This is a little late in coming but I had to tell the story on my blog since I'm not a journal keeper. It is very long, so I apologize. But it had to be told in its entirety. Almost a month ago I had my friend Meghan over and her kids. As usual, the four buddies all went upstairs to play so Meghan and I could talk and hang out. They were playing really well together and we were grateful for that. A couple of times Tucker (who is Calista's age) came downstairs and Meghan would ask him what they were doing. He would tell us he is a fireman and putting out fires with Calista. OK...good. They are actually playing together and using their imaginations.
So about 45 minutes later Meghan is getting ready to leave so I head upstairs to help the kids clean things up and I find Calista and Tucker in my room (which is a big no-no especially when friends are over and here's the reason why...) We still can't be sure who actually got the box of matches but I found the stool from the bathroom against my tall dresser and one of the little kids, either Tucker or Calista, climbed up and somehow found a box of 300 matches hidden on top of my very tall dresser drawers. It gets worse. What I found when I entered my room was my entire bed covered with 300 matches. Not just in a pile, oh no. They had them sprinkled about the entire bed; like it just rained matches. As I'm seeing this I yell downstairs to Meghan and she runs up and we are both in shock. Tucker wasn't kidding when he said they were playing "firemen". It still gets worse. We both sniff the air...uh huh. You got it. It smelled like someone had actually lit a match in the room! Ahh!
How in the world did two almost-three-year-olds learn how to do the motions of lighting a match on the right side of the box when neither Meghan nor I could remember ever having used a match in front of our kids? I was mortified to think of the danger our kids were in. Meghan and I were just stunned. Calista is the most mischievous of the four kids and she's always getting into things (once Meghan had to call poison control because Calista got into a bottle of fluoride pills, but that's another story) so I'm not surprised she got into the matches, but I'm surprised none of the other kids tattled on her or Tucker and that they both somehow knew how to almost light a match. So now when the kids are quiet and are playing really well together...I go and check on them...frequently.
Thankfully Meghan hasn't disowned me as a friend because I let her kid play with matches! Heehee! Come to think of it, I'm still amazed she still offers to babysit Calista after the bottle of pills incident. We laugh about it now, right Meg? I've said this to all my friends before but I'll restate it...Calista is the closest thing I'll ever have to having a son. You'd expect all the things she does from a boy! Even though the munchkin will be 3 in a few weeks I still have to keep a close eye on her. (Does anyone remember my post on Calista's 'artwork'? Yup. Gotta keep a close eye)
Oh, and I really wish I would have remembered to take a picture of my room. But of course the last thing on my mind was taking a picture and wanting to remember this horrific moment when the kids could have caught on fire!
PS. I'm still finding matches scattered around my room and under things.
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3 comments:
Augh! That does it — the matches are going up on the TOP shelf in the kitchen cabinets. Beth is afraid of fire, but you never know....
Holy cow, I will never forget walking into the room and smelling the smoke.......we need to be better moms, I suppose, and pay attention to what our kids are doing.....naaahhhh.
Holy batcrap Robin....that is scary, but reading it is kinda funny. I am with Meghan, you should be better moms....ha, ha, just kidding!!!! Glad they didn't actually light anything on fire. That would have sucked.
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