Face cloths

"Did you brush your teeth? Did you wash your face?"

The questions that get asked several times each day.

It starts off rhetorically as the kids announce that they are ready to go. Sort of a gentle hint that they might have forgotten something. It then gets repeated a number of times as they get distracted on their way to the bathroom.

Hillary and I both have done this routine hundreds of times. I guess ultimately I'll win in the raw number of times that phrase will pass my lips. One point Warren?

Last night, after this was accomplished, I was watching Isaac put stuff away and saw him take his cloth and smooth it out beside Paige's on the edge of the tub. I reflected briefly on that. I see the cloths there all the time, but I hadn't really watched one of them put them there in months.

Then it occurred to me. I had never requested they put their used, wet cloths there.

The state of the tub after this pair of tasks. Every morning and most evenings.

This was Hillary's handiwork. Wet cloths in a ball somewhere bothered her immensely. This was organized and she taught both kids to do it.

It bugs me that they go there, but it is a practical drying place for them until they can be piled with other clothing. I won't change the location of the cloths as I am now curious as to how long this tiny routine that she started will last.

This is the kind of thing that they could potentially teach their kids. I think I would like that. I know twenty years from now or whatever it would have tickled Hillary. Am I torpedoing that possibility by writing this out and leaking the origin? I don't know. Perhaps once they are reading this I'll censor today's post.

This is for posterity as much as anything else. Paige always does this. Isaac usually actually washes his face in the tub and then mostly avoids toothpaste all over his face at this point.