Question.....

How do you know when your kids have been jumping on the oldest child's bed a few too many times?

Answer: When the slats inside the box spring have broken enough to pierce through the batting that surrounds the boxspring, enough so that Tymin, one of the new babies, can climb inside and hide.

Last night, I said Goodnight to Daniel, bent down and kissed him....scratched his back while I prayed for him, turned the light off and closed his bedroom door. As I was kissing Trey goodnight, Daniel came out of his room and asked me if I knew he had kittens under his bed. Hmmmm, I think I remember a comment about that, but it went right on past me. I finished saying goodnight to Trey and headed back into Dan's room to retrieve said kittens. Limerick was under Dan's bed and wouldn't come out. Tymin was inside the Box spring....and, you guessed it.....wouldn't come out.

Understanding the only solution, I pushed Dan's mattress off his bed and lifted the boxspring up off the slats hoping this would inspire Tymin to come out, come out wherever he was. Realizing this was a job bigger than just Dan and I, I hollered for Trey to come join the fun. I asked him to grab Limerick and then asked him to coax Tymin out. No such luck. He was staying put. And the more I pushed up on the boxspring, the further he moved away from the opening. And the slats inside the Boxspring were jagged enough that no kid needed to be fishing a cat out of it anyway. I peeked in and sure enough...there he was way back in the opposite corner from where I was.

Seeing as how I had the box spring almost completely vertical, I got a good look at it and WOW, was I surprised. The thing was completely trashed. Several of the boards inside were broken and there were a couple of holes in the batting where the boards had cut through. Craziness. Seeing as how it was a disaster anyway, I grabbed the batting and yanked it right out of the frame. Wah-lah....Instant cat access. I grabbed Tymin by the nape of the neck and handed him to Trey.

We will probably need to 'deep six' the box spring as it is now leaning against Daniel's bedroom wall. The cats......well, they're not allowed upstairs anymore. Too many hiding places. Not enough people around during the day to keep them out of trouble. But I'm sure they'll find enough trouble to get into downstairs anyway.

In our house.....with four human babies, three feline babies and one canine baby.......There's always something going on.