Part of being a parent is have to read the same books over and over and over and over

I barely remember watching Sesame Street

Every now and then Leina likes to eat breakfast with her good buddy Elmo…

Some people just like sittin’ on the poddy…

First let me say, “thank you Suzy!”

As some of you may know, Chrissie and I have a differing of opinions on the subject of laundry.

Most recently Chrissie has become exasperated with my clothing classifications:

1) Clean – can be worn at anytime and should be neatly folded and stored in the appropiate drawer

2) Dirty – should not be worn, should be put in the laundry hamper (aka basket at the side of our bed)

3) All Most Clean – Worn just a little, not really dirty, and can be worn again without any loss to personal hygiene

4) All Most Dirty – Worn several times, not very clean but not so dirty as to affront personal hygiene standards of most dearest wife (usually)

Now classes 1 & 2 do not offend my wonderful wife. But she takes great offense at classes 3 & 4. I think it’s really because groups 3 & 4 do not have a storage area. Clean and Dirty clothes have the appropriate storage centers and are thus very well organized. The main storage area for classes 3 & 4 is the floor. More specifically the floor on my side of the bed in close proximity of the wife’s clothes closet. Often I’ve heard the Wife growl in disgust as she tromps by a pile of class 3 or 4 clothes on the way to her closet. Typically she will often kick a pile of said articles and mumble, “are those clean or dirty? And why do they have to be left on the floor?”

After I cringe because she’s just sullied an almost-clean pile, I’ll usually reply, “they’re almost clean (or dirty) and they’re stored on the floor ’cause they’re too clean to be neatly folded and put back in the drawers (they would contaminate the actually clean clothes). Or they’re not dirty enough to be put in the laundry basket (and would become contaminated themselves).”

“Grr..” Is my usual answer.

It seems perfectly logical system to me, but then again I came up with it 🙂

So, on our daily lives went until Chrissie was complaining about my system to her sister Suzy, who said, “why don’t you just get some hooks to put the clothes on?”

Genius, shear genius. It often takes an outside perspective to solve very complex problems. It wasn’t the actual classification system that was the problem it was the storage area! Now the class 3 & 4 clothes hang on some hooks on the back of the closed door (the dirty the clothing is the closer it is to the hamper) and Chrissie doesn’t complain (or even care). As long as all types of clothes are stored in their appropriate place the Wife is happy.

Thank you Aunty Suzy, thank you!

Marriage is all about compromise. This I have learned. In theory. Putting it into practice, however, means that I do not get my way all the time. This vexes me. However, as a testiment to how much I love my husband, I have found I am getting better and better at this whole compromise lifestyle.

Ooops. Something small, cute, and very very smelly just walked by. Let me take a quick (but nasty) poopy diaper break here. Be right back.

Right….So…. This weekend, Kevin decided he wanted a new shower head. At 69th, he put in one of those mobile shower heads that you can take down and hold in your hand. You know, the kind with the long silver hose? Anyway, he convinced me to change over from a stationary showerhead because he insisted that the mobile showerhead would help him clean the shower. Now, anything that will help Kevin with keeping the house clean, I’m up for so I allowed him to change showerheads on me. I hated this moving showerhead but I put up with it because I thought it meant my shower would be cleaned more by my husband. Ha! That proved to be a big fat lie. I believe in the two years this head was installed, Kevin cleaned that shower a whopping total of three time.

So when we moved down to Sherwood, it was with great joy that I returned to a stationary showerhead. But sure enough, a few months later, I saw a package on our bathroom sink. Yes, that’s right, another mobile showerhead and hose thingy. I stalled for weeks. Kevin tried the old “I’ll clean the shower” line but I wasn’t falling for it. Once bitten, twice shy.

Finally, after listening to him whine and mope, I let him put in his precious showerhead and it was awful. The water trickled out in a mere stream. The head was mounted so high that the water pretty much hit me straight in the face and no matter how I fiddled I couldn’t adjust it because of that stupid hose. For me, holding the thing was out of the picture. I need two hand to wash my hair and do my various shower routine. There was no way I could clean effectively one handed. I took a miserable, cold, contortionist shower and told Kevin no way. I wanted my old shower back and I wanted it now. Once I explained to Kevin the issues and he saw me getting hit in the face with the water, he reluctantly agreed to go back to the old way. But first, we hit HomeDepot.

Yes, the good old HomeDepo which is the bain and salve for so many married folks. They had a whole isle of shower heads and – even more exciting- a splitter. Yes, that’s right, the ultimate in compromise. Now, our shower offers two water spraying options. For those who prefer hand held control, there is the mobile showerhead and for those who enjoy a nice steady hands free steam from above there is your old fashion stationary head. Ahhhh, it’s heavenly.

The joys of compromise.