The worst thing about spring
I am stubborn enough that unless it's bone-chillingly frigid, I will take the girls to play on the playground all winter long. Usually we stop for some play time after I pick Molly up from preschool. Things had almost started to dry out, but then it snowed on Friday, and it started melting yesterday. The playground by the preschool was about one-third covered with a puddle so deep the girls could have waded knee-deep in water. Naturally, they both wanted to play in it. I distracted them with the swings and the slide for a little while, and then Molly suggested a trip to the big playground. The park we play at has two playgrounds -- one that is designed for toddlers and preschoolers, and one that's designed for grade schoolers. We don't usually play on the Big Kid playground on school days because there are usually big kids playing on it, having recess at the school right by the park. No big kids today, though, so I let the girls play there for another 45 minutes or so. Of course, there were still deep puddles under the swings and the tire swings, and of course the girls stomped through them several times. At least they were "splashing" rather than "wading." Or "swimming." Then on the way home Kiera fell into a huge mud puddle, soaking herself from the waist down. This was already her second outfit of the day; I think she went through four pairs of pants today, and two or three shirts.
Kiera has continued to be interested in the potty, and I'm not jinxing myself by saying this because the truth is, I do not want a potty trained 18-month-old. When Molly potty trained, she was old enough that if she decided she had to pee while we were out, she could wait long enough that I could find a bathroom for her. A child Kiera's age is unlikely to be able to hold it. As it stands currently, she's announced a few times while downstairs that she wants the potty, but lost interest by the time we got all the way up to the bathroom. Still, this morning, she pooped on the potty. Go Kiera.
After dinner tonight, Molly and Kiera decided to go upstairs, and a little while later Molly calls down to Ed and me something like this: "Hey, Mama and Daddy, I just wanted to let you know that Kiera wanted to go potty so I helped her onto the potty and took her diaper off and she peed and then she wanted paper so I gave her paper and then she wanted to get down so I helped her get down and I got her a diaper and had her lie down and now she's in the bedroom. Okay?"
I had been listening carefully until I got to the point where it became clear that she was loose in the bedroom, possibly without a diaper. (Some kids, if they've just peed, won't pee again for a while. This does not seem to be true of Kiera.) I went galloping upstairs, and found Kiera lying on the floor of the bedroom with a diaper on -- sorta. Molly had done a really good job of spreading out the diaper and getting the tabs over her legs . She had not, however, gotten it under Kiera's butt. So it was on, but not in any useful sense of the word. Not bad for a four-year-old, though.
Another recent Molly trick: she announced today that she wanted to peel the carrots for dinner. I showed her how to brace the carrot against the edge of the sink, and got her started, then backed off so that I wouldn't be tempted to interfere. (If I'm watching over her shoulder, I can't resist the temptation to help.) She presented me with two fully peeled carrots.
One of the funny-slash-scary things about four-year-olds is the illusion of competence. If Molly has seen me do something several times, she is convinced that she can do it. If it's dangerous, well, no problem, because she'll be really careful. Anyway, with tasks that are not dangerous, it can actually be really fun to hand over the tools and see what they can do. We've started giving Molly a butter knife with dinner and letting her cut up her own food, spread her own butter, etc., at least some of the time. She does pretty well. She did less well when I let her vacuum last week -- it's too heavy for her. Carrots, though. I wonder what else I can make with carrots?
