one of those

Some days you need a reminder that your kid is cute and fun, just two after all, and not deliberately making you miserable with the most ridiculous, terrible, clichéd garbage you never thought would be a part of your reality. Let me paint you a little picture. A woman is wearing an outfit cobbled together of things that were left downstairs when the rest of the laundry was taken up to be put away. She has an infant in a carrier on her front, and she is holding a small boy up in front of her. They are in a mall. The small boy is screaming. Is she swinging him, for fun? Is he screaming with delight? Oh no. No, no, no. Also, the baby is crying. 

We're having one of those days. One of those everything-goes-wrong kind of days where you try to turn it around with a trip to the Children's Museum but that doesn't work out either, and you resort to the mall's play area which proves to be your gravest error yet. A day when you beg the universe for a break and instead get a diarrheal cat. 

If you'd have seen me moments prior to the swinging/screaming scene, you'd have caught me calmly saying, over the fussing directly beneath my face, George, I know you're disappointed, but we will walk until Zelda falls asleep and then come back to the play area. Let's find a place to buy a snack. You would've seen me try to quiet the fussing with a quick nurse, then hurriedly corral one boob back into my shirt while I chased after my toddler who had seized a golden opportunity and run off. I was doing pretty well...and then I wasn't.

His priorities are not your priorities, I repeated to myself, as I carried him to the car. It didn't make me any less frustrated. For all the gentle parenting resources I could list, all the redirection and communication tactics I know, sometimes I'm still that lady. The "did you see that lady?" lady. Ach.

So I put him to bed when we got home -- a nap was sorely needed -- and looked at these photos of the art project we did yesterday. An exercise in tape and placement. I asked him: Would you like to make a pond or a tree? I cut out shapes and he put them where he wanted. We taped them on, one by one, together, and with markers he added some eyes to the fish, some bubbles.

The pride on that face. To say he was pleased with himself would be an understatement. I thought because he's not able to draw figures that look like figures yet his finished product would be more abstract, less "correct" about where everything went. But sand was at the bottom, the frog was at the top, and the plant was planted right in the dirt. Go figure.

He's pretty alright, that boy. Even though he tees me right off sometimes. He apologized, by the way. I'm sorry, Mama. Sorry for being a rascal.

I know, I said. Let's just try again. 

do you hear that, world?

First, he said he was painting a picture of Mama. Here's one eye, and two eyes, and hair and some legs.

I asked again: "What are you painting?" This is a tree. Here are some leaf-es.

I'm painting like an artist, he said. "When you're painting, you are an artist," I told him. Do you hear that, world? I'm AM an artist, he replied. He doesn't quite grasp contractions yet.

I couldn't make that shit up.

When he was finished, he explained that he'd painted a picture of Mama and Zelda, when Zelda was in Mama's belly. It sure was purple in there, he told me.

a pony bead mobile

Way back last winter when we were dying for new indoor activities, I bought a container of pony beads for George to string on pipecleaners. He enjoyed it for a little while but got good at it pretty fast and then the activity lost its charm. I'd bookmarked The Artful Parent's pony bead suncatcher tutorial and, though our beads weren't the translucent variety, thought we'd make a go of it anyway. George really likes playing with cookie cutters so even if the end result was a bust, I knew he'd have fun in the process. 

The beads we have are a rainbow assortment which was good for our purposes. Older kids would enjoy making shapes or scenes out of the different colors, but "can you put another purple one into the star?" type stuff seemed to help George feel successful while still being mildly educational since he's got colors and shapes down pretty solidly.

We talked about putting them into the hot oven (400 degrees for 20 minutes) so they would melt, and I asked him what he thought would happen to the beads -- would the colors blend together or would they stay separate? He's been pretty interested in cooking recently so I likened it to making a pizza, where the ingredients stay identifiable, or making a cake, where the ingredients blend together to make something that looks different. 

Meanwhile, Zelda chewed on a cookie cutter. I let George choose which cutters we used, and he picked all of the Hanukkah shapes: dreidel, star of David, scrolls, and menorah, in addition to some ovals. Weird, but whatever.

I got out the drill and a small bit and drilled holes in the finished shapes. This was easily the least popular part of the whole process. Zelda whimpered in fear and George cowered in the doorway saying, "do it fast!" After fastening on some fishing line and snipping the top ring out of an old oats canister, I tied them uniformly around the ring and added a bit of yarn for hanging. I'm not sure how long it'll last, but it's a pretty cute little mobile.

Festive! And only four months early for Hanukkah. We'll totally do it again, but with the translucent beads. Guess who's proud of his handiwork?

outsiders

Our back yard is a major work in progress. We don't own our house, but I've always been a fixer-upper of my living spaces, regardless of whether or not they are technically mine. What matters, as far as I'm concerned, is that we enjoy and really inhabit our home; the walls can return to white when we're ready to leave. 

This summer will be George's first as an appreciator of the outdoors. Last summer he was pretty little and we spent some time outside but the hats' chinstraps were annoying and he'd grown so adept at shoving things into his mouth in a single motion that, when surrounded by grass and pebbles and mulch, Mama and Papa didn't stand a chance in the battle against mouthfuls of nature. This time around, he's more trustworthy on his own and I'm looking forward to watching his sandy hair turn yellower in the sun while we play with the chickens and spray each other instead of watering the garden. I decided he needed some backyard activities, and the obvious choices were a given: sand box, water table. But somewhere I saw a photo of kids playing with an oversized chalkboard and it looked like just the creative outlet to complete our backyard kid oasis. 

It was simple and the materials cheaply bought: $8 for the paint and $6 for the board, plus a bucket and a package of sidewalk chalk from the dollar store, bringing the total to $16. We had the rope and screws, but I suppose if you didn't, it would be another dollar or so. I wanted it to be steady, as our yard isn't the most level surface, so we drilled it into the fence and nailed the rope into the fence behind the chalkboard. 

George is big into putting things away, so half the fun seems to be in choosing a chalk, then putting it back in the bucket and choosing another. He took to it with no direction, which is, to me, the hallmark of a good play space, one that will actually get use. 

Hanging out with the whole family outside this evening was so fun, and made the coming warm months even more exciting. I can't wait until our garden is in full effect, when we can pick dinner from the ground while the baby colors in chalk and the chickens cluck around our feet, pecking for bugs. 

Feel free to stop by; we'll just be chillaxin' out back. 

winner winner (fake) chicken dinner!

 Well, friends, it's been a hell of a day. George was up all night on a barfing spree and none of us slept. I watched a lot of Ugly Betty on Netflix and waited for the projectile second-hand milk to flow, which it did. And did. And did. Along about 7am, Nathan got a sub and put George in the sling while I got a precious couple hours of sleep. 

So, whatever I did to bring this bout of nastiness down on our heads will, with any luck, be righted with this giveaway and super-bonus-extra surprise. You hear that, universe? WE'RE SQUARE. 

Without further ado, via random.org, the winner is...

Morgan!!! 

Check your email, girl. 

It kinda pained me not to give one to all of you who entered, so in case your heart was set and luck wasn't on your side, Roosevelvet is offering a 20% discount on your entire purchase with coupon code VVF20. Use it through the end of March with my compliments. xoxox