Chores

Of all her responsibilities, this is her favorite. Sylvia loves helping me make oatmeal for breakfast. I soak the oats overnight and cook them in the morning. Sylvia cuts the butter and throws it in, helps me with the maple syrup (by having her finger ready to scoop up the drops from the side of the container), and dumps in the berries and salt. She also serves it into bowls. Gus is extremely jealous. I have to remind him every morning that he'll be able to make the oatmeal too when he's old enough to take on other chores.

Sylvia's other chores include folding the diaper wipes four times a week, clearing the table after every meal, and bringing her toys back to the playroom before dinner. We clean up the playroom together once a week. And now I'm going to have to figure out how to deal with the basement which has necessarily become our second playroom after the toy influx of Christmas and the truckload of toys from our neighbors.

Sylvia's chores have been cut back from a few months ago. I used to make her clean the playroom by herself everyday and make her bed every morning. I'm considering reinstating the bed rule but I'm glad I cut the playroom out, it's eliminated a lot of stress from our evenings.