Friday, January 11, 2008

But the sparks are so pretty Mom!

Last night started out pretty uneventful here in the Andrews home. Ron and I put the kids to bed and had just stretched out on the couch to watch a movie. A few minutes later I smelled an overwhelming stench of fabric softener, but tried to ignore it, figuring it was just the laundry that was going. I got up a few minutes after that to use the bathroom. I flipped the lightswitch, but no lights came on....hmmm....weird. I assumed the lights were burnt out and asked Ron where the extra lightbulbs were. He said he had just replaced them a few days before, so they should be just fine. He suggested pushing the 'reset' button on the electrical outlet....that did the trick, the lights were back on. A few seconds later they were off again. Ok, now that is just too bizarre so we went downstairs to check things out. As Ron and I were making our way down the stairs, we heard the unmistakable sound of Julia's small feet running across her bedroom floor and jumping into her bed. Busted. The smell of fabric softener was nauseating and consumed her entire bedroom. She was trying so hard to pretend she was asleep....nice try. Ron and I were looking around her room, trying to find the evidence of what she had been doing. That is when he spotted the Febreeze bottle tucked behind her dollhouse....and then he noticed that the electrical outlet near the dollhouse were missing the childproof plugs. So much for being childproof....she popped those suckers right out. It didn't take long for us to put two and two together when we saw that the outlet was wet. She had been spraying the Febreeze on the outlet!! This is why our bathroom light kept shorting out. I said the shortest prayer ever, asking for help in composing myself and not losing my temper. I was appalled that she would even think to do something like this. After taking a few deep breaths, I sat on her bed and asked why she would do this. I explained to her how dangerous it is, that she could have hurt herself, or started a fire in the house. Her response....."I was just watching the sparks Mom, they are so pretty!" Now I'm praying that she will grow out of this phase.....sooner rather than later.