Friday, March 26, 2010

Baf-time

In the last 6 weeks or so, Lila has mastered using the stairs. This makes my life simpler in that she can now go downstairs to the toy room and play with the other kids. She loves being able to keep up with brother and sister and I love that I don't need to be her sole source of entertainment anymore. This also makes my life more complicated in that I have to make sure the laundry room and bathroom doors are shut, and remind the older kids to keep an eye on her so she stays out of my sewing room. Most of the time she is really good and just happily plays with the toys. But today I was folding a batch of laundry (again... for the 4th time... not that that is an important point of this story...) when I hear Evie yelling up to me that Lila was in the toilet. ARRRGG! I ran downstairs hoping that what ever she was dunking in the toilet wasn't electronic or too expensive, and also that she hadn't been playing in the bathroom for 20 minutes or so before Evie thought to let me know what was going on. I came around the corner saying, "Lila! What are you doing?!" to see that she, quite literally, was IN the toilet. As in, standing with both legs soaked to her knees, in the toilet bowl. I just stood and stared for a moment, then said again, "OH NO! What are you DOING?!" Lila smiled happily, pointed down at the water, and clearly said, "Baf!"

Ideally there would be a picture to insert here, but I didn't think it would be good parenting to leave her standing in the toilet while I ran back upstairs to find the camera...

I lifted her out, and stood for a moment while the water streamed from her jeans and socks, then wrapped a towel around her and took her to the laundry room to strip her down. From there it was upstairs and straight into the bathtub. I scrubbed her down and she squealed and laughed and splashed happy to have achieved her end goal. Which leaves me very nervous and thinking that she has been rewarded for her bad behavior... I guess next time I will just have to hose her down in the yard. Sneaky child.

5 comments:

Emilie said...

independence is a blessing and a curse in children.....they know just enough to get by AND to get themselves in trouble.

Good luck!

Mary said...

My first thought was, "Thank goodness she hadn't fallen in head first!"

You do have some creative kids. . . ;)

Amanda said...

I would not have judged your parenting skills at all if you had grabbed a snapshot. That would have been hilarious! Your description was a pretty good substitute, though. Third children get to have all the fun!

Elizabeth said...

Sometimes when a blog post has a really great story I read it out loud to Spencer, and this was one of them. You don't really need a picture because the one that is in my head is pretty right now is pretty darn good. Such a sneaky little girl!

Sandra and Brent said...

Amanda is right . . . third children really are adventure seekers, fun lovers and trouble makers! I would have totally gone to get the camera (by my third child, anyway). May the force be with you Chrissy. Love ya, Sandra