Oh no you didn't!

Yesterday, after taking H to school, I brought the twins inside and deposited them (in their carseats) on the kitchen floor. I told T to finish his juice from lunch while I brought the empty garbage can back inside the garage and got the mail from the mailbox. I was gone for about two minutes total. When I came back inside, T was sitting in a corner of the living room by the piano, as if he was hiding. When I asked him what was wrong, he said, "My pants are wet." I asked him if he had peed or just spilled juice on them. He said he had spilled. When he stood up, I saw that it was a tiny spot of juice. "No big deal," I said.

While N was still in her carseat, I tried to get her to drink the last of her bottle (a common occurrence around here). I noticed there was a small stain on her blanket. Then I realized I was standing in a puddle (luckily, I didn't have socks on--I hate that). I quickly surmised that my darling three year-old boy must have drunk his juice standing next to his sister and then spilled (most likely while leaning into her seat to "talk to her"). There was juice on two blankets, all over her clothes, the floor, on the carseat fabric, on the carseat itself, and leaked through the cracks in the carseat onto the floor.

Now, if it had just been water, it wouldn't have bugged me. I would have still had to change N's clothes, but water dries. Water does not stain. Water is not sticky. But he wasn't drinking water. He was drinking juice (a rare occurrence around here). So, after sending T to timeout, I stripped N down to her diaper, and then stripped the carseat fabric off the base, all the while lecturing T that his poor choice (not sitting down at the table) meant more work for me.

Perhaps I'm the only one, but taking off the carseat fabric, washing it, and putting it back on is one of the truly annoying tasks in my book. Usually it's a puking incident, so I can't get the fabric off quickly enough. Fast forward to later when it's clean, and I'm suddenly staring at a seat that I have no idea how to put back together. I'll pull out the not-so-handy manual and spend forever staring, pulling, and maneuvering, until it seems to be right. There are seats that I don't think have ever been the same after a puking episode.

Luckily for me, I have a matching set of carseats--given to me by my wonderful family before the twins were born. Incidentally, have I ever mentioned my love for these seats? I've never had cute carseats before, and I love how pretty they are.


Anyway, when it was time to put N's seat back together, I just used A2's seat for a much handier guide. :)