Lacing Cards

These are our new lacing cards, the entire reason we ended up in the parking lot this morning where we had The Incident. I know I've been writing about not needing so many toys lately, but I didn't really count these. Lacing and sewing is a wonderful fine motor skill to encourage, but I don't want to continue letting John unlace his shoes because then we are leaving the house, I go to the bin of shoes, and all of his shoes are unlaced! I don't exactly have time to sit there and relace them as we're trying to get out the door and John isn't good enough to do it quickly himself. Thus, some lacing cards.

But speaking of toys: I love multipurpose toys versus specific, single-use toys. Today John and I were building a farm with Duplo blocks. I suggested he get our bin of animal figurines to use in our barn and he said, "How about we pretend some blocks are animals instead?" Love it, love it, love it!

Update from my stinky morning: I almost succumbed to the day and ordered pizza take-out. But I decided that my self-worth could use a little boost by salvaging the day. After an afternoon of lazing about the house and playing with the children, I made a real dinner of homemade meatloaf (previously frozen uncooked, then cooked tonight), roasted sweet potatoes and beets, and homemade macaroni and cheese, all of which were delicious. I managed the children throughout without turning on the television. While I was cooking, I had both children happily setting the table for me and then cleaning up the den of toys (note: while I was cooking, meaning I was multitasking and I was able mostly to use my cheerful voice instead of physical presence to get the kids to help out!!!). And then I asked John to please surprise Daddy by trying a beet, which he did, just like he tried a slice of cucumber the night before. Two tiny bites of two vegetables, folks! (Yes, he gagged them out and almost threw up, but that is still major improvement.) And after dinner, we prayed the family (single decade of the) rosary and, with some new motivations for John, it actually went fairly pleasantly. It was such a nice ending to a day that started out so badly.