Often, while Henry takes a bath, I clean the bathroom.  Or as much of it as I can clean with Lucy hanging off my left arm!  Tonight, Henry requested a shower, and the dirty toilet and sink had been bugging me for days, so Lucy and got a bottle of Charlie’s and a sponge and went to work, while Henry stood in the shower (half sleeping, I’m sure). We cleaned the toilet, scrubbed the sink, polished the faucets and as I finished the mirror, I told Henry it was time to get out.  No, he said, he wanted to take a bath.  The poor guy is sick; he’s got a fever and possibly a sore throat, so I said ‘sure’ and plugged up the tub.  He doesn’t get sick much; he’s been sick maybe 3 or 4 times his whole life, so he looks quite pitiful 🙁 now with very sleepy eyes and very little to say.

While Henry sat in the tub, not doing a thing, I sat on the toilet nursing Lucy.  As I sat there, in the quiet, I suddenly remembered the time I cleaned the bathroom while I was babysitting.  I started babysitting when I was 10-12, depending on the kids ages.  By the time I was 14, I would babysit for this family of 4 once or twice a month.  This family lived about 30 minutes from us, and one parent would have to come and pick me up so I could watch the kids while they went out and then when they got home, have to drive me home.  Most of the time I would just follow the kids around and play games with the younger girls (you know, normal babysitting stuff).  They talked NON-STOP for 3 hours (or as long as I was there) and I’m sure told me lie after lie!  For some reason, one night I ended up in the bathroom (probably doing someone’s hair) and noticed, thanks to the eagle eye of my mother, the fact that this bathroom hadn’t been cleaned in some time.  I suppose I thought it’d be a nice gesture if I cleaned the bathroom; you know, because when you hire a 14 year-old babysitter, you usually get a bathroom cleaner as well! LOL!  Looking back, I can only imagine what Mrs. Smith thought when she came home!  Maybe she thought it was super nice of her babysitter to clean her bathroom or maybe she thought I was telling her, by cleaning the bathroom, what a poor house-keeper she was – who knows 🙂

All I know, is that if someone decided to clean my bathroom while I was gone, I would send them a hand-written thank you note!  I do hate a dirty bathroom 🙂  In fact, I told Jeremy that the best Valentine’s gift he could give me was to clean the baseboards in the bathroom; I think he’d rather buy me a shirt or a really expensive pair of Chacos, but honestly, I think I’d rather have clean baseboards!

Happy Valentine’s Day! I hope you all get clean baseboards 🙂 Or something equally thoughtful!