First... some background info.
I know how much you love background info...
In our lovely little home, there lurks something awful and evil, which is greatly, GREATLY despised by me. It's a little something called "THE VOID."
You will come across this VOID when you walk through our front door. Some brilliant person (who it is very unlikely has children), decided it would be great if you could walk through the front door and be able to see right up to the ceiling of the second floor.
BRILLIANT!
To an adult, this makes the entry way seem so nice and open and spacious.
To a child this void is a place where you lean over to see who is at the front door when the doorbell rings, and let's be honest, even when no one is at the door, it's a place that you must constantly be peering over because IT'S JUST THERE, so something must be done with it.
I truly hate this void. My heart stops beating every time I see my kids run towards it and peer over, because in my overly paranoid mind, I am so sure they are just going to tumble right over to their death.
I can get a little morbid in my paranoia.
I have spent the last couple of years training my children to keep away from THE VOID at all times. (It's possible I may have used some scare tactics). For the most part, they listen. And then sometimes they just don't feel like remembering the rules, and decide that THE VOID is looking a little too fun, and they make up games that go a little something like THIS:
Oldest child drops poor, unsuspecting, completely helpless stuffed toy into the dreaded VOID...
at which point the poor, helpless toy hopes and prays that the three little darlings at
the end of THE VOID will provide him with safe, soft landing.
(I'm not gonna lie to you... it didn't always turn out well for the toys)
Drop...
And catch!
(Keep your fingers crossed Mr. Turtle! Oh, wait... no fingers. What a shame!)
And here are the little rule breakers suddenly coming to the realization that getting them back up
is not going to be nearly as much fun as getting them down.
"We have to WHAT?! Carry them back upstairs??? Uh... mommy... I'm feeling really tired.
And my toe hurts. These toys are SOOO heavy, I might hurt my back. Hey did we
have breakfast yet?..."