A joy we have been experiencing lately is child debris. Both Charles and Alice have semi-persistent head colds which require a lot of facial tissue use. This wouldn’t be so bad if both children didn’t tend to discard used facial tissues the instant they’re done, rather than say putting them in to a garbage can. As a result Mom and I spend a lot of time picking these discarded items. It’s a cruel dilemma because it’s still better than having the kids not use them at all. While Alice tends to make a token effort, Charles will work with a single tissue well past its expiration. He’s given himself quite a sore under his nose this way.
On a related note, Alice has been taking the guinea pigs out quite a bit. This always makes me nervous because Alice is not always as gentle as she should be and sometimes wanders off and forgets she had a guinea pig out. The worst, though, is that when the guinea pigs pee Alice just moves on, leaving little puddles of guinea pig pee for Mom and Dad to find. We just haven’t been able to convince her that she should notify one of us when it happens, rather than assumign we will find it someday. It ranks right up there with gathering up the guinea poop under the couch cushions.