The Pillow Pet

Sammy wants a pillow pet.  I know you've seen the commercial for it . . ."It's a pillow . . . it's a pet!  It's a pillow pet!"  He mentioned to us the other day that he wanted one, and we told him he didn't need one.  Apparently he did . . .

This morning, Sammy came downstairs and announced he had made a big mess in his room.  After going upstairs to investigate, I determined that he had, in fact, made a big mess in his room.  And the hallway.  And his sister's room.  I wish I would have taken a picture, but I was honestly too frustrated at the time.  I suppose I will have to describe it.

As I mentioned earlier, Sammy wanted a pillow pet.  We told him he didn't need one, since he had his Thomas the Tank Engine pillow, shaped like a train.  Since we told him we wouldn't get him one, Sammy decided to make his own. 

As you know, Sammy is obsessed with scissors.  So obsessed, in fact, that I have recently taken my girlfriend Amanda's advice and hidden every pair of scissors in the house.  I'd tell you their location, but then I'd have to kill you . . .

Sammy found the one pair of scissors that I didn't hide.  As a matter of fact, he found a pair of scissors that I didnt't even know existed.  When he showed me the scissors he used to create his pillow pet, I had to figure out where they came from.  He must have searched forever in my craft area!  The scissors he found were in a drawer, inside of a Cricut tool kit, which means he had to unzip it.  I had never seen them before in my life!

Back to the pillow pet.  The cool thing about a pillow pet is that you unbuckle the belt and the legs spread out and the stuffed animal becomes a pillow.  Since we told Sammy he had his Thomas pillow, he wanted to use that as his makeshift pillow pet, and the only thing he needed it to do was spread out.  Therefore, he took the scissors that he found, and cut right down the middle of the bottom of his Thomas pillow, thereby allowing the bottom to spread out.  Just like a pillow pet!

The only problem with this idea was that Thomas was stuffed with millions of tiny, microscopic styrofoam balls.  Balls that spilled out of Thomas and all over Sammy's bed and floor.  Balls that had static electricity, and therefore stuck to Sammy when he walked down the hall and went into his sister's room and climbed into Sophia's bed.  Balls that were, literally, on every surface in both Sammy and Sophia's room, as well as the hallway.

By the time I discovered the pillow pet fiasco, the balls seemed to have multiplied.  Unfortunately, they were not able to be vacuumed with a simple vacuum.  When you turned it on, they would just blow everywhere and stick to the walls, and to you.  I ended up having to use the hose vacuum.

I got on my hands and knees, and vacuumed every square inch of their rooms using the hose vacuum.  As well as the hallway in between.  Maddening, yes.  Satisfying, maybe.  Cleaned it all up, absolutely.

So, lessons learned . . .

1. Buy your kid a pillow pet.  Otherwise, you may live to regret it.
2. If your 3 year old goes upstairs and it gets really quiet, be afraid . . .VERY afraid.
3. When you think you've hidden all the scissors in the house, you haven't.  Look again.
4. Don't take life so seriously.  Yes, you vacuumed almost 350 sq feet on your hands and knees.  Not to worry - it counts as exercise!

So, why did it take me so long to blog about this?  Honestly, I was trying to gain some perspective on the situation.  It took me a bit of time, but as Erma Bombeck says, "If you can laugh at it, you can live with it."  And as my BFF Amanda says, "He was being creative!  You have to give him credit for that!"