Is this Serendipity?

Because sometimes I leave stuff around that should have been put away, I need to think on my feet.

Tonight my daughter asked me what this shiny plastic packet was?

So I told her it was a condom.

Next thing both kids are repeating the word 'condom' as if making sure they never forget that word. Before I could follow through imagining embarrassing scenarios where my 2 or 4 year old daughters could use that knowledge,

they ask me "Papi what is it used for?"

Thinking fast I told them it can also be a balloon. A clever evasion if I might say so. I ripped the packet open and continued to demonstrate the inflation of the balloon. "Oooh it's green!" Saffira shrieks gleefully. I stopped blowing when it was getting hard to blow air into it, knotted the end of it and released it.

To my surprise it didn't come down after I released it. I thought maybe the respired air is warm enough so that it's lighter than air (which is heavier 21% oxygen? or 21% CO2 combined with oxygen?). But what happens when the air cools down? I thought maybe the lightglobe might be keeping it warm, but it stayed up even after the light was switched off.


My best hypothesis is using my understanding of the Combined Gas Law (Boyle/Charles/Gay Lussac)  If you squeeze an amount of gas, its temperature increases. I think that somehow the pressure exerted by the stretched material at the correct volume maintains it's temperature. It just also happens that the mass of gas inside the condom plus the mass of the actual condom displaces a heavier amount of surrounding air.

I'm not sure I can replicate this feat. Started out as parenting agility leading into serendipity. What do you think?

  floating condom balloon with nothing but air video here

Parenting 2.0

I've got a decent excuse for not much blogging. I've been so preoccupied with parenting duties that writing has sadly become a lower priority. Today I've made a conscious effort to use the precious relatively uninterrupted alone time I get to tap out a few keystrokes while baby Saffira has her morning nap.

It's been a good 90 minutes so far. I took care of some paperwork, cooked baby food (sweet potato, cabbage, carrot, chicken), and now this blog.

I feel like my brain is slowly turning to mush with a steady diet of kids television and just playing with a 13 month old girl. I can grab snippets of time about 5-15 minute blocks when she entertains herself. But what can I accomplish in 15 minutes? Get a load of washing on the machine -stop. Hang them on the clothesline -stop. Make a sandwich -stop. Read a news article / watch a youtube video / comment and like my friends' Facebook updates -STOP!

However, it does all accumulate. It's just not in one long contiguous block. Is this what it's like to have ADHD? I can't stay focused on a single thing for too long and it takes ages for the gray matter to warm up to a new task or thought.

What I can say is that Parenting 2.0 has allowed me to enjoy Saffira's development so much more. I no longer fret why she is taking so long to develop a particular motor skill, confident that it will all come in time. I get to enjoy her just as she is and just where she is, because once she's moved on, it's gone for good. All that's left is a memory and whatever we've uploaded to youtube. Oh drats, she's awake now, gotta go...