Anyone who knows me well knows that dirty dishes are the bain of my existence.  Give me a filthy toilet to clean, a closet to organize, or windows to wash, and I’ll do so happily if it means that I don’t have to wash dishes.  I despise them.  Yet, unlucky for me, we seem to have more dirty dishes than ever lately. And because we’re sans dishwasher in our little Vancouver rental house, I normally spend a couple of hours a day doing my dreaded chore.  Partner that with a very busy toddler who loves to interact, sleeps lightly, and shares a wall with the kitchen, and saying that getting the dishes done daily is very difficult, is an understatement.  So today, I decided to try something new…  Having Gracen wash dishes with me!  We filled up two sinks of sudsy water, pulled a chair over, filled her sink with plastic containers, and got at it.

Now let me tell you, accomplishing the task at hand was probably about 18 times harder than normal with a splash splashin’ munchkin by my side.  Not only did I have to wash dishes at warp speed while strategically stacking them in a careful dish mountain, but I also had to keep Grae from drinking the soap water, yanking the clean dishes from the drying rack back into the water, and grabbing at dangerous kitchen utensils.  Good grief.  By the time we were done, our kitchen was nearly flooded, we were both soaked head to toe, Gracen had a heap of bubbles atop her head, and I had three new grey hairs atop mine.  But you know what?  They got done.  There was no whining or pant pulling. And Miss G had a blast. And when it comes down to it, that’s all that really matters.