A Hoover in the house

Yesterday, all 3 of us went to some of our neighbors' apartments to give them some Christmas cookies (see our earlier post for a visual of the cookies). Anyhow, we went to one nieghbor that we're pretty sure is Jewish. He was really nice and even wished us Merry Christmas.
Then we went to another nieghbor who invited us right in and told us she was making Christmas cookies as well. We had hardly spoken more than a sentence or two with her before. Well, she instantly busted out with amazingly good English - we never knew she could do that! So we just obliged and continued in English. Anyhow, she had us sit down at her table and opened up probably 7 containers of different kinds of traditional Austrian cookies. They aren't nearly as sweet as American kinds.

We were thinking we'd give Cole a cookie, but before we even could pick one up, he did himself. Then he put it right in his mouth and ate the whole thing up! It was so funny and the lady loved it. We got to know a few things about our neighbor - she plays the viola and does workshops with other musicians. As we were talking, Cole snatched another cookie (they were very small). A few times, he dropped pieces and crumbs on the floor like a normal baby. We apologized and tried to pick up the pieces, but she quickly responded, "Don't worry, there's a Hoover in the house!"
Anne and I pretty much died laughing, but it was covered up because all 3 of us were continually laughing at Cole. I mean, where did our neighbor learn some phrase like that???? I guess it was some old advertisement that she picked up on way back when she learned English.

HI. LARIOUS.