Floods and 9 month olds

A few years ago, just before we moved from Zambia, we had floods at home. I wrote about it here. My family lives on an ox-bow lagoon that floods every rainy season. And this particular year the water kept rising. And rising.

And rising.

And as the water started lapping at the front step we were amazed but thought it couldn’t possibly rise any further. But it did. It licked the front step and then seemed to think ’what the heck’ and came into the house, without so much as a ‘hodi, may I come in?’ And so we moved any mats and carpets we had and books low on the bookshelves up onto the coffee tables and thought ‘there, it won’t get any higher than that.

But it did.

 

It went from just covering our toes to ankle deep to mid calf deep. Once it started to reach the top of the coffee tables we moved everything up to the next level. Up onto the dining table went the books and everything else.

And still the water rose. Because of the crocodiles we’d have to boat from one house to the next to move everything up to the next level.

 

And I’m reminded about this again now that my son has started to crawl. When he was just a blob we could plonk him on the floor with a few toys and we’d all be happy.

But now.

Up to the coffee table go those glass lanterns. Up the fridge go the magnetic letters.

This worked for a few days.

And now he pulls himself up to standing on the coffee table. Up up up goes everything.