Friday, February 19, 2010

It probably is easier washing my clothes in a creek.

I live in an apartment in NYC where we do our laundry in the basement laundry room. I shouldn't complain. Some folks don't even have a laundry room in their apartment building.
In our laundry room, folks leave books, movies, cds, toys etc for others to take. It's a great way to occupy a child or yourself but not a toddler, or at least my toddler. My toddler would rather run off to the opposite end of the building's basement and run up and down an inclined walk.
This wouldn't be so bad if it was within earshot and eyeshot of the laundry room but it isn't. This means I do sprints. I dash TG to the farthest part of the laundry room, dash to the washer, empty it and then sprint to the incline to pick her up. It's like I'm a football player. I pick her up under my arms and dash back to the laundry room to repeat. Take wet clothes, put in dryer, dash back, pick up football. Empty washer, dash, pick up football. I break into a sweat sometimes. Sometimes, I hold the football while trying to start a machine or two.
Other times, I put football in a laundry cart and dump the wet clothes next to her and make it a game of sorting through the wet clothes with her.
DH had a solution until I found out about it. I'm not joking when I tell you that he put our dog's harness on her and hooked it up to her retractable leash. He thought he was clever and texted me a photo.
She's recently learned the words, "Bubble Machine" thanks to a battery operated bubble machine my husband has purchased. Now she calls the washing machine a bubble machine. She's fascinated by the front loaders and stares at them just long enough for me to fill the machines and start them up.
As for the dryers, she has a grand old time sliding in the debit card into the machine. In and out. In and out. If I'm not mindful, she'd start all the machines up courtesy of my dime.
Biggest Loser should incorporate this workout on their campus. Just bus in two toddlers for each contestant and have them carry them back and forth while doing at least 4-5 loads of laundry.