Updating the blog and back-posting long-lost articles… This is an older story I forgot to publish. There are some links to some super-fly putty sites. Check them out.
My kids have been playing with Floam all day today. Months ago they saw it on Nick and begged me for it, telling me how cool it would be. I told them they were way too susceptible to TV advertisements, and that if they were to continue watching Nick instead of PBS they’d better stop giving so much ear to the ads. Meanwhile we were having a bit of trouble finalizing the potty training situation. They’re three and four and brilliant and savvy but terrified of the toilet, unfortunately. Then I remembered the power of .. em .. bribing. I told Ethan if he had NO accidents for two whole weeks I’d buy the floam.
So he worked hard. We made charts. He’d go for 4 days then have an accident, then 6. He’d literally pray for help with “p-o-t-t-y p-o-w-e-r” so he could get his floam (Yes my son could spell at 4, but he couldn’t consistently keep his undies clean). He’d go for 8 days with no accident. When he had an accident in the middle of the 13th night he cried for an hour. I felt so bad, but I didn’t feel like he was there yet and that if I gave him the floam anyway I’d be sending the wrong signal. When we were at a friends house though nearing the 14th day again, and he was faced with the decision of braving the toilet with no ‘blues clues seat’ on it or having to start all over again, and he made the right choice, I told him we were finally ready to order the floam.
Meanwhile, one of Jared’s HVAC guys found out about the torture I was putting my kids through and decided to buy some for them. So that night we went home and pretended to order it.
Mind you, in the weeks it took to arrive I still used its absence to my every advantage. I am a mean mom but it’s effective.
And, here are some fun sites with all sorts of cool putty ideas. Check em out!
Some neat putty experiments:
http://www.puttyworld.com/thingstodo.html
How to make something like Floam:
http://www.beyondsatire.us/?q=node/82
Putty that smells fruity:
http://chemistry.about.com/cs/howtos/ht/fruityputty.htm
And of course, if you were looking for PuTTY:
http://www.putty.nl/download.html
Legend of Velda 