Squeaky Clean

So after we got home from the sliding hill, I made a super fast dinner because it was already after 6pm (green spaghetti, aka pasta with pesto) and then we jumped right into homework. Nora was cheerful but distracted, so homework took longer than usual. It is hard to continually refocus a 6 year-old onto her spelling when there is so much other fun stuff to do!

See, earlier in the day, Dana and I went on 100 errands. At the grocery store, she was a most excellent helper, which (TRUST ME) is so very rare that I allowed her to put a package of balloons into the cart. I never buy balloons. I am almost phobic about them popping-the sound of a popping balloon makes my stomach lurch and my heart stop. I am all kinds of fun, no?

So anyhow, while we were working on spelling, reading and a worksheet, Dana sort of meandered upstairs with a couple of balloons. I could hear her tiny voice the whole time so I wasn't really worried about it. I mean, if it had been silent I would have known something was up. But it was not silent, so I thought things were A-OK. Let's just say I was wrong.

Apparently Dana had come back downstairs at some point to retrieve the box of markers. She then took it into Mommy and Daddy's bedroom, where she proceeded to draw all over the balloons. If you are old enough to read this post, you are old enough to know that Crayola marker + latex balloon=MESS. Marker WILL NOT dry on a balloon-it just beads up and gets on everything that looks at it askance. "Luckily" Dana figured this out. So she did what any well intentioned 3 year-old would: She got out a bucket, some hand soap and her toothbrush and went to work!

And heck-if one bucket of soap water is good, TWO buckets are great! She had so much fun scrubbing the ink off of the balloons that she just kept going and going, scrubbing the walls, the bathtub, the mirror, the sink, and on and on. Too bad she missed her own face. I'm not sure you can see it in the photo, but there was blue marker all over that little face.

The floor was a lot like a lake. She was at least kind enough to take the hand towel to mop up what she could of the water. It never occurred to me that she was playing in the bathroom because I didn't hear running water. I mean, I heard it for a minute, as she was covertly filling her buckets, but I assumed she was washing her hands. Since the tap wasn't running for more than a minute I figured she had moved into her bedroom to play with Barbies.

She was just incredibly proud of herself. She felt she had done a fantastic job of scrubbing things and was bragging up her cleaning abilities to anyone who would listen. So I just gently told her that marker belongs on paper, not on balloons, and I threw her into a nice, warm tub while I cleaned up from her cleaning up. And found her a new toothbrush in the closet. I tried to remind her that soap is not a toy, but she was all, "But I wasn't playing with it, Mommy. I was SCRUBBING." Duh, Mom.

Now, if she had done this all in the morning I may have been more grateful. But I am on the AR side of things when it comes to cleaning. I have my little routine, and Monday is the day I change bedding and scrub the bathroom. So I had already put in half an hour and two tons of elbow grease earlier in the day. I was under the impression that the bathroom was already clean. Apparently it was not up to her standards. And yeah, I didn't use a toothbrush. I just used a sponge and some cleanser. At least she didn't get to the toilet. Toothbrush in toilet: the idea of it makes me break out in a cold sweat!