The Dog Did It.............wait, we don't have a dog

Well, this past week served as a reminder to not automatically blame your kids for spilled items or other messes, although we as parents know that 90% of the time our kids really did it. This last week was an example of that nagging 10% that trips up our scolding and gives us the opportunity to apologize to our kids. On Thursday, after putting Kaden down for a nap, I was walking into the kitchen when I noticed a circle of what looked like spilled liquid on the carpet, right where the boys like to push the limits of keeping their drinks in the kitchen. I had already cleaned a juice spill in that very spot earlier courtesy of Kaden. So as I look at the spot on the ground and look at Truston who had just put his cup back on the table, I begin the routine of questioning and getting the "I don't know" answers. Honestly thinking that I had this kid in a corner I start on the lecture of telling lies and the importance of admitting when you do something wrong. So after going on for about 5 minutes to Truston who kept claiming his innocense and making me more upset and wondering if the corner that I sent him to for time out was a strong enough punishment, I realized, the spot was getting bigger. Huh, how is that? I was standing there and I know that he didn't spill anymore water and his cup didn't hold that much liquid even when filled to the top which I never do. Well, dang. Could Truston be innocent after all? After examining the spot, I realized that the entire area was getting wet and there was no way Truston did it. So after apologizing to him profusely and him running off with a look like "Get away while I can", ( I'm just glad that this time I didn't break down to yelling at him, I mean, what's a little spilled water, right?) my job switched from clean up to search and destroy whatever was causing this problem. After establishing that the leak or whatever was going on wasn't coming from the water heater and there were no water sources on the other side of the wall, I called my landlord and saying a prayer of thanks that we rented. So here he comes over and goes straight for the hot water heater, nope not it (duh, I had already told him that) and showing him the wet spot on the ceiling he just kinda looked around, went upstairs and such and that is when I saw that there was water coming out of an old telephone wall jack cover thingy (sorry, don't know what it really was or what it is called) and after moving the bookcase I saw that it was also coming out of the air conditioning duct. Now, why the heck was water coming out of there? So Mr. Landlord, who is really nice actually, left saying that he had to call the plumber but unfortunately couldn't turn off the water because our water is hooked to everone else in our townhouse building so until the plumber was actually there, I got to try and keep the water from getting too bad. It was already turning to standing water on my carpet in that area. Yeah, well finally the plumber came and after knocking a six and a half foot wall in our ceiling he found that darn leak. At least it was cold water and we weren't paying for it :o) So, now we get to wait for him to come back and do a permanent fix and "patch" the gaping hole he left behind. Man, I wish that Truston had just spilled a cup of water; next time, I think I'll just thank him.