Adventures in Parenting

Sometimes I think the things that happen at our house only happen here and nowhere else. I'm sure this can't be true, but it feels like that. My daughter has been the source of two of our latest adventures...

The school term recently ended. Bronwyn decided that she would destroy her unneeded papers from first term, not by just throwing them away (too tame), but burning them in the backyard. When she thought they were all put out she threw them in the big black garbage can our city comes around to empty once a week. She walked in the house, promptly forgetting about them. Mid-morning I hear Liam call to me from the living room, "Mom, there's smoke coming from the garbage can." Thinking that maybe all of the weeds we had just stuffed in there were starting to compost (although, looking back on this, it was waaaay to soon for that to be happening), I called back unconcerned, "How much smoke?"

"A lot."

I walked into our front room to look out the window and there was white smoke billowing from the closed garbage can. YIKES!! I ran barefoot outside to grab the hose attached to the side of the house and turn it on. Pulling the end as close to the garbage can as I could get, I began soaking the garbage can lid and it was all sizzling. Liam came outside and I handed the hose to him. I made the decision to flip the lid open (which could have been fantastically idiotic) so we could drown the contents inside. There were definitely flames crackling on the top of the garbage pile. Liam went to grab me some shoes, bringing out my husband's size 10's, while I kept the water stream aimed into and around the flames. Eventually the fire went out, I filled half the garbage can with water, and we now have a very warped garbage can lid that reminds me of that guy from the bitter beer commercials in the 80's.

Bronwyn 'fessed up when I asked her if she knew anything about why the garbage can was on fire. She thought for sure the papers were out. When asked why she was burning them in the first place? "I thought it would be fun." AGH. I thought we were past the stage of fire fascination. She was appropriately penitent, however, and hadn't meant for anything to happen.

That brings us to yesterday. I was reading the newspaper in the living room when I heard a glass explosion from the kitchen. It sounded like someone dropping a delicate crystal bowl on concrete.  I called out, "What happened?" and Owen answered that a dish broke. I came into the kitchen to investigate. There were glass shards all over the kitchen cooking area, the counter, and stove. I had had a glass baking dish sitting on a burner to put some vegetables in to roast in the oven, but I was waiting for the ham in the oven to be halfway cooked before I put the veggies in. Bronwyn had mistakenly turned on the wrong burner to heat the teapot for hot chocolate water, turning on the burner underneath the glass dish. It had literally exploded. There wasn't a shard big enough to even show what shape the original dish was. Bronwyn was horrified. We turned off the burner and waited to for everything to cool down so we could clean it up.

The only other casualty aside from the dish and a whole lot of paper towels was the foam mat on the floor. When the dish had exploded several hot shards had landed on the mat, melting into the top. I could pry out the bigger chunks, but the thin flat ones were just going to leave dangerous bits to step on. Goodbye mat. And fortunately no one was cut or hurt in anyway.

It's always lively around here, that's for sure.