Every morning Bug and I fight a war of wit and will. She enjoys her breakfast, and when she's finished she calls "Mama, befas done. S'cu'me!" (It's very endearing.) She then waits patiently while I fetch a cloth to clean up her attempt at recreating the Battle of the Somme in her weetbix.
And that's when the fun starts.
Bug has two hands and one face (she's pleasingly anatomically normative.) They all need wiping. But I never know where to begin.
Wipe the face first? But then my next move is wiping a hand. She counters by whacking her other messy hand to her face and smearing away all my good work.
Wipe a hand first? But then, while I wipe the other, she shove the clean hand into her bib. Since we use a bib with a muck catcher at the bottom (or, as she sees it, an attached feed trough and food reuse system) the hand comes out arguably worse than when we began. And she's far to wiggly and strong to pin both hands at once.
Remove the bib? No dice. Suspecting such a devilish plot, she has cached a huge wad of half chewed weetbix in her cheek, and she is willing to spit it onto her unprotected stomach at the slightest provocation. Aha! Check mate, woefully inept Mother!
For a while, I pretended to accept her views on post-meal cleanliness and instead tried guerrilla warfare - letting her stick her hands into what ever muck she could find, but just keeping on wiping whatever extremity flailed in my direction. I figured that she would eventually run out of muck, and I would eventually wipe down to clean skin. But it was as about as fun and efficient as walking to London. From Sydney.
I have to step it up. I can't support this inefficiency. In my past life, I was a highly competent student of tactics, but now I am being bested by a toddler. Help me, von Clausewitz!
(Just a thought, water cannon? No? Too far? Just checking...)
Maybe hold fire with the water cannon, but a water pistol might be fun. How about throwing an old pillowcase over her head and she will probably do most of the mopping up for you, trying to get it off.
ReplyDeleteOh i had this issue with twins, one was SO messy, the other perfectly clean after every meal. Messy twin would wipe her messy hands through her hair, so it was face, 2 hands & hair to clean!! Argh!! Perfect twin would look on with horror, pretending she had no idea who that sister was. My eldest & youngest were decidedly clean, so you might have good statistics like me, 25% dangerously messy & boggling that intelligent mind of ours, where to start on the mess. Then the hair chair Then the splat mat on the floor. Those were the days!! Love Posie
ReplyDeleteI still feed fatty her brekky so that helps with the mess.
ReplyDeleteThe basic process for me is tray, hand, hand, face then bib. But I use a fabric pop over the head bib and sometimes I get it in her hair.
I'm not looking forward to when it comes times for her to feed herself.. Weetabix on the wall anyone?
With big cleanups I call for "aeroplane arms" (ie. Straight out to the sides), that way we cant spead the mess back to other hands and we cant reach our faces, plus mum can better avoid wearing the mess too :)
ReplyDeleteI never knew parenthood could be so complicated. This is the type of dilemma that would send me batty in minutes! I admire your patience, Mrs A - I fear I'd have none (esp considering I have a particular dislike of "muck")!
ReplyDelete~S.