Toilet Trouble!

Yesterday Son1 stalled for a nap. My patience was dwindling while supervising his last potty attempt, and he could sense it. "Mommy, you go OUTSIDE!! You go on the computer and I do potty all myself!!" I told him he had five minutes. Now, he is unsupervised in the potty all of the time. He is totally capable of getting his business done, redressed, and washing his hands. On those days when he stalls, though, I hang out just to make sure no funny business happens. Lately, he has enjoyed the whole idea of privacy, so I figured that maybe, just maybe, this was a little case of privacy and not playing in the bathroom. I left the door open to his bathroom. We have this little built in office alcove under an arch just outside of his bathroom. I really was only just a few feet away.

The toilet flushed. WOW he really did get it all done in five minutes. Then I heard the water. It sounded like he opened the faucet all the way. SHRIEK. "MOOOOMMMMMMMYYYY!!!!!!" SHRIEK SHRIEK. Oh no. Had he burned himself???? I jumped up and found an overflowing toilet just cascading all over the bathroom at bullet speed. I grabbed some bathtub pitchers and scooped and scooped and scooped water from the bowl and tossed and tossed and tossed into the bathtub. I glanced at him as he started to cry, but my eye caught the brown cardboard tube. "Did you shove toilet paper down the toilet?" "Yes." Ugh. Shreds of toilet paper were floating to the surface. Scoop, dump, scoop, dump. All the while water is still cascading....cascading like a water fall. The rugs were completely soaked. I looked at him, said his full name, and told him to wait for me in his room on his bed. "Mommy!!" I repeated myself again in as calm of a voice as I pictured Hubby using, because hardly anything shakes that man. I am trying to take lessons from him. Son1 defeatedly turned and slipped on the wet granite, and wailed. "Mommy!" Scoop, dump, scoop, dump. Aaaaggghh!!!

Calmly, sternly, I repeated myself again. He disappeared in the direction of his room. I looked down and the water stopped churning upward. It settled. It was at a reasonable level. Maybe it was over. I grabbed the two rugs Flylady had me wash earlier. Well, I was an over achiever. I washed these rugs in addition to the others she asked me to wash. I had swept and mopped this very floor earlier. I threw those rugs in the bathtub and looked at myself in the mirror. I was totally soaked. Totally.

I walked into Son1's room, and got him settled for a nap. "Mommy, you're happy?" I shook my head. "No, mommy is very, very sad." And wet. I recounted the event from beginning to end. "No, mommy YOU'RE HAPPY!!" I warned he had better take a nap and not get up.

I left his room, and scooped all of the wet towels and wet rugs and made a couple of trips down to the laundry, and tried to reorder the bathroom a little. But the afternoon just flew by with Son2 waking up from his nap, and Son1 asking to come out, though he never napped. Hubby called. I told him a little of what had gone on. Oh. He wanted to know if he could play some tennis after work. I reminded him I had a meeting to attend that evening. He offered to cancel, but a little guilt crept over me. Go, I told him.

By the time he got home, we were like two passing ships. I was putting Son2 down for bed. Son1 was fed, and was ready for bedtime. Before he went upstairs he asked if I had plunged the toilet. Well there was this little miscommunication. He thought I had said yes. He was listening for a one word response. But I told him that the water level had stabilized and that the toilet had stopped spewing. He took that to mean yes. So you can only imagine what happened after the toilet flushed. Yup. It happened all over again, and I needed to leave. Fortunately neither time involved #2. Hubby just looked at me and said, "Were you on the internet when he flooded the toilet?" And you know what I said?

"Now, you don't think I would have let him just do that with me standing there, do you??" There you go. One more time he was looking for a one word response, and he got a string of words. But Hubby is a lot faster at these messes. He had that bathroom reordered in a matter of minutes. That didn't make it any better, though.

People say that raising kids just goes so quick! And it does. It really does. But when you are in the moment, it sure can feel like forever.