Lessons From a Play-Doh Session

I admit it - I'm really meticulous about things. I don't like things out of order, I run from "mess", and chaos is not my friend. I realized the other day how this was impacting Merrick.


The other night he wanted to play with Play-Doh, so I did the usual thing - took out the Play-Doh and let him pick a color to play with. That's right, all you normal people out there, *a* color - as in 1 color, not 2 or 3 or 4. He chooses blue - okay no problem. Now you may ask, what is the reason you're only giving him 1 color? Well the obvious answer is that I don't want him to mix the colors up, otherwise it'll be one big globby mess and the yellow will never again see the light of day. It will be an end to color as we know it!


Then it dawns on me....why in the world do I care if my 20 month old wants to combine different colors. It's only Play Doh!! So after this big "AH HA" moment, I forced myself to open up the other cans and allow him to explore a world of multiple globs of Play Doh. He did exactly what I thought he would....combined them all together and his only color choice from here on out is "brown-ish". But you know what, he couldn't care less. He was happy as can be mixing his colors up and playing. After all, it's his Play Doh not mine!


Okay fine, so lesson learned. And to prove it - take a look below at our finger painting session the other night. Hmmm, do you think I went too far on the other side of the pendulum?! After all, it's called 'finger' painting for a reason.

Could I Be More Late in Posting?! - Denver Children's Museum

Aye yi yi! I really need to get better about posting! I have all these great intentions but so many things get in the way - like life! Anyway, I had to throw in a post about our fun time at the Children's Museum in Denver while out there over Christmas. We spent the afternoon there with The Pearsons and Rae, Ethan and Jo-Jo. We had a BLAST! It is FANTASTIC. I could seriously go there every weekend if we were still living there. Oh, and Merrick liked it too! :)

So, I'm going to post a few pictures below, but before I do I have to explain the scratch you will see on Merrick's head. Is this really what life is going to be like with a boy? Do they actually sell really large bubbles that you can put your children in, not to be popped until they're 18? If so, I'll take one!!

ANYWAY...Craig took Merrick to the playground while in Denver. There was a 'big kid' slide with about a 2 1/2 foot drop from the bottom of the slide to the ground (who does this?!). Well, they climbed up the jungle gym, and in a completely un-Merrick-like fashion he decided to go head first down this big slide without warning Craig. We've always had to beg him to go down the slide in the past, so this came out of nowhere. When Craig saw this he DOVE down the slide after him to try to catch him in time. Not only was he unable to do this, but almost broke his kneecap in the process. Fortunately there was mulch at the bottom of the slide so all Merrick got were some scrapes and a mouthful of mulch. Craig was actually hurt worse, and had a huge hit to the kneecap that was bugging him for days!

So, having explained that, here are a few pictures of our time at the Children's Museum:

Gavin, Taylor and Merrick at the Firestation:

Hmmm....how does this thing work? Bet I'll figure it out before Mommy does!

Jo-Jo completely in her element in the dress up/dance room!

This was an entire room of trains, and I like this pic because I purposefully stood outside the room so Merrick could freely do whatever he wanted...he was quite busy!

Row, row, row your boat.

When we walked out of the museum, Merrick was so excited he felt the need to start dancing in the middle of the crowd. :)

Florida and Colorado Christmas

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

The Tree Topper...Then and Now

There are a lot of holiday traditions I want to start with Merrick, as well as carrying on the ones that Craig and I had when we were younger. One of the things I want to do is take a picture each year of Merrick putting the topper on the tree. So here we are, 2 years and counting:

Christmas 2007 (7 months old):

Christmas 2008 (19 months old):

Merrick "Helps" Decorate the Tree

And he gets to try his first candy cane! I'll let the pictures do the talking...

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Major Catching Up Time!!

Okay, I have about a month or more of catching up to do that I'm going to try to make happen over the course of a weekend...let's see how it goes. First, let's talk about Thanksgiving!!

Heidi came to see us over the long weekend, and Merrick became 100% attached to his Aunt Heidi. It was nice to get a little break from the "MAMAAAAAAAH", "MAMAAAAAAAAH", "MAMAAAAAAAH" (he doesn't get the 'inside voice'concept yet), and instead we heard "HEIDIIIII", "HEIDIIIIIII", "HEIDIIIIIII". To give you some context, Merrick talks virtually NONSTOP from the moment he wakes up until the time he goes to sleep, which I LOVE by the way, but he yells my name the whole time...Merrick: "MAMAAAAAHHH!", Me: "yes honey", Merrick: "lights!"....."MAMAAAAHHHHH!", Me: "yes honey", Merrick "moon!"...etc etc...just random things he needs to point out to me all day. Over Thanksgiving Heidi was his new victim. I have to admit I was a little jealous! :)

We had a great Thanksgiving with Teri, David, Willow and Wren. Then we spent time just hanging out, checking out "Winter Wonderland" here in St Augustine, and going to a museum in Jacksonville. Merrick was unusually cranky and we weren't sure why. He had a low-grade fever so I was thinking teething. But when we took him to the DR on Monday it turns out he had a double ear infection! And whatever gunk he had, he gave to Heidi. :(

Here are a few pics of the weekend:

Winter Wonderland - just before the Santa area...

What...what'd I do (he managed to knock down a bunch of lighted reindeer like a set of dominos...whoops!)...

Taking over Santa's chair...

Sharing the latest Elmo DVD with Aunt Heidi!