Wax, stairs, lights, and thunder

What an eventful day! Here are the random details:

Yesterday I cleaned Jake's grandma's house and was a bit nervous because she is a very clean person. What if I didn't do a good enough job? I put Grant in a pack-n-play with toys, which of course made him whine, and she felt bad for him and told me to let him roam the house. I tried to cover or move anything that might be problematic, and warily set him free. Not five minutes later I heard a crash behind me in the bathroom and turned to see a Scentsy candle warmer on the carpeted floor and Grant sitting next to it, looking shocked and covered in wax. Luckily these warmers only use a 15-watt bulb and the wax doesn't get very hot, but I checked him for any sign of injury anyway. Although relieved that he was fine, my heart sank when I suddenly realized that there was now light blue wax all over the beige carpet. I apologized a hundred times to Grandma Mary, and she told me every time that it was fine, but I wondered if she wasn't just saying that to make me feel better. With Grant underfoot all morning, I only got to half of the things I was supposed to do, but I did a smashing job at all of them to try to make up for what I couldn't do with him around...

After finishing there, I headed to Jake's sister's house to help out for a while. Poor Emilie is pregnant and on partial bedrest, has three children, and is recovering from a recent bout of swine flu. It is always nice to visit with her, and I was glad for the opportunity to hopefully ease some of her burden right now. Emilie had to pick up one of her daughters from school, so I was alone with her seven-year-old, Taylen, who played with Grant in the living room. I was distracted in the laundry room when I heard a thud, not unlike the common noises I hear when Grant knocks something over (often onto himself), and then there was the follow-up scream. I wasn't concerned until I realized that it was coming from the basement. I ran down the stairs and discovered him sitting at the bottom, tears streaming down his pudgy cheeks. I scooped him up and was headed back up the stairs before I started analyzing what had happened. First of all, I'd been under the false impression that there was a door at the top of the stairs, so I hadn't thought twice about letting him crawl around unaided. Second of all, thank heaven the stairs are all carpeted. Then I remembered how small the thud had been--there is no way Grant could have fallen down the first ten or twelve steps, then have turned to his left and fallen down the last four that face a different direction. The thud was only long enough for the last four. Plus, he didn't have a single red mark or bump on him anywhere. His tears were purely from fright. So how on earth did he get from the main floor to the landing? He's never crawled on stairs in his life! All I can say is that there are spirits who were watching out for him, because somehow he crawled or slid down the large set of steps without being injured or even afraid. I can't tell you how many prayers of gratitude I offered yesterday for Heavenly Father's protection from a potentially disasterous situation.

We put out our Halloween decorations and hung our lights for Family Home Evening, followed by letter-writing to my missionary brother, Logan, and Jake's military brother, Josh. We have such amazing siblings!

Last night around one a.m. I heard loud booming that seemed to go on for an eternity. We live across the street from a railroad, and it sounded like the banging of cars when they hit each other. It was shaking our house, which the trains do often, but I kept wondering why they wouldn't stop the loud racket in the middle of the night. Finally I pulled myself out of the sleepy haze I was in and realized that it wasn't a train, but the loudest, longest, strongest thunder I've ever heard. Torrential rain poured down on our roof for about five minutes, and then the thunder sounded like it was moving away from us. Unfortunately, it woke up Grant, so I rocked him back to sleep. An hour later it all happened again, only the thunder wasn't quite as big as before. Grant woke up again, we rocked again, and went to sleep again. An hour later the cycle started again. One more time at five, and then he woke up on his own at six because he was tangled in blankets. What an eventful night! Luckily he wasn't sounding too scared of the noise (he's used to the train noises, I guess), it was just loud enough to wake him up. I keep hoping that he'll take a nice, long nap so that I won't be so bleary-eyed all day! My fingers are crossed...