Give us dirty laundry...

Since our house is now officially on the market and showings are possible at any moment (well - I hope they're possible, we haven't had one yet), I feel like now, more than ever, I am constantly doing laundry.

When The Incredible Hulk was a baby, I found a way to balance the never ending loads of baby laundry with the never ending needs of my new little one. For instance, at three months, we spent laundry time doing tummy time. Give that kid a light-up musical toy, a mirror, and something soft to lay on top of and I could have every little sock rolled and every little onesie folded while the baby was still cooing and giggling.  Once TIH became mobile, it got a little harder to keep up with this practice, so instead I would stick him in his crib with some toys and be done with the laundry faster than he could throw each of his toys out of the crib.

However, now TIH is a very active toddler.  Nothing (including doors since he knows how to open those now) can contain this kid.

People are always asking me, "New Mom on the Blog, how do you do it all?  Finish the laundry, show your house, and still manage to keep magazine-perfect hair?"  Kidding.  No one has ever asked me that.  And I'll tell you why.

Here's how we do laundry in The New Mom on the Blog household:

-  Balance basket of washed/dried laundry on one hip and toddler on the other.
-  Fight wriggling toddler (who is trying to escape your grasp so he can go chase the cat.)
-  Drop entire basket of laundry on the floor as soon as you make it into the room and narrowly miss dropping toddler on his .
-  Set toddler on the floor next to basket and attempt to put clothes back into basket.
-  Redirect toddler who is removing each article of clothing you put in the basket and dumping it back on the floor.
-  Take a deep breath.
-  Surround toddler with his favorite toys, books, and stuffed animals
-  Begin folding blankets and towels and make a pile.
-  Pry carbon monoxide detector out of toddler's hands.
-  Attempt to dismantle CO detector as toddler has somehow managed to make it beep shrilly every 30 seconds.
-  Take a deep breath.
-  Turn around and find that toddler has unfolded all of the blankets and towels and has dumped all clean laundry onto the floor...again, and is now sitting in the middle of the room with the basket on top of his head.
-  Reclaim laundry basket...again, pile all clean laundry back into the basket, shove blankets into drawers as best they will fit, and surround toddler with more toys, books, and stuffed animals.
-  Make progress on the pile of laundry while toddler is (momentarily) entertained by a rattle he hasn't played with since he was a few months old.
-  Fold two pairs of socks.
-  Pry package of wipes from toddler's hands (half of which are now sitting in a pile on the floor.)
-  Take a deep breath.
-  Give up on folding socks and shove a handful of them in another drawer.
-  Turn back from the drawer and see that toddler has pulled blankets out of his crib and dirty clothes from another basket and has piled them all into the clean basket of laundry.
-  Put toddler into his crib because MOMMY NEEDS A TIME OUT.
-  Take a deep breath.
-  Begin to sort dirty clothes from clean clothes.
-  Find a dirty diaper among the dirty/clean clothes.
-  Wash the entire load again.
-  Lather.
-  Rinse.
-  Repeat.
-  Take a deep breath.
-  Drink wine - but careful not to spill, you're out of fresh shirts.
The end.

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