I thought it was odd when I checked my cell phone charge this evening and found that, although it had been plugged in for over an hour, it still only had 2 bars. I mentioned this to Steve, whose response was that my phone must be messed up. No time to worry about it then. Dinner needed to be fixed so two very tired children could get to bed early.
We spent three hours at the pool this afternoon. Despite very chilly water, Ian and Ainsley swam the entire time. Their bodies were like ice cubes when they finally climbed out of the pool. Ainsley wanted ice cream, Ian wanted hot cocoa. After the short drive home, we stripped them out of their swim suites and sent them upstairs to get dressed. Ainsley reappeared quickly; Ian chose to stay in his room.
A long silence is usually an indicator of something strange occurring. Often it is something the perpetrator knows is against our rules or is at least questionable. Realizing it was extremely quiet upstairs, I took Ian his afternoon dose of Ritalin and found him naked on his bathroom floor, playing with tub toys. Not really a big deal, so I just reminded him to get dressed. Eventually, he did.
I resumed cooking. Steve worked in the office, and Ainsley rested, snacked, and watched some t.v. We had dinner, cleared the dishes, and took the kiddos upstairs to get ready for bed. That was when Steve noticed the mat in the jack-and-jill-bathroom was soaked. Hmmmmmmmmm.
"Ian, what were you doing in here?" he asked.
"Nothing. I mean, I was playing with my toys," Ian replied.
"How did the rug get wet?" Steve inquired.
"From the sink. I wanted to stay cool," was Ian's answer.
Steve and I looked at each other, examined the distance from the sink on Ian's side of the bathroom to the mat next to the tub, and wondered how that was possible. Both of us were relieved that the water had not come from the toilet. Ewwwwwwww! Steve rolled up the mat and took it to the laundry room while I attempted to help Ian get ready for bed.
Ian walked over to his sink and began looking for his toothbrush and toothpaste. The toothbrush was on the floor, next to his right foot, and it took him several minutes to locate it. As I thumbed through the book he had selected as his bed time story (Strega Nona by Tommie dePaola - a wonderful story!), I heard a sloshing sound coming from Ian's direction. I thought he had filled the sink and was playing in the water. When I looked up, Ian was playing in water alright, but it was inside the drawer to the left of the sink!
"What on earth???" I exclaimed as I ran to his side. The drawer was overflowing! Then I opened the drawer on the other side. It, too, was filled with water. Again, Steve and I exchanged confused glances.
"Ian, how did this happen?" we asked our son.
"I don't remember," his standard reply.
We opened the cabinet under the sink and found it filled with water as well. Strangely, there did not appear to be a plumbing leak in any of the pipes. And since the sink does not have an overflow hole, we could not figure out how the water had gotten in these unusual places.
Finally, as we were finishing soaking up the water with towels, Ian admitted that he had tried to take a bath in the sink. But that still did not accurately explain how the water got into the drawers, unless he had them open while he was in the sink. The ground fault circuit interruptor must have received some of the moisture, which threw the circuit breaker for all the bathroom plugs. That explained why my cell phone did not charge - it was plugged into the outlet in my bathroom.
Some unanswered questions remain:
* How did the bath mat get so soaked from such a distance and the rug right next to it stayed dry?
* How exactly did the drawers fill up?
* Why didn't I hear the water running, since I was standing in the kitchen directly below Ian's bathroom?
* Who invented GFCI, and what is his/her phone number? I need to express my gratitude.
* WHY DOESN'T MY KID CLEAN UP AFTER HIMSELF???
We may never know the answers to this puzzling situation. Honestly, I am not sure I want to know.
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