Just Shut the Water Off Already!!!

I don't get what their obsession is with the water. More particularly, what Cadi's obsession is with the water. What's a mother to do? There are things I have to do during the day. I can't just sit around, staring at my children all day long to make sure they don't do something awful can I? I can't leave everything for when they're in bed. I'm not keeping up with the day to day as it is. I have to work on my chores during the day. I don't see a way around it.

This afternoon I took a mountain of laundry upstairs to fold. The older girls were working on a craft. The little girls were having some cartoon time. The baby was taking a nap. What's to worry about? Especially since the little girls followed me upstairs and made themselves comfortable in my room where I could see them. They left a few times to check on Chloe and Madilyn's crafting progress (thank you Grandma Henry for the CTR ring painting kit. They had fun!), but for the most part were intrigued enough by the cute puppies on "Groomer Has It" to hang out with me.

I was very surprised (who am I kidding? Does anything really surprise me anymore?) to find blue paint on the back of Cadi's legs on her last return trip. Ugh. Those big girls didn't put the paint away when they finished. While scrubbing the paint off I noticed her soaking wet shirt. Oh. No. I went downstairs for an inspection and confirmed my suspicions. She'd been playing at the kitchen sink. Again. Using the sprayer. Again. With the big girls in the same room, doing nothing about it. Good grief! My dishwasher is STILL broken from the last encounter.

So once again I wiped the cupboards down, soaked up the water from the counters and the floor. I pulled the stuff out of the cupboards and dried the shelves, leaving the items normally hidden from view out to dry. I poured the water out of the toaster, squeegeed the water off the window sill, and patted down the bubbling paint. All this while trying to find a phone number so Chloe could call her school friend. This is where we discovered a new feature to the water works game, the phone wasn't working. After I pull it off the wall, dry it off, and check all the connections it occurs to me to check the plugs. Sure enough she'd sprayed enough water to trip the outlets. Thankfully it was an easy fix this time.

What's a mother to do? I don't know, but I'm sure getting tired of this game.