My husband (aka the best husband in the WORLD!), got me a vacuum cleaning robot for Christmas. It has been the most wonderful gift because in addition to never having to vacuum ever again, I have suddenly realized that I have at least an hour more of free time each week. Instead of lugging the vacuum through all three floors of the house at least twice a week (we have a dog and a cat and anything less than that has the whole family walking around covered in fur), I can work on my hobbies, squeeze in a workout, relax with a good book or (what I've been doing a little too much lately) following my little robot around while giggling and drinking a glass of wine.
I have been running my vacuuming robot nearly daily since I got her, but I realized today that she's usually only vacuuming when the boys aren't around (when I'm working from home or after the boys go to bed). Since this week was extra busy, I had forgotten to run her for a few days and I decided a Saturday was as good a day as any to put the robot to work. I set her up to clean the upstairs pretty much as soon as the boys got up in the morning since they hardly ever play upstairs during the day.
We went about our day and I forgot that she had been cleaning upstairs until it was time for bed and the boys found her sitting in her charging base. LB was attracted to the glowing green "CLEAN" button on her middle and he decided to push it. She gives a little chime once her button is pushed and he thought that was pretty funny, so he kept pushing the button to hear it again and again. When he got tired of pushing the button, he stepped away and since she was in the "ON" position at this point, she proceeded to back out of her docking station, spin around and start to vacuum. This scared him to death! He started wailing immediately, but was paralyzed in place, unable to run away from her. I obviously went to rescue him, turned off the robot and he decided that he didn't want to push the button any more.
Then, his big brother appeared and was also attracted to the glowing green "CLEAN" button. He pushed it and smiled as it started zooming around the room, already grilling me in only the way a preschooler can about what it was doing and how it was doing it and why it was doing it. LB meanwhile made a beeline for the closet, yelling "Mommy, HIDE!!"
I went into the closet with him where he was alternating between crying and yelling - "Brother stop push buttons!" and "No push buttons!"
We turned off the robot and reassured LB that she wouldn't do any more vacuuming tonight. Then, he proceeded to grab her virtual wall (it's a little do-dad that lets you break up large areas of the house to tell her where to stop cleaning) and throw it down the stairs where it sprang open and spilled the batteries into the foyer.
I guess I'll continue to vacuum with LB isn't around. His older brother meanwhile is begging me to take the robot to show and tell. =)
No comments:
Post a Comment