Mommy's little helper

Elle's super fun poopy weekend continued in to the week, and we even experienced Elle's first experience with puking. It was less than awesome, but the good news was that she wasn't very sick for very long and handled it like a champ. The worst part of it was that it all started at 5 a.m. the morning after Tim's surgery. Needless to say, it was an extremely emotionally and physically exhausting 24 hours for me. BUT I think the poop and the puke were related to the tiny white specs I found poking out of Elle's gums last night. Her last two canine teeth have broken through, and although her mood was absolutely atrocious yesterday and her appetite was pretty much non-existent, she was great today, and I think we're finally on an upswing.

But pesky tooth pain or not, Elle has been on an OCD cleaning kick for the last few months. She'll use anything - a sock, a cloth diaper wipe, a folded-in-half-expired-insurance card - and she'll "wipe" the floor, counters, walls, etc. She's not consistently interested in putting things in their place (just ask anyone who sees the bookshelf in her room or any of the blocks/puzzles/other toys she has), but she's been very routine in her wiping down habits.

I think this was a tissue used to clean the end table.

Same tissue to clean the floor.

I was wiping down our pantry door after dinner the other night, and Elle scrambled in to "help." She had grabbed one of the receiving blankets I'd put in her toy box (so she could use them for her stuffed animals), and she started wiping down the kitchen cabinets, saying "We're cleaning." I kept thanking her for the "help" and told her we were all done ... and she kept going. So I remembered a spot on our hallway wall that has some telltale toddler handprints, and I ducked out of the kitchen to clean it up.

Receiving blankets make the best cleaning accessories.

Helping mommy.

She followed me. And covered the entire wall up to where I was with the wiping of the receiving blanket. When she got close to me, she worked intently on a "spot" and then gave me a grin. It. Was. Adorable.

I fear for her OCD tendencies, but I guess there are worse ones to have as a toddler - this *should* work to my benefit, right? (I know, I know.)