Monday, Monday.........

So far this Monday morning I've awakened with a sore throat and run out of toilet paper when I was the only one home. Thank God for those little premoistened wipes that are flushable. Which I still buy even though my kids are out of that toddler toilet training stage by about, oh, eight years now. But I still buy them, because, well, sometimes you run out of toilet paper and NO ONE IS HOME to get you any more. So, thank God for the toddler wipes.

It's funny how I've held on to those "baby" things in my house. Slowly but surely they are disappearing. Just a couple of weeks ago, the baby gate was finally removed from the top of the stairs. Sure, it came in handy for a few years when Harrison was a toddler. But after that? I thought it'd be a nifty way to keep the dogs contained either up or downstairs. Except when we went on a trip this past summer and one of the dogs apparently went crazy and tried to jump over it (Shade). Which, of course, broke it off it's hinges and it was a goner. Still, it took months before Jeff finally removed it for good, patched the holes in the wall, and another sign of babyhood disappeared.

I still have a selection of Tupperware cups with sippy lids. I still use them! Every night for dinner I pour milk for the kids in those, or similar plastic cups designed to hold about six ounces of milk. Except my kids drink about twelve to sixteen ounces at a sitting. So, why do I still have these silly cups? I even keep them in a lower cabinet, you know, so the teenagers who are taller than me can reach them. Crazy.

Just a year or two ago, we finally removed the child safety latches on the knife drawer. I was of the mindset that someone might visit with a toddler and we wouldn't want any accidents would we? To my credit, I did toss all the plug covers several years ago. And I never owned a toilet lock. Indeed! What a ridiculous invention.

And yet.......I still have these few reminders of when my house was teeming with toddlers and preschoolers and things needed to be locked up, latched up and just plain "up" to keep them out of grimy little paws. I still keep boxes of baby wipes around. Those things come in handy! You can use them to remove make up, give yourself a little once over after a workout, wipe off countertops.........they even pinch hit for Swiffer Wet cloths to mop a dirty floor. If there's one thing I will keep from baby days it's wipes. And thank God I had some this morning when I was upon the throne and out of TP and the dog just cocked her head sideways and looked at me and I knew "fetch" wasn't going to cut it.