If you haven't noticed, we have a kid

A while back, a friend of my husband stopped by our house to see Ladybug for the first time. After all the usual “she’s beautiful” and “are you getting any sleep?” reflections, he made another comment: “Wow, you’d never know you had a kid.”

He was making reference to the fact that the living room carpet was still beige, the walls were still off-white and the leather sofa was still cream colored. He went on to explain how his two young boys had wreaked havoc on his home.

“You’ll see,” he said.

Ah, yes. We certainly will.

It started with the carpet. We were loading up the car for an overnight trip when Ladybug made a dash for the open front door. In my haste to catch her, I put my coffee mug down on the nearest thing – the floor. No sooner had I scooped her up that my husband walked by and accidentally kicked over the cup, a torrent of dark brown spreading across the entryway carpet.

Next were the walls. First, a chocolate handprint from our cookie-baking adventure that I didn’t discover until it had hardened and sunk into every pore in the paint. Then, a scribbly crayon drawing under the living room window.

Most recently, it was the sofa. Despite my best efforts to store the crayons out of Ladybug’s reach, she always manages to find a stray one. It’s blue, as my sofa cushions will tell you.

A little dish detergent took the crayon out of the sofa. A dozen steam cleanings later, and the coffee stain is all but a memory. The artwork under the window is faded, as is the surrounding paint from all my scrubbing.

Oh, if my husband’s friend could only see us now ….

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