Meet Bumbles.


He's been a part of our family since he joined us, along with his friend Rudolph, on New Year's Eve, a gift from a friend to the girls. Rudolph, sadly, is no longer with us thanks to a bizarre kitchen sink accident The Caterpillar tried to save him from helped him encounter. Let's just say he lost his head over it.

The Best Thing about those grow 600% its size when placed in water toys is that you can submerge only a portion of the toy in water and make hilarious anatomy.


Bumbles has had giant feet with a tiny head. A giant head with tiny feet. One giant foot and one giant hand on opposite sides of his body. Giant head and hand with tiny feet and one tiny hand. Giant upper body and tiny legs... etc., etc. I haven't yet found a way to just make his mouth grow yet, but I'm sure we will.

The Worst Thing about those grow 600% its size when placed in water toys, I used to think, is that they don't grow to anywhere near 600% of their size. I'd say the largest we've been able to get out of him has been somewhere between 150% and 200% of his original size. Which, while impressive, is NOT IMPRESSIVE ENOUGH.

The other day we were going about our nighttime routine (i.e., screaming at the children to stop wandering around the kitchen and get into the bathtub) and The Caterpillar wandered into the kitchen with a glass of water in her hand. She paused, projectile vomited onto the floor, and then continued her path through the kitchen like nothing had happened. It was like someone hit a button on a remote control and then she resumed her normal programming.

She hadn't been acting sick - and still wasn't - so we went to investigate and found that the glass of water in her hand was actually Bumbles and the pool of his own filth he'd been soaking in for the past two weeks.

"Oh, honey, were you drinking this?"

"Don't take away MY WAAAATTTEEEER! I'm THIRRRRRSTTEEEE!"

Mystery solved.

So I now have a new Worst Thing about those grow 600% its size when placed in water toys. But the new Best Thing about those grow 600% its size when placed in water toys? When I looked them up on the internet I found that most of them are non-toxic.

Moral of the story: Never drink Bumbles' bathwater.