A Disney Moment

Remember Disney's Cinderella?  Remember the scene where she was singing "Sweet Nightingale" while washing the floors, bubble all around her?  Well, I wasn't foolish enough to picture that in my endeavor this morning. 

Our house needed a really good cleaning, so I stopped by the Dollar General yesterday afternoon and picked up supplies: toilet bowl cleaer, Lysol spray, Endust, paper towels, soft scrub, and two sponges. 

That's right, two sponges: one for each son, in different colors so they could easily identify whose was whose. 

During breakfast, I explained the steps to scrubbing the tubs: 
1.  Remove everything from the tub.
2.  Mommy will spray down the tub with the shower hose. 
3.  Mommy will add soft scrub.
4.  Boys scrub.
5.  Mommy rinses. 

Simple, right? 

I also had one more moment of clarity, and let both boys strip down to diaper/underwear so that they would not make a mess of their clothes.  G decided he'd keeps his socks on.  Whatever. 

So here's what happened.  The boys finished eating, ran into my bathroom, and took all their toys out of our large soaker tub.  OK, I hadn't planned on cleaning that one--I'd meant the shower and their tub, but I ran with it.  G could just reach the sides and B could get the bottom.  I ran and grabbed them each a cup so they could help rinse.  While they scrubbed, I removed all the soaps from the shower.  It was going great!  G started soft scrubbing the outer edge of the laminate around the tub.  I redirected him, promising him we'd get that part with Lysol.  He agreed, and as soon as I turned to get a shampoo bottle, he swiped the shower gel, unscrewed the top, and poured himself a healthy dose of "cleaner" on the laminate.

Before he could scrub, scrub, scrub, I dashed to the toilet, snatched some tp and the trashcan and wiped up the gel.  Whew.  That was a close one.  I redirected him to the tub and all was well again.  Luckily, he found the squirt bottle to the color changing hotwheel set that used to live by that tub, so he was occupied.

I grabbed the soft scrub two seconds later. Then I snapped some pictures and congratulated myself for helping their future wives.  Go, me! 

The boys flung water all over the tub to rinse it, then we began on the shower.  It pretty much went to plan except B rinsed the shower from inside the shower.  Maybe naked cleaning wouldn't have been a terrible idea.  No matter. 

I decided to keep the cleaning train on track:  Gabe used paper towels to wipe down the laminate around the tub after I sprayed it with Lysol.  I quickly doused the toilet with toilet bowl cleaner, then left it to sit.  I asked B to grab the soft scrub and sponges, and asked G to grab the paper towels.  I grabbed the Lysol and off we went to their bathroom. 

Then a different kind of Disney moment happened: G never met us at the bathroom.  Phineas and Ferb had caught his attention, and he dropped his unravelling roll of paper towels as soon as he saw the boob tube.  B scoured the tub while I got the toilet and counters--after tearing through the house for the paper towels since G wouldn't answer me.  I was NOT going to be stupid enough to leave cleansers unsupervised for more than a second with these two!

In all, the house got cleaner.  There was no time for singing, though, and I think I may have burned more calories this way.  Still, I think it's important for kids to help keep the household running.  That's the best preparation for learning to run households of their own, right?  Besides, any time spent together is quality time.