That Spot You Didn’t Think to Clean

I was cleaning up after one of the many food events my children have daily at the bar seats in the kitchen.   I have heard rumor they get less messy over time—these things known as “children”—but I have yet to see it.  

Actually, that’s not true.  There were the high chair days.  Food was everywhere then, but less seemed to get into the mouth.   Now food goes in, but remnants still go everywhere.   The problem is, the children are mobile now.   You have to be quick to look up and see a chocolate icing-smeared child heading off to run their hand up the stairway wall on their way to lying down on the couch face forward.    Chocolate.   You heard me right.

For the most part we catch incidents like that.   And in large part the children do wipe their faces and hands after they eat.    They don’t wipe as thoroughly as I’d like, but it’s something.  Tonight as I was doing the cleanup of the bar counter where they eat, I did a brief wipe under the granite top under which their little legs and chair pulls up.  

What came back was not the color I was expecting on the white cloth.   I wiped a second time which provided even more horrific results due to the granite now being wet and the stuck-on substances having been dampened and loosened.

A thorough cleaning has been done and is on my “where mess hides” radar for future cleaning.   I suppose when they’re grown and gone I’ll miss the mess some day.

The Big Boy Update:  My son and I were going to his annual wellness check when we drove by a retirement community building we drive by every day.   He must have suddenly noticed it because he said, “Hey, is that the White House?”  I told him no, the White House was in Washington, DC and we  were several hours away from there.   He then said, “oh, I know why–it doesn’t have the American flag there.”

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  I left my daughter in the car, alone, twice today.   The first time I went into the tailors to drop something off and watched her the entire time.   There wasn’t much need to watch her because I’d given her my iPad and she wasn’t budging.   The car locked on its own when I walked away and she had been told to stay put.   The second time was a few minutes later while I ran in to get a few things at the grocery store.   She wasn’t bothered in the least by me leaving.   It certainly made running the two quick errands faster.