Hi! <Waves>

Funny and honest tales from a made-to-work Dad of three, wobbling, graying, and laughing his way through parenthood. Armed to the teeth with Nerf guns, full of pie, fighting a chocolate addiction, but genuinely honoured to be at least half of Team Parents (yay!).
X

2 September 2015

Bouncy or Not?

Today I taught BabyBoy1 the difference between things that bounce, and things that do not.

<Thud>

It felt like a really good idea at the time.

<Bang>

I thought that whilst we were playing, I could teach my littlest boy something important, one of the key fundamentals of life: Bouncy or not.

<Crash>

Me and BabyBoy1 had found one of Miss4's pots of treasure. The kind of pots that make Mrs. Amazing cry out in frustration, and then actually cry.
Because each treasure pot contains loads and loads of tiny crap stuff, that's going to take ages to put away, and was probably away this morning.

<Smash>
'Oooo' <Points at smashed thing>
<Shakes head>
<Totters off, continuing rampage of bounce-testing>

Miss4 puts a lot of effort into creating each treasure pot.
She goes into every single board game, jigsaw, bag, box, drawer, handbag, pocket, cupboard, tray of crap we have, and carefully picks out one thing.
Normally of a matching theme: colour, size, weight.
Then she fills in any space left in the pot with bits of paper, coins, buttons, beads and bouncy balls.

(A small treasure pot's contents)

<Bonk>
<Smash>

The frustrating thing about the treasure pots is that you can't just throw it all away.
Even though half of it is crubbish (real word), that no one in their right mind would care about (Except Miss4), you can't just throw it away.
Because the other half of the crubbish is really important stuff we do want, like:
The top hat from the Monopoly set
The valve for the paddling pool
Bits of Boy8's Lego
My Lego
Bouncy balls
Gold Krugerrand coins

<Thud>

So when me and BabyBoy1 found this pot of treasure and it had a few bouncy balls in it.
I thought, great idea, let's show him how to play with a bouncy ball.

<Smash>
'Oooo' <Points randomly>

We had great fun.
It's amazing watching BabyBoy1's face as he sees things for the first time. I put a bouncy ball in his hand and showed him how to throw it.
He giggled so much as it bounced off, he was so happy chasing it. So full of wonder and excitement, it was amazing to watch.
Top moment.

<Bonk-bonk>
<Thud>

After a while though he wanted to bounce other things, experiment a little.
So I passed him wooden blocks, Lego, buttons, coins, from the treasure pot.
I was caught up in his learning and wanted to feed his scientific curiosity.

<BANG>
<Lots of rolling sounds>

Of course all the things I passed him soon became dangerous projectiles. Didn't really see that coming to be honest. And when BabyBoy1 found some things didn't bounce, he just threw them harder.

<Smash>
'Oooo' <Nods>

Obviously, after a while, his scientific discovery had to stop. I had been hit in the head a few times with blocks and buttons. Also he was making quite a mess.
I closed the treasure pot and told him the game was over.
He took it well.

<Eeeeeeeee>
<Thud>
'DADADADADADA'
* Daddy look at what I have done

He took it well because he had no intention of stopping.
By closing the treasure pot I had changed the parameters of his experiment.
I had stopped him experimenting with the carefully selected samples (the treasure pot), and instead, I had suggested through dog whistles that he test every single item in the house.
Man did that backfire.

<Splat>
‘AAAAAAAAAAAA’
* Nice

Which is why I am sat here watching BabyBoy1 bounce test everything he can reach.
I could stop him, I really could. But I'm not going to.
He's discovering things, live, on his own. This is a big development moment, I don't want to interrupt it.
Plus it’s my dumb idea I started it.

<Crunch>
<Bang>

BabyBoy1 is quickly finding out that there are not many things that bounce in our house.
Lots of things that break though.
Lots.

(I’ll add cups to the ‘Not’ list then…)

<Boing-boing-boing-boing-boing>
'DAAAADEEEE!'
<Huge grin>

He finally found a bouncy one. Good for him.

<Thud>
'Oooooooo'