I think I'll keep him

Today was an experiment day. X-man has been complaining lately that we don't listen and that we just boss him around. It's hard for him to understand that that's the only perk of parenthood... :-)

Anyway, so we made an agreement. On New Year's Day, from midnight until 7 p.m. (bath time), MacTroll and I wouldn't tell him he couldn't do something UNLESS it was a safety issue.

Know what he spent the day doing without complaint? Helping me set up metal shelves in the basement storage room, reorganizing toys in his room and the downstairs play room and -- vacuuming.

Okay, the pictures are when he did it on Friday... but seriously, he did it twice this weekend. (We have three cats, a dog and two messy males in my house... so, yeah, we vacuum a lot. And yes, that is the Dyson Animal.) He even gets under the couch!

It's his favorite chore. I think mostly because he knows I won't "accidentally" vacuum up any stray Legos if he's the one down on his hands and knees doing the work.

Sure, we also played the Game of Life (his favorite board game) and we made stuff out of air dry clay and painted it... and painted a few paintings. But most of the day he was pretty self sufficient doing whatever he wanted to do while MacTroll and I got some chores done around the house.

We also all sat down and finally watched the first episode of a TV show we got from Netflix DVD that came at the beginning of December. (Whoops!) It was the first season of Different Strokes. I love Mrs. Garrett. I totally remember why she got the gig on the spin off Facts of Life.