Balloonolith

I thought I should follow up the "Just a Staple" post I just put up with one a bit more breezy, even if it is apropos of nothing.

Kiernan received an enormous balloon bouquet from two of Wendy's colleagues, Lisa and Pokey. The thing was just massive, stretching from floor to ceiling. Within a day I had to start dismantling it because we were nervous he would start using his new teeth on the lower balloons. So I clipped the ribbons and let the various balloons migrate upward. After a couple days the latex balloons dropped and I had to spirit them away and liberate them of their air--don't fret, it was all very humane--but the mylar balloons have remained on the ceiling.

There are three mylar balloons. Each one says "Get Well" in festive lettering and trails a short piece of ribbon. Kiernan loves them. I pull them down to him and he just goes, "Oooh! Oooh!" He grabs the ribbon, yanks it up and down, then releases it and watches the balloon make its way back to the ceiling. I've been using this game as a reflex exercise for myself, kind of the child monitoring version of "wax-on, wax-off." Kiernan releases the balloon and I try to snag the ribbon before the thing can rise out of reach. Keep in mind I'm spending most of my waking hours these days crawling around the floor while singing "The Count to Ten Song" (which is inexplicably set to the tune of "La Cucaracha").

"One-two-three-four-five,
Six-seven-eight-nine,
Join with me and count to ten.

One-two-three-four-five,
Six-seven-eight-nine,
Ten oh Yes oh Yes we can,
One-through-ten."

I need all the stimulation I can get.

Anyway, a weird thing happened. One of the mylar balloons has a little loop at the end of its ribbon. Since he likes playing with them so much, I looped this ribbon around one of his stuffed animals--a tiny red bird--so that he could play with the balloon to his heart's content. It sits there now, within reach. And is totally ignored. Kiernan will sit on the floor going, "Oooh! Oooh!" to the remaining two balloons on the ceiling until I bring them down to him, at which time he will immediately release them. But if I try to call his attention the balloon that is within constant reach, he couldn't care less.

I guess it really is less about the balloons than it is about the hunt. This leads me to all kinds of questions. Would a little girl react the same way? Actually...I think I'll stop this post now before I get into trouble.