Helpin'

This is my helper. While the twins take a nap is the best time for me to fold laundry. Otherwise I have three helpers, two of which provide the kind of help that might send me for a weekend get-away in a padded room. The twins can unfold laundry faster than I can fold it. Putting the clothes on the back and arms of the couch no longer keeps it out of their ever increasing reach. Elizabeth at least makes an effort into making piles. You can see that she at least wads up the clothes and separates it according to size.

It's really important that I go through the ritual of washing, drying, folding and putting away the clothes. It supplies the twins with fodder when they unload their dresser drawers. It definitely teaches cause and effect. Mommy puts away the clothes nicely, twins throw all the clothes on the floor and then the clothes are just wadded and thrown back in the drawers for the next round. It never looks quite the same.

That ritual is also important in Emma's case. The clothes should be neatly folded and put away so she can dig through everything to find a shirt that nicely clashes with her pants and shoes. And when I say "dig," I really mean "strip mining." Half of the clothes end up on the floor so we can't tell which is clean, which is dirty, and which was worn 5 minutes before mommy veto-ed on account of the weather. (No skirts if it is pouring down rain in February. No long sleeved shirts if it's supposed to be 73 degrees. etc.)

Luckily, I have Elizabeth to help me. There is nothing like wadded up underwear, and wrinkled clothes that starts a day off right. Ok, I might actually refold Ryan's and my clothes before putting them away. I just can't do it in front of certain people whose feeling might get hurt. After all, she is being Mommy's Great Helper.

(That is, if the clothes even get folded and put away before use....)