You walk into the room which had been too quiet to trust. With babies, silence is golden. With toddlers, silence is scary. You brace yourself for damage.
Suddenly, you feel deeply relaxed, refreshed, at peace. You are transported out of your bedroom and into a spa. No, a field of lavender in France. You breathe in all its loveliness until you remember lavender attracts bees. You have a severe bee allergy, so you should be on alert. The jolt of panic makes you remember you are not in a lavender field in Provence. You are in your own bedroom. You entered this room to find trouble, not to relax. You blink your eyes at your three year old who smiles a shy, guilty grin.
“Where is my lavender oil?” you demand inquire. “What did you do in here?”
Your eyes dart to your nightstand where the essential oil that helps you sleep is missing. In it’s place you find two tubes of lip balm which should be tucked away, and yet have somehow been smashed and maybe even biten in the past few minutes.
Your eyes find the three year old’s eyes again. He points to the floor where a puddle of lavender oil pools next to the tiny amber bottle. You pick it up. Remarkably, it is half full. It has a stopper which only lets the oil escape drop by drop. This explains how the room was quiet for so long with such limited destruction. It took a lot of shaking to get that much oil out.
You hold your temper, so you can get all the information. Your suspect is known to throw tantrums to throw you off his trail. You must proceed gingerly.
“Where’s the cap?”
The three year old points to the deep corner under the dresser.
“Did you touch anything else of mama’s?”
Head shakes no. The one year old bobs his head in agreement or copy cat; you can never tell with him.
“Don’t you ever touch mama’s things again!” your sternest face instructs the eldest at eye level. “You may not come in mama’s room without permission. You understand?”
“Yes, mama.”
You usher the two curly little heads out of the room and wish you had mopped earlier in the day. It’ll be a shame to remove this room from the south of France, only to return it to a tidy reality.
Lessons Learned:
1. Don’t trust silence and small children: a deadly combination.
2. Use essential oils more liberally.
Powerful stuff, both of them.
Leave a Reply