The Magic of Baby Wipes

It all began with an evening enjoying the company of friends. The kids were being rambunctious as always (you get more than one toddler in a room full of toys and give them sugar and you are bound to have chaos) and the adults were indulging in a bit of wine with good conversation. I have to admit it was probably my fault to start. Red wine, white carpet. It's just asking for trouble. Plus I shouldn't have put my glass on Mason's train table so I could tickle and wrestle him. But I did, and wouldn't you guess, it got knocked over. I didn't freak out too much until I realized that the laws of attraction kicked in and the red wine was greeting the white carpet like old lovers. Shit. Quickly, we ran for the paper towels and wondered aloud if we had any carpet cleaner. On our hands and knees desperately trying to soak up the never ending stream of red wine and praying to God that we can get it out, Lawrence speaks up. Baby wipes. What!? Baby wipes. You can use baby wipes to get up the wine. They clean up anything, he says. Though they use the Costco brand and we only have Pampers but it'll do. Doubting their ability or effectiveness against red wine on a white carpet I hand over the tub of Pampers Sensitive wipes and watch. Our friend Lawrence, lying on the carpet, vigorously rubbing and sure enough it's working. We also happened to find the carpet cleaner and sprayed it on for good measure. Just to be sure. Now you can't even tell there ever was a spill.

That was around a month ago and the only reason I think of it now, is due to Mason and the trouble toddlers get into when left alone. Yesterday morning, while in the family room (same carpet as the red wine incident) playing with Mason, I am sitting on the carpet and turn to get up to go into the kitchen when I notice some marks on the carpet. It looks like Mason took some kind of writing utensil and ran it through the carpet making lines. As I get closer I realize it is highlighter. Yellow lines now decorating the spot under the makeshift end table (it's really a t.v. tray table). Shit, Fred is going to kill me. Not that it is necessarily my fault, I wasn't there when it happened. But I am the one responsible for him during the day and I don't want him to kill Mason either. I run to the sink and grab the carpet cleaner and paper towels. Not really wanting to spray harmful chemicals all over the carpet that my toddler plays on everyday I quickly run through my options and remember the phrase about baby wipes. They get everything out. Really? So I put them to the test and what do you know; the highlighter came out. Rather easily I might add. Hmm, I wonder what else it would get out. The dirt on those damn door mats?

Months ago, while Fred and our friend Adrian were outside detailing their matching corvettes I was inside cleaning. I paid particular detail to the door mats just inside the front door and the garage. While the front door I managed to get clean I gave up on the garage. Fast forward to the present and once again the mats are dirty, especially the garage. How I desperately wish we could walk on the mat and not come away looking like we dipped the bottom of our feet in soot. Thank you Fred's blue Mustang project. Once again I turned to the baby wipes. Were they up to the challenge? Yes. They were getting the dirt out, but slowly. With a screaming baby and toddler demanding my attention I was desperate to get it cleaned ASAP. So I combined the cleaning power of Resolve with the magic of Pampers Swipers and Viola! The front mat is almost spotless and while you can still see the remains of some nasty stains, the garage mat is infinitely improved. Who knew? Besides the Imeish family, to whom I am incredibly thankful for the tip. I too am a believer in the magic of baby wipes. And so is Fred, who when I recited the following story to him replied, imagine if you had the Costco brand. Oh I can. I can.

Just for thought and a little vent

So this is something that has been bothering me for quite sometime and I just can't keep quiet about it any longer.  For those of you out there with kids you will probably know what I am talking about.  This is a typical day:  

I need to run some errands so I back the diaper bag with the essentials, bundle up the kid and myself, get us all situated and buckled into the van and head out to the store.  Whether it be Target, Wegmans, Giant or the Mall there is no discrimination when it comes to rude and dangerous drivers.  As I pull into the parking lot of whichever store I have decided is a necessity that particular day, I happen to have parked next to a vacant spot on the passenger side.   I turn of the engine, unlock the doors and get out heading to the passenger side to retrieve my son. As I am standing there, door open, unbuckling my son from his car seat I hear another car pulling up.  I am very well aware that the spot next to m, where I am standing, is empty for someone to be able to park.  I figure, however, that the person trying to be park will see me standing there getting my kid out of the car and be smart enough to know to wait until I am finished to park their car.  Apparently I am the only one to think this way.  How it plays out is that the car starts to pull in, sees me standing there, stops at first and then proceeds to park anyway.  WHILE I AM STANDING THERE!!!  It is clear as day that I am trying to get a child out of the car and I can't believe that people think it is o.k. to just pull into the spot while not only a person is standing there and could get hit by them but that a child could be jumping out at any moment and get hit as well.   How self absorbed and just freaking stupid do you have to be to not know that you stop and wait for the person to be finished before you pull into the damn spot!!!! And it's not like this has only happened once.  It's happened every time I've been in the situation which has been like 5 or 6 times just in the last few months.  I mean not only is that rude, but it's dangerous.  I don't know if this has anything to do with it but I guess I should mention that it has only happened since I have been driving the mini van.  Do they somehow think that because my car door slides open as opposed to the wide open door invading the next parking space of most cars that they can park without waiting and it be perfectly fine?  They could have seriously hurt me and my son, just because they are impatient.  What, you can't wait for like two minutes until I get my son out of the car and get out of the way?   These are not decent people and it just really upsets me.  So I had to blog about it.  Mostly because it just happened again the other day.  

Doesn't anyone else think this is just unacceptable?  Or am I on the soap box alone?

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To make my mood gloomier, Fred's grandmother passed away this weekend.  It's his mother's mom and we all knew she had a heart condition and would probably die soon but it still is a sad time.  What makes things worse, I think, was that she just turned 90 in August and we were all supposed to go visit then for a birthday celebration.   The only thing was that she said she didn't want a celebration.  So we postponed our trip and thought it would be nice if we planned one around Christmas time.  Our flight leaves for Oregon on the 5th of January.    The last time Marie, Fred's grandma, saw Mason he was only 7 months old.  It was supposed to be a big celebration trip and all of us getting together after a long time.  I guess her heart couldn't wait that long.  I think Fred's mom might have some sort of memorial while we are visiting, but it would have been nice to see her one last time and to have said goodbye.