Dog hair, body fluids, and sticky!



This photo needs no explanation... he's a boy!

 Dog hair, body fluids and sticky!  These three things describe my life pretty well right now.  No sooner do I get one mess cleaned up, another one begins.

Dog hair... you would think, from the amount of hair I sweep and vacuum on a daily basis, our dogs would be bald. Nope, they are still hairy beasts that leave hair as quick as I can pick it up. I feel bad because I hate to pet them, even though I would love to, for I know the huge piles of hair they produce. It never fails, the moment I finish vacuuming, both of them come to lay on the freshly "fluffed" floor, only to leave a "dog hair angel" on the carpet when they leave. It seems to be worse right now with all this heat, hopefully the hair situation improves with the cool temps this fall.


Body fluids... where do I even begin? Sometimes I think I deal with more body fluids on a daily basis than a hazardous waste employee. Spit-up, urine, poo, vomit and blood... I get the whole range of fluids every day.

Elliot is a "spitty" baby, which is a nice way of saying he's a "vomit volcano". I don't think I have had a clean outfit the whole time he's been home. At times he and I smell so bad of soured milk, it almost makes me gag. Ethan was the same way when he was little, and it was rough. He eventually out grew it, but it was no fun.

I still remember the day I was shopping for something at our local appliance store. I had Ethan in my arms, facing backwards, looking over my shoulder, when the salesman paused and said "Oh no, I think he puked on your shirt."

I, not even taking a second glance, grabbed the burp cloth and wiped my shoulder, and then continued the conversation. The man, still with a concerned look, motioned again to my shoulder area and said, "No, there is more... and it is running down your back."

At this moment I paused.

Hmmm... well, what do you do? I dare not ask a stranger to "please wipe the baby puke off my back", so I did what any other mom in that situation does... pretend it's not there, and continue the conversation.

So, I did. I looked at him, smiled and said, "Oh, it's fine.", and continued asking about the appliance. He looked at me like I was crazy.

Flash forward 5 years, and this is once again my life. It is not an unusual experience to have baby puke running down my back and splashing on the floor. Just today in fact, I was walking through the kitchen with Elliot propped up to my shoulder when I heard a "burp" and then "splash". Luckily Ethan was there, and as I stood there, frozen so not to "drip" anymore than necessary, he wiped my back and we went on with our day. It is a pure miracle if I don't get spit up on at least once per feeding, and in the rare chance I do avoid a soaking, it hits the floor, leaving me to clean it up anyway.

Speaking of floors, it seems I spend a lot of time wiping them up too. Here is the run down just for today: Kicked the potty in the bathroom, it spills and leaves a mess. The toddler, neglected to tell me he went poo, he sits on the floor to put on his underpants, and leaves a mess. Big brother got bopped in the nose during play, bloody nose drips and leaves a mess. The crying toddler in time-out, starts coughing, pukes and leaves a mess. I dropped an egg while cooking breakfast, leaving a mess. I don't even want to talk about what hits my floors during meal times... that mess I leave for the dogs, but then I still must clean the slobber mess they leave behind. At least the dog hasn't puked this week (knock on wood)! And if I miss a mess, or don't see it happen, the dogs will try to help me out by licking it up. You might think that this helps me out, but it doesn't... it leaves behind a gross dog slobber mess, that I usually end up stepping in. YUCK!

So then my feet are sticky and the floor is sticky and it seems everything is sticky, sticky!

Sticky tables, sticky floors,
Sticky counters, sticky doors.
Sticky windows, smeared with faces,
Sticky in even the hidden places,
Under the table, behind the chair,
Sticky, sticky, is everywhere!

With all the wiping, sweeping, moping, cleaning... I don't know how we get anything done. I'm just going to embrace the mess and the sticky, and accept it as my new life!

Everett, creating... a big mess.  What else do you do with a water bottle and
goldfish crackers?

Crunch.

Munch.





Sticky windows from a creative 5 year old and his Bendaroo craft sticks.