Lipstick and Sharpies

My neighbor and I were running together this morning, talking about many things.  We ran longer than we'd anticipated and at the very end we took three more small jags in the neighborhood so we could finish out the current story.

She was telling me about a patient she had who was pregnant with multiples.  The conversation moved into how some people need to have more control over their environment than others and how things in your life can change how much control you might expect to have.  Let's say, for instance, children.

Before having children I'd see someone with a messy baby at a restaurant.  Or maybe they had a loud, crying baby in a public setting.  "Why aren't they keeping the baby quiet?"  or, "Why don't they clean up their child?"  These are things I've been through personally and I understand now that just because you want to have a clean, quiet child, they're not always going to remain clean or stay quiet.

Earlier in the run we had talked about messes the children have made and how terrible they are at the time, how awful we react (even though we know it wasn't intentional) and how they're funny to think about now. 

I told her about the puddle of pee in the closet from yesterday.  She told me about the lipstick kisses on the wall.  Aghast, I asked if it was hard to get cleaned off.  Yes, it was a nightmare.  But...not nearly so bad as the lovely drawing one of her girls made on a wall one day...in sharpie.  She didn't remember the number of coats of pain it took to get it back to normal, but it was a lot.

I said, "I'm not through the worst of it am I?"  She laughed, because my children are still so young and said, "You've got it easy, the worst is yet to come."  As we finished our run I thought about her patient with the multiples that was having a hard time coping with her new-found baby chaos and I thought "Lipstick and Sharpies, here I come." 

The Big Boy Update:  Cleaning up.  He's doing more "life skills" at school.  They've been taught how to wash tables, wash their hands, polish shoes and wash leaves.  Yes, there is a whole station for leaf washing at school that sports a very healthy looking plant with shiny leaves.  He's learned how to squeeze oranges to make juice and he makes bread regularly.  He's interested in having water put into a small pitcher so he can pour it into his toy cups and then drink it.  He wants a cloth at the end of a meal so he can clean up the tray and he will put a napkin in his lap very neatly, without you asking, and without you even noticing if he has one available.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  Bumpers away.  I've been removing the bumpers from the inside of her crib one side at a time.  Initially, they're good for head bump protection and also sound dampening in a noisy house.  But they're a pain when you need to pull the mattress out and change the sheet.  Don't even say change the sheet with the mattress still in the bed, because the railings are so high you'll almost fall in and you'll never get the edges on well enough to keep the sheet tight when the baby goes to sleep.  So the last segment is gone now.  Well see if she notices tonight.

Fitness Update:  My neighbor and I got to running this morning and did that, "just to the top of the next hill?" thing several times, netting us an unexpected ten mile run.  I got back and wanted to eat some of my daughter's "It's so fluffy!" pink birthday cake from last night when I realized I couldn't eat it because it was too sweet.  Exercising makes your appetite go away for hours sometimes.  This afternoon I was able to successfully eat that very pink piece of cake without it tasting too cloying though.  If exercise ever completely killed my sweet tooth tendencies, I'd consider going back to being a slob.

Someone Once Said:  If "everybody knows" such-and-such, then it ain't so, by at least ten thousand to one.