We lost a member of our family this week...

A loved and revered member of our family met a premature death at the hands of a toddler this week:

These are the remains of Thomas's first bouncy ball. It was the first toy that captured his attention for more than thirty consecutive seconds. He learned how to walk by pushing himself to a stand while holding onto the ball and then picking up the ball from the ground. Thomas and this ball shared some good times:

Untitled from healthyfatboy on Vimeo.

And when Thomas inherited a basketball hoop from a friend, this was the ball he learned to dunk with. However, the thrill of dunking in a hoop three feet off the ground was pretty short-lived. Which is how the bouncy ball met its demise here:

in the top of the floor lamp - Thomas's choice for a more challenging basketball hoop. It might have gone undiscovered for some time if I had not turned the light on, heard a huge POP! and the immediate smell of melting plastic. (and yes, that is me on the floor. I've sloooooooowly been tackling the huge task of painting all the trim in our house white - more on that, later.)

We were sad to see the little guy go. The ball really was a huge part of Thomas's babyhood/transition to toddlerhood. Thankfully, bouncy balls are in abundance and we soon found a replacement for our fallen friend:

But no bouncy ball will ever be the same as The Original. RIP, Bouncy Ball. You were the best $1.50 that I ever spent.

Addendum to "The Experiment"

Okay, so I had a comment suggesting that putting the wet item in the dryer for four minutes might work just as well so I did another experiment! I also commented on using a dry iron. I appended it to the bottom of the original post so see the previous post for the extras. I figured this was the best way to get it out. If it's not up, then please check in the morning as the video is still uploading and may take a little time to be completely ready.

You think you do not understand boys...

This was a long time coming but I FINALLY got around to trying it out.

So, in response to this post, I decided to defend my idea and do a little experiment. For those that do not remember, read the post.

In my attempt to keep people from nodding off at my description of the experiment, the experimentation process, and the experiment itself, which would ultimately become WAY too long to even care to read, I decided to make a video. Yes, a video. I tried to keep it as short as possible but it still ended up being 7 minutes long so forgive me and my boringness, although if you watch it all, you will be treated in whatever way I could think of on the fly with what I had available to me in the man cave.

I present, The Experiment...

View on ExposureRoom

So, there you have it. The result is in the video for all the world to see, or those who faithfully read our blog. So, do you understand boys any better now?

Disclaimer: If you ever decide to try this out, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE make sure there is no metal or anything that can melt on any piece of cloth you put in. The microwave does bad things to metal and melty things. Now, if you're in for a show, and like sparkly things, by all means, stick something metal in BUT I do not take any responsibility and should not be liable for what happens to you, your microwave, your article of clothing, your house, or anything else you may own that may be damaged in the process. In other words, DON'T DO IT!

One more thing, just to be safe, don't leave the microwave unattended if you try this out yourself. In the off chance something happens, you want to be right there to catch it just in case.

You thought you could get the result without watching the video huh? Mwa ha ha ha...and yes, we have a microwave in the basement, but it's a spare.

ADDENDUM:

View on ExposureRoom

Sorry I wasn't up to doing much during the actual experiment so I fast forwarded really fast during the four minutes this time.

There was one more comment that using a dry iron would do the trick. I think it would do a fine job but only if the iron was already on and hot. If it is cold, I think you're going to wait a little for it to heat up and then you have to dry the piece of clothing so in a bind, it's probably not the fastest way to dry something BUT if the iron is already hot, I think it will be fine. I still prefer the microwave (assuming it's clean) since I can just throw it in and do something else as I watch it on the side, but that's just me being lazy. Yes, I am a man and admit to my laziness.

Last week was a very good week.

After my last post about not getting anything done these days, I was blessed with a flurry of activity during Birthiversary week.

Kenta and I had already given each other a gazillion dollars (did you know we were gazillionaires? more like multi-gazillionaires.) worth of food storage. Kenta had packed it all back in April, but we made a special trip down to the basement on our anniversary to admire his handiwork:

Celebrating 5 years of wedded bliss. (And, yes, that is a microwave in our basement.)

Because we have blown most of our cash on such frivolous things as a house, a baby, and food storage, we decided to keep the gifts simple for our/my birthiversary. The kids gave me AN ENTIRE THREE HOURS IN WHICH THEY WERE SIMULTANEOUSLY NAPPING IN PEACE with which I managed to do a little painting, priming, and mending. In fact, I regifted Kenta a shirt that I had given him for our first anniversary. It had gotten a hole in it prematurely, so I patched it up and gave it to him. It's pretty much brand new since it spent the last two years or so sitting in my mending pile. How's that for a thrifty present?

The birthday part of the birthiversary was truly an occasion to remember. My good friend, Jenn, had given birth to twins earlier in the week (one late Monday night, and one ten minutes later - on Tuesday morning! Soooo cool!) I had signed up to feed her family dinner on my birthday months ago (as in, make the food and drop it off to them), but she insisted that I bring my family and celebrate my birthday with them. Uh. Seriously, Jenn? You just had twins and you are offering to host my birthday dinner? But, for anyone who knows the lovely Jenn, there is pretty much no refusing her kindness - the only thing you can do is work out a compromise of sorts. So I made the dinner, Kenta grilled it (kabobs - my favorite!), and she volunteered her husband to make a delicious funfetti cake:

Action shot of the candle blowing (check out the streamers in the back ground - her little girls decorated - so cute!):

The funfetti masterpiece, complete with a layer of strawberries in the middle. (and no, I am not 23 - we used our imaginations to morph the "3" into the proper number).

Thank you, Jenn and family, for the memorable birthday celebration: family, friends, fun, and food. Perfection!

Kenta - not to be out done by the kids' awesome nap gift - declared a celebratory trip to IKEA. Yay!!! We packed everyone up for a trip down to IKEA, so we could find a new computer desk and browse the sofa department. I have no photographic evidence that this trip took place, but let it be known that it was Kenta's idea to gleefully and willingly take us all to IKEA. Thanks, Kenta!!

So that's that. I've finally stopped, uh, "celebrating" my birthday. It usually takes me a week to get the celebrating out of my system ("pssshh..I can have a piece of chocolate after breakfast - it's my birthday chocolate!!"), but all the birthday goodies are gone, the kids are back to their non-simultaneously napping schedule, the special treatment is over, and it's back to life as usual. But it's a great life and I feel extremely blessed to be living it. Happy birthiversary to me!

Foiled again!

I just sat down to finally finish documenting our vacation (that we got home from six weeks ago!!). No sooner had my backside hit the computer chair, when a siren went off via the baby monitor. Most of this post was typed with a nursing baby in my arms. And I am so ridiculously slow at blogging when pictures are involved, I just can't do it very well when the little people are awake. This is just the latest chapter in my recently entitled memoir, Why I Never Get Anything Done During the Day: Reflections of a Mother With Young Children.

I'm pretty sure kids are built with a productivity alarm - as in "Oh no! Mom is being productive! I must stop this at once by causing a major disruption!!"

It seems like every time I get my hands covered in raw chicken or get shampoo lathered on my head or sit down on the toilet, I hear weeping, wailing, and/or gnashing of teeth that need my IMMEDIATE attention. And I only have two kids. I feel pretty lame that I can't get more done.

BUT

Even if I can't cram in the "extra" things I would like to do during the day - blogging, painting, practicing (sad that this is an "extra" in my life right now), finding Thomas a pair of new church shoes, looking for a sofa so we have somewhere to sit - the kids are always fed, clothed, and relatively happy. And that is the season I am in in life right now. I am working on managing my time better so I can fit in a few "extras", but even if I've been on task all day and still haven't made a dent in the to-do list, I'm trying to remind myself that it doesn't mean the day has been a complete waste.

I kind of felt that way yesterday, but then I saw this picture of the kids


and was reminded that no day could ever be considered a waste when it has been spent taking care of their needs.

It might take me a year to paint my downstairs, and I'm trying to come to terms with that. I will never be able to log as much practice time as I did in college. And that's okay, too. There was a season for that, and that season may come back again some day.

However, Thomas really does need some shoes that fit. If I find him a pair of shoes this week, I'll consider it to have been a wildly successful week. Kind of funny how your definition of "success" changes after you have kids.