Farts

Farts a a great subject. If someone really doesn't want to discuss farting, then they are a little tight - you know what I mean. You simply can't say (or read) the word with out smiling a little.

My toy, which I really hope to launch before the end of April and I promise to tell you all about it when it happens, farts. So frankly, farting is on my brain a lot lately. Right now I feel like the toy company is a compressed fart waiting to explode. Amazingly, the toy is stuck in the purgatory of Chinese Bureaucracy at the moment. For those who have adopted from China, you know the hell I'm talking about. The toy is undergoing safety inspection, for lead, although it has no paint or lead. Got to love it!

I've been reaching out to a few charities that I would like to donate a portion of the toys' profit to; making sure they are cool with me listing them on the business site and such. It is an interesting conversation. They love the toy, they love any hope of getting more money. They are a bit suspicious of being associated with farting. However, they get the rest of the toy/company concept so are going along with it. Three of four I approached have said yes. Just waiting on the last one.

I now talk about farting daily. Pretty much think about it every hour. I hope to make a business that uses farts as a personal growth tool. How sick is that!

My eldest, DS1, loves a good fart. He enjoys making jokes about it, blaming it on someone else, and just giggling. The first time my eldest tried to deny he farted, he blamed it on a glass fish we had in the living room. I tried to explain there was no way the inanimate object farted. Then he blamed it on me and I assured him, I would know if I had farted. Finally, he owned it.

Last week the toy went to preschool - my first unit off the production run, as you know the rest are lonely in China, or else the inspection group is laughing their heads off - and it almost started a riot. I had a hard time getting it back from the kids. I also read the kids a story I had written about the toy; the "back story" if you will, and they loved it. They even helped me make fart sounds in the appropriate places. Again, I must say my son has the best preschool teacher ever to let me do this. So I am hopeful about this new adventure.

Amazingly the little guy has just put 2 + 2 together in understand that it is his body creating the eruption. He is surprised when it occurs, but happy and amazingly proud of the accomplishment. The little guy didn't put it all together until he farted in the bathtub recently. He felt the bubbles, saw the bubbles, giggled, then looked to me for an explanation. Although they share the tub, they don't mind if the other farts. Boys!

Some days I just need the hope and giggle of farts with the rest of the crap I deal with; starting two business, trying to figure out what to cook for dinner, facing the gym (right! facing the hope of going again some day1), finding things to do with the boys, trying anything to stimulate the little man's speech. Today, I'm frustrated; I just wasn't expecting to be back in Chinese bureaucratic purgatory. I know, this too shall pass. And then I will be all happy farts again.