Wanted: Sanity Mint

Somewhere between a moment of inspiration and a lapse in sanity (I’m running low on mints! [see my Monkey See Monkey Do post]), I decided to repaint the downstairs bathroom. As most unplanned projects like that are, you start right away before the inspiration fades… I didn’t want my inspiration to fade because I am so ready for a cherub-free bathroom! Pretty much since we moved into this house we’ve wanted to repaint the bathroom (well, we’ve wanted to repaint every room, actually). N, especially, wasn’t too fond of the cherub wallpaper border and the cloudy sky painted on the ceiling. So I came in last night, put the kids in bed, and started ripping down the cherubs. Fortunately, the wallpaper didn’t have top-quality adhesive, and it came loose very easily. Unfortunately, my red paint had trouble covering the walls, let alone the dark blue sky, and it took me two days and four or five coats of paint to get non-splotchy coverage… and that’s only the edging. I haven’t gotten to rolling yet! (But on one wall, I was able to paint “I (heart) N”... that teeny bopper doodle was in celebration of our seventh anniversary we are celebrating today!) Now, in the back of my mind, I knew that this would happen. (This is some leftover paint we had from an earlier painting project. It took N a long time to get those walls covered.) But thinking positively, I figured that for me there might be a better outcome. No such luck!

Because of the painting, I covered the doorway in “do not enter” tape last night. I had N take off the door for easier maneuvering. Of course, S immediately came running in “Uh-oh, Moma! Uh-oh, Moma!” Then she readily admitted to pulling the tape down on purpose. Even still, somehow we managed to get through the entire day without anyone going into the bathroom!

Since the bathroom downstairs was off-limits, I kept sending the kids upstairs for potty time. At one point B went up and S followed him. After a little bit, I sent L up to check on things—she said B was still on the potty and S was playing. After a little longer, I sent her up again because it sounded a little suspicious. She came running back down, telling me that “this time it’s something bad!” Well, B and S had the drain on the sink closed, had the sink filled with water, had the water running, and had the tub toys out of the tub and in the sink… After mopping up the water that was everywhere, I went to hang the bathroom rug and the towel over the tub to dry. I then discovered the remains of S’s peanut butter sandwich in the bathtub—dropped during the retrieval of tub toys, I guess.

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