Orange Cream Sofas

Readers Beware:  Contents of this post are not for weak stomachs and I can't promise that all will be positive and it may not be for your children's eyes!  It is also a pretty lengthy post.

First and foremost I would like to thank Joel and his latest post for some much needed comic relief at 12:30 a.m.

Second, I would like to say that I am thankful that my children are able to sleep through about anything and that I didn't have to deal with them waking up through all of this.

Third, I am thankful for a wonderful, patient, handy and detail oriented husband.

That said, where do I start?!?!

Maybe with this:

 

Due to incidents to be mentioned at the end of this post, we recently installed a child lock on the top of the fridge.  Last night I apparently forgot to lock it as I'm not used to it yet and actually harbor some resentment as to the fact that we even have to have a stupid lock on it to begin with.

The last couple of weeks have been really pretty good with Jaiden, he has been sleeping in his own bed and has really been good.  I don't know if the following was in retaliation to me making him come in from playing in the snow when it was nearly dark outside or what was the cause of his actions. 

I needed to feed Zach and put him down to sleep for the night.  The boys were being good playing and watching TV, so I said I'd be right back.  When I was about done, I heard what sounded like the boys running and slamming into the front door, which they do sometimes, but thought I'd better go check it out.  I hurried and finished with Zach and put him in his crib.  I walked quietly down the stairs and what to my freaking-out eyes did appear but two little boys dumping a gallon of milk onto the living room chair.  Okay, one dumping and one laughing.  My first reaction of disbelief was to laugh (not so they could hear).  That reaction wore off pretty quickly.  Yeah.

As I started to clean up, I realized that not only was the chair soaking as well as the floor all around it, but so was the couch and the floor around it.  And then I saw four empty cartons on the floor, two from milk, one from orange juice and one from pink lemonade.  They weren't all full to begin with but I think that there was about two gallons total of liquid. 

When I realized the scope of the problem, I had to call Carlos and have him come home from work to help me clean it up and get the kids in bed.  I had the shop-vac out when he got home then I went to the store to get a carpet cleaner while he put the boys to bed.  Wal-Mart didn't have them so I had to go to Allen's. 

Let me tell you how lovely oj and milk go together.  Maybe I'll just show you.

Yes, we had to tear (literally) the bottom fabric stuff off of the chair because after Carlos had cleaned it with the upholstery cleaner I noticed that the sides were soaking on the bottom.  This is what we found.

But hey, we got a free (?) pencil out of it.  It was hidden in the chair, left by those who made it.  Maybe it wasn't really free and was included in the cost of the chair when we bought it?

The deconstruction of the chair:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                               Orange Cream Sofas.

 

Okay, so we finished cleaning the chair, the couch and the floor at a.m.

 

But wait!  As we were moving the couch, which we thought had fared better....

... we saw milk on the floor.  So we tipped the couch and pretty much repeated the process of the chair, although the couch wasn't as bad.

 

The milk was just pooled on top of this fabric.  Until we tipped it and sent it so the front of the couch....so more cleaning ensued.

 

So then it was a.m. and by the time I fed Zach it was 4:00 when we went to sleep.  But it is amazing that the kids all slept through the whole thing. 

We thought we'd cleaned the carpet pretty well and this morning it seemed like it was drying well and wasn't smelling but this afternoon it started to feel wet again and smell like sour milk.  Horribly.  So because Carlos is in the middle of finals and can't lose anymore time on it, we're calling a carpet cleaner tomorrow.  Hopefully it's salvageable. 

Seriously.

Other recent events which led to the placement of the lock on the fridge (all occurring in less than a week's time) are:

On a Tuesday:  Emptying all of the newly-refilled bottle of hand soap and the hand sanitizer all over the half-bath.

The Wednesday night before Thanksgiving when I really need to be packing in order to leave town early the next morning:  Getting into the fridge and throwing eggs all over the kitchen floor.

The next Tuesday morning:  Getting into the cupboard and emptying all of the baking soda onto the chair and floor.  Note:  Don't vacuum up baking soda.  It creates an electric charge that is not good.  Just ask Carlos as he's the one who cleaned it up for me.

All of these things have happened when I am trying to quickly take care of Zach's needs or prepare a quick meal.  I really try to not leave them alone for obvious reasons but it's impossible to have them follow me around the house every second of the day.

Austin is an accomplice in all of these events in that his laughter and delight just encourage Jaiden further.

The End.

p.s.  Aren't you so proud that I didn't swear in this entire post!