Guess What I Did?

 

Few phrases spark a mother’s imagination like hearing one of her kids say “Guess what I did?” Being a mom of 3 and “daytime” mom of several others for almost 12 years now, not many things surprise me anymore. Our family has survived the guess-what-I-dids from pooping in the bathtub to dropping a full jar of pickle chips on the floor. We’ve witnessed little brother make-overs, tasted kool-aid sweetened with a few extra cups of sugar, scrubbed shoe marks off the ceiling (bunk bed dancing) and peeled dozens of stickers off sunny bedroom windows. Through the good, the bad, and the downright ugly, we’ve made it through these times relatively unscathed. However, even with all that experience, I was not prepared for what I was about to encounter the other day with my 4-year old “daytime” child, Emily. 

            Emily has always enjoyed being a helper. She loves to polish, vacuum, and dust so when she wanted to wash her little play-dishes during our daily cleanup time, of course I had no objection. After all, it was one of her favorite activities. So, as I cleaned in the dining room, little Emi was humming to her heart’s content washing her dishes- or so I thought.  Little did I know that she had decided she wanted to “surprise me” by helping me with some “real” household chores. It’s amazing what can be accomplished in just a few minutes time.

            “Guess what I did?” Emily said excitedly. My immediate thought was: Where’s the guinea pig?? She asked me to close my eyes and led me into the kitchen. I knew something was wrong when the overwhelming scent of “apple-orchard” hit me mid-step!  When I opened my eyes, I noticed the newly half-empty bottle of the ULTRA-concentrated dish liquid I had just bought. Ever use ULTRA-anything? This unfortunately was my first (and last) experience with the potent liquid. (Insert Murphy’s Law here)

     Little Emi was standing there pointing to my kitchen floor, which now had a greenish-yellow hue.

            “Isn’t it shiny?” Emi blurted out with pride. 

            “Uh, yes, it certainly is that!” I replied, trying to muster a smile.

     As I stood there contemplating how I could remedy this ULTRA-sticky situation, I heard the front door slam and in came the rest of my brood from school, trampling in like stampeding buffalo. My daughter desperately fought through the herd so she could reach me first. Oddly, my usually bouncy son was straggling behind the rest of the kids. 

      “MOM, guess what HE did!”   

     The vision of the greenish-yellow kitchen floor began to fade away, as I pondered the newest guessing challenge.

     "I truly cannot imagine" I replied.