Local Flooding Irritates Mama

Last night, Allen and I were already in bed, but still awake reading and watching television. It was 10:32pm and all was quiet . . . a heard a strange thud, muted the t.v. asking Allen what the noise was. When I heard Ben wail I realized he must have fallen out of bed, but it was a different thud than when that normally happens. I flew upstairs; my feet must have touched the floor at some point, but I don't remember that part.

When I got to the top of the stairs, Ben was heading down to us just crying. I noticed the bathroom light was on and I heard the sink, and in that split second I rationalized that Ben had woken Will, and Will was getting himself a drink. When I picked Ben up, he was soaked. Not just sweaty-damp, but DRENCHED. I flew to the bathroom and what did I find?

A soggy Jon standing on a stool, a sink overflowing with warm water, a counter-top full of water, a toothbrush and soap bottle floating in the sink, a waterfall cascading to the tile, and a quarter-inch of water over the tiles in front of the vanity and into the other room that has the toilet and tub. I smacked the handle of the faucet to turn off the water and grabbed the towels to start sopping up the mess. In the toilet room, I found the linen cabinet open and a basket of stuff from in there was on the lid of the toilet. Seeing all that, I still couldn't figure out if Ben fell from the commode (where there were wet footprints) or from the counter or from walking across wet tiles.

I was mad! I called Allen to come help me, and he stripped the boys of their wet PJs while I cleaned the floor with the towels -- it was due for a mopping anyway (the ONLY silver lining I could find on this cloud.) When I got to the boys' room I threw some dry PJs to the kids and told them to put them on. The PJs just sat there while the boys, with their eyes big and worried, refused to move their hands from the protective positions over their fannies. Oh, they knew, all right. They knew they were in BIG trouble.

I was hoping they'd sleep late since they were up three hours past bedtime, but it didn't turn out that way. . . . maybe naptime will be extended. I can hope. . . .

PS -- I just realized there is another silver lining. . . when Will was two, he overflowed a sink in our Kansas home. I discovered it when it started dripping on my head in the kitchen down below. THANKFULLY, the flooding last night was contained to the bathroom and (as far as we know) did not soak through the floor and ceiling.