The day started as any other. Wake up and get the baby ready for the day. Get ready for work. The baby was not in their crib. I heard them giggling over the baby monitor right before I walked in so I knew they were in the room.

“Sippy?” I looked in their crib in case my brain was malfunctioning so early in the morning. They weren’t there. “Sippy?” I heard the giggling again. This time I could pin point it to under the crib. They giggling intensified as I reached under the crib for them.

I picked them up and began the morning routine. As I pit them in their high chair they began giggling again.

“Cup?”

They wanted their morning juice in there favorite cup. I could not find it. I knew I put it in the dishwasher last night. I knew that it had to be in the kitchen somewhere.

“Cup.”

As I was looking at the back of the dishwasher my foot began to slide. I did not have the where with all to arrest the slippage and I promptly felt the numbing sensation of the dishwasher door smacking my face. This was shaping up to be a very awkward day.

“Cup.” There voice rang through the pain in my face and it was starting to sound a bit mischievous.

“I am trying to find it Sippy.” I stood up and saw that the lid to the cup was slightly sticking out from under the fridge. That was weird because that also should have been in the dishwasher. As I picked up the lid I open the fridge door in case I had thought to fill it with juice last night and had stuck it in there. It was not in the fridge.

Looking towards the high chair to give Sippy an encouraging smile I saw that they were gone. The giggle came from the living room. Along with the chant of, “Cup!”

I ran towards the living room because a one and a half year old should never be left alone unless they are sleeping. They were walking around the coffee table and with their back towards me.

“Sippy we have to get ready. We will have to use a different cup today.” The small wooden car that had a string attached to it to be pulled by a precocious hand was apparently under my foot. Setting my foot on it I realized that I need to look down more. The dance I did to catch my balance was intricate and so moving that I lost sight of the child and landed, again, face down in the chair next to the couch. Becoming upright again was a bit of a chore but I did it just in time to see one chubby little foot disappear from sight down the hallway.

“Cup!” Echoing down the hallway was the only clue that I had for which direction they had gone. Choice was her room or my room. The bathroom door was closed so no worries about that. Silence was my companion now and that is never good when a child is involved. I took a glance into their room. A quick bend to see if she was under the crib again. No dice. Another glance in their closet showed me nothing but the clothes that didn’t reach the floor so they couldn’t hide in there.

My room. “Sippy?” A small giggle from under the bed and the sound of a small body crawling along the carpet. “We need to get going Sippy. Come on out.” The giggling continued and then ended abruptly. I got on my hands and knees to look under the bed just in time to see them crawling out the other side. Finally I can catch them but in my excitement and haste to get up I hit my head on the bed frame. At least it wasn’t my face this time.

“Cup!” The sound of the creaking bathroom door opening was barely audible under what I now was think of as their war cry.

“Shit!” Actual danger was in the bathroom. I had to get them quick before they decided to go head first into the toilet.

Rushing forward my spacial awareness wasn’t the best. The door frame came out of no where to give me a shoulder check and spin me into the far wall. I couldn’t worry about the me shapped hole that now adorned the hallway wall. I had to save my baby.

Covering the distance between my room and the bathroom took me no time at all but it felt like it took forever. Tripping over my own feet I went face first into the floor. As I turn my head to get a look into the bathroom, I see my precious baby with her cup. As I lay their covered in drywall, with a bruised face, and a goose egg forming on the back of my head I see my darling reach into the toilet with her cup and fill it to the brim with toilet water. Pushing myself up off the floor to try to reach them i hope my balance doesn’t betray me again. I decide to stay on my hands and knees just in case and as I am reaching for the cup I don’t realize how very far away it is.

I watch my kid take a giant gulp of toilet water as I sag in defeat.