Good Housekeeping

Nothing quite impacts your housekeeping like an infant. First, our living room seems to have exploded with “stuff”. As soon as I put LP’s toys and books away in their boxes, little curious hands find a way to pry off the lid and sprinkle them back across the room. Of course, nothing holds her attention very long, so soon enough everything that was once neatly put away and/or on a shelf somewhere joins its little inanimate friends at the party on my living room floor.

We should also consider the biological contributions that LP makes to the house. While the quantity and quality of spit-up has reduced significantly since she was born, there is the occasional call for a wet paper towel to blot up curdled milk. I also have started swiping my foot (in a sock!) over trails of drool on the hardwood floors, finding myself too lazy to actually get a towel to wipe these up. On a related note, LP is only nursed and allowed to sit on our comfy couch. Made of some sort of sueded material, it appears to conceal spots.

To make matters worse, LP also has this knack for finding any crumbs, lint, or tracked-in dirt. If the random detritus doesn’t find its way into her hair or onto her clothes, it ends up in her fingers which quickly move toward her mouth. I am not a slob, we are not messy people, but there is no way to keep a spotless home when you live in it. If I could find a way to use my little human vacuum cleaner for good (i.e., cleaning) we might be in business, for now it just kills me that I am constantly trailing after her to pick ick out of her hair or to rescue who-knows-what from her gaping jaws.