Teach them while they are young

We have been in our new apartment little over a month now and we love it. It was hard for Diana to adjust mainly because she missed her friends in our old place. We have made a few good friends here and she is doing great now. We have been very blessed to live among wonderful people everywhere we go. This is our 5th place since we have been married and hopefully the last until we can get our own place:)

Lately, my kids have not been shy displaying their graffiti artistic abilities. This is my favorite picture of them. Most mornings, you will find them all snuggled up like this and I love it. When Eli wakes up, he calls for me and if he gets no answer he calls for Diana (Da-na) is what he calls her.  But those cute faces can be a handful sometimes.

This past week, they have managed to paint part of the kitchen and office wall with my RED nail polish. They drew on the bathroom door with green coloring pencils. Diana poured my whole bottle of body spray onto the carpet. She also dumped out her dad's body wash, my body wash and their shampoo in the bathroom. Eli dropped my new phone and cracked the screen. Diana did the same to the previous one. So, I am phone less as we speak. Please don't ask where I have been when all this was going down:( My kids, especially Diana are very good at what they do.. While, I got really frustrated and gave them both magic erasers and they were actually VERY EXCITED to clean the polish off. My goodness, it was really cute to see Eli 'cleaning.'

Here is some craziness they have been upto:Powdered milk and her baby Tiana, painted in yellow paint

Tooth paste all over the bathroom. And that thing stuck in the tooth paste is a toilet paper holder

Diana covered in tooth paste and the living room decorated in toilet paper

Despite all this chaos, they are really cute kids and Diana does 'help' a lot around the homeAttempting to change  her brother's diaper

Feeding him

Learning how to clean the sofa after hosting an 'unauthorized' crackers party

And actually cleaning after themselves

I want my kids to learn early how to clean after themselves. I remember my siblings and I started cleaning and doing chores around the home pretty early. I hope Diana and Eli will be excited to help even when they are teenagers.

Proverbs 22 vs 6: 'Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.' I love this verse and I know it is right on.

How old were your kids before you had them cleaning after themselves or helping to clean their own messes?