The War Against Messes!

We are fighting a war here. A war that has been waging for nearly 3 years! I don't see an end to this war, but fortunately we haven't had any casualties in this war. Mostly you just have a few victims that are tired of hearing things like, "This is such a mess," "You are such a mess." and "WHO made this gigantic mess?"

Daily we combat these inevitable messes that the children manage to create. We clean up one mess, just to turn around to find another one.

The worst messes (Level Red) are the ones created by this one...

See the lovely surprise in MY chair? His orange spit up can be found throughout the whole first level of the house. His spit-up even ends up in places I didn't realize Owen could get to. This stuff is dangerous, sticky and volatile. He definitely should be handled with care or it can even ruin prized articles of clothing. The sitter has even banned orange-colored foods from entering her house, in hopes that her sheets will make it another day.

Level Orange messes are typically created by this one here...

Although, her brother is starting to give her a run for her money. The reason they are only Level Orange is because we quickly can activate the "clean-up-your-mess-or-time-out protocol". This protocol saves us a quite of bit of time. The tricky thing about these messes, is that while making the mess the culprit usually feels immense pride in their handy-work. This pride will then fuel future messes, making this a never-ending battle.

The Yellow Level messes are messes that are associated with the "They've Gotta Learn Sometime" sort of scenarios. These scenarios are instigated by the parents in hopes to make healthy, independent children. An example of this type of mess is having the not-quite-9-month old feed himself some spaghetti. This will unmistakably make a gigantic mess on said child, high chair, ground and the nearest parent.

However, this mess ,like all messes, are unavoidable and are a required part of child-rearing.

The war against messes is a war totally worth fighting. I embrace the messes the kids create.

Knowing that they are the same kids who do this...

It is so sweet to see those two waiting for me to wake-up in the mornings. It is totally worth all of the wet-wipes, bottles of spray-n-wash, and killed Bissells; if I get to see their faces light up with pure joy just by me going down stairs.

What a Blessing--messes and all! :)