Tyler Tames the Roomba

Maniacal toddler giggling indicates trouble for the robots.

According to the perpetrator's mother, she was upstairs starting a load of laundry when the trouble began.

Mrs. Jaime X came downstairs to find that Tyler, 22 months, had trapped the family's Roomba in a hula hoop. The Roomba, a robot vacuum cleaner that is vital to Mrs. X's sanity, was patiently and thoroughly cleaning a circle of the living room floor while waiting to be rescued.

Upon relieving the toddler of his purple and gold hula hoop, Mrs. X reports, he began a tantrum only to become distracted by a laundry basket, always a favorite toy for the toddler. Dumping a clean load of clothes on the dirty kitchen floor, Tyler began alternately wearing and throwing the laundry basket.

As Mrs. X was blogging an incident report, she caught site of a very lively laundry basket that appeared to be moving about the living room on its own power. Because the Roomba was prevented from cleaning under the sofa with its odd and uncomfortable-looking new hat, Mrs. X was forced to confiscate the laundry basket as well.

Sadly, Tyler resorted to chasing the Roomba around the living room empty-handed, and only giggling when the Roomba reached a corner and turned to "chase" the toddler.

In previous incidents, Tyler has been known to move one of the Roomba's control towers just long enough for the Roomba to move into a corner. If it was funny to see a Roomba trapped in a hula hoop, you should've seen it trapped in a corner where it didn't even have room to turn around!