As a mother of new crawling baby I am amazed at how fast my little guy can cover ground on his knees, especially when a forbidden item is near by. He is also amazingly adept at picking up tiny mystery morsels. Like any other baby, he spends most of his time on our floors, roving from toy to toy and always trying to catch the cats. Up until now I often thought my floors were reasonably clean…I was wrong.

One of his more recent ventures brought him into our dining room where he crawled about for a spell and then returned to his wandering and his toys. There was nothing that we could see on the floor. Sometime later my husband and I noticed that he was chewing on something, but this was not too uncommon as he often smacks his lips. But the chewing and smacking continued so we had to investigate. He was chewing on a dried cranberry from several nights ago; it had blended in on the area rug.

And so I am faced with the endless challenge of floor cleaning. I have resolved myself to my fate…I must become an expert vacuum operator and sweeper. This is no easy task as we have two cats and my child is forever having at least one cat hair on his face. This is not too bad for he has not yet found the litter box.

So my word to all those looking to baby proof a home is, be prepared to vacuum and sweep a great deal. You child, like mine may enjoy licking the carpet and so it is best to keep it as clean as possible. There will always be some things that you miss, like dried cranberries on the area rug, but they make for entertaining stories.