Beauty Marks 

This is the spot on the bathroom door where Toddler scribbled with a Sharpie. He took the Sharpie from the drawer with the skeleton key, thinking it was the key and that he’d trick Mommy, who dared to lock the door. He quickly realized — this thing can color! So he started on the doorknob and happily progressed to bigger and bigger circles until he’d covered anything within reach. Mommy has purchased a magic eraser, yes, thank you. It did absolutely nothing. She’ll figure it out one of these days… probably just in time for Toddler to get married.

This is the mark on the wall behind the couch where the paint’s been scraped off from Toddler’s “boinging” back against the cushion. He boinged straight through the night clocking 50 miles per hour to take the edge off the pain from his hand-foot-mouth, while his mommy uneasily snoozed at the other end. Today she can laugh, because guess what, she’s emerged victorious from that haze of I’m-so-tired-I-haven’t-slept-in-a-week-and-my-kid-is-screaming-that-it-hurts. And if a scrape across the wall behind the couch is the price she paid for (literally) 40 winks, she’ll take it!

This is the spot on the stove where the knob melted because Mommy banged her elbow against the aluminum cover on Friday night, which in turn set off a Rube Goldberg effect and essentially turned the knob on the highest, and it took Tatty one hour to find a Shabbos goy to turn it off. This is the spot where the glowing grates burned the stovetop, and no matter how many times she scrubs, it stubbornly remains black.

This is the spot where Baby’s high chair has been dragged from the window to the table and back. This is the spot where Mommy thought, Maybe the traffic outside will distract him, and I can think a coherent thought or something. And this is the spot where Mommy realized that begging Hashem to send a garbage truck this way is just another sign that she’s not in high school anymore.