Whooosh... Thwack!

From Faith, Mom of Jaedon, 12 (at that time)

What's that sound? I thought.  It was a dull thud, like a ball falling that doesn't bounce, or a doorstop that has been wrapped in cloth hitting the bottom of the door after being slid across the ground, or...like a window sliding shut. What could that be?  What window is that and who would be opening it?  I looked outside just in time to see Jaedon moving away from the upstairs passage way window.  I can be slow, but I quickly figured out something just sailed through.  It had been raining all day and I was panicking.  Don't do that Jaedon!  Let's keep things in the house.  Don't open the window!

Just then, we receive visitors. so multitasking, I engage them in scintillating conversation while keeping track of Jay's movements with some other..., Excuse me!  I dash off to rescue some item as it is being taken to the window. I usher the guests out and decide to take a look out the window. What if he had been doing this before I noticed?  He could have been populating the narrow crevice between our house and the next for days! This window is about 40 feet above the ground, and is pretty high up the wall. To get a good look out the window, I climb on the radiator and put half my body out the window. My heart sank. I was greeted with a slew of domestic items: a tube of toothpaste, the soap dish, some toys, a few books, the pajamas I had just taken off, 2 pairs of children's sneakers, 2 towels from the rack,.... And here came Jaedon, with another towel in his hand. Nooooo! I yell.  He looks at me with new interest and giggles. Oh boy. If there is anything that's going to get a big reaction, it's this. The lock on the window is broken, and I'm at a loss as to mechanisms for keeping the window shut. A hammer and a nail?

                                                         

The doorbell rings and Jaedon and I go arm in arm to see who it is.  It's our neighbor. The narrow crevice with my pajamas in it half belongs to him. Faith. A hmm... Could you get some shoes on and... Could you come.. I'd like to show you something.  He is obviously uncomfortable. I assure him that I'm aware of the situation but am prioritizing the things yet remaining inside the house. I'll deal with the things already out in due time. I explain the challenge and he offers the idea of jamming the window with a stick. He offered to fetch me an appropriate stick if I measure the window and I hurry off to do just that. In a few minutes, he is back with a hefty slice of wood that would have worked perfectly if I had measured the right part of the window.  I get it to work somehow, and slow Jaedon down enough to that I can at least have a minute to say calmly Let's not put those towels through the window, ok?  I'm finally able to release Jay from the close to vice grip I had on him, in addition to our arms being interlocked.  I finally get to go to the bathroom to handle my business alone.

Perhaps I became too relaxed. Jaedon started checking out the other windows in the house....Sometime later I noticed that my stick was no longer in the window.  From my now familiar perch on top of the radiator, I see the crevice with the obviously offensive stick, some toys and a bottle of lotion.

After Isaiah's blue tooth headset sailed through the bedroom window unto the roof, all the windows in our house have been (temporarily) screwed shut. In lieu of the inoperable windows, Jaedon is now depositing his finds behind the radiators, a more convenient, though no less irritating location.