5 whole days. We aren’t setting any records over here. I knew that Lance is having a hard time not pulling everything apart. Lance has been pulling the pictures off the christmas letter banner that we made on Friday but yesterday he coaxed his brother into pulling each letter down and tearing them to pieces. They must have had a good time because they were just laughing about it. I triumphed over my anger at that moment and reminded myself that the banner is just construction paper and it’s a learning tool. The fact that I kept my cool is a testimony that God is granting me mercies for each day. I went over and firmly told the boys no, picked up all the paper pieces, put them in the trash and told the boys that because they had torn the banner up, they would no longer have it and Mommy wasn’t going to fix something when they tear it up. Enough said, they got the point.
That was our rocky start yesterday but the day got better. We experimented with a new painting technique that I saw on No Time For Flashcards. I taped 2 white sheets of cardstock to the table and invited the twins to come on up. I was being very brave and didn’t put them in high chairs. I took a small tub, added about 1c shaving cream, 1/4c Elmer’s glue and some washable Crayola green finger paint. Notice in the picture that it’s a mint green. I was too chicken to put more colored paint in to make it a dark green because who knew what the boys would try to do with it. I mixed it up and set it out between the boys. James dove right in. He smeared, plopped, slapped at and tasted the concoction with gusto. I had to encourage Lance to put his hands in but once he did he had fun, although his painting was much more calm and smaller movements. Then I picked Lance up to wash off and James decided the table needed a bit of sprucing up too. I can attest that this is indeed washable and easy to clean up. because I had alot to clean.
We let the pages dry overnight and this morning I crudely cut out the christmas tree shapes. Don’t laugh too hard, I free handed the trees & I was going for the chunky limb look! Then I helped the boys put blue dots on the tree with a blue sharpie pen. The texture is unique. It feels fuzzy. It holds its peaks and valleys. It collapses when poked. It’s nothing like anything else that we’ve tried. It was very messy when painting, but the kids and I enjoyed the experience and they smelled great, like the scent of a freshly shaven man.
This morning we pulled out a two new balloons to blow up and play with. I’ve always just blown them up, thinking that the boys were too young to do this. And they are too young, but they had a fun time trying to blow them up. They love sitting on the couch to watch Sid the Science Kid and they worked at blowing up the balloons the whole time the show was on. Eventually they each brought me their balloon and asked if I would please blow it up for them. The O movement combined with blowing helps thier language and sounds. I’ll need to deep in mind to let the boys try things that I know they can’t accomplish yet because this fosters independence and new learning.
Mercies Raining Down 