documenting a good day…

“See, Mommy, it’s my worm!!!!”

 

Ok, so that didn’t happen today, but it’s a great picture. The boys took a walk in the rain on Saturday morning, and I couldn’t resist snapping some pics of them in their rain boots and jackets.

But these things did happen today…

This big boy made mini pizzas with his mommy for the very first time. He asked to put on an apron, he spread the ketchup on biscuit dough, he carefully placed the leftover sausage bits on top, and he sprinkled on the oregano. And when he decided that he didn’t want pizza for lunch, it was miraculously easy to change his mind by saying, “Are you sure? You made them!”

He ate almost all of his pizza. =)

And this 2-year-old did a great job putting dried penne pasta into his cup with tweezers. It’s a wonderful fine motor skills game that I got from the Chasing Cheerios blog. He was entertained enough that I got to make the pizza with Seth. Win win! I’m thinking about getting some ice tongs from Walmart so we can move larger items from one receptacle to another. =)

I had to bribe him, but it finally happened. This is the very first time he’s ever written his name. He would try, and the “S” would frustrate him, and he’d give up. I was about to tear my hair out. Good grief! He’s 5… he can do this! And he really could, but he wouldn’t try.

So I told him that I’d give him ice cream for dinner before he had to eat anything else if he would write his name for the first time. That was enough incentive, and you can see the result. (That’s his writing on the bottom. The top was me writing it so he could remember the letter order.) I am not advocating bribery every time to get them to learn…. but I had had it with wishing and hoping for this milestone, so I caved.

I’ve been reading some of Sally Clarkson’s books. I enjoy them, but they’re also challenging. It’s easy to be restless and want to implement all of her good ideas at once. But I’ve got to remember that I still have a fussy 6-month-old baby that doesn’t take consistently good naps and wakes me up at night. If we just read and play imaginary games on most days, that’s got to be good enough for now.

And days like this make me hope for easier ones ahead….