unintentional art

I often feel like one of those lawn moving robots that have become so popular in Sweden. Nowadays you can see them in every other backyard, spending their days crawling around on the lawn, cutting the grass. What I do is spending all my waking hours crawling around inside a Japanese home instead, cleaning up all the little accidents happening around the house (so maybe it would be more appropriate to liken myself to a robotic vacuum cleaner, they are much more popular here). Of course it is a gross exaggeration but it sure feels like it sometimes when rice stuck under socks is making its way around the living room or breadcrumbs are being sprinkled on the floor around the table or small oily hands are touching windows and doors instead of the soap. In other words, there is always a dirty somewhere that is in need of some attention from me and I cannot help but sigh to myself sometimes when I have just finished wiping up the sticky rice only to find some melting cheese taking its place a few minutes later. But sometimes I am met by a happy surprise that puts a big smile on my face and makes me feel like my robot-like cleaning work is all worth it.

The other day we were having dinner and our son seemed more interested in playing with everything on the table instead of tasting the food. He drove around with his spoon and fork on the table making car sounds, he was explaining to me the letter X while crossing the spoon and fork in front of him, he got his hand on some tissues and used them as a lid for his food, saying we should save it for tomorrow, before making balls from the tissue papers and throwing them on the floor. Finally though, he appeared to give up playing and wanted to drink his tea. After one gulp however, playing with the cup was too big a temptation to let pass, so of course the tea ended up on the tablemat in front of him. I was going to run for the kitchen cloth before the tea made its way to the floor, but seeing his spill I ended up running for my phone instead and managed to get a photo before his unintentional artwork had been wiped away by curious fingers. It sure was a smile to remember.

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