So, yeah… chocolate syrup.  Dark stuff.  Sticky, excessively so.  Eight parts honey to one part cocoa, the whole business diluted by 4 – 25% water.  Still really, really sticky.

Leo’s class did spin-art in school this week.  In the usual way, that is, with a neat little contraption that enables little kids to put ‘driblets’ (as Luka calls them) of paint on little squares of cardboard as they whiz around in a circle.  Leo?  He doesn’t need such a ridiculous mechanical set-up; he can do it himself.

This would explain why, last night, I ran to the bathroom and came out to hear an odd sound from the dining room.  As it turned out, it was the sound a spent bottle of Hershey’s chocolate syrup makes when a three-year-old is still trying to squirt it.  And there was Leo, poised atop the dining room table, turning ’round and ’round, squirting as he went. 

Chocolate everywhere.  The Persian rug.  The upholstery.  The table and table runner, not a big deal at all.  The floor and curtains.  Oh, and did I mention that since he wanted to do really well in the dining room, he practiced a lot in the kitchen? 

I went through a dozen Swiffer Wet Jet pads last night, and a couple more today.  (Don’t bother, folks–they don’t work!!!)  Two passes through with my steam mop did far more good, though I still have to go back and do more once the kids are in bed tonight.  And I think we’ll be seeing the lovely folks from Stanley Steemer sometime in the next couple of days, because the steam mop doesn’t even begin to deal with the chocolate-filled grout canals, and this all conspires to make walking in the kitchen downright impossible.

That said, I’m really glad Leo retained the concept of spin-art and all… it’s a good sign.