Thursday, May 21, 2009

Sacred Holes

PhotoStory Friday
Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek


Most people don't decorate their homes by poking holes in their walls. Most people, if they accidentally knock a hole in a wall fix it as soon as possible. Most people aren't 2 years old. This is good for a whole lot of reasons. We didn't originally plan to have walls that looked like Swiss cheese, but the destructomobile of four sensory seeking boys just got ahead of us. My husband isn't lazy, he works two jobs and goes to school part time, so things just have to wait a lot. One day, my husband finally decided to patch up a big hole in our bedroom. The twins got in before it dried... (that sad tale is just a corollary of a very long day you can read about here-and really, it's a lot better story than this one :)). Anyhow, they took a liking to the taste of drywall and soon there were holes being carved out of the walls everywhere. I asked the doctor about this new diet of theirs, but he said as long as they were eating all the other normal foods as well and staying a normal weight, not to worry about it. Of course, none of HIS walls were involved. What did he have to worry about?
There was a really big hole in the basement near the rocking chair, which facilitated it's growth. It got so big, I was afraid they were going to tunnel out of the house before it got fixed, so it was called the tunnel to China hole. Then there was the mother of all holes. It was big and it was halfway down the stairwell to the basement, so it was DEEP and it was just the right height for a 4 year old to use. We called it THE BLACK HOLE. Many people blame a black hole for eating up things that they can't find, but in our house, there really was a black hole responsible for several missing items. Everything imaginable went into that chasm. Occasionally, a brother's toy was sacrificed to the great black hole to appease it's hungry pit. Often wrappers or whole pieces of paper were thrown down there. An assortment of pencils and sippy cup plugs, and small articles of clothing made their way on down. And if that wasn't bad enough, I caught a few little elves on a number of occasions using the black hole as a urinal. I didn't know what to do but spray Lysol down it's gullet to try to disinfect and deodorize it. That black hole was becoming a source of great irritation and stress in my life. I really wanted it repaired.
One night, I melted down. Over ice cream. As I walked through the kitchen, I noticed the lid to a brand new carton of ice cream on the counter. No carton. I look in the freezer. No carton. I look in the fridge. No carton. I look all over the house. No carton. I interrogate 5 kids over and over and over again. Finally one kid cracks and tells me his brother (right!) threw it away. Well, then how come it wasn't in the garbage? Simple. It was in the black hole. A carton full of ice cream! That was it. That was the last straw. I called my husband at work and told him he had to find time to clean out the bowels of the black hole before someone threw a lighter down it and set the whole thing on fire. Then he had to patch it up forever.
Well, I wish I could say that was the end of the holes in our house, but they just kept appearing. One of the boys was determined to dismantle our home piece by piece, and had pulled off the molding around a few doors and started to chip away at the walls. One of those rooms was the bathroom. No privacy. My husband couldn't fix it because he was in South America fixing up his mom's house before it caved in around her. It seemed so oppressive to come home from that and find your wife wants you to keep working. So I got a great idea. Why not do a "While You Were Out" on him? So I asked the oldest of the boys who had watched all the wall patching how Papi did it, and he told me. I set out to follow his instructions and with the help of a great friend and babysitter, we painted the walls too. It looked great.
Except. There was this one hole in the hall outside the Things' bedroom. It kept re-appearing even after patching it back up 3 times. So we decided to leave it there. Just one hole. The "Sacred Hole" or "Orificio sagrado". We left it there to appease the boys. And there it remained for years. It grew a little and got some little dents to keep it company.Until there were enough holes in the walls that my husband felt compelled to go on a patching spree again. He patched all the holes up. Apparently, several of them were now sacred, because soon about 5 of them returned. Papi lectured the boys. He patched the holes back up. The holes returned yet again. Papi lectured much louder. He patched the holes again. Only 2 holes sprung a leak. Papi threatened. He patched the holes again. Now we had no holes, just polka dots.


Before he could even think of painting over those, he took the 2 oldest boys to a baseball game. They each got a ball. We have a new hole in the wall. And I'm not even going to talk about the new holes in a door, because it's just too depressing.
I give up. Maybe we should just let it go and call it the wailing wall? Maybe we can just paint some trompe l'oeil that makes it blend in? Maybe we should just resign ourselves to living in a dive till the kids leave home? Except then they'll probably bring their kids to visit...

27 comments:

Michelle said...

I can't tell you how many unfinished projects we have! Drives me nuts.

Maggie May said...

Goodness...... it's the kind of thing I have to put up with but at least you don't have anything crawling out of the holes!
Hopefully they will all be repaired one day!
Made a great PSF!

Alex the Girl said...

Oh, I love it. Totally love it. Loved the artwork next to the holes in the wall, too! Great photo Friday.

Carrie and Troy Keiser said...

oh yikes! I think they'd be admitting me to the loony bin! You seem to be holding up much better than I would!

Izzy, Emmy 'N Alexander said...

Ha, very interesting! lol! I know the feeling of unfinished projects though. I have quite a few around here. lol!
Hppy Friday!

A Crafty Mom said...

That sure is a lot of holes - good thing you captured it all in pictures!!

4boyzmdmom said...

Wow! I feel lucky to have escaped with only 2 holes so far (and lots of dents...)

Robyn said...

OMG, I would go nuts.

Puna said...

My goodness, I'd be in the loony bin right now.

Anonymous said...

I hope you are all hole free soon! :) Good thing you have it documented for posterity and with pictures too!

RAQ said...

It's always a struggle to balance life and upkeep. We aren't very good at the upkeep so someday we will pay for a lot of work to be done physically or financially! Kids are the agents of chaos so I feel like as long as it's sanitary I am not going to stress TOO much.

Holly said...

You have the patience of a saint. Truly.

Here's hoping for no more Swiss cheese walls.... :)

latree said...

love it!
my walls are made of bricks, so I think I don't need to worry about holes. but my kids are artist and they love to make graffiti all over the house. my father in law told me to paint the wall but I said, "I think I need to wait until the kids are over fifteen, or I need to paint my wall every other day.. "

Lindsay said...

OMGoodness - that's a lot of holes! Your boys are busy beavers :-) I'm pretty sure my ball-loving boy will knock plenty of holes in our walls some day....windows, too. Ugh.

Mom24 said...

Wow. Sorry. We have a ton of unfinished projects too. No fun. ;-)

Hoosier Homemade said...

We have tons of projects that are unfinished to. Oh well...
Thanks for stopping by my blog!
~Liz

Run DMT said...

Listen, I ain't one to judge. My youngest daughter is the cutest wrecking ball you will ever meet. she destroys everything. She eats everything, too. I'm surprised she hasn't tried eating drywall.

We went through a phase where she painted closet doors, the rugs, toys, her train table, and everything else that didn't move with her poop. Yep, that's right. POOP! She would reach into her diaper, grab some poopy paint and create a create a stinky masterpiece. It was disgusting.

Now, my lovely Leonardo simply stamps the walls and paints with nail polish all over walls. UGH!

Last summer she caused me to have a breakdown. You can read about it here:

http://denisermt.wordpress.com/2008/07/31/the-auction-that-got-axed/

Yes, I know all about sensory issues. To avoid any incidences, I make sure she paints or plays with play dough every day. Shaving cream is great fun, too. If for some reason we skip a sensory activity, you can guarantee I will find a mess waiting for me in the house.

If I were you, I would teach your boys how to patch holes. They would probably love it.

Thanks for stopping by my blog. Come around again soon. :-)

Gerb said...

HOLEY cow! (HA ha ha!!)

That is insane. You are a woman of great patience!

Mary Ellen said...

You win. Whatever award there is that's given to saintly mothers who refrain from throttling their children even when they are eating the house? Yeah, that one. You win it. I may never complain again.

a Tonggu Momma said...

Oh man. But I understand. I truly do. Our little sensory-seeker doesn't pick at the walls though. She picks at her skin. Sometimes until she bleeds. But at least I can put a band aid on that.

Beck said...

I'm suddenly so glad for our olden tymes lath and plaster walls. Seriously, even a hammer only makes DENTS, not HOLES.

Burgh Baby said...

Dude, you need padded walls, except that they would probably think it was fun to bounce off them. OYE!

Anonymous said...

Oh my goodness those are some holes, eek!! Do I have this to look forward to with boys???

Wayfaring Wanderer said...

How about padded walls?


Surely, it will send you to the loony bin at some point :o)

Jennifer @ Fruit of My Hands said...

And the previous post is called "patience" ha ha ha.

Krystyn @ Really, Are You Serious? said...

You've got some "hole-y" problems, don't you?

MamaGeek @ Works For Us said...

Here, here, I would totally go nuts too!