Sunday, October 24, 2010

The Weird Stuff We Do

If there was an instruction manual for parenting, it would be about a bazillion pages long.

This past weekend, we went to a birthday party of a good friend of the boys (and us).

The gift to the attendees included a balloon.

For small boys, balloons are like gold, in gaseous form.

Little Brother is particularly fond of his (green) balloon.

The boys have played with their balloons pretty much non-stop since the party, and Little Brother was very disappointed when he woke up yesterday to find that his balloon had deflated some.

So, last night, Mom-E and I were cleaning up after dinner when we saw Little Brother streak (not literally) through the kitchen with his balloon, and Big Brother called out, "Dad-E, Little Brother's balloon went in the toilet."

I paused briefly, dumbfounded, before asking, "You mean, the balloon he just ran through the kitched with."

"Yes."

Deep breath, Dad-E. Deep breath. One more important question.

"Was the potty clear or yellow?"

"Yellow."

Nice.

So, I quickly tracked down Little Brother and wrestled the balloon away from him.

Then I did the only thing, as a parent, that I could think of to do.

I sprayed every square inch of the balloon with Windex Anti-Bacterial, rinsed it off, dried it, and gave it back to him.

What, you thought I was going to pop it/throw it away?

For those of you who thought "yes", you've probably never had to listen to an almost 3 year-old scream his head off for 30 minutes when he finds out his balloon is "dead."

If you would've told me 6 years ago that I'd be Windexing urine off of a balloon in the sink, I would've laughed. Heartily.

And yet, here I am.

The things we do.

I'm sure many of you out there have had related experiences.

Please use my blog as your confessional. We won't pass judgment here. Tell us about a weird thing you've done as a parent.

The group is waiting for your response.

Have a good week,
Busy-Dad-E

5 comments:

  1. What a good dad you are!
    Hmmmm, confessional of odd behavior for the sake of the kids........
    I've gone out running errands with a teddy bear in tow. You know, so he wouldn't get lonely while his owner was at school.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hmm..I'm thinking. I know I have done some crazy things, but I'm either blocking it out or I have Alzheimers. I'll let you know if I think of anything.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I turn a blind eye when little cousin eats cheerios off the floor. Well, sometimes I intervene, but if the floor has been washed recently, I just turn that blind eye! love, aunt-e

    ReplyDelete
  4. Ive been trying to think of a weird thing Ive done as a dad, but nothing comes to mind. Not sure what that says about me. Or YOU!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Once, my wife and i were assisting a baby tooth removal with our oldest daughter when the little thing flew right into the toilet....which hadn't been flushed. Well; our options were a)pull a tooth out of our own head to put under the pillow, b)tell the child "sorry about your luck", or c)get the tooth out of the urine filled toilet. Yep....I got the tooth and spent the next hour scrubbing my arm. The things we do for our children.

    ReplyDelete