Cleaning up

The other night Meg put some serious elbow grease into helping me scrub crayon and marker marks off the furnishings. She really got into it. I appreciated the help, and even more appreciated that she noticed "This is really hard work!"

I was putting out a fresh bath mat, and noticed a disgusting brown stain on it. Sigh. It had been washed thoroughly, but I figured I'd better go alert Jonathan that it was okay to use. He and Meg were playing horsie, or possibly Meg was playing horsie while he read. It's hard to tell sometimes. Anyway, I delivered the message, and Meg leaped down like I'd offered ice cream.

"Can I see the disgusting brown stain, Mommy?? I fell off the horsie to come look at it!"

So I went and led a guided tour.

There's just so much to learn in this world. For instance, the nuance between using a tissue and a shirt-tail when your nose needs wiping. We were at the store waiting to return something as I tried to explain this, and added keep your shirt down to keep it out of temptation's way! The clerk looked at me, startled, and said, "Did you really just say that??" Clearly he's not raising a small person if this is a surprise. Then he asked if "latent congratulations" were due, apparently referring to my maternal state. I could have asked if he was calling me fat and burst into tears... but I didn't. I admitted yes, they were, and he said, "Oh good! I guessed right!" He also offered us a box of tissues, which was more helpful.

This morning we were at a friend's house and Meg spilled her drink. One of the grownups said maybe she'd better come get me and we'd find paper towels to clean it up. Meg, seeing no need for anything so formal, sat down on the spill and wiped it up with her shorts. Problem solved.

Then I took my first bubble bath in a long time. It was a very nice bath, only I displaced more water than I remember. Quite a lot more, actually. Archimedes' principle strikes again!