The Circuit

Most of you are familiar with circuit training - a combination of high-intensity aerobics and resistance training. I'm not going to tell you the top-secret details of my workout regime and how much weight I've lost, because this circuit is not mine. It's Diddles'. Every day she works a circuit around the house. Sometimes the order varies, but the end result is still the same.

1.) Open pantry door and examine or empty contents. The only things we now keep on these two shelves are Top Ramen and a bag of potatoes. The Top Ramen are now all packets of crumbled noodles. That gives you an idea of what goes on.

2.) Empty the silverware basket. Clean? Okay. Dirty? Even better! Doesn't matter. Empty that silverware basket. She's a girl on a mission!


3.) Embrace your inner Betty Crocker...or Tin Man. She goes to this cupboard (around the corner from the dishwasher), and gets out this angel food cake pan. She takes it apart, examines it, then leaves it on the floor. P.S. Don't you love her bedhead and her fabulous outfit? Unsnapped onesie, too-long green velour pants?

4.) Fruit Basket Upset! You'll notice they are now empty. We used to have these nice liners and we'd display the fresh fruit we bought that week. No more. She's still hopeful that maybe today something will be in them! What an optimist!

5.) Musical Chairs. You know that sound and vibration that occurs when you scoot a chair around a hard floor? Diddles LOVES that sound. She'll push this chair around the kitchen completely enthralled with the sound.

6.) Read. After so much exertion, she'll flip through the scriptures a little bit to fill her lamp.

7.) Fill 'er up! Fill a cavern or a box or a cupboard with random items, then unload them, then fill them up again. Monotonous to some. Fabulous fun for her!

Yaks & Boo: "Oh no...Dids!" (said as if she was the Boogie Man)

8.) Destroy Sibling's Creations. The kids dread this point in the circuit. They have tried barricading her out, moving her to the outer banks of the house, pleading for me to intervene, etc. I love how they've just started to figure her out. You'll notice the scene they created today is up high on top of that sideboard with the lamps! Awesome.

"Hi guys! Does anybody have something I could destroy?"

"Hey Yaks, if I could just...have a little turn with your....Buzz? Yaks? Yaks?"

9.) Climb up and down stairs. She's finally mastered the stairs, after a few tumbles. Thank goodness, because we have a lot of stairs! This small set is her favorite. At the bottom of the stairs are dozens of pairs of shoes, and that door leads to the garage, where Daddy enters. I think she sits down there wishing for him to come home and rescue her from the monotony of her day.

10.) Toilet Time. We have to work really hard to remember to FLUSH THE TOILET and CLOSE THE LID and CLOSE THE DOOR, because if it's open, Diddles will find it, she'll taste the water (shudder), she'll unravel all the toilet paper from the roll, and she'll do it all really quietly. :)
11.) Funny Face. This one is the kids' favorite. That lid goes to a plastic toy drum, but Diddles will mash her face against it and create some hilarious mug shots. It's good old-fashioned fun!
What a workout, eh? I'd be tired too. So, why are we still waking up a couple times a night, huh Diddles?