace, I could not have her little feet in danger. And even if I turned around, I was 20 minutes away from home. How was I going to continue walking and keep her feet from blocking the stroller??!!

So I started to brainstorm and looked throughout the stroller for ideas. In my basket, I had two toy stethoscopes, an Elmo cardboard book, and two burp cloths. Then I looked in Dominic's seat, and found another burp cloth. Finally the light turned on: I could use the burp cloths to make foot straps! I tied two of them together and proceeded to attempt a strap for her left foot. The two cloths knotted together were still not long enough, so I re-attached them again. This time it worked! I could get the strap around her left foot and connect it to the foot rest.

My walk continued, but half a block later, her right foot started slipping also. I only had one burp cloth left, so I tried to strap it on similar to the left side. After several minutes, I completed her right foot strap, but by then Emma was wide awake, obviously wondering what in the world Mommy was doing with her feet. I tried to explain and asked her if it was comfortable. She said yes. I asked if she wanted me to take her feet out, but she said no. So we were off again!

The rest of the way home, I stopped every 5 minutes to see if Emma was awake, comfortable, and willing to keep the straps on. Yes, yes, and yes! She did not mind them, but I was paranoid that someone driving by would look closely and notice that my child's feet were tied to the stroller. Was that legal? Was I going to get arrested? Thankfully, no one called the police, and we made it home successfully.

Lessons learned: Take extra burp cloths with you everywhere. Maybe 4-year-olds are too big for some strollers. Don't walk too far from home when you are pushing kids in a stroller. Be creative. Just keep walking! Plan for how your kids can sleep in the stroller.