Counterproductiveness

With yesterday being the first officially official (because weekends don't really count, right?) day of winter vacation, I decided that I'd get some much needed cleaning done. It's amazing just how dirty the house can get considering we spend few waking hours in it. But anyway, so the plan of the day was to clean. The girls were nice enough to sleep in until 7:30, which was just wonderful. (And yes, I realize that's not sleeping in by many people's standards, but around the Smith abode, 7am is late)

First on the to-do list is finding my kicthen counters after baking over 25 dozen cookies Sunday. I flip on some cartoons to keep the rowdies happy and start swiping countertops and sweeping the floor. A quick peek into the living room shows that Libby has taken advantage of my 10 minute absence by dumping every toy into the middle of the floor where she can then wade through the pile and kick them to the four corners. Great. From the middle of her sea of plastic, Libby spots me and starts the "crine" that ultra-annoying half cry, half whine that she can keep up for extended periods of time. She hangs on the gate to make sure I understand that her tolerance for playing solo is now over. I guess the kitchen is clean enough.

With Libby clinging to one leg I pick my way carefully through Fisher Price Land. Those things are wicked to step on! I then spend the next 15 minutes sorting through all the toys and putting them back into their proper places.

It was around then that a brilliant idea came to me. Art time! Yes. Libby has never explored the gooey messiness of finger paints. Both girls will love it! Off I go to find enough paper to completely cover the table. Libby gets stripped and strapped in *BONUS!* and I liberally squirt some finger paint in front of her. She gingerly sticks one finger into the yellow, then promptly pops it in her mouth. Judging by the look on her face it must have tasted pretty bad, but it didn't stop her from taste testing the other colors as well. Meanwhile, I get Anna set up on the opposite side of the table, mentally plotting my next chore to tackle - the bathroom.

Unfortunately, just as I step foot out of the room, Libby decides that the finger painting thing is highly overrated. Hmmm.....maybe she'd prefer another medium. I get her cleaned up, tape down some new paper, and hand her a crayon. Oh wait....she eats crayons. Colored pencil? Nope...too pointy. Hmmm.....a marker? Messy, but what the heck? It's drying out anyway, it can't be too bad. Give Anna a paint refill and off I go in pursuit of the clean house.

About ten minutes later, sinks, mirror, and toilet scrubbed, I check on the kidlets and see this.....



Oh my.

Even after a bath she was still blue! At least it's nontoxic!

After that I gave up. The destruction that results from cleaning just isn't worth it.


On an unrelated note, I took Libby to the doctors today since she's been whiney and feverish and not eating for the past few days. Yup. Ear infection. Got her set up with some heavy antibiotics since the doctor didn't want a repeat of the February ear infection fiasco of several rounds of meds. Also put her on a strong decongestant that makes her - you guessed it - even more energetic!

It never ends!