Three small words . . .

. . . I didn't want to hear. This is how I woke up this morning.

Birdie: "Mom, (Bear) threw up!"

(a quick prayer of distress and a groan, then)

Me: "Where?"

Birdie: "on the couch and on the floor"

Me: "(Baby Bear) are you O.K.?"

There was no answer after asking him several times.

Me: "(Birdie), is (Baby Bear) O.K.?"

Birdie: (in a voice that said, Duh! He just threw up!) "No!"

Me: "Is he alive? He's not answering me."

Birdie: "No."

Me: "He's dead?"

Birdie: (Not at all distressed.) "Yeah."

Me: "Is he at least breathing?"

No answer. Birdie had gone upstairs.

I get to the living room and Baby Bear is standing on the couch like a statue. There were odd looking puddles on the couch seat and the arm of the couch. A watery stream was on the floor running from just under the arm of the couch to about three feet away.

Baby Bear: "Mom, clean me up!"

I sniffed the air.

Me: "Did you drink syrup!?"

Baby Bear: "Uh-huh."

Me: "Where's the bottle?"

Baby Bear: "in my yoom" (read room)

I tried to clean Baby Bear up with baby wipes, but he was too sticky. He got a bath.

I spent a long time sopping up syrup. I had to get a bucket of cleaning water to clean the couch. After a while, I laid paper towels and then a cloth towel on the spots hoping the rest of the mess would soak up into it. Guess what I get to do later today. Yep, I get to clean the couch again. Our house now smells like maple syrup. I guess I'll have to burn the pancake candle I got for Christmas, then maybe we won't notice. I don't think Baby Bear will want pancakes for a while.

As I was getting Baby Bear out of the tub, he asked me why he had to get out. I told him it was because I had to fix breakfast. What he said next confirmed my thoughts on him choosing pancakes, "I don't haunt (read want) breakfast!"

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As Birdie was bringing her breakfast dishes to the kitchen drinking her milk as she came she asked in typical Birdie style, "Mom, what's for lunch?".

I can see it's going to be one of those days.

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While talking to Birdie later, she told me that she had misunderstood what I meant when I asked if Baby Bear was breathing/alive.