Perfectionist ... reborn

In December 2000, about 6 months after I received my drivers license, I was in my first car accident.  I was driving too fast on slippery roads and I didn't see the cars stopped in front of me.  I hit the brakes, slid, swerved and ultimately rear ended the car in front of me.  We all walked (and drove) away and no one was hurt.  Well, at least not physically.  Emotionally, I was a wreck!  I was embarrassed.  Ashamed.  Guilty!  My Dad, bless his heart, said very little.  He didn't yell.  He didn't punish.  But I knew he was disappointed.  And that killed me.  Later that evening, some friends called and invited me to a movie.  And I distinctly remember saying "I can't.  I have to stay home."  My dad, overhearing the conversation asked "Why aren't you going?"

Was he crazy?  Did he forget so quickly the terrible thing I had just done?  I can't go out!  And then I realized what happened...

I had grounded myself.

[fast forward 12 years]

This evening as we were tucking Brooks into bed and praying, he was goofing around and playing with his slinky.  I quietly took it away and reminded him to show respect to Jesus while we were praying.  We finished and as Chris and I were leaving his room, Brooks runs to the door and says "Wait!  We need to finish praying!"

We did finish praying, buddy.

"No, we didn't!  We have to finish praying."

Again, we replied.  Yes, we did finish praying.  You just weren't paying attention.

He was quite adamant that we forgot to finish praying.  And despite us telling him several times that we did, and that he simply wasn't paying attention, he insisted we pray again.  So we did.  And said good-night.

Five minutes later we hear Brooks crying in his room.  Chris goes to check on him and he says "Daddy!  I'm sad that I didn't pay attention when we prayed."

It's ok, buddy.  Would you like to pray again now?

He did.  Brooks said a quick prayer and then gave his slinky to Chris and said "I shouldn't play with this anymore, should I?"  Chris told him he could have it, now that we were done praying.  Then Brooks said, "No. I shouldn't play with this.  You take this downstairs."

And that, is how my son punished himself. 

Crash Test Kid

Oh, my son.  In the last three days Carter has fallen off a kitchen chair on his head .... twice, fallen down a flight of stairs landing on his head, and pulled over a kitchen chair .... yep, on his head.  This on top of two burned (and blistered) fingers from a hair straightener.  Oh, and did I mention that he's teething and has a stuffy nose and cough?  Yeah.  He's had better days.

I really do admire his determination and sense of adventure.  (He's fallen down that same flight of stairs twice in the last few months, but he has no fear of stairs at all.)  I just wish he'd exercise just a tad more caution.  (sigh)  Better get used to this.  My only thought now ... where can I get this kid a helmet??

In time-out together (to the tune of "So happy together")

Carter is starting this naughty little habit of hitting when he's upset.  He'll hit the couch, toys, books and yes, Brooks too.  We've explained to him several times that he needs to have "nice touches" and "do not hit".  He understands.  I know he does.  He's smart.  But he's still learning to control his toddler-sized temper.  We're working on it.

Earlier today, Carter was upset about not being able to play with a toy Brooks was playing with.  So Carter smacked him right on the head.  I firmly said "Carter, NO."  And I put him in the time-out chair (aka the recliner)  He cried and cried.  But before I even had a chance to sit and talk with him, Brooks goes over to Carter and asks me, "Can I sit with Carter in time-out?"

Um, ok.  So there they sat.  Both of them.  In time-out.  Happy.  Hmmm.....

these smiles were NOT prompted

I had Carter say sorry and give Brooks a kiss, but it hardly seemed necessary.  Looks like all had been forgiven.  Then Brooks grabbed a book and "read" a story to Carter.

 Well, um, time-out's over I guess.

Rub a dub dub...

... two cute boys in a tub.

Daddy is in charge of bath time at our house.  And when Dad's in charge, there's always fun to be had.  In this case, the fun involved bubbles.  Lots and lots and lots of bubbles!!

up to their armpits in bubbles!

bubble hats!

Brooks, apparently, is hilarious.

Saturday Adventures: The Children's Museum

Chris and I have lived in South Dakota for almost 5 years and we realized that we just about never leave Sioux Falls.  Ever.  We have no reason to.  Everything we need is here and, well ... there's not much elsewhere.  But there is a children's museum in Brookings that I've heard is fantastic.  And we've never been.  So on Saturday, we packed a lunch, grabbed the boys and made the hour drive north to Brookings.

(And in case you're wondering, South Dakota is a terribly boring state to drive in/through.  Even if it's just an hour.  Good thing I had good company!)

First up was the farm & grocery area.  It was amazingly interactive!  Carter was a bit stunned by everything at first, but eventually warmed up to "playing".

Brooks did a good job shopping.  With the exception of Teddy Grahams and margarine (which I made him put back), he picked out all real, whole foods.

There was this wonderfully tall climbing thing (descriptive, huh?) that had petal-like platforms and netting around.  Wish I had taken a picture of the whole thing - it reached all the way up to the 30' ceiling!  Brooks was quite intimidated by it and didn't want to go in.  But after some convincing (and me agreeing to go with him) we made the climb to the top!  I was super proud of my normally-cautious child.

Carter and Daddy climbed up a little ways, but soon left as there were several "big" kids running over Mr. C.

The water room was, as expected, a BIG hit!  In fact, after we made our way through all the rooms, we stopped one more time to play in the water!

And there was lots of music opportunities.  Brooks has taken a huge interest in music lately, so it was fun for him to play and explore the different instruments.

A whole music room!  With the SDSU marching band music playing!

Every Saturday, they have crafts available for the kids to make.  Brooks was designing a quilt square. 

In the little cafe, they serve SDSU ice cream.  And so to end our day out, we enjoyed a special ice cream treat!  It was delicious! 

Carter clearly liked it!! :) 

Yep, we wore them out! 

Normally we enjoy our Saturdays at home, just being lazy.  But I'm really glad we ventured out.  We'll definitely be going back to the Children's Museum - it just wish it wasn't an hour away!

Just like Daddy ... uh, sort of.

This evening Brooks went to the bathroom and like usual, spent a ridiculous amount of time in the bathroom. That boy can procrastinate like no one else - even when it's just washing his hands.  After about 30 minutes (no joke!) I went to check on him, fully expecting to see him naked on the floor playing with bath toys.  (Trust me, this happens often.)  Instead I found this......

And I'm gonna be honest.  In that matter of about a minute, I went through a range of emotions, starting with Anger.  What did you do??  You were supposed to be washing your hands!  Then it turned to Annoyance.  Do you know how wasteful that is?  Then it was slightly amusing. I should get the camera!

That was all when I thought it was soap.

It was not.

That, my friends, is hair product.  Lots and lots of hair product.  From what we gathered (and from what he told us) after washing his hands he found Chris' hair product in the cabinet and decided to "style" his hair.  He wanted to be just like daddy!

And again, I was amused.  Aw, that's sweet.  He wants to be just like his Daddy.  Then I came back to annoyance.  Seriously, you were supposed to be washing your hands.  And do you know how wasteful that is??  And then Chris finished up the emotional stages by being upset.  (My Scandinavian husband is rarely angry, so we're just gonna go with upset)  You see, he was the one given the task of removing all that hair product.

To put this in perspective, when Chris does his hair in the morning, he puts a small amount of this gel in between his fingers and works it through his whole head of hair.  Brooks took several handfuls and smeared it in one spot.  I'm assuming this is a petroleum based product, because even when Chris washes his hair, it takes several days for it to come completely out.  So yeah, this was going to be fun to remove.

First, Chris took a paper towel and wiped off as much as he could with that.  Then he put Brooks in the shower and washed his hair ....... FOUR times!  Then he tried combing out the rest.  And even after all that, there is still so.much.left in his hair.  And it is SO greasy and nasty!

Chris attempted to "style" it.

What you're seeing here is completely towel dried hair.  It's not wet, it's greasy!   Blech!!

Oh, and what does Brooks think of all this?  He looked at his new 'do in the mirror and said "Whoah!  I look COOL!!"  

Fantastic.  At least someone is excited about this.

We did explain to him about 42 times and in 17 different ways that he is NOT allowed to put Daddy's gel in his hair by himself.  If he wants to style his hair, he NEEDS to ask Daddy for help.

So, we will wash it again the in the morning in hopes of getting more out before church tomorrow.  (Ahhh, church!)  But as annoyed as I am about it, I guess I'm just thankful he didn't find the hair clippers and attempt to give himself a hair cut.

Mr. Personality

I'm gonna go ahead and say it ... I love toddlers.  I mean, don't get me wrong.  Babies are fun and all since they're so little and cute.  But I love when my kids hit this toddler age.  They communicate more, their personalities come out, they (generally) sleep more.  Yes, there are challenging times, but overall I prefer this much more than the baby stage.

Being that he's 16 months old now, Carter is officially a toddler.  And he's so.much.fun!  Here's what he's been up to.

Yes, that is my 16 month old fully handling a remote control car.  He is always trying to keep up with Brooks - and he's usually successful! 

Blueberry pancakes.  Nuff said.

Oh, and Carter has decided that he likes using a fork to eat now.  One night during dinner he was squawking and squealing and I couldn't figure out why.  He kept pointing to my plate like he wanted my food, but he had all the same food on his tray.  Then I realized he was pointing to my fork and wanted that.  So I gave him a fork.  He picked it up, scooped up his food and put it in his mouth.  Um, that's amazing.  I didn't have to teach him at all how to use it.  He just .... knew.  Smarty pants. 

While cleaning up the toys one night, Carter picked up a ball in one hand, picked up a second and stuck it in the crook of his arm, then grabbed a third with his free hand and carried them to the ball basket.  Not sure if all kids his age can do that, but I was impressed.

This kid LOVES his blanket, or "beh beh" as he calls it.  Loves loves loves his blanket!  At bedtime, he'll grab his blanket, rub his face in it and giggle.  He's loves that thing so much it makes him giddy!  But he's also laid back enough that he doesn't demand just that blanket.  He'll settle for a blanket from the couch, the tie blanket in the car or even a towel.  He just needs something to hold and snuggle.

Carter is not much of a hat guy, so I was kind of shocked to see him voluntarily wearing his fireman hat around the house. 

Oh, that face.  Cracks me up! 

Wednesday was his day to mop the floor.  "Hey Carter, you missed a spot!" 

Again with the hats.  He found Brooks' hat and put it on all by himself. 

Oh, and that stool he's kneeling on.  Yeah.  He's figured out how to push objects around the house so he can climb on them to reach things.  At 16 months, Brooks couldn't even walk.  This one keeps me on my toes.

Peek-a-boo!