Cleaning the Bathroom with Shepherd

Here is a step by step of my experience today cleaning the bathroom with Shepherd:

-I decided to start with the shower. First I took out all the shampoos, conditioners, and soaps so that I could clean the surface well. Then, I started happily rubbing away with my magic eraser.

-While I was doing this, Shepherd took my creamy, pink, strawberry-scented conditioner and squeezed it out all over the floor. He then rubbed it all over his legs.

-Seeing this, I stopped with the magic eraser, set Shep on the edge of our sink, and started rinsing off his legs and hands. While my focus was on his legs and feet, Shep took his little left hand and started pumping liquid hand soap out of its container.

-Once I noticed that hand soap was piling up on my counter, I quickly finished cleaning Shep and wisked him away from the sink. Somehow, in the process of 'wisking', Shep managed to kick the soap container onto the floor, hitting the wall on its way down in such a fashion that my bathroom wall art fell to the tile floor and broke a frame.

-I soon got all of this mess cleaned up and moved all containers with goopy stuff in them outside of Shep's range. I then returned to the shower and my magic eraser to try and finish the job.

-Upon finishing with the shower and turning around, I found that Shep had worked his way into the bathroom closet, removed my toilet bowl cleaner brush (the one I've cleaned our toilet with for the past three years), and was waving it in the air like a flag of victory.

-At this point, I removed the brush from his tight little grasp, exited the bathroom with him in tow, and gave up on ever having a clean bathroom again. At least I finished the shower.

Here is a gratuitous picture of him being all cute. It reminds me why not being able to finish cleaning my bathroom is actually a good thing.

5 Years

This afternoon, I was working on a new paintings series (soon to be up on Etsy), so I did a little baby-proofing in the art room/office to help with my focus. The only real danger this particular room poses is the wires underneath BJ's desk, so I decided to simple use BJ's chair to block Shepherd's access to them. Five minutes later, I glanced up from my painting to see this:

This may look like just a picture of a baby climbing up a chair, but in reality it is a picture of my son laughing in the face of my baby-proofing attempts.

Changing subjects, BJ and I have been married five years today! We had plans to go see the new Harry Potter movie (we even had our first baby-sitter booked), but Shepherd has come down with a little stomach bug, so instead we're staying home with a mildly sick, very fussy, and undeniably self-destructive baby. I'm oddly not disappointed, though. This is our life right now. We have plenty of time for elaborate, romantic anniversaries later when we have more money and less little people depending on us. But for tonight, I'll be grateful to spend the evening underneath the same roof as my two boys, even if one of them puked on my earlier today.

(Note of interest: On our one-month anniversary, we woke up to Sienna puking after over-indulging in Tony's kitty litter box. So to my wonderful husband: We've come a long way, baby.)

Approaching Nine Months

This little boy

is going to be 9 months

in two days.

It has been a marvelously

wonderful

and absolutely

beautiful nine months.

And can I just say

I love this face:

Thanks for letting me share.

It really is a beautiful life

When BJ got home from work this evening, he joined Shepherd and me on the floor where we had been playing with blocks. I welcomed BJ home with a kiss. Because I love my husband to distraction, his welcome home kiss was a real kiss, none of this peck-on-the-cheek stuff. When it was over, I looked over to find that Shep was watching us intently. We laughed at his goofy look, and then BJ grabbed me and Shep in his arms and started rough housing with us. Pain is BJ-speak for 'I love you.'

Later, reflecting on the moment, I couldn't help but compare it to the honey-I'm-home stereotypes of 1950's television. We were far from the typical image between BJ's cargo pants, my sloopy pony tail, and the stench that was coming from Shep's diaper I was just about to change. But it was still very obvious that there is a value in the daily reunion of a man with his wife and child. We were just really happy to see each other.

Perhaps most remarkably, Shepherd is already developing a wonder and curiosity and excitement about love that I feel even at 26 and from which 90 percent of all music, poetry, drama, and art are derived. I can't help but feel a great satisfaction in watching my son be so blessedly human. He is just what God created him to be: a human basking in the love that surrounds him. Every day I pray "God's will be done on earth as it is in heaven." Rolling on the floor today with my family was a kingdom-of-heaven-on-earth moment. I just love those moments.