After having my first son, MJ, I realized how amazing baby wipes were. They were right there at diaper time of course, but they were also handy with runny noses, a bit of spilled milk or even a cookie smashed firmly in a tiny little hand. But MJ went on to potty train at 18 months (this is not something I did; this was all him and I was never able to replicate it with any of the other 4 boys so don’t even ask!) and I quickly got rid of the baby wipes without much thought. Matthew came a year later and things were much the same, I used them for baby, and away they went. Once I met Luis though, oh boy did I learn the utility of a good “butt wipe”!
You have to understand a little about Luis’s life when we met. He was a widower, raising 2 young boys on his own, working, bringing the boys to daycare, church, family, playing on the farm, etc. They were everywhere and nowhere, having fun and making messes. He was an amazing single parent, doing it all… but he was NOT a mom. Jasper and Mateo were barely 2 and 4 when I met them, and they were way messier than MJ and Matthew ever dreamed they could be because Luis let them live it up a bit more than I did. And because of that, he needed butt wipes in all kinds of ways that I had never thought of!
Something spilled on the leather seat of the Ford Explorer? Grab a butt wipe from the glove box! A bit of mud on his brown boots? Grab a butt wipe from his backpack! Dinner is done? Grab a butt wipe from the counter and clean up. I swear he used those wipes for anything other than wiping butts (though he did that too!)
So, when the Valencia boys came into our lives, MJ and Matthew were 4 and 6, baby wipes came back into play for our family too and I finally realized the utility of these things! I was now using them for the kids to wash themselves up after dinner. The kids could clean up their own minor spills. Jasper learned how to wipe down the sink after everyone brushed their teeth and I now had a perfectly suitable cleaner for just about anything that wasn’t in need of a disinfectant.
And it went even further! I forgot deodorant? Oh well, grab a baby wipe and smell like fresh powder, no one can tell! Need to get this makeup off my face? Baby wipe! Dusting? With a duster? NOPE! Baby wipe! And guess what… you ladies with curly-ish hair that never actually looks curly… if you rub a baby wipe gently down your hair it will actually tame frizzies!
Yeah, now you know!
Oh, and remember when I posted about being locked out? Yeah, I even used baby wipes to solve that problem! After getting into the house, I replaced the batteries on our automatic door lock, only to find it still didn’t work! I took it apart to find that a battery had leaked acid all down the mechanism, so with a baby wipe, I quickly cleaned it all up, put it back together and Viola, it worked!
I have yet to find something a baby wipe can’t clean, other than maybe permanent marker or raw chicken on the counter. But for everything else, feel free to help yourself to any package of baby wipes you find in my kitchen, bathroom, car, and packed in every suitcase on every trip we take!