Goldfish, Raisins, Crayons and Cups

     Yesterday on the way to the mall Liam and Joshua were sharing goldfish crackers.  Joshua was saying "Mmmm" which we decided meant "more" so (if you read the last post) we decided that was an acceptable use of communication.  At any rate, both kids were happy in the backseat with orange mouths.   Until Liam dropped the goldfish crackers.  Isn't that an ancient mantra, "If you give a child a bag of goldfish crackers, he will drop them and the bag will be open"?  So now my backseat was covered with goldfish crackers. Actually, the backseat was covered in toys, sippy cups, bowls, crayons and then on top of that was the goldfish crackers.  You can tell I'm now a veteran mom (no longer a new mommy) because this didn't even faze me.  It didn't even bother me too much when Liam said, "I don't need to pick them up because it's already messy back here!"
     "We'll just throw them out to the birds!"  I said to Liam and that was that.  Snack time was over anyway.  So when we got home, Liam tossed the goldfish crackers out of the door.  Unfortunately, he tossed them onto the driveway instead of onto the grass but again, eh whatever. 
     I'm really not a germ-a-phobe. I pretty much feel that children are likely to get dirty hands and that's okay.  They may even eat with dirty hands.  I do think that washing hands is very important particularly after using the restroom or touching meat or cookie dough, etc...  So I have reasonable standards and in return I have pretty healthy kids who rarely get sick but occasionally have been known to eat sand or lick seashells.  Just occasionally though.
     I was a bit startled, however, when I spotted Joshua eating the goldfish off of the driveway. I didn't really have time to ponder whether it was more icky because they had been on the driveway or because they had been on the floor mat of my car. Either way, I scooped him up and then taught him a really fun game of stepping on the goldfish.  Crumb piles of goldfish are a lot less tempting to eat than actual goldfish swimming on the driveway.  And as I picked up the remaining crumbs left in the car, I decided it really was time to clean my car.
     Am I the only one who closes her eyes when she puts her children into the backseat?  It's gotten really bad.  I remember a time when I used to only have to vacuum my car once a year and now I have to do it twice a year!  And it really was time to clean the car.  I found remnants of yesterday's chocolate donut snack on Liam's armrest (advice to new moms, only give your kid a chocolate donut on the day that you plan to clean your car) and in Joshua's seat I had to use a pen to get raisins out of all of the little cracks & crevices.  I could not miss the irony of the colored streaks all over the upholstery either. Did you know that washable crayons are not really washable when melted onto car upholstery?  What would be easier for me to do- use a carpet shampooer on my mats & backseat or buy new floor mats?  Hmmm...
     Also surprising was the amount of crumbs in the front seat. I really can't fault my kids for all of their crumbs if I have my own crummy issues up front, now can I?  Maybe it really was a bad idea to eat buttered Matzoh on the way to work the other day...