Wednesday, December 10, 2008

And We Lock Them Down There When They're Naughty

Sunday night at church, I was talking to a few ladies about Joseph's black eye. I explained that all the kids were in the basement playing, and Joe came up saying something about tangling with the stick horse. Then, I proceeded to tell them that Noah got hurt a few minutes later, cutting his knee and scaring poor Rowan half to death with the sight of blood.

One of the ladies asked, 'So, how did he cut his knee?'

Innocent question, but I could immediately feel the blood rushing to my face as I realized what I was about to have to admit. Mind you, I have known these women for a matter of weeks.

Well, um...He actually, uh, cut it on, uh, these little animal bones....Oh dear. Explain. Quick!

Not that anything actually died in our basement, but the kids found these little bones and a little skull on a walk this summer...and I let them bring them home....but I didn't know they had made their way down to the basement...

I was giggling with embarrassment by this point. It was so awkward, but so funny. It didn't help that Lily was chiming in and telling the listeners that we have tarantulas in our basement. Need I tell you which child has a tendency towards the dramatic?

Ah, well. There go the dinner invitations.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for making me laugh! Great story.
Mom

must_decrease said...

You see, that type of stuff would be par for the course with us, but that's what you get for hanging out with those RP types (tongue firmly planted in cheek)

Matt

Anonymous said...

What a great story. Between my brother and I we have nine kids. They have a huge basement and the kids stay down there all the time. We were going to put a sign up that says "What happens in the basement, stays in the basement". There have been many cuts, scrapes, and bruises that are left to our imagination of how they appeared. There are 6 boys and 3 girls all together.

Jenia said...

That is a funny story, I'm sorry I missed that one Sunday night! Can't wait to hear some more on Friday... by they way. As far as embarrassing stories go, I can tell you one about "sqeaking broccoli"!

Anonymous said...

Sometimes I wonder if our society has sterilized childhood too much! We had a cat die under our last house, and I recently found out that some of those bones made it to this house (5 years later!). My 4 younger children found where our currentcat leaves his kills. We now have bird bones, and they're waiting for a chipmunk to finish decomposing to have its bones. They are learning about our world, not being gruesome (well, except for my 8 year-old)!

Liz said...

ROFL!!!!!!! I love it! WOuldn't have phased me a bit!

Anne said...

And I'll be completely honest with you; I can GUARANTEE it will not have ANY effect on dinner invitations. :) In fact, it may INCREASE them because everyone will want to know about this interesting family with tarantulas and animal bones in their basement!! :D