Gabe workin' the night shift

If anyone needs a late-night house cleaning, I can recommend a great cleaning person. He is discrete and can dress as a pirate while cleaning (although he is a little heavy on the Febreze).

On Wednesday night, Barry, Audrey, and I were pretty much over the flu/virus. Gabe was mostly over it, but not completely. He had taken several naps that day, so he was completely off-schedule as far as sleep. Before putting him to bed, I had told him to come wake me up if he got sick or felt bad during the night. Naturally, he woke up around 2 a.m. and was sick. After cleaning that up, he went back to bed -- until 4 a.m., when he came in our room and wanted to sleep with us for a little while. About 30 minutes later, he woke me up and told me he was ready to go back to his bed. I got him tucked back in and went back to bed myself. Barry left for work that morning, and I got up around 8:00 to get Audrey. When I went in the family room, I saw Gabe, sleeping on the couch. He had set up a little sleeping area sometime after going back to his room that morning, complete with his pillow, stuffed animals (or as he calls them, his "guys"), and his huge mixing/throw-up bowl in case of emergencies. I woke him up to see what he was doing there and he quickly said, "Don't go in the bathroom", which means that I needed to go immediately and see what had happened. Nothing. I went back and asked him why he didn't want me to go into the bathroom, and he said that he had a "little accident" and peed on the floor. I went back and still saw nothing.

I got out my Clorox cleaner and started wiping the floor and toilet just in case. When Gabe saw what I was doing, he said, "Mom, don't clean up. I cleaned up already." I asked him how. He came into the bathroom, pulled the bathmat out of the hamper and some Febreze, and said, "I cleaned the whole bathroom and the vents and my room with this." Upon closer inspection, I saw that the air vents were dripping wet, and when I checked in his room, I detected the unmistakable scent of Febreze. I asked him why he cleaned everything, and he said, "Oh, I just got up before it was morning and I was doing some work." I asked him what kind of "work" he was doing all night, but he refused to be more specific. He did admit that part of his "work" involved candles and one of his coloring books (I found four candles with the tops off hidden behind some pillows on the couch, and his coloring/activity book was on the ottoman), but we still don't know what all he did that night. I can only hope that matches were not involved as well.