Double Whammy

Yesterday I noticed that Daniel had taken a pencil and made a lovely mark on the wall all the way up the stairs. I noticed this on the way down the stairs after cleaning up the marker on the carpet just inside his bedroom door. But, honestly that wasn't what I considered the double whammy. Pencil is easy enough to clean off of a wall, so I pulled out a Clorox wipe and got to work. Here's where the double whammy comes in. As I pulled the wipe away from the wall and looked at it, I realized I was in for a lot more cleaning than I had bargained for!! I was not prepared for how dirty it was, although I should have been since Daniel is my 5th child, and it's not like I haven't seen this before. How had my walls gotten so filthy? Granted, I was wiping right at Daniel's height up the stairs. Picture a 3 year old walking up a flight of stairs. Are their arms every just hanging at their sides, or are they capable of reaching the handrail? Not likely. They walk up the stairs sliding their hand along the wall as they walk. These are things that people without children don't tend to ponder. Anyway, back to my walls. One pencil mark on the wall (ok it WAS a long pencil mark) opened my eyes to the grime, and then there was no turning back. I then needed to continue wiping until I had finished with all the surfaces on the stairway that might have been touched by little hands. At least I was able to stop at the stairway, I wonder what his bedroom walls are like...