"Daddy," Olaia said to me, "I think Jaimito went peepee on the floor."
"Oops, what happened?" I quickly went to see, and sure enough, there was a suspicious yellow puddle in front of the toilet. Jaimito quickly arrived on the scene, looking nervous. "Did you go peepee on the floor, Jaimito?" I asked taking on a tone of interrogation. I made a rookie mistake, asking him directly if he had gone peepee on the floor. He quickly replied that no, he had not gone peepee on the floor. It looked like peepee. I smelled cover up.
I asked him again, but this time in a judicious opened ended fashion, my years on the street serving me well. I’m going to give this one enough rope to hang himself. "Jaimito, what happened here?"
"It fell. I was wiping myself, and it fell. It happened to Olaia," he explained. I was lost, what fell, the peepee? How, did you shoot it out of the toilet? Then suddenly, I saw it, a giant wet dripping roll of Charmin stacked neatly on the back of the toilet, dripping the telltale liquid, drip drip drip down the wall. Placed with the utmost care, almost indiscernible except for the yellow hue.
"Oh, my goodness," I burst, "Jaimito, you poor little thing, you should have called me when you dropped the toilet paper. I would have gotten it out for you. Let’s wash our hands little man. Ewwww yucky yucky yucky."
"It’s okay, Daddy, I got it out," like, it’s no big deal Daddy, see it’s good as new, just let it dry out and we’ll all be wiping our asses with it no time at all – no harm no foul. My heart went out to our fastidious little munchkin and his detail oriented self-sufficient nature.
I gave him a quick clean up, half bath, a bunch of hugs and kisses, and more hugs and kisses, and some more after that. That little boy is such a super trooper, but like his mommy is determined to do things for himself. He likes to take care of business on his own. Sometimes though, I worry, and I hope that he’ll learn that he can’t do everything on his own and sometimes you’ve got to call for help. Sometimes it’s all right to lean on Daddy.