The Culprits
Is it impressive ingenuity or frustrating cleanup? Several times in the last few weeks I have been torn between consternation and pride. I am happy you are not TV watching, video game junkies who cannot entertain themselves without a plug but rather find magic in the mundane household objects that surround our everyday however these so called creative exercises are a lot harder to cleanup.
The first of these parentally confusing moments occurred when you had removed our old computer from its carefully packed box and made both the box and the Styrofoam into your special kingdom. The Styrofoam was covered with art because of course it was a school, desk and the incumbent school organizers. Amelia was the teacher and Max was in charge of making all of the worksheets for the students. That explains why a ream of 500 sheets of computer paper was spread across the floor of the cardboard school.
It was a snow day or at least a partial one—drop off was delayed two hours. A lot of trouble can be had on a snow day. It is unaccounted time. Free time. The day had begun simply enough. A quick jaunt in the snow with clothes not very suitable for the weather, German pancakes and hot chocolate for breakfast, and a few chapters in the book we have been reading. It was really a nice morning. I then sent the kids downstairs for the last half hour before we had to get ready for school. I made Amelia’s lunch, fed Miles his second breakfast, and listened to the quiet peaceful, happy sounds from the Amelia and Max downstairs. I remember remarking to myself, “my how well Amelia and Max are doing.” With about 15 minutes before departure I walked downstairs and saw all of Amelia’s bedding sitting at the bottom of the stairs. Throw pillows, sheets, stuffed animals, and mattress pad all removed from her bed and sitting at the foot of the stairs. I knew I was in trouble. I asked, thinking that this was the worst of it, “What are you doing Amelia?” I then walked into her room and the heavy old mattress lay on the floor and the top bunk is empty except for Max who has a screwdriver in his hand. Amelia recruited Max; “Max do you want to help me remove the top bunk and make our beds side by side?” Max of course was eager to join the project. With Max on the lower bunk pushing and bubbling the mattress with his feet from below and Amelia above using the leverage to shove the mattress over the railing of the top bunk, it came down in a cinch! I am happy Miles was up with me and not trapped under what with little to no exaggeration is a 50 + pound saggy, droopy old mattress. They then went into the storage closet, pulled out the toolbox and found an appropriate screwdriver. This in and of itself is no small task in our home. Screwdrivers are usually anywhere, but in the toolbox—the junk drawer, the mantel, the kitchen cupboards, but heavens, not the toolbox. Luck and vision were on their side! With this screwdriver Max unscrewed four or five structural screws from the bed while Mia stood below holding the removed screws and giving ample and specific instructions. I am impressed and upset, tired and awed, and applauding and crying. I think it is fantastic that you think you can do anything, evidently. You can take apart a bunk bed, remove it from the top, and set it on the floor without incident or injury. I don’t know how you thought you would get it down. Maybe it would fall similarly to the mattress. A little shove and it is on the floor. But you did and that is inspiring.
However I am glad that I came down when I did and tonight you are both sleeping on the floor because I did not have the energy to put it all back together again. Through your driven and focused efforts the bed is no longer structurally sound. We need our in house engineer (Dad) to put it back together again.
