The Tipping Point

I like having a clean car. Not necessarily on the outside, though it does slightly matter, but I appreciate a clean interior. Back before Isla was around, Connor and I used to take weekly trips to the car wash. I would vacuum and wipe down the inside, then get the outside washed. Heck, I was freaking out about needing a clean car for Isla to come home in...a little secret here, I asked Ian to go thru the car wash while I was in labor. On the way there, I decided I was in too much pain, so we went home and I got in the bathtub instead. Anyway, since my car didn't get washed before Isla's birth, I made Ian do it before I got out of the hospital. A little obsessed. I told you.

Anyway, the tipping point for having a clean car seems to be two kids. No longer does my car look like this:

Sure there are stains on the carpet in the picture (and in real life), but I would take seeing those stains any day over seeing what I normally do when I go to pull my kids out of the car. Here's what normally greets me:

How does this happen, you may be asking yourself. Well, Connor generally always brings a toy or two or three with us where ever we go. And by the time we get back home, it is just too much for him to take those toys back in the house! Then there is the diaper bag...and that is just one bag, if I am lucky. Throw in some random baby blankets, spit up towels, clean diapers and a couple trips to Starbucks and voila, a trashed car.

You would think I could clean it out every time I get home. Sounds simple enough. Except for the fact, I am usually trying to keep my toddler from running away, while bringing in a baby and my Starbucks of course. By the time I get in the house, I am making lunch, changing diapers, feeding baby, putting kids down for naps...I forget about the car sitting in my driveway, trashed.

And that, my dear friends, is how you go from clean to trashed. My tipping point seemed to be two kids.