Helpful Helpers

When I can really rely on my kids to come through for me:

MADELEINE: (calling from behind the closed bathroom door) Mommy!  I need you!

ME: What is it?

MADELEINE: (from behind the door) Just come here!

ME: Okay.  Why?

MADELEINE: (from behind the door) Just come here!  I need you!  Come in the bathroom!

I went into the bathroom to discover that Madeleine had dropped a brand new, full roll of toilet paper into the (very recently used) toilet.  Which meant that I was the lucky duck who got to reach into the toilet and remove the soiled roll of paper, then throw it into the garbage.  Meanwhile, Madeleine discovered that had been the last fresh roll from the upstairs bathroom, so I had to shout down to Julia to bring us up a new pack of toilet paper.

ME: (shouting down to the play room) Julia, can you quickly bring us up some toilet paper from the basement?

JULIA: Okay!

ME: (returning to the bathroom) Just hang tight, Madeleine. Julia's getting you a new role of toilet paper you can use.

MADELEINE: Uh, Mommy?  The toilet paper is in the BASEMENT.

ME: I know.

MADELEINE: Uh, Julia is TERRIFIED of the basement

ME: She is?!?  Why??

After another minute or so with no toilet paper, I decided to check on Julia.

ME: (calling downstairs) Hey Jules?

JULIA: (from the basement) Hang on!  I can't get the box open and I'm being VERY BRAVE DOWN HERE!

Yes, so very brave of her to enter our very scary basement which has NOTHING SCARY IN IT.

I wound up going downstairs to retrieve the toilet paper myself, because, let's face it, I do pretty much everything around here. But...A for effort for Julia, for facing her fears and entering our completely normal totally not scary basement.