Sunday, September 30, 2012

Marking Territory

 Boys can be disgusting creatures. 

I know that God is, well, God, and He doesn't make mistakes, but honestly, there is a particular part of a boy's anatomy that looks like it was just stuck there as an afterthought, and every male since the dawn of creation has decided to mark his territory with said anatomical device.

One of my children (of the male variety who shall remain nameless) decided to mark the Legos in time-honored marking fashion.

(Can we all say EWWWWWWWWWW together?!)

I only discovered this when I happened to pick up some Legos and noticed a (sadly) familiar odor coming from the Lego box.

So how exactly does one (meaning me) wash a large storage tote full of Legos?  After doing some research, I decided to try dumping them in a laundry bag and washing them in the machine.  This probably would have worked quite well if it weren't for the fact that the drawstring came undone halfway through the wash cycle.

It took me eons to get all those stupid little plastic torture devices out of my machine.  (I thought about having the aforementioned Lego-Marking Child get them out, but then I had visions of him crawling in the washing machine and getting stuck, and I need to use my machine on a fairly regular basis.)

Once I finally got all the Lego's out of the washing machine I plopped them in the sink and washed them bucket by bucket.

It was a bit horrifying to see how filthy the water got after just one batch of Legos.

Once they were nice and clean I scooped them out with my sieve/sifter thingy and swished them around a bit to get the excess water out.

Then I put the whole batch back in the traitorous laundry bag and hung them over the fence to let them dry.  (Which took days).

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Did you know Legos were specifically designed to drive mothers crazy? 

They are colored with garish hues interspersed with small pointy pieces specially camouflaged to meld with your carpet and lay in wait for your unsuspecting feet.  They have crevasses created to hold water so that they never ever EVER dry and are always ready to shift and dump icky water on your floors.  They have magical abilities that enable them to wander through your home and show up where you least expect them (such as a freshly baked loaf of bread).

Infernal, evil toys.

6 comments:

TuttleTime said...

Oh Rach...the way you find humor in what I would DIE over...is hilarious. You are inspiring me to air my dirty laundry (pun intended) on my blog, which is starving for some juicy tidbits from the Tuttle household...and there are a bunch. I think I'll blog one tonight. :) Love you and miss your craziness very much. Hope I can come up soon.

Anonymous said...

Best blog post EVER. and with pictures. Goodness you make me laugh. After reading this, I wish I could hug you. I saw a funny photo on facebook once with a caption that said, "There's pain, intense pain, and then there's stepping on a lego." You are an amazingly patient and creative mom, I hope you know that.
Kathy

Wishful Acres Farm said...

Hahaha, Rach, this happened to me several years ago too. I dumped all the Legos in the bathtub. :-)

Rachel said...

Wow. I will take this post as a warning. I had no idea little boys marked things.

I've actually been surprised at the complete disinterest Noah has shown to that particular afterthought thus far in his life. But I'm sure he'll discover it. And when he does...I'll remember your warning.

Reiner and Margaret's (aka Maggie) Kids :) said...

OMG!! This is hysterical! Thank you so much for sharing! Love it! Great story! I have several "sweet" boys and hope (pray) they have never marked thier territory! (I'm scared!)

Maggie from SC

Jessica said...

I wonder if you could dry Legos in a salad spinner? Spin the water right out of there little crevices?