Brynna’s crying woke me up. As I pulled on my glasses, I hit the button on the side of my FitBit. 3:24 AM.
I groaned and rolled out of bed. Brynna has been sleeping through the night for a while now, and I was slightly annoyed that she was awake.
But as I hit the bottom of the stairs, I realized that the baby being awake was the least of my worries. Owen’s bedroom door was wide open.
If you remember, Owen’s room features a Dutch door, which we lock from the outside each night. Except I think I must have forgotten to lock the door before I headed to bed last night.
Because Owen was out. And the noise coming from the kitchen told me what had woken up the baby.
Now wide awake, I headed to the kitchen, terrified of what I’d find.
A Greasy, Nasty Kitchen
It was worse than I imagined. You see, I was planning on cooking hashbrowns in bacon grease for breakfast. So my jar of bacon grease was sitting on the counter when I went to bed.
The jar was now on the floor, almost completely empty. The contents had been smeared across the counters, cupboards, and floor.
But bacon grease wasn’t the only mess. We’d eaten Jello for a snack last night, and one of the kids had left half a bowl on the counter. That red Jello joined the bacon grease across the surfaces of my poor kitchen.
Ew! The whole place was a greasy, nasty mess.
Owen also found the donuts I had set aside to send with Bryan. Since only crumbs remained, I’m guessing he at least ate most of those. But the crumbs stuck to the bacon grease in a way I hope you never get to experience.
Trying the Door
Owen has recently learned to open our front door. His sticky hand prints told me that he had indeed tried this night as well. I’m so thankful that we locked the deadbolt before heading to bed. Otherwise, he easily could have headed outside in the middle of the night instead of just hanging out in the kitchen.
That realization was terrifying. I’ve heard of other special needs children ending up outside in the middle of the night, but it wasn’t something I ever thought we’d experience. I’m so thankful that he can’t yet work the deadbolt!
Comforting & Cleaning
Brynna was still crying as I took in the mess. I knew that even though I wanted to clean it up, right now wasn’t the time to start. I’d just make a lot of noise and wake everyone else up.
So as hard as it was to pull myself away, I just got Owen out of the kitchen, washed up the best I could, and changed. I put him back in bed with a movie and a cup of water.
Then I comforted Brynna and got her back to sleep on the couch. Owen still wasn’t sleeping by this point, so I went to his bed and we both finally fell asleep about 5.
What a night!
Takeaways
I really thought I’d locked Owen’s door last night, but I’m going to assume I just forgot. Because the only other possibility is that he learned to reach over the door and unlock it.
He’s tall enough to do it, but I really hope that’s not what happened. Otherwise we’ll have to find a new way to keep his door locked.
I’m thankful that he didn’t break any glass, get into the dishwasher soap, or anything else like that. It could have been much worse!
Oh, and if you’re ever in a position to have to clean up crumb covered, Jello, Bacon grease slime from your kitchen, may I recommend Dawn? It worked wonders!
Though I think I’ll be finding this gross mixture around for a while. I’m sure I didn’t get it all in one go.
I hope you had a more restful night than I did, with no tales of bacon and jello!
