Josiah’s new tent arrived yesterday. It sat in the box, unopened, until just a few minutes ago. I wasn’t sure I would open it. Once opened, it can’t be returned. After last night, the tent idea may not be such a good one. Here’s what happened.

I was exhausted from the adventures of the previous night with Josiah. I went to bed early. I wanted to unwind and read for a few minutes before going to sleep.

Rick helped Josiah get ready for bed. Things seemed to be going well. Once Josiah was all tucked in, Rick sat in the bean bag chair nearby, waiting for Josiah to fall asleep. When Josiah appeared calm and relaxed and ready for sleep, Rick left his room.

I hadn’t heard any screaming. I was secretly a little surprised. “Is Josiah asleep already?” I asked. “I don’t hear any screaming.”

Rick had turned the light on in the hall. He noticed Josiah seemed to be much more content with a light on. Wow. Such a simple fix. To think all the events that occurred the night before may have been avoided if ONLY we had turned on the hallway light. Why hadn’t we thought to try that?

Rick went in to check on Josiah about 15 minutes later. I was drifting off to sleep at that point. I remember hearing Rick groan. I heard, “OH NO! OH NO!”  I think he said it a few times actually.

I had an inkling of what that meant and didn’t want any part of it. I can’t believe I am even going to admit this, but it’s true. I covered my head with my pillow and rolled over. I did not want to deal with what Rick had just discovered. I peeked, just a little, when Rick walked Josiah past me, into our bathroom. Josiah was naked. Rick led him to the commode room.

Josiah had been quiet for a while. We thought that meant he had been calming down, perhaps sleeping even. Nope. Instead, Josiah had been disrobing. He had pulled off his pajamas, yanked down his pull-up and enjoyed playing with the contents within.

According to the grumblings and mumblings Rick was making, it was all over everywhere. It was all over Josiah’s floor. It was all over Josiah. At this point I really wanted NOTHING to do with the clean up. My praising through the circumstance fun had happened just yesterday. I wasn’t quite ready for another round of it. I needed to sleep. But I was curious.

Rick stepped out of the bathroom to get something. I’m not really sure what. When I peeked this time, Josiah was standing at my bathroom sink. He looked more brown than beige to me.

He was reaching for a cup. He turned on the water and filled the cup half way. We are so proud of him for being able to get his own drink. It’s a simple thing really, but for Josiah to do it on his own is monumental.

As I’m laying there, hiding out under my pillow, marveling at the brown boy in the bathroom being all independent, I notice brown covered fingers going in Josiah’s mouth. They went in moments before the cup of water did. UGH. He took a quick suck of his fingers and never even flinched. No reaction whatsoever. Unbelievable.

No reaction from him that is. I was in the bed just a few steps away gagging. I couldn’t believe I had just witnessed what I had witnessed. At this point, Rick walks back in, plops Josiah in the tub and I roll over to sleep.

I woke this morning apologizing to Rick for bailing on him and not helping with any of the mess. I felt really bad about it. I hadn’t washed Josiah. I hadn’t cleaned up his rug or his room. I hadn’t even cleaned up the tub or the sink or the cup he had used to take a drink from. I had just gone to sleep.

I have a very strong feeling within the next 24 hours Josiah may quite likely come down with some kind of illness. I can’t imagine one can suck on contaminated fingers and not have some repercussion or consequence as a result. So I have 2 thoughts about the tent.

It would be a horrific mess if Josiah were to repeat last night while zipped inside a tent. He would have no way to get out. We wouldn’t know he needed us. We wouldn’t get him cleaned up. It would be just awful.

And then it hit me. Maybe that’s the beauty of the whole thing. Josiah can party all night long, making mud pies and cave drawings inside his tent enclosure, while Rick and I blissfully unaware, sleep peacefully in the next room.

I think we’ll keep the tent after all.