And my dd....seems to be scared of the vacuum cleaner. Not only that she seems to always want me to pay attention to her and do things with her it seems all the time! I try to even it out so I will give her some one on one time reading, etc., and then vacuum, and then more one on one time again so she doesn't feel like I am completely ignoring her. It is just frustrating when I am trying to get things done and she wants constant attention. I even try to include her too, e.g. give her a broom or if doing laundry help load stuff into the dryer.
Any suggestions for making housework that needs to get done a bit easier?
Thanks!

I feel your pain. To be honest I really don't vacum as often as I would like because of the whole DS#1 being scared of it and it waking DS#2 up. Including Ben is one of the major things I do. But here are few other things.
I bought him a small play set of cooking things so he can "cook" while I cook.
I use the Method cleaner on the bathroom so I don't feel bad using it around him. So I put him in the bath or shower and then clean the sink and toliet while he plays.
I try to get quite a bit done during nap time and the 1/2 hour of tv I let him watch.
I also put him in his room and give him something like books, trucks, or legos to play with and he will stay there and play for about 30 minutes. This took awhile to achieve and didn't start until he was about 20 months.
I will be watching this thread to see other suggestions.

I have to wait until my DH gets home to vacuum. DD is very afraid of the noise unless her daddy is holding her. She does fine as long as she is held but i can't hold her while i'm vacuuming.... she is terrified otherwise. So I end up only vacuuming uh... once every two weeks or so LOL. not that DH doesn't hold her but i just never think that while he's playing with her I should pull out the vacuum. I forget.

Other than that i clean my house in 15 minute spurts, one for every hour of the day i go clean for 15 minutes and then i have 45 minutes every hour.. to... uh... be on the computer? LOL and play with DD etc, do some scrapbooking. Some days i do extra spurts (like every other 15 minutes a total of half an hour per hour) if the house is very dirty. Before i do a spurt i make sure DD doesn't need a diaper change or a feeding. She doesn't usually cry then. I make sure enough shiny stuff to play with is around. We have this fisher price mechanical aquarium that plays music and moves the fish around for 10 minutes... it's a LIFESAVER!! she just stares at it in awe LOL

that is what is working for me. :)

Of course my DD is only 5 months and i just noticed this was on toddlers and preschoolers... LOL... but having daddy hold them still might work :)