Wasn’t he with you?

So I spent the week away from work this past week and we all moved around the house working on things here and there and with all the goings on, Asher managed to find himself unattended for a few moments and took the opportunity to make some mischief.

You might wonder why our toilet is out seeing the light of day and why Asher is posed on its closed lid with an ice cream-shaped bottle of bubble bath.  It is because two days before this pictures was taken Asher flushed a bottle like the one pictured (the actual one was safely tossed far from grabbing fingers and is now on it’s way to take up space in the landfill) and it managed to worm it’s way through the porcelain twists and turns until reaching that final backward ‘L’ bend and wouldn’t go any further.  Of course, we caught him flushing but didn’t see anything except for half of the remaining toilet paper roll he had put in on top of it.  We hoped all would be well but the next day when it was stopped up we suspected there was more than the paper in there.  We did an inventory of the nearby bath toys and wondered about a squirting duck or frog, but when we could find only 3 of the 4 bottles in the set we had a pretty good idea.  Of course, this was the day before we were expecting overnight visitors from out of town.  We plunged and plunged until we broke the plunger.  We went to the hardware store and bought a real plunger and plunged some more but to no real avail.  And so, after consulting the Internet and finding reports of many other frazzled parents in similar circumstances, Eric charged up with a wrench, ripped the toilet from it’s sealed up stance, carted the toilet to our backyard where he tipped and turned it, allowing the bottle to follow its course backward and again see the light of day – probably for the last time.  The toilet is back in place, albeit with a running leak we can’t figure out (clean water into the tank, and not the opposite thank goodness) and our confidence in conquering household bathroom projects was boosted.  Thanks, Asher, for the opportunity to learn and grow and to overcome our misgivings of remodeling the bathroom.  Now we just need a crash course on tiling and we’ll be set!

And so just a day later, Asher wandered off downstairs and settled in behind his Dad sitting in the computer chair, cuddled up to Macey, found a blue marker and decided to add some style to he and Macey’s exteriors (and the chair mat, too).  Yes, this picture doesn’t do justice to the artist’s work, especially on his own, chin, cheeks and arm (you can tell he’s right handed since it’s totally clean).  But it does give you the right impression.  Of course, Eric thought Asher was upstairs with me, and I thought Eric knew he was downstairs with him.  Anyway, it was really considerate of Asher to use a washable marker so it all disappeared with only a little rubbing.

And so we almost felt compelled to buckle him to something solid, with no markers in reach, but overall it seemed to have gotten out of his system and we enjoyed the remainder of the time mishchief free, for the most part.  Oh, the fun you can have on a stay-cation!