When Ayden answers... 'Yes, I'm being good!'

Ayden has begun to play more independently in his room over the past few months. I am totally okay with this because he needs to learn some independence (although sometimes I so wish that he could have a little brother or sister to play with, the day will come). However when he plays in his room by himself, the following results... During the time that he playing alone I will occasionally ask if he being good and of course he always says yes. But by the time that I actually decide to go to his room and check on what he is doing, well needless to say we definitely need to work on picking up our toys before we get any new ones out. Lol!!!

BEFORE!!!

AFTER!!!

(That is after mom and dad spent an hour putting everything back in it's rightfull bin/tub. Also, don't let the pictures decieve you, his closet is literally stacked with labeled bins of toys that way he actually has some room on his floor to play with things!)

It seems like it's been a while since I've actually written anything of depth. I'm pretty sure that is because I'm trying to deny the thoughts that are acutally rolling through my head. I keep thinking that if I don't think about them then things will get better and honestly... I've done some evaluating over the past couple of days and I'm pretty sure I know what I want and it's what I've already got. As if any of that makes any sense to you readers, but it does to me. I'm happy and that is all that matters! Sunshine and warmth... you can come back now! The icky weather for the past couple of days kind of mirrored my moods. I wasn't particularily sour, but because it was so icky out we pretty much stayed cooped up inside all weekend and it got the best of us. Ayden tore apart his room and that lead to the living room and thank goodness I got some ambition to clean it up last night. Once again everything is back in it's rightfull place.

Supper last night was quite the event. Jay made pizza burgers, YUMMY! We hadn't had pizza burgers in such a long time. Ayden kept saying that he liked them, but I didn't quite know if he knew what they were. The time to eat came and Ayden ate his pears nice and good and flat out refused to try the pizza burger. My go to bed early thing back fired on us and he said he didn't want it and that he was tired. Well I wasn't about to let him go to bed early any time he didn't want to try something so Jay and I banded together and said that he had to sit at his table until he had three bites (he's 3). That lead to 45 minutes of crying! Yes, 45 minutes of him refusing to eat his three bites. During this time Jay and and I were cleaning Ayden's room. At one point he screamed out 'I'M SO MAD!' Finally, he calmed down and decided to eat his three bites. More tough loving... but it payed off and maybe the next time he decides he doesn't like something he will think twice about not trying it. This not trying food thing cannot keep up. I can understand not liking something because there are foods that even I don't like, but coming from my mom, you have to at least try it! Lol, passing down what I've learned. And I don't think it's a particularly bad thing either. If I let him get away with this, what next?

We forewent the birthday party this weekend. Bad weather and Ayden saying he didn't want to go kept us home. I kind of wished we would have went, but because of the weather I didn't want to be scrunched in someone's house with a bunch of people who I didn't know. At least if it could have been outside the kids would have had more places to run around. In any case, Ayden said he wanted to stay home and I wasn't going to push him.

He's been asking almost everyday if the Children's Museum is open. It's open Wednesday-Saturday or Sunday I believe, but on Saturday when he asked it was 15 minutes before the place closed. I am sure we will make a few stops there this week. He really enjoys the 'fishing' and 'grocery' part of it. He's getting better and better at the whole pretend thing! It's amazing to hear some of the stories that that kid comes up with!

I finished reading my book today. The ending was kind of stupid, but still caught me off guard. I didn't know that the book was part of a series that the author is writing. Okay maybe not a series, but she uses the same characters in a few other books. Kind of like Patricia Cornwell. I haven't read any of her books in a LONG time, but my mom has and she said that they are still as good as ever!

Not a whole lot going on tonight. John and Kate Plus 8 is on and it is an hour long episode. I suppose that if I can't get my dose of Wentworth Miller (of whom I googled the other day to see some pictures of and instantaneously remembered why I love Prison Break so much... he is drop dead gorgeous!). At some point Prison Break will return, however probably not until the fall. Can I honestly hold out until then? Maybe, maybe not! I suppose I could just watch some of the season one that I have on DVD until that point.

Ayden wanted to use his sidewalk paint today. I didn't think that he would remember that we had it. It's by crayola, but we no longer use it because it does not come off with just rain like the chalk. Sidewalk paint takes hands and knees scrubbing and a hard bristle brush to get it off! And thus for, I will no longer use it because I will not be on my hands and knees scrubbing it off. The last time I had to do that was horrid! I felt bad for telling Ayden that we couldn't use it though.

We found a cocoon outside on our patio. On Saturday Ayden saw a caterpillar and surprised me by telling me that it forms a cocoon and then turns into a butterfly. Well, we saw another caterpillar this morning on our way out the door to the car. Ayden was pretty excited as he thought it was the same caterpillar from Saturday coming to say 'hi' to us again. Well, he was even more excited when we found the cocoon after daycare. He wanted to sit and wait for the butterfly to come out. I tried to explain to him that it might be a few days and that we would continue to check on it to see if the butterfly is ready to come out. He can't wait!

Today I also found a great website with educational games for Ayden to play. It's from pbs.org and has games that go along with all the shows that they have on. We don't watch much of PBS because we have cable, but every now and then we will turn it on. Ayden really likes Dragon Tales, It's A Big Big World, Jakers (although we haven't seen this in a long while), and I found two new shows: Word World and Super Why that seem pretty interesting. Because we are gone for one of them and Ayden is usually napping for the other one I think I might start taping them for Ayden to watch. We'll have to see...

I guess that that is enough for tonight... Jay is on the computer, as usual. I didn't even hear him come into bed last night (again). And it is about time to get Ayden started on the 'bed time routine'. Right now he's a little upset because he has to pick up his toys that he got out. I would like to keep a clean house for just a few days, okay so maybe just like one or two. CIAO! LOVE ME!