Underground railroad

Most of you know that Parker got his first train set for his birthday a couple of days ago (pictures coming soon). I gathered up a couple of sets from yard sales this summer and ended up spending more on the wrapping paper than on the actual gifts. Awesome I know. Anyway Parker has really had a blast with the trains and he has pretty much been entertaining himself while I get things done around the house. Yesterday I gathered up all the tracks and stacked them up nice to see if I could get them to fit into one of the rubbermade buckets that one set came in. Of course I fit almost everything in and the lid wouldn't shut. It seems like this is always happening to me with those organizers. Parker ended up dumping out all the pieces again and so I just let him play and thought I would just clean them up after he went to bed. I had to go to the store anyway yesterday and so I figurered I would use some more of the birthday money that Parker got to buy a bigger bucket for them so that all the pieces could stay together. I thought it was a pretty good plan. Brian and Parker stayed home and played with the trains and Eli and I went to the store and got a few groceries and a new bucket.

After Parker went to bed I of course cleaned the whole house and put the train set into the new bucket. After I closed the lid I peeked through the side and thought it looked a little empty. Was it really that close in the smaller size? This was the next size up and it looked half empty. I thought it must have just been my eyes playing tricks or something.

Today I put Eli down for a nap around noon and I was looking forward to a little snooze myself as soon as I could get Parker down. He kept asking me to fix his trains and so I decided to sit down and play with him for a while. I glued his bridge to another piece so it actually works now and then I made a pretty sweet track for him. After playing for a minute I realized that the track didn't really seem that big and we didn't have any leftover pieces. I asked Parker to go find all the pieces and he kept bringing me other toys and saying "HERE IT IS!" He was a little confused I guess.

So I called Brian and asked if he knew where the bumpy track poeces were and he told me they were missing last night. As soon as he said that I spotted the liitle half circles  under my 1 thousand pound TV stand and remembered that Parker was driving his little car under there yesterday and saying "Oh no! It's stuck!" I managed to wiggle a couple fingers under there to get it out for him, but was annoyed that he kept doing it so I took it away.

After I got off the phone I wiggled my fingers under there again and sure enough I felt something. It took me a couple minutes, but out came a little wooden track. It wasn't the piece I was looking for though so I knew there had to be more under there! I couldn't believe it! That little stinker. Brian already told me when I bought the TV stand that he was never moving it again because it weighed so much. It is impossible to move without 2 men. I know there is no way that Brian is going to lift it up for us to get some toys out. He will just tell us they are lost forever.

I was trying to tell Parker not to put anything else under there and he was trying to tell me that it was a "MiMi Hole" which translates to Bunny Hole. Man that kid has a good imagination. I was laying on the floor for about and hour trying to fish those darn things out. I tried using tongs, but they wouldn't fit under there. Then I tried using a long slotted spoon but Parker freaked out cause it was "Patches' Spoon". So I gave that one to him and duct taped 2 long while spoons end to end to try and reach to the back. It must have seemes so hilarious to him cause he kept laughing and saying "funny!". I don't know which part though, the part where he was watching his mom roll around on the floor trying to see through a bunny hole, or the part where he got to build his own underground railroad system. Probably both.

I had to just keep stopping to laugh too because I was about the scream. It was so frustrating. My hand couldn't even fit under there, my face was too fat to see in the hole, the only flashlight I could find was running low on batteries, and Parker kept climbing all over me trying to "help mammy, help". He kept trying to switch me spoons too. He thought the white thing was pretty sweet. "PATCHES TURN!" He kept crying cause I wouldn't switch.
Finally I got all of them out but one. I think. I hope. It is in the very back corner and I just can't seem to get it. I probably pulled atleast 15 pieces out of there, but it still seems like some are missing. I wonder where else he has hidden them...

So Parker's down for a nap now, but Eli is awake. I guess there is always hope for a better nap time tomorrow. I just want to know when he was able to do all that without me noticing.

Question: Where did the spell check and video upload go? I hate trying to figure out this blogging thing!