Experiments

Here in Riyadh we live in a huge villa. At times it seems overwhelming to live in a villa this big. Our houses in the States were more manageable. The two houses we’ve owned were both 3 BR with 2 baths (one bath in the Master BR and the other bath in the hallway). Since we only had two bathrooms they were used every day. Here we have 4 BR each with their own bathroom. So we rarely look at Timmy’s bathroom. Even more rare is going into the guest bathroom.
About six weeks ago I had had enough of Timmy’s clutter and decided that he and I needed to clean it up. We picked things up off the floor. Put stuff away that was piled on his dresser, bed and desk. The room looked better…still not “perfect” but better. Then I decided to look at this bathroom. I thought the most I would find would be some towels on the floor and maybe a set of dirty clothes (Timmy normally takes a bath in the master bathroom if we’re in there or in Laurie’s bathroom if she’s in the Queen room…he rarely takes a bath in his own bathroom). I was a little shocked at what I found.
On the sink were various sizes of bottles, cups and vials filled with some sort of liquid. Some of the liquid was clear while others were green or blue. There was even a 9-volt battery sitting on the sink (it had gotten wet and didn’t look good). I called Timmy and asked him what all this was.
Timmy: “It’s my experiments.”
Me: “Really.” What are you mixing.”
Timmy: “Soap and water and sometimes food coloring.”
Me: “Uh huh. And what are you hoping for?”
Timmy (in a very excited voice): “I’m trying to mix stuff together and have it explode!”

Wow. My son the mad scientist. I explained that mixing soap, water and food coloring wasn’t going to cause an explosion. Timmy seemed a little disappointed. He told me that he mixes the experiments together, leaves them for a few days and then adds stuff to the glasses, bottles and vials. I told him I was impressed with him determination and imagination but that the experiments had to be cleaned up and in the future we needed to discuss his experiments.

I looked in the bathroom today. It’s mostly clean except for some toothpaste in his sink (we’ve been working on that for a while now…and….).