At-Home Sunday

This is the kind of creativity Daddy exercises when Mommy and Mary are napping. (John loved it.)

Later we got a hankering for chili, so Chris went to the grocery store for ingredients . . . and took Miss Mary with him! That was the first time he's taken her on an errand. By her age, he was taking John on errands with him because I was pretty close to giving birth to Mary. But then we got into a habit that whenever Chris went on an errand, he took John with him to lighten my load. And why would he take nursing baby from nursing mama? But now Mary is 21 months and she still always stays home with me! Anyway, they had a great time together, as did John and I having some mama-son time. He and I played games we can't usually play with Mary around, such as stacking the tumbling blocks and knocking them down over and over again. It's very fun to knock down one's own tower, but it's torment to have one's little sister do it.

Later the kids painted and I think that was Mary's first time with water colors. To my astonishment, they shared really well, no one knocked over the rinsing water, and no one got into a paint fight.

In other news, Mary can now articulate tattling instead of just screaming. For example, today she came running in to find me to report on separate occasions, "John hit me!" and "John is kicking Daddy!" I think this ushers in a whole new dynamic of parenting that I'm not going to enjoy.