Washington

I just put detergent in the dishwasher and set the timer to start in two hours. This will be the fourth night in five that we've had to run the dishwasher, which strikes me as staggering. Even earlier this year, when it was just three postnatal humans (two adults and a toddler) in the house, we could get away with running it every other day, or even less frequently. It's not like the baby is using a place setting at each meal, much less baking some sort of utensil-intensive pastry, and yet her mere presence has jumped the dish consumption up one notch.

But the real washing action is in the laundry room, where we (= Shannon, mostly) have to do at least one load every day - and many days, several loads. Here you can see the impact of the infant more clearly: soiled onesies, spat-upon shirts, used burp cloths, etc. But just the same, her clothes are really pretty tiny. I'm sure one of the front pockets in my jeans has almost as much fabric in it than one of her outfits. And it's not like her sister's wearing oversized sweatshirts or something. Even a big two-and-a-half-year-old doesn't wear clothes comparable in size to an adult's. What the heck does a family do when there are two adults and two teenagers? Do we have to get laundromat machines, or what?