The Ball Pool from Hell

What was I thinking?? I will not be too hard on myself for buying the funtastic Ball Pool five years ago when Little Diva was a Little Baby. We will call it a Rookie Mistake. It looked harmless enough.  Our very own, germ-free inflatable slice of toddler heaven. And yes, I could read that it came with 125 little plastic balls, and that you had to blow the stupid thing up yourself. But no biggie, right?

No amount of air power, human or electric
can actually get this thing to look
so round and circular.

Sure, until it arrived. First of all, it took every last breath I had to get the thing inflated to a semi-full state that would at least stand upright enough to keep the balls inside. But ha, ha, ha. Apparently, no toddler just wants to sit in a tiny little pool filled with balls. Oh no, they want to get up and throw the balls everywhere. And those darling little orbs are so light and elusive. They roll under every piece of furniture. Hide themselves in every corner. After a short while, we were able to keep about 100 balls with the set, and still find the occasional rogue ball from time to time. Under the couch. Behind the bookcase. In the washing machine.

It should come as no surprise that after a few months of me chasing after the balls, the whole plastic extravaganza found its way to the crawl space.

That is until, for some reason unknown to me at this moment, I decided that The Baby would LOVE it so I pulled it out. I got smart and used the electric air pump this time because I did not want to pass out and miss the look of joy on The Baby's face.  Of course, after 15 minutes of hearing the roar of the air pump, The Baby wanted nothing to do with the strange yellow mass groaning (the pool, not me) on the kitchen floor, and Little Diva had increased the volume of Abbie's Flying Fairy School to near tarmac decibels. Yeah, this was going well.

But I was determined to HAVE FUN today, so I got the thing inflated and poured in the bag of balls.  For a moment, it was still. The Baby was curious. Cautious. She climbed in and tentatively kicked a few balls around. She smiled with interest.  THEN, Little Diva decided to show The Baby how much fun she used to have throwing the balls all over the house and chaos ensued.  Within seconds, my living room looked as if a gigantic rainbow beanie baby had exploded.  I futilely started singing the Clean Up song, and putting the balls back into the pool, hoping the girls would follow my lead.  They did not.

Eventually, I got everyone redirected, and managed to get the thing collected and out of sight.  Well, actually, I just moved it downstairs to the play room. By the time I find the rest of the balls, and get it put away, The Baby will probably have outgrown it anyway.

This set only has 70 pieces

So this time, I learned my lesson.  Don't pull out the toys that were a huge pain in the ass the first time around.  Unless you are a glutton for punishment.

I guess I will go look for the set of Lego Quatro blocks now.