Yesterday I walked in to Christopher's room and it was spotless. Not just spotless for him, but spotless for me! I hadn't asked him to clean it, though I was about to. He had been playing hard in his room with army toys and Matchbox cars and a slew of other goodies. Then I walked into the kitchen and found this. I never asked him to do this. Alexander had gotten into a box filled with styrofoam peanuts and, well, you can figure out what happened next. I chased Alexander out of the room -- much like you chase a dog away! And came back to this.

Christopher: "Mom, can I get paid for this?"

Me: "I think that would be fair seeing as I never asked you to do this and you cleaned up your room without being asked

Christopher: "How much are you going to pay me? $10? $25

Me: "Well, I was thinking more like $2!"

Christopher: "Darnit. That's nothing. Can I have my TV* priveleges back instead?"

(*TV priveleges had been taken away because he was not dressed for his soccer game on time.)