Mr. Inventor

Make a Smilebox slideshow

It's just the day after Christmas and it hasn't slowed down Holland. He was out inventing early this morning. My mom came by for breakfast (Egypt invited her) and snapped these pictures of him. I don't even know where he got that hand truck. Do we even own a hand truck? Mom said that she asked what the extension cord was for. He said it was his brake. He tied it to a tree.

Seriously. Discovery Channel hasn't found us yet? Forget balloon boy. Forget the White House crashers. Come find us. We're honest. We're hardworking. We don't try to fool the media. I need a budget for his experiments. He just came downstairs and showed me a boat he made for Egypt's little horses. I gave him a glue gun and some craft sticks for Christmas and he's built a bird house for gramma and now this boat.

Something's Missin'

Somethin's missin' alright. How about my digital camera, half a dozen rechargeable batteries, two night light chargers, and the phone cord. I have no idea what he did with this stuff. The other day, Holland opened a brand new package of No. 2 pencils and used packing tape and some printer paper to make a sail boat for his bath. It's hard not to be irritated. Sure. To you it's probably "fun" and "inventive". To me, it's just annoying to find projects assembled all over the house that use items that I need or destroy things that are still working. My house has become a science lab. Where's Bill Nye the Science Guy when you need him? Why isn't the Discovery Channel knocking on my door to document this? Maybe someday we'll harness his power for the greater good of mankind.

The Mother of All Inventions

When I'm not being irritated by Holland's inventions, I am impressed by his creativity. I don't know how he comes up with the contraptions he does. He usually takes things apart to make new things. His recent projects have included a motor of a fan hooked up to be a weed eater. He's built a luge out of a giant box and a couple of skateboards. He's used his sister's outdoor car, a large golf umbrella a skateboard and some other odds and ends from the garage and built something to ride on that he could actually steer. It's hard not to get annoyed by all this building, especially when he takes things apart that are not broken. I give him lots of opportunities to build (I let him take apart a washing machine for pete's sake!). Finally last night, he built something that I think is my favorite invention so far.

I was getting ready for bed and as is my routine went in to check on all the kids. You know, making sure no one was hanging off a bed or had fallen asleep with a gameboy stuck to their face. I walked into Holland's room and ran into a piece of string tied to his doorknob and was immediately hit with a foam dart. This ingenious inventor had rigged some of my sewing thread to his doorknob and attached it to his dresser and when it was tripped, it fired this foam dart. He asked me in the morning if I liked his trap. I told him I thought it was brilliant. That's when he told me it was actually for his sister!

Now if we could just harness this power for good.....

Rocket Man

Holland is going through another "creative" stage. Half the time I don't even know he's doing something until it's half completed. The other day he built a 'rocket' with a battery attached and a light. He was trying to launch it with a tea light candle (super hero was there, don't worry). But it was funny because he had this curling ribbon attached to it, and a wide area cleared out so if there was "a fire", nothing would get burned. Oh phew. I thought we were going to have to call the fire department. (Good thing I have a friend who's husband wouldn't report me. Right?)

He's built about three different battery operated vehicles inspired by his "Fun with Electricity" class at the co-op. Today he added an attachment to this crossbow he has. The little arrow that shoots out has foam on the tip and he stuck packing tape to it and tied curling ribbon to it. We have a colony of fruit flies that have moved in and he thought if he stuck tape to the tip, and shot it, he could catch the fruit flies and then reel it back in. I thought it was very clever. For the most part his inventions lately do not seem to be as dangerous as they once were.

I think he's matured ;-)

Science Guy

What do you do when your 8 year-old carries a turkey bone around with him? I cooked a turkey on Sunday and Holland was fascinated with the leg bone. I found it upstairs and asked super-hero dad to get rid of it. The next day, he pulled it out of his coat pocket at the therapist's office. Lovely. Let's show off our turkey bone.

He's also been doing a lot of experiments lately. Everything is fair game. He found some popsicle molds and decided he would freeze juice we had brought home from the hospital in those little cups. I said fine he could do that. The next day, he pulls them out of the freezer and told me we could only eat the two on the end because the other 4 were actually colored water. I asked him where he got the food coloring from. He had used ink from a marker to color the water. I'm going to have to put Poison Control on my speed dial. I cannot keep up with him. He wants to freeze things in ice cube trays. He uses syringes to pump water and see if he can get it to shoot something off the end and if so, how far. One day he put 4 different kinds of hair gels, creams and waxes in his hair because he wanted it spikey. It took two days of washing to get it all out. He collected chunks of ice from our 1950's freezer in a fridge we defrosted over the weekend. He wanted to build something out of the ice. But before he remembered he wanted to do that, the ice melted on the table.

Wanna come help me clean up?

Mr. Holland loves to invent things

He loves to try to make something new out of something old. He took apart a ViewMaster and tried to attach something else to make it battery operated. Sounds so creative, doesn't it? Until he does that with things like computers, DVD players, hand held video games and a new Rokenbok toy.

He's on medication to help him sleep. Prior to this, it was a battle of the wills. I almost always lost. He would just NOT go to sleep. It could take 3 or 4 hours for him to settle and fall asleep. It made me nuts because I was exhausted by this time and just wanted to crawl in bed myself.
Aparently, the meds wear off after a certain amount of time. Wouldn't this have been useful information prior to giving him this? It helps them fall asleep, but what they don't tell you is it wears off. Be prepared to wake up at 4, they should have told me. So, he's on a med that wears off and I'm aware of lights on downstairs. As I'm bumping into walls, I keep finding evidence of his presence. Half-empty milk glasses, crackers on the computer table, an attempt to access the internet (I had to lock it with a password because, even tho' the guy can't read, he could figure out how to navigate through websites. scary stuff). Then I see the cords everywhere. An opened portable DVD player with wires and the 2 screens. Cords from tv video games plugged into the tv AND the DVD player. He's also managed to lug down this toy called Rokenbok. It's this remote controlled series of toys that do cool things like dump and pick up and transfer. It's a creative kid's dream come true. Only now it's hooked up to all those other items. He's asleep on the couch. The attempt to build a new X-box (yup, that's what he told me) has worn him to a frazzle and he fell asleep.

Maybe tomorrow he'll invent something really cool.