Since I am trying to get my life in order and take care of any unfinished projects, I decided to buy a bookcase of Monday. This bookcase was to solve the problem of hundreds of children's books that have been living in rubbermaid containers since we moved in - yes, that was in January. So, on Monday we headed off to Target (not specifically to find a bookcase, but while we were there we noticed one on sale). For $51 we purchased a little two shelf bookcase for Avery's room. Upon arriving home that evening, Mikey was so excited about this bookcase that he could not even wait until the end of FHE to start assembling it. As he started assembly, the kids began tearing apart every little styrofoam piece from the box. My first reaction was "STOP...I'm the one that has to clean that up." Then I thought, "wow, why don't I be a really fun mom and let them have a little snow party. It is nothing that our vacuum can't handle!" So the kids spent over half an hour in a snowy bliss. I finally decided that it was time to clean up the mess and get the kids into bed, as 8pm had now arrived. First, the kids and I started picking up the bigger pieces. However, due to some physical science electrostatic principle I assume, every piece of styrofoam stuck to our hands. Even when we shook them off, they immediately floated back up and attached to our hands. Avery exclaimed, "magic, mommy!" I began to panic, realizing this little snow party could have greater consequences than originally expected. I ran to the closet and got the vacuum, fired it up, and started working. Unfortunately, it was on this lovely "snowy" night that the vacuum decided to shoot things out rather than suck them up. Imagine an entire family room floor covered in little balls of styrofoam the size of DipNDots. I guess it was fortunate that the hose attachment was still working and Mikey and I preceded to suck up every individual piece of styrofoam on the floor. Lesson learned: Fun mom = stupid mom. Anyway, did the bookcase fun end there? I will continue the saga. After at least an hour of assembling, Mikey was about the attach the final piece and called me over to see what I thought. I immediately noticed that the entire front-side panel was cracked. How he did not notice this, I do not know. With 15 minutes until Target closed, we shoved the bookcase into the back of his Civic...somehow it fit...and Mikey sped off. Upon his return, we assembled the next bookcase together and put it in Avery's room.
As I started putting the books on the shelves in the dark (Avery was asleep in bed), I started feeling a little nauseous from the smell of the bookcase. Thinking it was from the stained wood and that it just needed a little air, we moved Avery into Aidan's room to sleep for the night because of the strong smell. However, in the morning, the smell was stronger than ever. Avery didn't even want to go into her room. I decided to wipe the bookcase down first with Lysol all-purpose cleaner thinking there might be some excess stain. There was, but the smell still remained. I then decided to wipe it down the Febreeze as kind of a long shot. However, the smell only began to increase. By this time, Avery was freaking out because she wanted to play in her room, but it smelled too bad - and I was on the brink of gagging. I moved the bookcase out into the family room, which then became contaminated for the remainder of the day until Mikey came home and helped me return the blasted thing (it was quite heavy and I needed help, otherwise that thing would have been out of my house long before). I don't know how many people recall the similar incident a few months ago when we bought a mirror to go over our fireplace from Bed Bath and Beyond. The mirror had the same odor and we were forced to return it as to not contaminate us or our children. The similarity between the two products: MADE IN CHINA. Need I say more...oh yes, and we have a buy a new vacuum. Such is life.