Top Ten Tuesday - the Kiddie Version

With two little guys under the age of four in my house, I spend a bunch all my time repeating rules and making mandates. "Don't eat that! Wipe your face! Use the potty, not the plants outside!" You know, the usual. But the more I got to thinking about it, the more I figured that I should be taking my own advice. Here's my top ten things I say to my toddlers that I should also do:

1. Wash your hands!  I'm not a germaphobe, but I make sure that my kids wash their hands often. They're often digging in the dirt outside, picking their noses (GROSS), or just plain being boys. Trust me, I wash my hands plenty during the day, especially near meal times, but there's tons of times that I'm more lax than I should be, especially since hand washing is by far the easiest way to eliminate germs and infections from your household.

2. Don't cry over spilt milk. The boys are both so young that they'll cry over virtually anything that doesn't go their way, so I've often told them not to cry over spilt milk. Yeah, I know...that old adage. I usually only reserve this for extreme times when I can't get them distracted or over it, but I think I should maybe take my own advice. I know there's been times when I've been incredibly bummed over something minor and silly. I have too much to be thankful for in my life to spend time crying over spilt milk.

3. Eat your veggies! Corn is about the only veggie around here that I can get the boys to eat without a fight. Maybe it's because I don't do better at modelling or maybe because I give up too easily with the veggies, but it definitely couldn't hurt me to eat more veggies myself.

4. Don't eat that! It fell on the floor! My boys, especially my youngest, are notoriously bad about dropping food. No matter how hard I scrub, this cheap carpet in our rental home is stained beyond repair. The boys have also been known to eat said food long after it's been sitting on the floor. I try to pick up the food as soon as I see it, but there's this vortex in the house that hides all the crumbs, hot wheels, and socks around here. Tiny toddler hands are the only ones capable of uncovering the missing pieces. So in the interest of full disclosure, I've been known to eat food off the floor too, but well within the five second rule. That being said, it's still gross, so I should probably listen to myself when I say, "don't eat that!"

5. If you're that bored, you can always clean your room. hahahah, like that one ever works. I doubt it'll work on me either, since a: I don't have much time to be bored, and b: cleaning isn't exactly my forte. But it's worth a shot!

6. Share! The boys are eighteen months apart, so their interests often overlap and they always seem to want the same exact toy at the same exact instant that the other one wants it. I find myself begging asking them to share things several times a day. But I'm also guilty of sneaking off to the kitchen to sneak a girl scout cookie or some other goodie without them seeing so that I don't have to share. I know, I'm terrible, but seriously those girl scout cookies only come around ONCE a year! I'll be better about sharing everything else, promise!

7. Remember your manners. My boys are pretty polite. Drake can say please and thank you in two languages (English and German) and Link is even saying please, thank you, and welcome (English only so far). I try to get them to be as polite as possible, and I know that sometimes I forget to say the niceties myself, especially to my family. I'm not sure why I'm forgetful about it when it comes to myself, but it's something I intend to rectify.

8. Use your indoor voice! Two rambunctious toddlers means my house often gets pretty noisy...and I often feel like a record on repeat asking for a little bit of peace and quiet. Unfortunately, I know that I also can be loud (hmm...wonder if that's where they learned it from?!). I may or may not have in the past yelled up the stairs at my hubby to "bring down the laundry please!" or at my kids to "quiet down!" Yelling up the stairs for them to quit yelling is probably not the best method of dealing with the noise, now that I think about it...

9. Clean up your toys! They've got hot wheels, Thomas the Train, and more little knick knacks than I care to think about. I've got lotions, books and magazines. This house would probably stay a lot cleaner if more of us listened to this little gem of advice.

10. Always be grateful. No matter what's going on in my life, my family and I have too much to be thankful for. I hope you do too!

Linking up to ohamanda.com for her fabulous top ten Tuesday!