An unforgettable Thanksgiving

Peaceful Thanksgiving morning. While washing and cutting vegetables to take to our fellowship's annual Thanksgiving day hot pot lunch, I remembered the load of laundry that I had put in the washer earlier.

"Daniel, please go and check the laundry. Put the load into the dryer if it's done." One minute later, Daniel cried from the laundry room, "Mom, you better come and take a look! It's hard to explain."

Drying my hands on the apron, I walked toward the laundry room, "What's hard to explain? What's the matter? ... Oh, NO!" Our laundry room was flooded with half-inch deep water! The carpet of the hall way next to the laundry room was soaking wet too, while the washer was still running. I called out to Guibo, "Honey, come quick! The washer is leaking!" Then, we frantically took actions to stop the washer, search for a bucket, scoop water from the floor, and throw sheets and towels on the laundry room threshold and the wet carpet. One package of training diaper, leftover from James' potty training, was put into good use for absorbing water.
When we pulled the clothes off the washer, I noticed that a piece of folded paper towel was stuck in the washer's water outlet.
"Could it be this that has caused the leakage?" I asked Guibo.
"Who knows. But you really need to inspect all the pockets before you put the clothes in." He thinks that I'm often absent-minded, and I am sometimes. So I didn't say anything, believing that it could be my fault, although I was mystified at why somebody would have paper towel in his pocket. Tissue paper, very likely, but why paper towel?

After we finished phase one of the disaster recovery, dear hubby graciously volunteered to stay home to do  phase two work, so the kids and I could go to the hot pot lunch at Olivia's house. The kids and I (and everybody there) had a good time and tons of yummy food, but the disaster zone was always on my mind. I did call Guibo around noon and knew that he was still working on it.

Long story short, by late afternoon, the situation was largely under control. While Guibo and I were blotting the carpet and the padding with paper towel, Daniel came to us,
 "Dad and mom, I have to confess. I did it."
Quite puzzled at his confession, I asked, "You did what?"
Daniel: "I put the paper towel in the place where water comes out. I want to know what would happen, and then I forgot about it."

Oh! Mystery solved. Even though the disaster recovery was not all done yet, and our dryer was not working after the flooding, I was actually very delighted with Daniel's confession, and I let him know this clearly and right away.

It does take courage and integrity to admit one's wrongdoing when nobody is even suspecting, doesn't it? My little guy is far from perfect (in fact, he often drives me nuts!), but at that moment I am proud of him. It is truly a Thanksgiving moment.

By the way, the act of sticking paper towel into the water outlet is a typical Daniel exploration. One time when he was about two and half years old, he put a Lego block on a burning candle which caused smoke filling the bathroom and triggered the smoke detector. Because the Lego block was melted beyond recognition, it took me many days to find out what had happened.