Warning: Gross Factor

As a mom you do some weird things that are UNIMAGINABLE before you have your OWN kids... like eating that half-gnawed on graham cracker because you can't find a garbage can, and can't toss it on the floor of the mall, and your kid certainly isn't going to eat it, and that beats trying to stuff it into a pocket or a purse or diaper bag where it will get crushed and then melt into the material when you wash it, or turn in to the never-ending crumb that coats everything.

But, even as a mom, I'm very very very very very tired of wiping noses. Bums? Well, that's another post.

Both Veronica and Miranda have colds. Full-blown with hacking cough, fever, noses that won't stop, and the bright watery eyes, the clinging lethargy, etc. No, I've checked their ears, so it's not ear infections. But, no matter how many tissues I stuff in my pockets my two-year-old wipes (or rather smears) her nose before I can catch the most recent stream, streaking it across her cheek, and then her hair gets stuck and dries in it. EW!

Of course, Veronica has a different solution. She is naturally inclined to suck on her top lip. I don't know why or how she started that (maybe the feel of her teeth coming in on her gums feels good on the bottom of her tongue?), but she doesn't seem to mind being a cat and grooming her own nose. EW!

So, as I am smeared in snot on both shoulders, pants, and all of my chest (kids LOVE to rub their faces on you when they are sick), and I am grossed out by the crusted hair on one daughter's cheeks and gagging at the thought of sucking on snot, I will remember that someday they will be old enough to wipe their own noses.

I will happily hand them the tissue.

Note: My children use the word "mucus". I am NOT a fan of the words used for such drippy, sticky, slimy nasal discharge; such words as snot, buggers, etc, and so I taught them the medical term. Travis laughs and cringes. Other parents look at me funny when they hear an 18-month-old use the term.

PS: I will spare you the visual and forgo any photographic documentation of the above grossness. Except for the following shot of 'Nica:


See? Sucked clean (EW!!!)