Trucks Need to Rest Too

Dig Dig Digging has and is a favorite book of both of our kids. Carter has recently taken a concept from it and applied it to his pre-nap and pre-bedtime routine.

The end of the book talks about how at the end of a busy day the trucks rest, so Carter has made it his job to park some of his trucks every time he goes down for a nap or bed for the night. For whatever reason, he parks all of them in the hospital parking lot on his city/streets play mat.

Then, when he wakes up and we get him out of his crib, his first task is to wake-up his trucks and move them someplace else on his play mat.

Today they drove to the park.

What Is the Shape?

We were just putting the wooden blocks back into their box, which is a bit of a puzzle to solve. Ashlynn put two triangles together (she's known her shapes for years but it's always important to keep practicing vocabulary!). We asked her what shape she made. While we were expecting her to say "square" she first enthusiastically replied, "quadrilateral" and then "rhombus", which are both technically correct.

Isn't it funny how as we learn, we sometimes forget the simple things?

Making Mistakes

It is not easy to be a parent.

One of the times when that is the case is when you have to let your child make their own mistakes. This is something that I'm not always good at (and sometimes rather terrible at).

Luckily, the mistakes my kids make that I need to allow to happen are really quite small. (I look at the parents of teens and adults and wonder how hard it must be when they have to let their kids learn "the hard way" on bigger stuff. Although, looking at our world, I kind of wonder if not enough parents allow this to happen. But, I'm not going on about that now!)

This afternoon, I had to use self-control to allow Ashlynn to make some mistakes.

She was painting a picture of Hello Kitty on the easel in the backyard. She first sketched it out with pencil and then started adding the paint.

(Here she went back to draw a bow.)
She loves adding details to her artwork, but she didn't want to take my advice that the giant paintbrush she was using would not allow her to paint the small details she had planned.

The sweet kitty mouth she had hoped for ended up as a big red blob.

She was really disappointed that she had "ruined" her artwork and wanted me to fix it. I knew that it would be a pain, but I *could* fix it with a piece of white paper covering the blob. I decided not to fix it (even though it pained me because I saw how much time she had put into the artwork).

But we talked about what she learned from her mistake. In this case, it was simply that she needs to use a smaller brush when she adds detail.
I wish all lessons could be learned so painlessly!

A Split Chin

Our little boy fell this morning and split his chin open. He was walking from the banquette to a dining room chair, slipped, and split his chin on the edge of the table. It looked pretty nasty so Eric took him to urgent care.

The doctor wasn't going to be able to sew up the chin of a very upset and wiggly 2 1/2 year old, so they used medical glue and butterfly bandages.

After getting home, he ate a good lunch (but wouldn't let me wipe his face) and then went down for a nap.

Poor guy.

Ah, the joys of parenthood!

Five and a Third!

Ashlynn is 5 1/3 today so we celebrated with a fancy breakfast of chocolate chip muffin, bacon, and tea (not shown). Life is worth celebrating!

Painting al Fresco

On Tuesday the weather was so nice that Carter painted al fresco.

I'd like to say this is something we do frequently... but it's not.

I suppose there's no point in feeling guilty about it. I just need to do these things.

Even if they're messy.

Carter had a blast.
Well, until he wanted me to open more containers of paint than I had paint brushes. At that point, it all went downhill and I was reminded that 2 1/2 year olds can fall apart at any time (and to not take out the whole box of paints next time).

But this post isn't about Carter's tantrum; it's about a nice day painting outside. (Isn't it nice how photos can tell the story you want to tell and you can eventually forget the rest?)
Ain't he cute?

My Stupid Phone

My stupid phone broke yesterday.

Now when I say "stupid phone" I mean that is not a "smart phone". You know, like the kind of phone that it seems that *everyone* except Eric and I have.

Yep, my flip phone (circa 2008?) broke at the hinge and I don't think it's an easy fix.

It's a bummer.

You see, Eric and I would both love to have a super cool smart phone (think how often I would be able to check facebook with that sucker!) but the monthly fees are more than we should be spending on cell phones. We *could* technically afford them but it wouldn't be the responsible thing to do... and if you know us well, you know we are pretty good about being "responsible" and "practical". We rarely splurge on anything. Heck, the only apple product we own is a 3 or 4 year old ipod shuffle. (Read: if you are a burglar, don't bother with our place.)

So, I should just go pick up a new flip phone (if they still make them), right?

This is 2011, right?

Ugh.

Am I going to buy a new flip phone in 2011?

Ugh.

I am so sad my phone broke. Really. I would have been happy to continue using my old one and enjoy our $60/ month cell phone bill (yep for both phones... no, we don't even have a texting plan). Now I have to decide if I buy a new old-fashioned cell phone or make our budget even tighter and have a fancy phone.

Some decisions in life are just not easy.