This Side of Parenting

I am sitting in a house of noxious fumes -- I came home from walking Silas to school and found that a plastic baby food tub had fallen into the depths of the dishwasher to burn and melt.
I've opened all the windows in hopes that Eden's little braincells will stay intact.

It's funny being on this side of parenting.

As a kid at Christmastime, one of my favorite projects was making ornaments: we would set those short, plastic punch cups upside down on the counter, puncture holes in the bottoms, (color them? i can't remember that part), put them in the hot toaster oven, and wait. We'd stare through the glass and watch the heat soften and torque the plastic until the cups melted into shiny rippled doughnuts we could hang... I remember learning this somewhere (church? school? a friend's house?) and teaching my mom. She was a good sport...

Another fun activity in my house was stair sledding. My brothers and I would pull an old crib mattress from the garage, climb up to where the stairs turned the corner, pile on the mattress and FLY -- slick plastic against carpet -- into the middle of the front hall. When the plastic finally ripped and the mattress foam slowed us down, my mom helped us put it in a garbage bag so we could keep racing. I have no idea how often we did this, but I remember it as a thrilling regular occurrence that happened mostly when my dad was out of town. I also remember its constantly being interrupted by someone falling down the stairs without the mattress; someone hitting the wall, the railing, the table near the bottom of the stairs, a brother; arguments about whose turn it was ETC. and this also not being a deterrent.

It's funny being on this side of parenting.

Will I keep an old crib mattress? Will I let my kids destroy it? Will I allow Silas and Eden to rocket down the stairs into each other and various stationary objects? At bedtime? When the fun is over will I find a trash bag to help them start it up again?

I hope so.