Kid Power v. Jackhammer

On Saturday two of the Chief’s friends came over to help him dig a hole in our basement to access the pipes for our new bathroom. I had some work I needed to get done on the computer before lunch which meant there was no one to really watch the kids. I certainly could have just let them play on their own through the house, but I would have been interrupted every 10 minutes and there would have been a mess in every room of the house. (They are very good at being exceptionally messy when they know I’m distracted with something else). Since I knew a mess was inevitable, I figured at least I could contain it to one room.

I was curious as to where the larger mess would be: the Bruiser’s room or the basement?

Monkey and Bruiser actually played nicely with each other for quite some time. I could always tell when they were getting into trouble because it would either go silent or they’d start to giggle. Thankfully, I checked on them before every dresser drawer was emptied. You’d think they would remember that when they take EVERY toy out that they will also have to put EVERY toy back. Not so. They sure did get carried away in the fun of the moment.

The guys got a lot accomplished in one day. I was very proud of all the hard work they did. The Chief had a list six things long of “to do” items. We both knew it was too much for one day, but wanted to be well-prepared to work all day. (Listen to me sounding like I actually worked with them!) I was secretly skeptical that they would just barely get the first item done, when actually they finished three things. We now have a large hole where the bathroom will be (Monkey thinks we are putting a pool in the basement), insulated walls, and a three-way light switch in the stair-well.

All this progress was not without cost, though. The guys made quite a mess themselves. Most of the mess can’t be seen in the picture. There is a layer of fine dust on EVERY surface of my basement. Every can, box and bottle of my pantry is now tinted grey. And then there’s the incident with the towel dam. I’ll not go into the whole story, but let’s just say the big boys made the biggest mess that day.

The little boys played hard in their room and Mom helped them clean it up. The big boys worked hard in the basement and I helped them clean it up. And I am thankful to all of them for the roles that they played in this ever-growing project of ours. As long as you keep making progress down there, I’ll keep cleaning your messes!