A Year of Laundry

It occurred to me today during the 45 minutes I spent working on stain removal from ONE LOAD of Riley's laundry that even with laundry, you can see progress. Not just the size of the clothes, but in the messes that you try to get out of them. When Riley was first born, I had to scrub to get out spit up and the byproducts of diaper mismanagement. Later it was pureed fruits and vegetables. Then there was a particularly ugly vomiting episode during the winter when poor Riley was sick, we were too dumb to realize it, and were treking him all over town from one errand to the next until he could take it no longer and projectile vomited all over himself, his clothes and his car seat for about 30 seconds straight (image that mess -- made even better because he'd just had strawberries). And now I find myself trying to get out dirt stains on the knees of his pants, blood from a fall while trying to master standing and walking on his own, cranberry juice dribbled down the front of his shirt (sippy cups are not fool proof) and caked on eggs/melted cheese/puffs that have turned to mush/whatever.

I was getting so hopeful thinking about stain-free laundry days ahead when Riley is no longer crawling, has mastered the art of walking, can drink from a sippy cup without incident, and eats without throwing his food. And then I realized that the reason this particular load of laundry was taking so long was that not only did it contain Riley's messy clothes, but it also included Casey's. As Riley says, "Uh oh."