I’m at Home Depot, enjoying shopping alone, when my husband shares this cryptic news with me. I guess I’d ignored the signs when he asked, “Are you coming home anytime soon?” in our previous phone call. Paint matching and plumbing parts occupied all my energy and, since the kids went to bed an hour and a half ago, things should have been copacetic at home, right?
I finished checking out and started imagining what awaited me at home. Did they somehow drag water cups into their rooms and drench their beds? Did they pull all of their clothes out of their drawers? Are they running around naked singing at the top of their lungs, waking up the baby? Did someone get sick and trigger a sympathetic reaction in their sibling?
The sense of dread became unbearable and, when I walked in the door, I snapped at my husband for being so cryptic. His response? “I tried to tell you the first time I called, but you just interrupted and started asking me plumbing part questions.” Oops.
We walked to the kid’s bedroom, where he opened the door in what seemed agonizingly like slow motion.. I’d let my imagination run wild, but I was completely unprepared to be greeted by this:
See that inconspicuous, deflated ladybug bean bag chair in the left hand corner? Yep. They decided to unzip it, dump out all of the contents and throw them everywhere. I caught one glimpse of these two troublemakers, witnessed their pure delight, and felt a malfunction of emotions – do I laugh, cry, or scream? Initially, I just shut the door for a moment.
Honestly, by the time we took this picture, Ella was looking a bit contrite. Ezra, completely clueless, grinned for the camera. We were so flabbergasted in the beginning, we didn’t take pictures of the initial euphoria. Once we did open the door, my reaction was this: “This is the naughtiest thing you’ve ever done! Blah, Blah, Blah! Go to bed. We’ll deal with this in the morning.” I imagined them spending an entire day picking up little balls.
Dad, ever neater and deeply disturbed by the mess before him, had other ideas. He told them to stand off to the side and grabbed the shop vac. Once I got over my shock at the prospect of attacking this mess at 9 pm, I grabbed the regular vacuum cleaner and started sucking up those horrible balls. Note to manufacturers: Maybe a simple zipper isn’t the best approach to containing these minuscule menaces?
The best part of it all. Mommy got mad. Daddy got revenge. These two were covered in tiny styrofoam balls, the miniature pellets stuck in their hair, on their pajamas, and even in their underwear. They both hate the vacuum and Tim made them stand still while he suctioned off the balls. They said, “Don’t let the vacuum cleaner eat us!” He said, “It might.” It was hilarious and it felt good to laugh. Trust me.
We spent maybe an hour suctioning that room and you can still find little balls embedded in the carpet. In fact, we were late to church on Sunday because Tim lost track of time picking up white specs instead of helping Ezra get on his shirt and tie. I bet we’ll be picking up white balls at Christmas.
So, whatever mischief your kids managed this weekend, rest assured, our kids were naughtier.
Oh my goodness!!! LOL
Oh my goodness! I used to manage a fabric store and those ridiculous balls came in plastic bags that would pop and they get EVERYWHERE as you know…so obnoxious!
OH MY! I agree, I wouldn’t know whether to laugh, cry or scream! (I did laugh a little reading the post!)
(Catching up on my reading) – When I saw this on FB, I thought, OH MY, what is that? I am not sure what I would have done. It wouldn’t have been pretty.
I saw this and couldn’t stop laughing……. my two oldest kids have actually done this before (then 1.5 and 2.5) they are now 4 and 5 and looked at me like I was nuts as I stood here reading this in hysterics….. because I can totallly relate. 🙂
All I can say is Wow My sympathies to whoever had to clean that up. My children also had one of those bean bags full of the little foam balls and zipped shut ( not very bright on the manufacturers part ) I noticed the little foam balls leaking out and promptly disposed of it .