Noah's Orange Bowl

No, this has nothing to do with the Mountaineers incredible, record-setting victory over Clemson in Miami.  Sorry to those who clicked the link thinking it may be... This is a story about what can happen when you combine a sick, sleep-deprived mommy with a toddler armed with an orange.  Especially when the Army steals Daddy for the weekend.

Noah usually sleeps until 10 or so every morning. (Yep! I'm one of those lucky SAHMs.)  So imagine my surprise when he was wide awake well before the sun came up this morning.  He had a virus the day before, so I guess he was rested enough to start his day 5-6hrs early.  I was not.  In fact, I now had the virus.  We went downstairs to the living room and he began to play.  I was exhausted before I even got to the bottom of the stars.

Halfway through the second episode of "Little Einsteins" Noah became very, very quiet.  Any parent of a toddler knows that this is never a good thing.  He was sitting in the dog bed under the end table, and he was eating an orange.  Yes, an orange.  Not peeled, parted, or even rinsed off.  In fact, I have no clue where he found it.  Awesome parenting, Heidi...  He'd bitten through the peel so I took it from him and took the rest off.  I figured no one else would want his slobbery orange, so he might as well enjoy it!  I had every intention of keeping a close eye on him while he ate the sticky, juicy, sticky, deliciousness.  But then it happened.  I blinked.  The next thing I knew, Noah was laughing.  I opened my eyes, quickly realizing that they'd been closed longer than I thought.  The lack of sleep and the virus had simply caught up with me. Ohhhh crap... 

I immediately jumped up to make sure Noah hadn't gotten into anything that might hurt him, although our living room is pretty well toddler-proofed, aside from the ooccasional citrus fruit rolling around.  He was fine.  As I thanked my lucky stars I began to survey the room.  It looked like the orange had exploded all over my white carpet, his toys, the ottoman, his blanket... I'm sure I'll keep finding orange for weeks to come. 

I learned a few lessons today.
1- When Daddy is away, double-check the Red Bull supply
2- When Daddy is away, avoid cold medicine
3- Keep plenty of cleaner for the carpet scrubber on hand
4- Never, EVER give a 10-month-old an orange and leave him unsupervised, even if it's just for a couple of minutes.