Teepee, tent, and twins

Don’t be misled by the title. I did not take my toddlers to vandalize someone’s house, nor did I take them camping…yet. That’s this summer. Pray for us. Now.

The 3OS were playing outside (Actually they were digging a series of tunnels..for defense…should someone attack us while we are all in the backyard…in the winter. They were even making “dirt balls” to throw at unsuspecting trespassers. I guess it shows that they really enjoyed our study of WWI and trench warfare.) and I didn’t want the WTs out there (sounded like a trip to the emergency room to me). I had this bright idea to entertain the twins by putting up a play teepee. The kids on the box seemed to be having a great time, so I was sure the twins would enjoy it.

The teepee also comes with a tent. Both use poles. I brought the box downstairs and thought I could quietly put it together while the WTs were busy in the other room. I think they can smell fear. As soon as I had emptied the bag of poles out to try to figure out which belonged to the teepee, the WTs came charging in with a purpose. And we all know what that purpose was – torture the momma.

My first challenge was to keep the poles in one place. One of the WTs would grab one and run off. As soon as I caught up with one, the other was tearing off in the other direction with another. I finally got the poles in a pile and was trying to sort them. You put the poles together like “real” tent poles (they have the string in them). Well wouldn’t you know, the WTs figured out how to put them together. While I had my back turned reading the directions, they put a few poles together. If you heard the sounds, “Whack, whack, ow, whack, whack, ow,” that was me getting whacked in the head by the WTs.

Once I disarmed them, I began construction. Yup, me and my teepee. Nice idea, but it turns out I was missing one incy wincey piece that was rather crucial to the teepee’s well being. So it was ta-tah teepee and hello tent.

This time I made sure all the pieces were there before I tried to put the tent together. I found the right poles and tried to put them into the tent when Kara decided to plant her person right in the middle of the tent. I asked her to move over and she complied by moving her skinny little hindquarters about a fraction of an inch. I got up to help her move to another location and without missing a beat, Micah grabbed the tent and pulled it over his head with a very triumphant laugh.

After some more baby wrangling, I finally got the tent up and presented it with a flourish to the twins. Preparing myself for hours of fun and frolicking, I stood there and watched as the WTs scrambled in and flipped the tent over. Uproarious laughter ensued as I found myself staring at the bottom of the tent. I tried to upright it only to have it flipped again. More laughter which I think was aimed at me. Even the zhu zhu hamster toy started chortling, mocking me. In the end, I had to dismantle the tent because all the flipping caused the poles to bend into unnatural angles. I’ve decided that the WTs have a future as product testers. I figure if a product can survive the WTs, it can survive anything.