Smart vs. Beauty OR Mom vs. Too-Smart of a Four Year Old

My soon-to-be 5 year old is smart.  She knows she is smart.  But, she loves to hear me tell her how smart she is.

She comments on how she was a smart baby. She requires that I agree with her.

She comments on how she is smart now because she can do _________ (fill in the blank with anything she knows how to do.)  Once again, I am required to agree with her or she will say it over and over again until I do.

She asks me things like, "Am I smarter than Sister?" to which I usually end up replying, you are both smart, but Sister is older and knows a lot more than you do.  And then she reminds me how smart she was as a baby.

She will announce to me some reason of logic she has come up with.  You can't tell her it is anything otherwise, even if her logic is completely off.  She will simply say, "I know, but___ (and restates her own logic.)  Arguing with her on this point is futile. I just smile and nod.

I didn't want my daughters to grow up with the idea that they should only be beautiful (even though they both are.)  I once read an interesting article written by a Dr. Mom in one of those highly over-priced parenting magazines that:  If we only tell our daughters how beautiful they are, they will think that beauty is the most important thing and they will not work to learn, go to school, or do anything of value with their life.  So, throughout their lives, I've told my daughters not only how beautiful they are, but how smart they are as well.  I've encouraged them to learn anything they want and become whatever they want because they are smart enough to do so.

I think I've created an overly-smart-smarty-pants of a four year old monster.

Lesson in sharing

I got a cold in my doze.

Thank you, my children, for showing me you have learned the lesson so well that I've spent so many years trying to teach you.  You have learned to share.

Unfortunately, you have learned to share your germs and I really didn't need those shared with me.

If you need me, just look for the pile of tissue.  I'm somewhere under there.

Bedtime!

Getting kids to bed is a nightmare.

There is no "sweet dreams" when bedtime comes around.

Bedtime!

Suddenly there are books to bed read and notes from school to be signed.
Suddenly they are hungry for a night-night snack.  Pop-tarts are toasted and eaten.
Suddenly the kids have deep questions about life to ask.  What kind of home does a skunk have? What does a warthog eat?  Can I draw a picture of a spaceship tomorrow? What is a Mobius strip?  Are germs bacteria?  How do you manufacture things to be smooth?  Can you tuck me in?

One daughter goes to the bathroom about 6 times before she settles in for the night.
The same daughter will hug the Hubby and myself when we tell her it is bed time.  She will return later to ask us a question of sorts.  (See one of the questions above.)  She hugs us again.  She goes to use the bathroom for the first time and comes back to tell us good night.  We ask, did you brush your teeth?  She goes to brush her teeth.  She returns to tell us goodnight and get another hug.  If I happen to be wandering the house putting toys (laundry, dishes, etc.) away, she will come and find me for another goodnight hug.  As I walk past her room, she will call out goodnight again and blow me a kiss.  She gets up to go to the bathroom for the second and third time, each time returning to say goodnight.  JUST GO TO BED, ALREADY!

It's not that she is lonely, she shares a room with her 4 year old sister.  If she leaves the room too many times, little sister gets tired of waiting for her roommate and comes to find Hubby or myself to hold her.

Then, we hear them walking around for another half hour.  What are they doing?  My kids walk like elephants and you can hear their every footstep in the house.  It doesn't matter where you or they are in the house, you can hear them walking.  The 14 year old with size 12 feet is particularly bad about that.

We should send them to bed an hour earlier than their bedtime because it takes them that long.

Turtle Monkeys

Each morning, my kids and I hang out at our bus stop, waiting for the school bus.  We live in a forested area.  Being winter, all the leaves are gone and we can see into the dense trees, something you can't do during the other seasons.

I love to look for birds and squirrels as we stand there waiting for the bus.  As far as birds go, we have blue jays, robins, cardinals, sparrows, finches, and woodpeckers.  Squirrels run around the trees and we love to watch them.

For whatever reason, my youngest son began calling the squirrels 'turtle monkeys.'  Today he kept trying to tease me by pointing somewhere in the trees and calling out "There's a turtle monkey!"  And of course, I would look and he would laugh at me.  He asked me if turtles can jump.  No, I say, they can't.  The funny little ideas that go about in kids minds....

Several weeks ago while waiting for the bus, we saw a robin get run over by a car right in front of us.  Miraculously, the robin survived and flew away.  It must have gotten in between the wheels and tossed about by the wind current the car made.  Despite the happy outcome, it was rather traumatic to watch.

Stand at the bus stop.  Learn about life and death, jumping turtles, and the effects of cars on robins.

I can't believe it is February already.  If the groundhogs prediction is in any way accurate, the trees will start to bloom soon.  Spring was early last year and I remember by the end of March, I was planning my garden.  By April, I had been able to plant some things.  I guess it's time to start thinking about those things soon.  Happy Valentines Day!

Pizza Cereal

The other morning, my three year old asked me for pizza for breakfast.  We didn't have pizza.  She asked again for the breakfast pizza.  I had not made a breakfast pizza.  Frustrated with me, she showed me what she wanted - Honey Combs cereal.

Yeah, I guess it kind of looks like little pizzas.  So now, when I list the cereal choices to her, she gets to choose between cocoa bombs, pizza cereal, or the stuff in the red bag.

What to join us for breakfast?

Back on line

I'm so happy to have my computer back.

Today was our last play practice for Auntie M's Christmas play.  This has been a very different kind of play and experience for me.  It's been fun.  I'm not nearly as stressed out as I was last time, but there are a few things that I'm just not sure how they will come together for the play next week.  They may not, and that is OK. 

I didn't want to involve kids younger than six, but instead I ended up with two 4 year olds.  They, actually, are doing great.  Although one of these cute 4 year olds was picking his nose on stage today.  I laughed.  It's amusing to see a shepherd digging for gold.

Next Saturday morning is the big show.  I'm excited for it.  It will be a lot of fun.  The play is short, maybe 25 minutes long, and half of that time is singing Christmas carols.  I'll be glad when it is done.  Since we are moving in three weeks, not having my Saturday mornings free to work on things has been difficult.  I really need to hold a yard sale.  I could just take all the stuff to the local Goodwill, but it would be nice to try and make a little money first.  Moving is so expensive.  Anything extra I can get will help.

This next week will be crazy!  Not bad, just busy.  I bought paint so I can start touching up the walls in the house.  I'll work on painting on Monday.  I'm NOT doing that while all the kids are in the house.

Well, I'm just kind of rambling.  I'll stop that for now.  There is a lot to work on....

I decided not to pull out all the Christmas decorations this year, but I did pull out the tree and put lights on it and the star on top.  That is probably all we'll do with the tree, but it sure is pretty to have my little tree with the blue lights on it.  I love Christmas lights.

Just a funny thing:  Last night I made my oldest son laugh while he had three saltine crackers in his mouth.  Yeah, there was a lot of cracker pieces to clean up, but it sure was funny.

Getting Ready for Halloween

Today is the first day that it has really felt cool out.  I mean, the kids can and still are running around without jackets or shoes so it's not that cold yet. But, it's the first day that I haven't turned on the A/C in the house.

Tomorrow is the first Halloween carnival we will attend.  Actually, there are three, but we will only attend one.  Just two days ago, my 11 year old son finally told me what he wants to be for Halloween.  So, what do my kids want to dress as for Halloween?

Oldest son wanted to dress as Dr. Who.  He's rather obsessed with that show right now.  Sadly, in this warm climate we live in, dark brown overcoats and matching suits with bow ties aren't to be found (for a cheap price, anyway.)  We found a costume online for Dr. Who, but who wants to spend $300 on a costume for a kid that will grow out of it in five months?  He was disappointed, but decided to be Charlie Brown in his Halloween costume.  So, that is a sheet with a bunch of holes cut out of it.  A $4 sheet from the local used clothing store is definitely doable.

Next son took until 2 days ago to tell me he wants to be a pirate.  Well, he can wear his dark pants and white shirt.  A trip to the used clothing store found a brown scrub-like shirt.  With a little help from the old sewing machine, we turned that brown shirt into a vest.  I've got some strips of cloth we can use as a belt.  OK, we're good.

Seven year old daughter.  If you've never seen the movie called "The Worst Witch," I highly recommend it.  It was filmed in the 80's and is about a young girl at a witches academy.  It's got a lot of Harry Potter elements in it, but this was more than a decade before Harry Potter even showed up on bookshelves.  The main witch student is Mildred Hubble.  This is who my daughter wanted to be for Halloween.  We found a women's sleeveless cocktail dress at the used clothing shop and an orange shirt.  They look like the uniforms the girls in the movie wear.  A green ribbon belt and striped stockings finish the costume off. It's cute!

The five year old son has also waited until the last minute to tell me his costume choice  - a ninja.  Not too tough.  Black pants, black shirt, black socks.  We've got that.  I will sew one more element to his costume this afternoon.

Then there is Peanut.  She wanted to be a ballerina.  We have a leotard already from when her big sister was this age.  Some tulle and an elastic made a tutu.  She spent two days already wearing her costume.  Her tutu is looking pretty sad now.  It's OK.  It makes her happy.

I'll wear my purple medieval dress with the huge sleeves.  I'll be Vaire the Weaver from Tolkien's The Silmarillian.

I'm so glad Halloween comes once a year.

The Whirlwind

My three year old is a whirlwind.  She’s as sweet as they come, but a complete whirlwind. 

Each day for the last few weeks, she has taken to sorting through all of our movies.  She pulls each one out and asks me what it is.  Aside from watching a lot of Blues Clues lately, she has also been into watching The NeverEnding Story, Mr. Bean, The Berenstain Bears and Baby Einstien.  The problem is she doesn’t put any of the movies back.  I find them all over the floor.

She does the same with all of the kid books.  This last week, we’ve read Fancy Nancy’s Halloween many times.  There have been a lot of other books we’ve read, too.  They are all over the floor.

She loves to wear shoes that are not her own.  So, all over the living room and dining room I’ll find everyone’s shoes.  Then, when we need to go somewhere, I can’t find her shoes because she took them off in some odd place so she could put on her brother’s shoes.

She can make a mess of toys in her room faster than a desert dust devil.  It’s a talent.

She loves to tell knock, knock jokes.  Some of them are quite funny.  Most of them don’t make sense, but you laugh anyway because her delivery of the joke is fantastic.

She cut some of her hair this week.  It’s never good when a three year old cuts their own hair, but she didn’t do a bad job, surprisingly.  They are almost like bangs.  I don’t mind bangs, but when the rest of her hair reaches the middle of her back, a small section of above the eyebrow bangs is very short.

She thinks that she is going to grow up into a baby.  Nothing you can say will change her mind on this.  She often tells me that when she grows up into a baby, she will have a bottle, wear baby clothes, and play with baby toys.  You just have to agree with her.  She can’t be swayed in her idea.

She climbed into some of the cupboards recently to get food coloring.  She applied it very well and didn’t make a mess of it.  I just wish she had not done that.

My little Peanut, what a gal.

more scrat attack

Here are more of my daughter's amazing scrat creations!

Army Scrat

(don't you love his camo helmet?)

Ballerina Scrat

So lovely on her tippy toes.

Howday y'all, it's Cowboy Scrat.

"This acron is highly illogical," says the Vulcan Scrat.

Stay out of his way, young whippersnappers, it's Grandpa Scrat.

Scrat Attack

Have you ever seen the movie(s) Ice Age?  If so, you are familiar with the little character known only as "Scrat".

There he is.  Well, several months ago, my 7 year old daughter saw a short episode about how to draw Scrat.  She developed and perfected her own version of Scrat.  I would like to present, for your enjoyment, several of her Scrat characters.

Sherlock Holmes Scrat

Mummy Scrat

The Pink Panther Scrat

Indiana Jones Scrat

Then, today I found one more page of her scrat drawings.  We are Whose Line is it Anyway? fans.  So, finding this page was too funny.  Among the Whose Line Scrats, you can see:

Ryan, who is often seen drinking his glass of water through out the show.

Colin with his amazing crazy shirts.

And Greg with his totally awesome hair.

This daughter has drawn so many of these fantastic scrat characters.  There are princess scrats, grandpa and grandma scrats, a Hobbit scrat, a Spock (Star Trek) scrat, a Sith Lord (Star Wars) scrat, a Boy Scout scrat and many more.  What talent. Who knows... maybe she will do art for animated movies when she grows up.  Until then, she keeps us very entertained with all her many scrats.

(Picture of Ice Age Scrat from http://desktopia.net/cartoons/cute-scrat-ice-age-desktop-wallpaper)

Jokes, Hair and Shirts

All from this morning:

Presenting for your entertainment and confusion, a knock knock joke from my 5 year old.

Knock knock
Who's there?
School
School who?
Who!

Get it?  School Who!  He laughed and laughed over that one.  I stood still; stunned in my confusion.  What?

As 11 year old son gets ready to head out the door for school, I noticed he was wearing the shirt he wore yesterday.  Go Change!  He changes shirts and I notice his hair.  It's looking slightly wet, like he wiped a wet washcloth over his head.  Did you brush you hair?  Nope, he just wet down his hands and used the palms of his hands to flatten his hair.  Go Brush!

I'm driving 13 year old son to school this morning.  I check the rear view mirror and notice son sitting in the back of the van.  His hair is sticking up in the back with bad bed head.  Did you brush your hair this morning?  No?  Well, it's too late now.

Why is it every morning I have to remind my two sons to brush their hair and change their shirts?  They have been doing the same routine every school morning for many years and yet every single day I have to remind them to change their shirts and brush their hair.

I'm sorry to their future wives.  I tried to teach them.  Maybe you will have better luck.

Toilet Paper

My children are a major source of my personal entertainment.  They are also the source of my biggest frustrations.  What is really incredible, though, is how the kids can be entertaining and frustrating at the same time.

Do you know how much water 5 brand new rolls of toilet paper can hold?
A LOT!
How do I know this?  I found 5 new rolls of toilet paper, heavily laden with water, resting at the bottom of a full bath tub after my youngest son’s last bath.

It was so funny and so frustrating at the same time.  I hate the waste of all that toilet paper, but I certainly found it amusing enough to take a picture of it.

Enjoy!

Four of the rolls have had most of their water squeezed out, one is still full.

Can you guess which one?

My kids, keeping me laughing

Kids are funny creatures.

Have I mentioned recently how funny my kids are?  They keep me laughing.  I have, over the years, loved to watch each of my children's personalities develop and with that, their sense of humor.  We have some very different personalities in this family.  They are all wonderful.  This summer has been an especially funny one with my kids and I'll share a few examples of why.

My three year old.  She is mature beyond her age in many ways.  I guess that's what happens when you are child #5.  Her ability to communicate is incredible and she has the most interesting things to say.  One new phrase from this summer has been, "That was suppose to be funny."  She uses it when she says something that she thinks we should be laughing at and we don't give her the kind of response she wants.  She will tell us that it was suppose to be funny.   That is funny to hear her say, so  we laugh and she is happy with us.

The five year old son.  This guy is sweet and quiet.   He loves physical comedy.  He doesn't often get word jokes and when he tries to tell jokes, you just have to laugh because they make no sense at all. 
Here is an example:  Why did the chicken cross the road?  To go find the boss (a bad guy in his favorite computer games.)  Yep, not at all funny and yet, hilarious!

The seven year old daughter.  She is a smart, chatty, creative girl.  In the last few months, I started playing some improv acting games with the kids.  They love it.  How often does mom encourage them to be totally goofy? (OK, I admit, these games are so I can be completely goofy.)  The games have really been an eye opener for me, though, and I continue to learn more about the personal character of each of my children through the acting characters they create.  That in itself is a whole other burrito, though.  So, the other day we were playing one of our games.  I let the kids pick any kind of character they want, but if they have trouble coming up with ideas, I have a bowl with strips of paper with ideas, a cowboy, a pirate and such.  So the other day, this daughter started doing her character and we just couldn't figure out what she was doing.  We tried to play along, but finally we asked what she was doing.  She told us she was being her dad when he was a little boy.  We were befuddled at this so she showed us her suggestion: Really Old Person.  Apparently to this 7 year old, my 36 year old Hubby is an incredibly old person.  I about fell to the floor with laughter.  Poor Hubby.  He didn't find it quite as amusing.

The 11 year old son.  Here is another quiet guy.  He doesn't often have much to say, but when he does, he can be quite funny.  He can also pull the funniest faces.  Yesterday, we were at a big shopping center.  He was waiting for a haircut and I was waiting just outside with the little kids hanging out in the shopping basket.  I look over at this son and he peeks around the corner and pulls one of his funny faces.  Of course, that gets me laughing.  So, he does it over and over again, each time with a different face.  I'm laughing and I'm sure everyone around me was thinking that lady is crazy.

The 13 year old boy.  Here is a natural ham if ever I saw one.  Not only is he quick with a joke, he is quick to laugh and I LOVE to make him laugh because his laugh is so funny.  He and I have a few running jokes and more than once, I'm proud to say, I've made him snort his drink through his nose. I would love to tell some of the jokes we have going, but the set up would take so long to write down.  He is just a funny kid and his current lankiness that being a teen in a tall body that he can't seem to control makes him even funnier.  When I did my theater in June, I convinced him to do a pre-show act for me.  Ok, I practically begged.  He finally agreed to do one.  Well, I have to say, he stole the show.  I need to send him to his two uncles, my brothers.  Hams all around.

I could go on and on about the funny things that go on in this house.  I just need to write it all down, then someday I'll have enough material for an awesome humor book.  Then I'll make millions!
Evil laugh: Mwuhaha!!!

Ireland smells like what?

My oldest son always keeps me entertained. He is clever and can be very funny. He will be turning 13 in two weeks!!!! When did he get old enough to be a teenager?


I recently had all the kids with me during a shopping trip. That is always an adventure. My oldest son told me he needed some new deodorant and asked if he could pick out some. Yes, son, please do! He picked one up and smelled it, picked up another and smelled it and this went on until he found one he liked. I’m not trying to promote a brand here, but for the purpose of the story, you must know that the deodorant he picked out was Irish Spring.

He started reading the label on the deodorant to me. It says, “This here’s the classic freshness of Ireland that gives you a crisp clean scent. Be ready lad, it’s been known to bring out the lasses. Start your day like a true Irishman and get fresh with Irish Spring antiperspirant.”

Now, I’ve never been to Ireland, but I didn’t think it smelled like deodorant. The people I know who have been to Ireland never told me about this. True Irishmen wear Irish Spring deodorant? I had no idea that an entire country of men wear the same antiperspirant. It brings out the lasses? Wow. Maybe I shouldn’t be letting my 13 year old wear this.

In my previous post, I mentioned the word “oxter” (Gaelic for armpit). This son loves to announce to me his oxter’s smell like Ireland. This sets his sister into a fit of giggles. I’m just pleased he is wearing deodorant.

Amazing disappearing English words

English is full of amazing words.  Sadly, some of the best words are hardly used.  They have fallen out of favor among public usage.  The kids and I were folding laundry the other day.  I don't remember why, but I was able to fit the word "brouhaha" into the conversation.  My kids laughed at the word and asked for it's definition.

I know how the word is used, but I was having a hard time coming up with a good definition for the kids.  I went through several synonyms trying to come up with the best way to describe brouhaha including "disturbance."  My 11 year old son, who had just been playing a Star Wars game, announced, "I sense a brouhaha in the Force."

I laughed so hard at his cleverness.  Of course, that got us started on other great English words including:  balderdash, snottor, oxter, and vomitory!  Snottor is Old English for "wise" and my older son used the word appropriately with the conversation when he told us his Jedi Master is very snotter (continuing with the Star Wars theme.)  Oxter is a Gaelic word (I know, it's not English), and it means "armpit."  You can imagine how much the kids love being able to use that one.  "Did you wash your oxters today?"  And of course vomitory.  It means a large passageway at an arena.  That one is harder to fit into everyday conversation.

So many great words.... so few opportunities to use them.

The Boy and The Watcher

Are you familiar with The Watcher from the Lord of the Rings?
This is The Watcher in the Water:

My 5 year old son is quite fascinated by this creature.  The Watcher has become the leading character in many of his favorite stories.  Months ago he started asking me for stories about himself and his buddy, The Watcher.  So, I adapted many fairy tales to fit his requests.  We had CinderWatcher, The Watcher and the Three Billy Goats, Sleeping Watcher, and so on.

I love coming up with these stories because I always make The Watcher capture some poor character, hold them by the legs and hang them upside down over his mouth (like The Watcher does to Frodo in The Fellowship of the Ring.)  My son gets a kick out those moments in the story. 

Yesterday my son asked me to tell him a new Watcher story.  We were in the car in between piano lessons and cello lessons.  The story began and The Boy and The Watcher headed out to find the three lost magical stones.  The green stone was to be found in the Dark Forest.  The blue stone was found in the deep, mysterious Loch Ness and the brown stone was to be found in the sand dunes of New Mexico.

My son enjoyed the story, but I don't think he liked it as much as I enjoyed telling it.  I especially liked when The Watcher visits Loch Ness and is reunited with this old buddy The Loch Ness Monster.

My children love stuffed animals and Hubby and myself have tried over the years to find one or two special stuffed animals that fit the personality of each child.  This particular son has an octopus, but it isn't an octopus, it's The Watcher!

Pulp Non-Fiction

When it comes to kids, you just can't make this stuff up.

I had the bright idea of giving my daughter, who gets bored very quickly, a jar of ideas.  In the jar were slips of paper.  Each paper had an idea of an activity that she could do.  One idea was to make a boat and see if it floats.  Sounds like a great idea, right?

So Daughter got a shoe box and cut the lid off.  She poked a stick into the lid and taped a piece of paper to the stick.  So, we have a boat (box lid), with a stick mast and a paper sail.  She proceeded to fill the bathtub with water.  The younger two kids decided to join in on the fun.  They all changed into swim suits and hopped into the bath.

The boat was set afloat and they all had a wonderful time splashing, playing and sailing their boat.  I didn't give it much thought.  I was happy they were in the tub getting clean.  Well, when I finally went to check on them, the boat was gone.  It didn't sink.... It wasn't tossed out of the tub.... It had disintegrated.  I got the kids out of the tub and sent to their rooms to get dressed.

What to do?  I didn't want to pull the plug on the tub.  I didn't want all that box pulp going down the drain.  So, to the kitchen I went and got the pasta strainer.  Using the strainer, I scooped up pulp out of the tub and emptied it into a bucket. 

After I was done scooping all the pulp out, I thought about giving the bucket of pulp to the kids and let them try and make their own paper.  Then I decided I had cleaned up the pulp mess once, I wasn't going to do it again.

So, Hubby, the great dad that he is, gave our daughter a scrap piece of wood.  He drilled a hole in the top for her stick mast and paper sail.  Last I saw, the new boat was happily floating in the bathroom sink.

Word Games

As a family, we have for many years played word games around the dinner table and traveling in the car. Most of them are alphabet games. For example, the subject will be food, so we will go around the table each naming a food that starts with the next letter in the alphabet. So, Hubby will start with A and he’ll say Asparagus, then it will go to oldest son whose letter is B and he will say Banana and so on around the table. The more creative you can get with your food names, the better. Some are tough and some kids struggle more than others to come up with a good word for the letter. Even Hubby and I struggle sometimes to come up with something.


We’ve played this game with many different topics. Sometimes we’ll pick something easy like food so everyone in the family can participate, but sometimes when it’s just Hubby, Oldest Son and I playing, we’ll try a more challenging topic. We have great fun. My son’s teachers have told us over the years they are amazed with his vocabulary and we think some of this success is because of this silly game.

Well, in recent months, we’ve been watching a family favorite TV show whose entire premise is funny games. So, lately we have had many meals where we speak only in questions. It’s tough and pretty funny.

Last night we tried a new variation on the game with song titles (stealing the idea right from the show). This was really hard. I know a lot of music and a lot of songs, but when you are under pressure, it can be hard to come up with one that makes sense with the situation we are trying to talk about. Last night’s topic was “At the amusement park”. The beginning was easy. I was able to come up with “Ticket to Ride” and “Tunnel of Love”, but after that, it got harder. My second son struggled with this game and managed to come up with only two song titles, but his were the best. At one point in the game, there was a long pause as we all were thinking of a good song title. Second son looked at us and said, “Word Up?” At the end of the game when we all gave up, this same son points to his older brother and declares, “Super Freak.” Fabulous!!!

Such Crafty Kids

I have a little bucket that I keep some general craft supplies in - googly eyes, pompoms, glue sticks, beads, ribbons, foam stickers, scissors, that sort of thing.  It has a place in the closet next to the construction paper.  This past weekend, my youngest kids re-discovered this bucket of fun.

(Also kept within the bucket is the hot glue gun. I should probably take it out, but when I need it, I know it is there.  If I put it in a new spot, I'll never remember where it is.  Today, my youngest pulled out the hot glue gun and asked me what it was.  I told her it's a hot glue gun.  My 5 year old yelled out excitedly, "It's a gun?!"

Yeah, well, sort of.  That's a boy for you, I guess.)

I have a love/hate relationship with the bucket of fun. I love when they pull it out and are creatively making things with it. I hate the mess. When they pull that thing out the creative destruction is huge. Guess who cleans it all up...  I'll give you a hint, it's not the kids.


That's OK though. I really love to see their creative juices oozing onto their project in front of them. My 5 year old son made the coolest little race car out of paper and a black foam sheet. It was decorated with foam stickers and had a few beads glued onto it. So creative.

Right now the three year old is sitting at the table, bucket of fun in front of her and a bottle of glue in her hands.  I want to go re-claim the kitchen table, but who can squash such creativity?

Sharing isn't nice

According to my two year old, who will be three in one week, sharing isn't very nice.

At church, she is in the nursery.  It seems every single week, she has an issue with sharing the toys.  The Nursery Leader told me that she will have six or seven toys with her where she is playing.  Even if she isn't playing with a specific toy, if one of the other kids takes it, she lets out a scream.  Every week the Leader has to remind her that she needs to share.

Yesterday, the Nursery Leader and I were visiting.  She told me how she has this problem with Peanut each week.  It seems that Peanut wasn't playing with a toy and another little girl took it.  The Leader reminded Peanut, again, that she needs to share and Peanut said no.  Later, the little girl brought the toy back and handed it nicely to Peanut.  The Leader said to Peanut, "There, isn't it nice to share?"

Peanut replied, "It is for her."