the world is my feeding tray

I enjoy the babycenter.com updates I receive weekly. They're often helpful. Sometimes, I think they're out to lunch. (no spanking -- ever!!)
But they're usually pretty on target.
I'm enjoying this little bit of encouragement today:

Your life: Housekeeping woes
When you get to the point that the mess in your home is causing you stress, remember these three powerful words: Lower your standards. It's hard to keep up with the cleaning, laundry, and organization the way you did pre-baby, especially once your little one is able to move about and scatter toys all day long.

Which explains the his, hers -n- baby's heaps of laundry (clean, at least) on our dining room chairs right now.

But I'm laughing at the advice because our baby has reached that stage where cleanliness is actually vital. Vacuuming is the one thing that must be done -- if we could, probably a couple of times a day.

We had friends over a couple of weekends ago. They have kids, so they totally 'get it.' Which was handy when the guy (Christian) found Maddie chewing on something -- a leaf, as it turns out. Which had been tracked in on the bottom of someone's shoe, and probably not that day.

In a moment of boredom, she will crawl over to something she sees on the floor, carefully pincer it and bring it to her mouth. Often, it's an errant Cheerio. But a couple of times, it's been a clod of dirt.

Thank the Lord our baby has a healthy gag reflex/choking mechanism. Good gracious.