April 9th

Emma surprised me a few weeks ago by wanting to try out the vacuum. This is particularly pleasing for me, since I was obsessed with vacuums when I was a little boy. Both of my grandmothers had really cool vacuums...my maternal grandmother in New York had some old Electrolux canisters and my paternal grandmother in Texas had a cool upright Eureka with self propel (can you believe I remember that?). Check out the bottom picture, below, where you can see me playing with my toy vacuum back in the mid-70s. I bought my first vacuum from Target when I was in 5th grade and have owned several since. On our cleaning days (which have dwindled to about once a month), I spend HOURS with the vacuum on, using all of the attachments to get every last spec of dust.

Anyway, enough about my vacuum obsession. Here are some photos of Emma vacuuming under the sofa cushions. She has asked to get the vacuum out several times since then. Now I just have to get her to practice more so that SHE can take over the cleaning!