Our Indoor Amusement Park

Anyone with a kid, that has visited someone with a kid, or seen people with a kid on TV, knows that it doesn't take long before toys and other paraphernalia become part of the decor. This is doubly true in NYC where apartments are, delicately put, fairly-to-moderately cozy. And it is quadruply true when 2 youngsters are involved.

Relatively speaking our home is nicely-sized with plenty of closet space. You can't really leave your kids in a closet for very long; at least not until "visitors" in blue uniforms come "knocking" on your door. So Gaby and Alaina have to play out in the open.

This was the scenario when I put together the girls' new toy sent by Nonna, The Super Supreme Baby Play Station 10000. With the baby jail now in place, we are running out of places to put these kinds of things. But my reasoning is generally the following: anything in front of a TV is usually also in front of an adult. So the decision was easy; it was all about safety!

I didn't take any "before" pictures of all the 1,001 parts scattered on the floor, but I can assure you it came in many many pieces. I can also assure you that I put everything together in short order, with nary a curse word. This includes the 7 words I am now forced to mutter under my breath (plus their technically-accurate but still-inappropriate medical derivatives). I even followed the directions.

Here is the finished product. As you can see, everything is properly buttoned up and it looks damn fun:

They were having so much fun, all the hopping made my initial pictures quite blurry, like some over-used horror-film effect:

Here is some of the action using the appropriate camera settings:

Durably constructed and well positioned, line of sight to the TV is not impaired. This means we can keep an eye on Gaby and Alaina while watching all our favorite shows, such as SYTYCD, AI, DWTS, ANTM and TSFTOTA. It's great to see them enjoying everything. And watching them giggle and hop around can keep our attention for hours!

Another update worth mentioning is that the girls are starting to become more aware of each other. Right now this mostly involves ear pulling, nose yanking, eye gouging and hair grabbing - not to mention the occasional kick to the face. But it's all in good fun!