Vignettes . . . granted, they're sort of long vignettes

We have sleep issues.

Pee-in-the-mattresses issues to be exact.

Lauren graduated from pull-ups at bedtime around the first week in February. Awesome. No more money being thrown in the trashcan every morning. Three kids in undies 24 hours a day. She did great for the next month - three accidents, all of which occurred after forgetting to have her go potty right before bed.

In the past two weeks, however, she has wet the bed five times.

Sadly, I did not know she wet the bed a few nights ago until I went to put her to bed the NEXT night. (She says she told me when she came to my bed during the night. I have no recollection of her telling me this, but truth be told, I have no recollection of her coming to my bed at all. I just know she was there the next morning.)

So, when I put her to bed the following night I found her bedding and mattress soaked with pee. Soaked. It being past bedtime already, I decided I would just let her sleep with Josh and deal with it tomorrow.

Because I'm very Scarlett-O'Hara-like like that.

I should have foreseen what would happen next. You don't need me to tell you, do you? Yes, she peed on Josh's bed during the night. (It was actually Ethan's bed, but Ethan won't sleep with Lauren, so Josh was on the bottom bunk with her while Ethan slept on top. Ethan's a smart kid.) So, now both Josh and Lauren came into our bed during the night.

Of course - OF COURSE - there was no mattress pad on Ethan's bed. So now I have two, count 'em, two mattresses that reek of pee.

I've googled remedies and have found some suggestions, but what I have not found is time to implement said suggestions. So, for the past two nights David has slept in our king-size bed with all three kids, and I have taken up residence on the couch. Clearly Ethan got those smart genes from me.

(You're not really wondering why all three are in our room are you? You didn't really think there was a chance that Joshua would sleep in his perfectly clean-smelling, non-soiled bed when the other two are in our bed, did you?)

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Speaking of nasty smells . . .

We have two and a half bathrooms. Two upstairs and a small half-bath right off of our kitchen. Of course, when we have company this half-bath is the one they usually use. Which is why I'm not wild about my kids using that bathroom.

You'll recall that two of my children are boys. Boys with bad aim and even worse cleaning skills. That leaves it inevitable that said bathroom is going to smell like pee.

Okay, I can deal. I'll just buy stock in C.lorox wipes. However, is it too much to ask that when they have to go #2, they do it upstairs? Is there really any reason to add that smell to the kitchen?

I'm constantly reminding the other inhabitants of this house to please take all serious bathroom business upstairs, but they are constantly "forgetting."

Joshua apparently decided to help me out today because when I walked past that bathroom this afternoon, this is what I saw:



I think I may leave it there.

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Seems like the last two weeks have just been a blur of travel. First, we went to Harrisburg to visit David's parents two weekends ago, traveling down on Wednesday and back on Sunday. (That was a great drive; gave the kids anti-motion sickness medicine and made both legs of the trip without a single stop!)





Four days after that trip, I drove to Williamsport and back (a 4hour round trip) to watch our high school mock trial team compete in the regional finals of the mock trial competition. I'm the attorney adviser for the team, which I have really enjoyed doing. In fact, I think sometimes I like helping teenagers pretend to be lawyers more than I like actually being a lawyer.

Then two days after that, I headed down to D.C. to spend the weekend with two of my best friends from law school. That is easily a 6 hour drive when one arrives on a Friday afternoon, which meant a 12 hour round trip for a less-than-36-hour visit.

Luckily, it was worth every minute.