Not Always a Pretty Picture

Unfortunately, I’m not one of those mothers who always manages to keep her kids’ noses clean and nicely wiped, their faces free of debris from lunch. And although I’m rather embarrassed sometimes when people come up to me with a klenex (which I’ve most certainly forgotten to bring with me) in the middle of the winter, for the most part, I’m OK with the fact that they look . . . messy a lot of the time. (This may stem from a severe aversion to my mother cleaning crud off my own preschool face with a klenex moistened with her spit . . . yuck. It makes me gag just remembering, even though I know she was trying to do me a service, and had the best intentions).

Anyway, poor little Banana is teething. And she had her shots. And my husband fed her a lot of fruit which is gushing through her digestive system. The poor kid is just cranky. She weeps through the house. She whines everywhere, and chews on everything, although she definitely seems to have a preference for sweaty socks, it seems. Yesterday she was toddling about on the sidewalk picking up rough sticks and crunchy leaves to try to use those poor little gums, and she just wasn’t overly happy about anything. So here she is: tears, nose slime, and grime from the sidewalk. And although she might be somewhat repulsive in the eyes of the neat freaks of the world, I love her even more for it.