Last night our whole family "camped in". That means we unfurled the sleeping bags and lanterns in the living room, fired up the fireplace DVD (hey, it was pouring here and real fires are against neighborhood bylaws), and settled in together. My kids are little, 5 and 2, so they snuggle down in my double bag with me (hubby gets the air mattress). The cats curl up at our feet, and the dog passes out at our heads. It's a little goofy but really, how often do we moms get to enjoy the whole family snuggling up and sleeping in our arms? I treasure it all the more knowing each time may be the last time as the kids grow older and more independent every day.
Of course, being mom, it was up to me to turn off the "fire" after everyone fell asleep, and settle down the restless sleepers and nightmares one by one. At one point I even checked to make sure our old Maine Coon cat was still breathing (he was, rather huffily after I disturbed him, actually). So it wasn't surprising that at dawn, it was also me who heard the dreaded, "Voopa, Voopa, Voopa..." of a pet about to barf. With appropriately cat-like reflexes, I located said pet, our Tortie cat, Callie, and scrambled to intervene. The urge to purge had apparently stricken her while she was reclining on my ecru chenille rocker, because it was from this perch that she was presently heaving. I tried desperately to grab a nearby baby blanket to throw in front of her, but I was pinned down on both sides by sleeping kids, and the dog, sensing my panic, thrust his gigantic head in my face, blocking any forward movement. Callie, 1, chair, floor, two pillows, and my arm, 0.
Fortunately, I have a few weapons on hand for just these kinds of messes. After washing off my arm, I removed the pillow cases and threw them in the washer with OxyClean on the auto rinse & soak cycle. For the chair and the pillows themselves, I grabbed the Folex carpet cleaner. A few years ago I tried it on a rust stain nothing else had been able to remove. Folex got it out with almost no effort at all. Now I find myself reaching for it whenever I've got a soft surface crisis on my hands. The floor was the easy part, since she missed the carpet. For hard surfaces I use Simple Green, quick and easy.
By about quarter past dawn, the crisis was over. My toddler slept through the whole thing, right there in the middle of the floor. That's just fine with me, because all those products I reach for time and again are non-toxic. In spite of their more annoying attributes (like bulimia), we love our pets. Putting up with their messes is one way to show them, cleaning up with eco-friendly products is another. It's a good thing Mom's arsenal holds some great (not-so) secret weapons.
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