Toilet paper!

My daughter is fascinated by toilet paper and what does or does not clog a toilet. Yesterday, while she was enjoying the bathroom at Ralph's Grocery store, she asked me to tell her a story. Here is it:

Once upon a time, a long time ago, in a faraway land, lived a little girl. Do you know what her name was? Rose? No. Emma? No. Isabel? YES! It WAS Isabel. Isabel LOVED toilet paper. In Isabel's house, her Mummy had a rule. 5 squares of toilet paper. And that was it.

Well, on this day, Isabel took 5 squares of toilet paper. And another 5 squares, and another and another...and before you knew it, the ENTIRE roll of toilet paper was in the toilet. So, of course, Isabel....flushed.

Oops.

The water started to come up and up until it overflowed all over the floor.

"MUMMY!" yelled out Isabel, in a panic. "Come quick. The toilet is making water go all over the floor!"

Her Mummy ran into the bathroom as fast as fast could be. Took one look at the toilet and exclaimed, "ISABEL! How MUCH toilet paper is IN that toilet????"

Isabel's Mummy ran out of the bathroom to get her rubber gloves and a garbage bag, lickety split. She returned and scooped out gobs and gobs of disgusting, gooey toilet paper out of the toilet and tossed it into the garbage bag. Finally she was able to get the plunger into the toilet and plunge and plunge until....WHOOSH...the water went down the toilet.

Isabel's Mummy looked at Isabel and with a pretty steady voice, said, "Isabel...don't do that again. Capiche?"

In their family, whenever something was pretty serious, her mom said "Capiche." It meant "Understand?" in Italian. Whenever Isabel's mom said "Capiche" you knew it was pretty bad.

Isabel looked at her mom. "Capiche," she replied, looking kind of sad.

"And next time, Isabel," started her mom, "how many squares?"

"Five squares, Mummy."

"That's right Isabel. Five squares."

They mopped up the floor, washed their hands really well with soap and water, and Isabel's Mummy put Isabel to bed. She gave Isabel a cup of cocoa, a kiss, a hug and a squish. It had been a big mess, but all in all, still kind of funny.

Because when Isabel's Mummy was 5 years old, she put a whole roll of toilet paper in the toilet too. Shhhh. Don't tell Isabel. Her Mummy will tell her when she turns 6!