Why It's Awkward Living with your In-Laws #31
After the ceiling fan in Matthew's room decided it REALLY wanted to know what gravity was and took a swan dive, we replaced all the fans in the upper rooms. Ron-In-Law chose these ones with a remote control to change the fan speed, turn on & off the lights, and dim them. Pretty cool feature: (1) Mel can change the lighting and fan in her room without asking for help, (2) the old fight about who gets out of the warm bed to turn out the light is now moot, and (3) when we tell Matthew it's Lights-Out time, with a press of a button we can ENSURE that the light doesn't come back on.
I was putting Matthew to bed last night when Brenda-In-Law handed me a fan remote, telling me that Matthew was trying to hide it under his pillow. I put it back in our room on the desk. Fast forward to 12:30 last night when we're turning in. I grab the remote off the desk and push the light button to click it off.
Nothing happened. I clicked it again, and nothing. Pointing directly at the fan and Ten more clicks and still nothing. Hmm, is this the remote from Matthew's room? I decided to look. On my way, I glance over and see that Ron & Brenda's light is on. "That's odd, they go to bed at 11 PM. Hope we didn't wake them with our talking," I think, and head over to Matthew's room.
Click Click Click Click Click Click Click Click. Weird, it doesn't work here either. Thing must be out of batteries.
*blink* Oh no.
I retraced my steps to Ron & Brenda's door, the light still on. I pushed the button one more time, and sure enough, their light goes out.
Hoping that they were already fast asleep, I quietly place the remote by their door and tiptoe back to our room where I find an identical-looking remote on the dresser.
Melissa stifles her laughter as I tell her what just happened. Ten seconds later Brenda appears groggily in a bathrobe at her door and glances over to us. "So it wasn't your remote he stole then."
"No, apparently not. Sorry."
As of this morning, all three identical remotes are labeled.
Labels: fan, lights, remote
The Heavy Sleeper
Matthew arrived home from school today without a bear (the Kindergarten teacher's symbol of good behavior for the day), ant it was for not listening to instructions. He's been very good in class since the first week, so this was not the norm.
We sighed and realized it was going to be one of THOSE nights. Because his Not-Listening behavior is usually an all-day affair. We just have to suck it up, deal with him for the evening and his mood will hit the reset button during the night, without fail. Lucky for us, these days are few and far between, but they're still no fun when they happen.
By his early bedtime, he was kissed goodnight without a story (for turning on the shower on daddy while daddy was bathing him) and he went to bed amidst some noble protests. An hour later he was asleep in his room, and I poured myself a glass of chardonnay. Never while he's awake, that's my rule. I was starting to finally relax downstairs, watching Ice Age on cable when we heard the boom of something heavy falling on the floor above us.
At first I thought Melissa had fallen, because it sounded louder than a 45 pound child. We called up, and Melissa said it came from Matthew's room. We rushed up the stairs and looked inside. The ceiling fan had fallen. Wires were dangling from a hole in the ceiling and slivers of broken light bulb were on the floor.
By some miracle of Allah, it fell just past the end of the bed Matthew was sleeping in, and only one light bulb was broken on the floor. And Matthew? He slept through it all. He'll be woken up in a panic by cicadas outside in the trees, but a ceiling fan falls three feet from his bed and he's comatose. Ron said the cast-aluminum bracket holding it in the ceiling had broken in three places.
I put the kid in our bed while we cleaned it all up. Our hearts eventually slowed down to normal and Ron took the fan to the Chop Shop, returning later to stuff a towel in the hole. I returned Matthew to his bed and he never even awoke from all the moving around. He'll wake up for school tomorrow and probably say he had a good night's sleep.
And you better believe we're sleeping with OUR fan off tonight.
Labels: fan, Matthew, Sleep
