You know those moments where you see something that you could easily take care of in a minute but decide to put it off until later and don't realize it could come back to bite you?
I had one of those today. Ellie was playing in the living room and Madeline was sitting in her high chair while my back was to her, doing the dishes. I used the last of the paper towels and thought to myself, I should just go grab another roll real quick. But the procrastinator in me won and I went about loading the dishwasher with just the cardboard tube left on the paper towel holder.
With the water running in the sink, I didn't realize what the little splash splash sounds were at the time. Splash splash sounds like you would hear in the bathtub.
I sometimes underestimate Madeline. At 13 months I thought Ellie was practically a grown up. She had pigtails, wore jeans and Stride Rite early walkers. Madeline hasn't even been pulling up for a month. She only has two teeth, the ones on top like a baby vampire.
Ellie walked around the corner and gasped. She has been repeating sayings correctly for quite some time and says "oh for goodness' sakes" on a regular basis. But what she saw when she turned the corner stunned her little 3.5 year old brain and so what came out was "OH FOR SAKES OF GOODNESS!!!!!!"
Madeline's high chair was pulled up parallel to the kitchen table where her cup of milk was resting. It was resting until she apparently stood up and reached over and grabbed it and dumped it all over the tray. There was milk about two inches deep almost ready to flow onto the floor.
But don't be relieved. Madeline was splashing her hands feverishly into the milk and it was splattered EVERYWHERE. On the stainless steel refrigerator {which is anything but stainless!}, the walls, the floor, everywhere. And Madeline looked at me with a big smile on her face and began splashing some more.
I start to walk over to grab the paper towels and...oops! Never went to replace them. So I leave Ellie, who is still looking stunned. I don't think she has ever seen anyone make a mess bigger than she has already made, and run to the basement to grab a roll of Viva paper towels. When I got back a minute and thirty seconds later, there was even more of a mess.
This afternoon I was lucky enough to learn two lessons.
1. Never underestimate 'the baby.'
2. Never procrastinate. It will always come back to bite you.
I hope my unfortunate tale will save someone's kitchen from becoming a milk stained mess.
