Another Day, Another Mess...

I've really tried to let go of my clean ways since having Brendan, and I really think I've done a pretty good job. I don't mind when there's food on the floor, toys all over my house, toys all over my house, and toys all over my house :-)

I have no problem bringing out the play-dough, and I've decided, or convinced myself, the playdough crumbs all over the table, floor, and Brendan aren't the end of the world. Crayons, markers, glue, and stickers -- they all wash off... Now I'm talking supervised activities here -- if he was alone with these, I'd have a whole other blog... these all take place in the kitchen, and no where near walls and carpet!!

I've tried finger painting, and, well, let's just say maybe I will bring out those finger paints once a month at the most! That's probably the messiest I've gotten so far... until TONIGHT!!

I'm at Target today, ALONE, peacefully strolling down the toy aisles. It was quite nice! I'm always looking for little crafts to get for Brendan, so he can learn to spend more than 30 seconds on an activity. We're in training at our household. Training to sit still in school! I'm starting early, as I sometimes fear the worst! Kindergarten is only 2 1/2 years away, and I'll be damned if I'm the mom of the kid who doesn't listen, and can't sit in his seat!! So, we're in training... I'm sort of exaggerating, but it doesn't hurt to have a few quiet activities to work on concentrating during the day. I'm not sure if concentration is in Brendan's vocabulary, though! Maybe one day...

So, next to the Playdough, I see this stuff called Moon Sand. "Hmm, that sounds fun, and looks really cool. It looks like playdough, but from the picture, it seems you can mold it better into little sculptures and stuff." Because Brendan would probably be making several molds, and sculptures... ;-)

He was super excited when I told him I had bought this Mood Sand stuff for him. It looked really cool when I opened the packaging tonight. There were 3 or 4 dinosaurs molds, and then little bones you could bury in the sand mold of the dinosaur. There was also a little plastic ax you could use to chip away at the sand molded dinosaur to "discover" the bones inside of it... he loved the Moon Sand. I would mold the dinosaur, because that was too hard for him (the package said ages 3 and up) and then he would take the ax and chop up the dinosaur to find the bones inside.

Lots of fun for Brendan... not so much for me!! LOOK AT THIS MESS!!!

At least someone's really enjoying this...

He does this new thing latey with his hands when they get messy. He shakes them everywhere, and then rubs them across the front of his shirt. You can bet he did it right after I took this picture!

This picture doesn't do my floor justice! It was EVERYWHERE! And in the grooves of the floor...

This MOON SAND is not "indoor sand" -- it belongs OUTSIDE! At least at my house it does. It crumbles unless you're pressing it, molding it, etc. -- otherwise, it's a powdery sand!! I have no idea how it works. How something could be moldable, yet sandy and powdery? I'm not sure what I was expecting, but it definitely wasn't THIS!!

I had to bring out my big vacuum with all the attachments to clean up the floor and table. And now the green sand is stuck in between the grooves on my wood floor! It won't even vacuum out. Sand was everywhere... I wanted to vacuum it ALL up, and pretend like I never bought it... but that would be a waste of money, so I think I'll save it for the summer and the kids can play with it outside... where it belongs!!

I would rather bring out the fingerpaints on a daily basis than bring that stuff out again! But at least I achieved my goal of having Brendan sit. He set a new personal record of 20 minutes. So, apparently, the messier the activity, the longer he'll sit. Great.