The complimentary flush

At bedtime on Friday night, I noticed that the bathroom toilet bowl was FILLED with toilet paper! (Four year old Silas is now responsible for wiping his own butt at school and likes to continue his responsible role most of the time at home. Although, from time to time, we discover poop smeared on the toilet seat or *dirty* fingerprints on the curtain... next to the toilet, wishing we could offer more assistance or supervision.)

As I stared into the full bowl, I knew that the toilet paper wasn't going anywhere and that there was a high probability that Silas had a very clean butt.

I grabbed the plunger bucket and decided that pulling the T.P. out was likely my best bet.

So, I reached into the cold water and started lifting handfuls of paper into the bucket. (Mike stood nearby... HORRIFIED... in a state of disgust and disbelief that he just witnessed his wife reaching into the toilet.) When the end was near, I maneuvered the plunger to break up the rest of the... um... remains. After a few slow flushes, I think we were back in business.

I started tossing handfuls of wet paper back into the toilet before Mike decided that theming it into the outside garbage can was likely a better idea. Thankfully, he was kind enough to open the back door (twice) and the outside garbage can for me, as well as turning the sink on for me to disinfect my hands and arms.

Saturday morning, I heard fast feet and discovered Silas sitting down to poop. I told him about "the incident" and urged him to use FAR LESS toilet paper or else we would have a problem. I explained that we were LUCKY that he hadn't tried to flush it last night at bedtime because it would have run ALL OVER the floor. (He thought that would be bad.)

"Hmmm...." He clarified "next time, I think I will use LESS and if I'm having a tricky time, I think I'll call one of you guys for a complimentary flush!"

(Oh, Silas... I love you! Thanks for paying attention and for using big words appropriately.)

I busted a gut laughing at the complimentary flush part.

"Good idea Silas!"