I did it! I exercised today! I felt great afterwards (halfway through the workout I couldn’t say the same). It was a success, and I feel positive. We had a good dinner, everybody finished their homework without a fight, and the kids helped me fold laundry while we watched an episode of Little House together. I have found a workable solution to our bedtime problems. I simply put kids 1 thru 4 to bed and take AJ down to the basement with me. I’ve done it for a few weeks now and it works like a charm. The big kids fall asleep pretty quickly without AJ bugging them, and I let Apple play quietly until he decides he’s tired. Then he walks himself upstairs and gets in bed by himself! Granted, this usually happens around 9:30, but as long as he can get a regular nap, I figure it is solution I can live with.
So, now for the fun part…while I was cooking that yummy dinner, the kids (plus KitKat’s friend) made a ruckus all over the house. The phone rang. PB wouldn’t make it home in time for dinner, and he needed me to look an address up online. As I headed downstairs, I noticed that AJ’s pants had a little wet spot on the rear from a long-overdue-to-be-changed diaper. While I was motioning for KitKat to please help out, I noticed that his sleeves were wet up to his elbows. A questioning glance to KitKat received the response, “He was washing his hands in the bathroom sink.” I could accept that. At least KitKat seemed to know what he’d been up to.
PB’s computer inquiry took a little while, and when I got back upstairs, AJ was just as wet as before. I think I was too optimistic thinking that somebody would voluntarily take care of his mess while I was busy. Once AJ was cleaned up and dry, I was back to the kitchen. Within a few minutes, I heard Twizzler say, “Who made the mess in the bathroom?” I knew immediately that KitKat didn’t know what she had been talking about earlier. I prepared myself for the worst when I went into the bathroom. I was happy to see that there was no toilet paper strewn across the room. Just water. Water was everywhere. Thank goodness for the two rugs, which sopped up a bunch of it. A couple of towels later, and the room was back to normal, minus two rugs and an arm load of towels to take to the laundry.
As I rushed off to the laundry room, I ran into AJ and Reese. I tried to step over them in my descent down the stairs, but my foot slipped and I ended up in a pile with the soaked towels at the bottom of the stairs. Two thoughts came to my head. “This is so embarrassing that KitKat’s friend is here to hear me scream” and “I can’t believe that I landed on my finally-healed broken toe.” Yep, I broke the small toe on my right foot in June, which just recently stopped hurting. At least it’s not re-broken.
When I got down to the basement, I found water at the base of the furnace. That’s funny, I thought. We haven’t had the air or the heat on in weeks. Why would it leak? I grabbed a clean towel from the washed pile and went back to my work. It wasn’t until I was back in the laundry room hours later that I found the real source of the water, and was surprized that I hadn’t automatically made the connection. AJ’s little bathroom mess had come straight through the floor to the laundry room, dripping on pillows, boxes, the rugs down there, and even one of the few Christmas presents that I’ve already bought. Thank goodness it was clean water!
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