Gab’s Kitchen Raid

Last Tuesday I went to bed around midnight right after checking on the kids.  I walked in and made sure they were sound asleep and covered up, turned out all the lights and hit the bed.  The alarm went off at 6:30 AM like usual and I went into Gab’s room to wake her up.  After struggling to get her ready we went into the kitchen to get breakfast before she got on the bus.

When I flipped on the light I was surprised with a mess. The gallon of tea out of the refrigerator was sitting on the table with the lid off and spilled all over the kitchen table and floor.  The first thing I thought was T must have woken up in the middle of the night to get some tea and forgot to put it back up while leaving it on the table the cat must have knocked it over causing a spill.  After waking T up she denied ever getting up in the middle of the night.  I looked at Gab and asked her if she did it and her immediate response was NO.  Considering Gab has never made her own drink and hardly ever even gets her own snacks I didn’t suspect it was her at all.

Then I notice the box of pizza left over from dinner had been taken out of the frig and was sitting in the kitchen floor.  I then start looking around while wiping up a tea mess and getting out the mop.  Wednesday is trash day for us so on Tuesday evening T takes the trash cans to the curb.  Before going to bed Tuesday night, I cleaned out the frig and placed some left-over boxes from the week before on the kitchen counter so I didn’t forget to put them out in the trash.  Since our trash only runs once a week I wanted to make sure they went out first thing the next morning.  One of the boxes had rice in it from a lunch outing I went on several days before.  As I’m cleaning up the kitchen I notice the box full of rice had been gotten into.  A bowl of half eaten rice was in the living room floor sitting next to the Wii remote.  Right then I knew, it was Gab.

Although she denied the tea mess, she fully admitted to using a stool to climb up and get a bowl and spoon, helping herself to some left over rice and eating half a piece of pizza while playing Wii in the middle of the night.  All I know is she was sound asleep at midnight and back asleep before 6:30 AM.  I am completely surprised the noise she made didn’t wake me at all.  I usually wake very easily.

I didn’t even know what to say.  At first I was angry that she made such a mess instead of just waking me up and then I was worried after I realized she ate rice that was nearly a week old and had been sitting out for trash for who knows how many hours.  I explained to her how she could have gotten sick eating stuff she didn’t know what it was and that she should always wake me up if she needs something.  I put the Wii remotes up for several days because during the school week she isn’t allowed to just play at leisure and in the middle of the night is NOT our allotted time.

I know after Gab had brain surgery she suffers from short term memory loss.  Over the past year things have gotten much better and she is doing so well at remembering.  To be honest she has a harder time understanding certain things that most 7 year olds understand but as far as memory she has done pretty well.  Not many complaints at all.  When I confronted her over all this, she looked so confused as if she didn’t understand the big deal at all.  After I got the mess cleaned up and calmed down, I tried to think from her point of view.  Once she got home from school, that night I approached her rationally trying not to discourage her from being independent yet encouraging her to ask for help next time.  I believe I got through to her and hope I don’t wake to another huge mess anytime soon.  I hope…