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A time to ease up, and Willow's "taking and putting"

Willow and I don't have much planned for today:
  • Laundry.
  • Prepare recycling for hauling off.
  • Go to the park.
  • Go to the library.
  • Plant sunflower seeds (Mommy will be happy about this).
  • Vacuum (Mommy will be happy about this).
And all the daily chores such as watering the plants and unloading and reloading the dishwasher.
Willow is taking a nice, long nap right now, recuperating from her big day yesterday where we went to Gymboree class and then to the zoo. Willow was so zonked out at the end of our zoo adventure, she didn't wake up when I took her out of the stroller and put her into the car or when we got home and I took her out of the car and put her in room.
She woke up early this morning, so she's getting an early nap.
Once we get the laundry finished, we'll head off to the park.
Willow is a big help with laundry. She likes to reorganize the piles of clothes a lay out. She also likes to take clothes out of the washer, but she's not too good at putting anything into the washer or drier yet.
Our little helper also likes to pull clean towels from their home under my sink and spread them out all over the floor.
You get the idea. Willow likes taking things out of other things. She also likes putting things into other things, such as when she takes her blocks out of their box and put them into her Dora the Explorer adventure gym.
She's also started organizing things. Just a little. She likes taking those same blocks and stacking them up atop her Exersaucer (which we're about to stow away in the attic to await the next kiddo that comes along).
Regarding all this getting into stuff and taking out things and putting in things, I have a confession to make. I haven't been forthright about Willow's best activity at Gymboree. I tell people her best activity is the air-log roll. She likes that, but her best "achievement" is crawling, or Zombie Walking," over to the cabinets and opening them. I usually snatch her before she pulls anything out.
Once the other kids see what Willow is up to, they mimic her, then you have a bevy of parents scrambling to grab their tots.
The staff at Gymboree have remedied the problem by putting ties on the cabinet handles. Willow and I ought to sponsor those ties and get a plaque that says, "Kindly sponsored by Willow Rose Dunn, who couldn't keep her hands of these things."
The dryer buzzer just sounded. Got to get busy.

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