We have a very small kitchen in the downstairs apartment of my mom’s house. There is enough room for a table and two chairs but that table is often used as counter space. Big meals are generally cooked upstairs in grandma’s kitchen where there is plenty of counter space and tables enough to seat 30. But what about small meals? What about we’re only having a wee bit of cereal or PB&J or just a snack? Then we eat in the living room. But do you think I would release food into the hands two children under 6 and send them to the only room in my house with carpet? No way! (okay, well sometimes but those are complete lapses of sanity.) For the ultimate in carpet protection I introduce the ‘Splat Mat’. It’s actually a cheapo mattress pad
with waterproof backing on one side and cotton padding on the other. Placed cotton side down, it will not slip around or bunch up, even under the most active toddler, and the top side is easily wiped clean of any random stickiness. Placed cotton side up, you can be sure that spills of almost any magnitude will not make their way through to your precious Berber underneath. (Disclaimer: Let me not imply by this sentence that I actually have Berber carpet in my living room only that if a person were to have carpet installed in a living room, like if her husband were looking for a nice sort of gift to give said person and he thought of carpet then Berber might be a good choice for that situation……. ahem …. that’s all I’m sayin’.) So about spills – case in point, I turned around from my typing to find this:
As far as I can tell, the driver of the orange truck lost control of his vehicle and slammed into Brother’s cereal bowl, knocking Fruit Loops everywhere…. except of course on my carpet. It is fortunate indeed that we had the splat mat in place as the driver has no insurance. He was, however; sent to his room for driving without a license.
Aaannyway, the Spurgeon family splat mat works for me. Head on over to Shannon’s place for more great tips!
