The unmistakeable sound of Legos

Today I introduce another new feature to my blog. I call them “Tattle Tale Tuesdays”. One of my children is definitely our tattle-tale. It’s hard to break this habit and to teach any child when it’s appropriate to tell and when one should stay quiet. Apparently, even as an adult, I still need a little practice every now and again. My goals is to tattle only on myself, and maybe occasionally on my children’s crazy antics. Boy do I have a tale for you today to kick start this new feature!
A few nights ago I awoke knowing it was a sound that woke me, but not sure exactly what sound. My ears were acutely aware of every noise in my house, and I placed a single hand on my husband’s shoulder. Not to startle him awake, but to slowly make him aware of my presence, should I have to give him the tap. I’ve discovered this lessens the abruptness of the alert and he’s a less annoyed when I do this. After a bit, I heard no further sounds and started to doze back of when I heard the unmistakable sound of Legos on a hard surface.

Blue Legos Originally uploaded by cookiechick079

That was it! I tapped my husband, who must have heard it as well and we were on the alert. You see, the only wood floors in our home are at the entryway to the front door with a short hallway. I didn’t think the boys had left Legos in front of the door, as I HATE this behavior and scold them often for it, but I wasn’t going to let that get in my way. A peek out the front window, a couple of odd scuffle sounds, couldn’t locate our “watch” dog, and we were on high alert. Hubby checked the main floor and nothing was amiss, kids were all safe and tucked in, we were about to calm ourselves and return to bed when we heard a gigantic thump from the backyard, a place where we couldn’t see from any of our second story windows.

“Did you check the basement?” I asked hubby. He hadn’t. I insisted that he check and gave him that “I’m not going to sleep and neither are you if you don’t check” look. I stayed upstairs within steps of the children, just in case. The problem with this is that you can hear lots and see little. After lots of loud noises, lots of heavy footsteps up and down the stairs, and no verbal “all clear” from the man, I dialed those 3 numbers everyone knows. In retrospect, I should have waited another minute or two, but I KNOW the sound of Legos, and I KNEW there wasn’t anyone in my home that should have made those sounds. Not to mention I’d just heard bump, bump, bump down the basement stairs. And it sounded much like the last time a child tripped and slid down a few of those stairs. So I felt justified in dialing.

Of course, right about the time I gave the dispatcher all our information and a brief summary, my husband finally and might I add, stealthily, appears at the top of the stairs, with a “what the heck are you doing woman?” look on his face. I apologize profusely to the dispatcher for obviously overreacting, report that everything is secure, and she asks if we were able to identify the sound. We hadn’t, but I thanked her and hung up.

So we did one last check of the children’s rooms looking for the offending racket. Can you imagine our surprise when we discovered one of our sons had the entire BOX OF LEGOS in his bed? Oh. My. Goodness. Now I really felt the fool. We suppose he must have rolled over and kicked it into the wall, possibly even spilling them onto the wooden bedframe. That definitely would have replicated the Legos on the floor sound I know so well! At least I know my mommy ears are accurate, I know which toys make which sounds. As for all those basement sounds, apparently the man threw a Star Wars Light Saber down the stairs to create a commotion in the event someone was lurking. It’s not his fault I thought it was his head being drug down the stairs! LOL

Eventually I calmed my nerves enough to offer a prayer of thanks and eventually fell back to sleep, but not without first envisioning every car I heard drive down the street as an inconvenienced police officer. Hopefully those in the dispatch office got a nice little laugh from a sleep deprived mom with an overactive imagination. And I earned a (now) hilarious story to share with you. So what crazy things have you done with those crazy “mama bear” instincts?