Let the suds fly

I know I've recounted this tale in person to some of you devoted readers (mainly my mothers), but I'm sharing it here again for those I don't often see in person... I hope you enjoy a little laugh, even if it is at my expense.

It was mid-afternoon and the boys were playing outside. I had just finished working out and decided to hop in the shower while the odds of being barged in upon by said little boys was low (there is a downside to not having a master bathroom door).

Just at the point that the shampoo was at its foamiest peak, I hear a blood-curdling scream. This is not the scream of a sad child, or an angry child, or an injured child or even a mortally wounded child. This is the scream of our children seeing a dog. I peak out the bathroom window, and sure enough, there goes Luke tearing around the back of the house screaming bloody murder while a neighbor's dog bounds happily after him, glad to have a boy to run with, I'm sure, but probably confused as to what all the screaming is about.

I grab a towel, then think, "I may want more coverage than this" and grab Wade's bathrobe instead. I jerk open the bathroom door (to the outside... like I said before there isn't an inside door) and holler "LUKE!" but he's already around the bend.

With shampoo puffs falling around me and Wade's oversize bathroom clinging to my soapy wetness I run to the front door, throw it open and shout, "LUKE!" but I'm too late here too. To the sliding side door, "LUKEY!" but he's already on his second run around the house.

Somehow Isaac and Levi managed to get their wits about them and run inside instead of doing laps around the house. I scramble back to the front door, slipping on the shampoo puffs dotting the floor and wait for Luke to complete lap two. At this point I notice Elijah standing terrified and sobbing in the driveway. I step out the front door (which, by the way faces the courthouse, sheriff's office and jail -- a very public place) only to have Wade's robe, which was never properly tied about me, nearly whip off in the incessant North Dakota wind. I can just see myself, kids and dog in tow, complete with shampoo and clingy robe, being hauled over to the sheriff's office, courthouse and eventually jail for indecent exposure. However, a mother will risk it all in a heartbeat in order to rescue her children, even if it is just from the neighbor's friendly dog.

Clutching the robe about me I traipse barefoot over the rocky driveway to rescue my baby. He literally climbs up me like a chipmunk and buries his teary face in my shoulder. When he comes up for air his face is covered with shampoo foam.

I drop him inside as Luke zooms past again. "Run in the door!" I call to him. At the side door he finally does run inside, slamming the slider closed behind him.

We stand there staring at each other for a moment, me sudsy and windblown, him white as a ghost, and he says, "I peed my pants!"

After a few hugs and kisses, reassurance that sometimes pee happens when you're scared and a brief explanation that the dog probably just wanted to play with them, I was able to finish my shower and rinse what was left of the shampoo from my hair. By the time I got out, Luke had changed his pants and informed me that he had gone back outside and made friends with the offending dog, even going so far as to let it lick his hand.

Wonders never cease.