Painting with poop….

My mom once told me, “Cleaning your house with kids playing is like trying to brush your teeth while eating an oreo cookie.” The “pre-kiddos” me was borderline OCD - anything other than perfectly straightened and clean was heart chaos. After my first was born, I was able to maintain that semblance of peace and tidy, but, nineteen months later, that all went sideways. Adding number two meant a lot more, well, number two! My only means of sanity was learning how to ignore the clutter and letting go of my ideal household. Still, there are those huge messes - the broadsiding “this is going to take hours to clean up” types - that can really get to us. These are the embraceable disarray.

It is said that boys make bigger and more disgusting messes than girls, but in our family, it isn't my son that has caused the most chaotic upheaval, but my daughters that do! For instance, my artist. When she was a little less than two years of age, one of her masterpieces stunk…literally. After waking early from a morning nap, she was suspiciously quiet, but happy - so I continued cleaning my bathroom, instead of going in to check on her. Bad move! She had climbed out of her crib and decided to add to the artwork already in the room. Using the dark clumps her digestive track had created after waking, she proceeded to scoop out pieces and use them as brown finger paints - coloring pictures on the walls, furniture, and some toys. Imagine my amazement when I opened her door! First, I was greeted by the lovely aroma accompanying such creative artistry. Then, her happy face and "'ook, momma! I 'ainted deese!" If she hadn't have been so cute and proud of herself, I may have had a major meltdown right then and there. Embracing the disarray, I praised her handy work before explaining that we don’t use poop as paint!

A more graceful use of paint, albeit still messy, from 12 years ago!