The Projects

My children love to do art projects.  They really, really love them.  It's wonderful - all this creativity and fine motor skill development!  I feel like such a good mom when they are happily engaged in some kind of project.

It's also messy, so sometimes, I just tell myself that this is why we pay for them to go to preschool two mornings a week, and I tell them to go find their trains or trucks, or anything that I don't have to wash off of them when they're done.  And just to be clear, "art project" does not include coloring.  That's not a project, apparently.  The Bean knows about this stuff and has advised me accordingly. At school, they can paint, cut, and glue to their hearts' content and someone else has to clean up the floors, walls, ceiling, and at least nominally, the kid.  The boys have specifically designated school clothes that are permanently paint-stained, so I don't worry too much about the kid part of the clean up.

The boys are SUPER excited about Easter coming up!  We're doing Easter-themed art projects and playing with the 187,000 plastic eggs rolling around the house.   So, I'm getting tired of hiding plastic Easter eggs.  It's a fun game, but a person can only find so many hiding spots no more than three feet off the floor before the kids start finding the things too fast.  I suggest a new, cool project.  I take out the paint.  My kids are so excited to see that little tray of watercolors and the cups of clean water and brushes!  I give them sheets of construction paper and set them up on the patio to paint.

(If you rarely give your kids paint, when you do, it will occupy them for an hour, at least.  Yay!)

Now, I'm trying to decide how to turn this into an Easter project.  Then, I have a brainstorm.  I cut baskets out of brown paper and cut up the watercolored papers into eggs...voila!

The boys are thrilled, and I'm feeling pretty clever!  Win-win!

In case you want to try this:
1. Paint construction paper with watercolors.  The more paint the better.
2. Cut basket out of a full sheet of paper.  Make sure you leave space for the eggs to be glued on.
3. After the watercolor papers have dried, cut them up into eggs and glue into the basket.

FIRE!!

The boys have a favorite park near our house, and I understand why they love it so much.  It’s big and shady and has this enormous playscape filled with bridges, ladders, slides, towers, climbing walls – things to fuel the imaginations of energetic kids.  There are two sections – one built on a slighty smaller scale for younger children.  It’s a perfect spot for hours of outdoor fun.

I can’t take them there if I’m the only adult present.   There is no way for me to even attempt to keep even one eye on each of them.  It’s riddled with blind spots, and the two sections are separated by a wide sidewalk and splash park area (which thankfully has an on/off switch kids can’t reach!).  Of course, the boys don’t stick together – they immediately run in different directions and my efforts to get them to play at least in the same vicinity are wasted. 

They’ve learned that we only go to what they call the Flag Park (there’s a giant American flag flying nearby) when Daddy is available to go with us. 

We were at this park on a busy Sunday afternoon recently.  The park was packed with kids of all ages, running and shouting, and even with an adult-to-child ratio of 1:1, it was tough keeping eyes on them.  Then, they started prentending to be firemen, and suddenly, everyone in the park knew where my kids were.

“Fire! FIRE!” the Bean screamed as he ran by.  The Little One was hot on his heels, repeating the refrain.

“Get the hose!  Weee ooooo!  Weee oooo!” 

“Pssssshhhhhhhhhhh!  Spray the water on the fire!  Quick!”

“Mommy, don’t sit there – your butt is on fire!  Now you have to go in the ambs [ambulance].”

“Daddy, help me get down the fire pole!  Hurry! HURRY!”

“FIRE!! FIRE!! FIRE!!!”

The boys could be heard circling the playscape, shouting about the imaginary fire, firetrucks, ambulances, and making siren sounds.  It was incredible to watch their imaginations literally exploding with vivid imagery.  

Other kids were looking a little alarmed, particularly when they were told by our exuberant fireman that they were standing in fires.  Every time one of them shouted “Fire,” at least one parent would look up and scan the playground apprehensively.

Is it still illegal to shout “Fire” in a crowded theater when there isn’t really a fire?

Down the Hole!

Potty training the Bean was a piece of cake.  We bought Lightning McQueen underwear, took off his diaper one afternoon, and after two accidents, he was good to go.  He wore diapers for a while longer at naptime, and a bit longer than that for overnights.  But by the time he was four, we were totally done with diapers.

We delayed starting potty training with the Little One because he operates on a different program than his older brother.  The Bean was very motivated by rewards for behavior - pee in the potty, get a sticker.  Poop in the potty, get a matchbox car (this was a harder trick to master, so got a bigger reward).  He would negotiate for more stickers, stickers for just trying...you name it, I was was willing to give him a sticker for almost anything relating to getting out of diapers.  Wash your hands without being asked? Sticker!  Remember to flush the toliet?  Sticker!  Stand up to pee and don't miss the toliet?  Two stickers!  We had an 11x20 sheet of paper taped to the pantry door with so many stickers on it, it eventually collapse under it's own weight.

Now, the Little One? He doesn't work quite like that.  We decided he was ready for potty training and bought some Thomas the Train underwear.  Very exciting!  The Little One refused to even put them on.
"Come on, don't you want to try them out?  Be like your big brother?"
"No."  He shrugged, shook his head emphatically, so I would be clear on his position.
"I'll give you a sticker!"
"No!" and he walked away, effectively dismissing the conversation.

The next day, "Little One, do you want to try sitting on the potty today?"
"No Mommy."

The next day, "Little One, today's the day!  Let's try the potty.  You can stand up like big brother and Daddy do!"
"No, Mommy."

A week goes by, and I try again, "Okay, buddy!  Before you get in the bath tonight, let's try sitting on the potty.  No bath until you at least try to pee in the potty for me."
"No, Mommy.  I not gonna do it."
Now, I'm starting to feel like I have to do something to jump start this.  I mean, really?  He's almost three.  I'm not asking him to donate a kidney!  Just to give up diaper changes, which he loathes anyway!
"Why not?  Won't you at least try?  What if I give you a sticker?"
"No sticker."
"Lollipop?"
"No."
"What about a cookie?  I'll go downstairs and get you a cookie right now if you'll try the potty.  You don't even have to pee in it.  Just sit on it."
"No, Mommy.  I not."
"Why?!"
"Because I not want to."
"What can I do to make you want to?  What do you want?"
"Nuffing, Mommy.  I not want anyfing.  I not pee in potty."

And that was that.  How do you argue with that?  I let it go for awhile before we started again, a couple of weeks later.  And the result was exactly the same.  The bribes I offered got more outrageous.  After the usual sticker, lollipop, cookie, I upped the ante.
"What if I take you to the store and let you pick out a car - any car you want?"
"Any car?"  I am elated at this point.  This is the first time he hasn't shut me down outright!  We're making progress!!
"Yes, Little One!  Any car you want!  You've just got to pee on the potty and wear your underwear for the rest of the afternoon."
He thinks about it for a minute, then, "No."
ARGH!!!!!

Then, one evening, as the boys are getting in the bathtub, the Bean goes pee like he always does, and the Little One suddenly takes an interest in the toliet paper his brother is using.

"Mommy," he pulls off a piece of toliet paper and shows it to me. "Can I flush this down the hole?"
"You want to flush that toliet paper down the potty?" Bells and lights are going off in my head.  Oh yes, I'm having one of those parenting moments where you suddenly feel like you've got the answers to all the problems, ever!
"Yes, Mommy.  Can I?"
"Sure, but you have to pee in the potty first.  Then you can use the toliet paper to wipe yourself and flush the pee and the paper down the hole."
He shrugs, "Ok, Mommy.  Can you help me sit?"


He now wears underwear most of the time and, though he has accidents periodically, he's getting really good about giving me enough warning to get him to the toliet in time.