6 year old neighbor + a red Baby Bottle Pop candy + roughhousing of some sort = pink carpet.
Not two hours after school dismissed for the summer we had a houseful of children. Seven to be exact. Seven kids. Only one of them mine. One girl was kind enough to bring her recorder with her to offer musical accompaniment to whatever havoc they chose to wreak inside my house.
It was loud and I was unhappy. Enter Meltdown #1. I unloaded. I unloaded, rather dramatically, on Craig, via email. As I unloaded, I heard from the stairwell, "mom, Jonathan spilled his Baby Bottle Pop on the carpet." "Okay," I responded. "I'll be there in a minute to clean it up." I finished my email and before I could leave my seat, Caroline came down and said "Can I vacuum up the candy now? I want to help you."
That should have been my first clue that something was wrong. Very wrong. Since when does an 8 year old WANT to help you...when money ISN'T involved?
And something was wrong. Very wrong, indeed.
Caroline learned an important lesson this afternoon: water + dry Baby Bottle Pop powder (like powdered Jello, I guess) = a pink stripe on the carpet. Evidently, she got a wet washcloth to wipe it up, not knowing that water would activate the color and create and even messier situation.
I, of course, panicked and lost my temper. Enter Meltdown #2. Have I mentioned I'm a bit of a hot head? I basically said "I don't freaking believe it; school has been out for 2 hours and I already have a disaster on my hands." And then I went on to say "we rent this house, it's not ours, we don't have the freedom to destroy it."
I probably said other stuff, but I can't remember. Whatever I said caused the kids to scram, which was okay in my book.
I scrubbed and scrubbed some more and we still have a pinkish hued stripe on the carpet. It's visible. Not horrible. But no one wants a light pink stripe in their carpet.
So long security deposit.
I later apologized for losing it and then took four girls to the pool. They're like my little ducklings, following behind me in a row. Instead of waddling adorably and quacking in unison, they demand food and to know the whereabouts of their goggles and diving toys.
In other news, school is out. Did I forget to mention that? Report cards were handed out, as well. Every time Caroline brings home her report card, I open it up and before looking at the grades, I jokingly ask if I'm going to need to beat her for doing poorly.
Good news....she's been spared.
And yes, I realize I shouldn't joke about such things, but I can't help it. I'm naturally politically incorrect.
Ooh look, she made it to 3rd grade!
She's an outstanding citizen, as well.
Yesterday, when I went to Wal Mart to buy a storage tub (which I forgot to actually purchase, by the way) I came across these Melty Beads.
Caroline has been asking for them for a while and yesterday I obliged. I bought them for a "hooray you made it through 2nd grade" gift. I still haven't given them to her. They are actually in the laundry room right now, which explains the fabric softener and Clorox in the picture. I'll get around to giving them to her soon enough.
I'm not really sure what I was thinking, buying her a bucket of 8,500 craft beads.
Clearly something is not right in my head.
I have a sneaking suspicion that all 8,500 beads will be dumped on the living room floor, painstakingly separated into color specific piles and left for "later." I should have bought her a Webkinz, instead.
After yesterday's events, any item that will not damage, stain or defile our carpet is a-ok in my book.
3 comments:
What, no photos of the pink stripe?! You must have cleaned it up without thinking of us in blogworld...I wanted to see if it was worse than some of the stains in my carpet. We can compare at the end of the summer!
Oh believe me, I tried to take a picture, but the pink stripe isn't very photogenic, I'm afraid. It's not a vibrant, hot pink stripe, thankfully, but it's pink and visible to the naked eye, for sure. The camera had a hard time making it noticeable, though. Perhaps it was the lighting in the room?
It's there, though.
Pink and proud. And driving me insane.
Two days down.....too many to go!
My sister, Denise, had those when she was a kid. Be prepared for every kind of coaster Caroline can imagine. Be prepared to get coasters or hot pads for every gift-giving occasion. :)
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