Oreos on the Wall

When I was little girl, the house we lived in had a really large foyer in it and then a hall leading off of it. Coming off the foyer into the hall was a short little wall that led into the ceiling. Growing up I would jump nearly every time I went down the hall trying to reach that ellusive low wall/ceiling. My Mom would always tell me not to do this, but I kept on until one day I reached it. Wow, I was so excited! The only problem was that my hands happened to be dirty that day and I left a really nice imprint of my left hand on that beige ceiling. I remember my Mom being none to happy with me. Similarly, my sister Rachel had dirty feet one day and put her feet on the wall outside my parent's bathroom. There were two nice little feet left on that wall as well. That house had so many memories for me, Rachel got sick and later died there, Hannah was brought home there, I spent many summers in a pool there, but those two marks left a mark on my memory. When we moved I remember crying when the inspector told my parents they had to paint over those marks. I wanted to say, 'But you don't know how important those feet and hands are!"

So today when I was coming up the stairs I noticed an Oreo Cookie handprint on my wall just the size of the Princess' little hands. I started to get upset at oreos on the wall, but then I realized that it is the mark of her. It says two things...1. I love cookies (so true) and 2. She can walk the stairs alone. Tonight I walked around my house looking at the marks my children have made...there is a nice pen circle near the laudry room left by Bubby, blue crayon in the dining room left by the Princess, and a chip out of the kitchen corner where Bubby ran into it with the bulldozer ride on toy. I don't have a perfect house, it is nearly always dirty and a mess by my Mom, Nanny, and Mother-in-Law standards. I tend to be cluttered at times even though I try to be organized. But what I do have is what I wanted my entire life. I have little hands who make messes on my walls and in my floors. Who make me laugh everyday and often make me cry when they say, "I love you so much Mommy" Who needs clean walls, when you can have arms around you neck?