Alexis comes running up from the basement the other night to tell me in her most concerned voice that a pipe is leaking and water is going EVERYWHERE!!! So, I grab a pot to catch the water and down to the basement I head. She's right, water is spewing from the ceiling of the basement, and at this point it's hard to tell if it's from a pipe, or something else. I head back upstairs to grab another pot and some towels, and as I get to the top of the stairs, I am met by a river of water--traceable to the bathroom. At this point, I've had both the girls come upstairs to contain Connor and Keira in the playroom while I figure out what in the world is going on!
In the bathroom, I find a totally flooded floor, and a toilet overflowing. Stupid me, what do I do? I try flushing the toilet again to see if it will make the water go down...uh...NOOOO...more water is now on the floor. I never realized HOW MUCH water can come out of a toilet! It sure doesn't seem like that much when it's just sitting there behaving itself. The thought to turn the water off to the toilet finally occurs to me, and now I'm standing in a pool of water, with 4 kids in the playroom, one crying in his chair on the counter, dinner under the broiler, and Sean at a dentist appointment! As I wonder if I should call him home, it occurs to me that the water is now off...all I have to do is clean up the mess and I can figure everything else out later. No, I won't call him, and have him rush home to this disaster...I can handle this...
Water is emptied from the toilet bowl into the sink, every towel we own is thrown on the floor in the attempt to mop up the mess, and it's back down to the basement to deal with the water coming thru the ceiling. By this time, it has finally stopped coming thru the ceiling so there is just the mess that is left to cleanup. A drenched ping pong table and carpet. Not so bad. More towels sops up the mess, and the now full pot that was catching the water is taken upstairs to empty. A quick check on dinner...not burnt yet, so we are OK. At this point I decided to confront the child that has caused this mess (can you guess???). I ask Connor if he put something in the potty. He says "No". Did you put a toy in the potty?--No. "I just went potty, Mommy". Hmm...so for whatever reason, Connor went potty, flushed, left the bathroom, and five minutes later I had Alexis running up the stairs telling me about a leaking pipe that ended up being a bathroom so filled with water it went thru the floor to the basement.
It took me 15 minutes to plunge the toilet enough to actually get the water to flow thru again. I still don't know what was put down the toilet, but everything seems to be in working order. As I recounted my evening at work the next day, all of my coworkers with boys gave me the following advice--Get used to it...that was just the beginning!
GREEEEEEAAAAAATTTTTT!!!!!
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