Pee Pee on the Potty!!!

Hayden is well into his second year of life now and is still a ball of fire. His current favorite word is "NO!" and he is intent on causing trouble. Luckily his climbing has subsided but he is still a whirlwind of terror... I actually think Osama bin Laden could learn a thing or two from this boy.

One of his most recent escapades was to flush the spindle that holds the toilet paper down the toilet. He did this the day we moved into our new house and we have been cursing him ever since. So, our downstairs toilet has been a "pee only" toilet. This was a ton of fun for me in my last couple of months of pregnancy and kept me running up and downstairs a couple dozen times a day. For the boys this was no big deal as they don't need toilet paper every time they go potty... so the sense of urgency was non-existent. We could have called a plumber but we just kept putting it off... the economy is tough right now and we are not swimming in extra dough so we thought we could just fix it our selves. So, finally two months later Mike's dad came over and brought his "snake" to see if we couldn't push that spindle down the tube. Didn't work.

Mike's dad recommended taking the toilet off and pulling it out from the underside. Not wanting to take that route Mike borrowed the "Snake 3000" from his Grandmother, being motor powered and all it was sure to do the trick... although Uncle Henry recommended taking the toilet off and getting it out from the underside. (Hmmm... pattern developing here?) Alas, the "Snake 3000" didn't work.

Finally with no other ideas it was decided we needed to take the toilet off. I think Mike's hesitation in doing this was simply that he'd never done this before and was probably a bit intimidated by the task. However, I being an avid HGTV viewer have seen this done plenty of times and knew exactly what to do. So, Mike went to Home Depot and got the supplies and started the task this afternoon. Once the toilet was removed we were disappointed to discover we couldn't get to the spindle from that way either... the darn thing is really wedged in there... so, with the help of a neighbor we thought for sure we would win the battle of the porcelain god... but alas it was a loosing battle.

So, one more trip to Home Depot and $80 later we have a new toilet. Installation is almost complete... my man is sweaty and stinky from an afternoon of physical labor and our front yard looks like we just moved here not from the cosmopolitan city of Portland, Oregon but rather like we walked barefoot directly from the hills in West Virginia. In the end however I will have a beautiful new toilet. My guests will not have to choose between putting their toilet paper in a plastic bag hanging from the back of the bathroom door or trekking upstairs to use the commode in the boys bathroom... how does one choose between those two evils??? So for now I'm drinking a lot of water and holding it in because I want to be the first in our clan to christen our new potty!