Who Says Silence is Golden?

Guffaw! I'd like to start off by saying that who ever coined that phrase MOST likely did not have young children. While I do find myself thinking of how nice a bit of silence would be, I know what happens when my wish is granted. An example?

All four of my offspring were awake and thriving yesterday morning. I was giving my oldest child his lesson and doing a heck of a job at it too. We were both into the lesson and talking (a good moment!)...but then I realized...I hadn't heard a peep out of my 9 month old baby. It is unusual that he'd not be right under my feet. Then I heard the sound of his sweet baby voice. A happy babble of joy. It had that echo-ish quality to it which warned me that he was in the bathroom. Oh, of all the bad places for a baby.

I was highly concerned about what there could be in the bathroom to illicit a squeal of joy from Jakey. I walked into our bathroom to find my child sitting in a pile of wadded up toilet paper, old dirty diapers, and other bathroom-type garbage. Yes. He had dumped out the entire. garbage. can. Rats! I had been meaning to take that out. Oh, but that's not all. He had something in his hand... which was in his mouth. My son was chewing on an old apple core that he'd unearthed in our garbage.

Now here's the hallmark of a seasoned parent. I did not panic or scream or puke. I calmly scooped him up, washed his hands, made him drink water and shut the bathroom door. "New rule!" I announced to the kids. "We need to always close the bathroom door!" And thus we went about our day without missing a beat. Perhaps I prefer to have the kids noisily climbing all about me after all.