Autumn Bought Her Own “Hanitizer”

Today was a big day for my Autumn girl.  Last night before we went to bed, we made a list of all the chores she could do tomorrow to earn some extra points to buy something she wanted.  So, when we got up this morning she wanted to get right to work.  We worked together on all of these so she could learn how to do them (and so it didn’t take so long so she wouldn’t get discouraged).  I put her clean shirts on a hanger and she put them up in her closet and she also put away all her other clean clothes.  Then she took all of her dirty clothes to the laundry room and I taught her how to separate the lights from the darks.  I showed her how to put them in the washing machine so they’re spread out evenly, how to put in a cup of detergent, and how to do the settings on the washer.  She wanted to see what it looked like in there, so I put her up on the dryer.  She was cold so she wrapped up in a towel.

While the laundry was going, we went in her room and I had her vacuum her room, and then I did my room, and she did the living room.  I vacuumed the kitchen and then she mopped all the tile.  She is so good at mopping and loves to do it.

The last chore was to clean her bathroom.  I showed her how to wipe down the toilet and clean the sink.  She did such a GREAT job w/ all of her chores.  We were done w/ all of that by 11:00!  So, we called Nick to see if he wanted to go to lunch.

I had a coupon for Cici’s Pizza, and I hadn’t been there in forever, so we waited for Nick to come over to the house (he’s staying at Mom & Dad’s house while they are gone to the state wrestling tournament in Austin for the weekend) and then we went and got lunch.  Autumn loved being able to go back for more and more food and get whatever she wanted.

We took Nick back home so he could get ready to go to work, and then Autumn & I went to Bath & Body Works.  She has been wanting to get her own “hanitizer” (what Autumn calls hand sanitizer), so she smelled all the different kinds and picked out 5 that she wanted since it was 5 for $5.  She also wanted to get this ice cream cone blinged out holder, and I was glad I had a 20% off coupon that Autumn could use.  I was so thankful to the ladies at the counter for making a big fuss about how grown up & responsible she is when I told them she earned the money to pay for all of this herself.  I am so proud of myself for not buying anything for myself, even though I really wanted to.  I am SO PROUD of my Autumn girl!  She was beaming from ear to ear.

After that, we ran a bunch of errands like going and vacuuming out the car, getting it washed, picking up some registration forms for swim lessons this summer, running by WalMart to get a few things, etc.  Then we went over to Mom & Dad’s house to let Emma out so she could go potty.  I noticed that these beautiful daffodils that are white w/ yellow centers.  Mom & Dad’s pink magnolia tree is also starting to get a few blooms.  I hope they don’t freeze w/ the cold weather we’ll get getting next week (overnight lows in the 30’s and highs in the 50’s).  I LOVE spring so so so so much and can’t wait for it to get her.  It’s by far my favorite season of the year.

Autumn wanted me to take a picture of her “hanitizer”, so she set up this display.  She cracks me up, and I was happy to do it to document her first purchase by herself.  I’m loving this new way of parenting and even though it’s not perfect, I’ve seen huge improvements.

When we were at WalMart, we bought Mama Mia b/c it was only $5, and I love the music.  When it first came out, I did not like it at all b/c I thought it was lame that James Bond 007 (Pierce Bronson) was singing, but it’s grown on me for sure.  I loved that we could watch it w/ the words so we could sing along to the songs.  We got up and would dance around during the songs.  It was a BLAST!

We tried watching Fiddler On The Roof b/c Autumn likes musicals and has never seen it, but after the first few songs she said it was too boring.  It was getting late by this point anyways, so we packed up and came home.  I got her in bed and just vegged on the couch the rest of the night and watched TV.  It was a great Saturday.