ALERT - Toilet Bandit loose

Alert - Beware of Ben - the "put it in and flush it down the toilet" Bandit.

We were in Snowmass Colorado for Christmas at my parents place. The whole family was there and it was a blast. The time was 9:45 pm. Who is supposed to be sleeping? Ben, Hayes and big brother Sam – or so we thought.

As my brother Andrew, Ryan and me were playing a game of cards (Amy was knitting), mom flies up the stairs asking what the boys are doing. Nothing I say. Mom says “the downstairs bathroom is flooding.” Flooding??? Well, can't be because of my kids I think.

We run into the bedroom to find my angel faced boys staring trance like into an overflowing toilet and soaking wet. After much plunging and plunging - nothing was coming out or going down. We ask the boys what happened, what did they flush? Hayes says it was Ben's fault - like I did not know that because he is the little devil on your shoulder at most times :). Ben finally says he flushed the candle, which had been on the back of the toilet. It was a small candle in a metal tin that fit just perfectly into the toilet and stopped it totally up.

Roto rooter had to take the toilet off the floor and work for almost an hour before he could even get it out. I think he almost gave up, at which point I prayed hard for him to get it out so a new toilet would not have to be purchased. Anway, the pic is of the man working on the toilet. Luckily, my Sam man gave us a play by play the whole time. We gave the roto rooter man a round of applause and then Ryan promptly Gorilla taped up the toilet so that no little hands could work their magic on it again.

You might wonder why we had the gorilla tape in the first place, Hayes likes to take his diaper off all the time and it comes in handy, plus you never know when you will need it.