Briefly pondering our situation; painting pottery!

Holiday break was interesting for us - I really, really thought, when I was pregnant with Jason, that if we just got through that first year, we'd be good to go. Little did I realize at the time that everyone would get bigger, busier, and LOUDER. I mean, I guess a part of me knew, but maybe I was in denial about the whole thing. Or maybe I looked at other people's kids & thought mine would be like them.

There's a lot more bickering and arguing going on than I thought there would be, but I guess I've forgotten that kids delight in pushing each other's buttons - one of my favorites? From William - 'Sarah's LOOKING AT ME!!!!' - yes William, she sits across the table from you. There's not a lot of cooperation going on here, when we ask them to do something it's either 'ok in a minute' - my mom says I used to YES her to death, and then not do anything, so I guess I know where that comes from - or we get a big TO-DO about how it's not fair, blah blah blah.

I had a revelation last night after they were all in bed - William was 3 when Sarah was born, and Evie was just 5, still in preschool - and then we had Jason a year later. No WONDER Evie and William just do what they want and are content to entertain themselves - I was busy with two small, small kids & didn't really mind if William was happy doing his thing - they weren't really big enough to help much at that point, and it was just easier to do everything myself.

We're trying to change that now, although conversations with the big two seem to go in one ear and out the other - but I suppose a big job of ours as their parents is to just keep at it and stay on top of them and eventually it will sink in. I hope.

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On Sunday I took the girls to the paint-your-own-pottery studio! Evie loves to do this, and is getting quite a collection of pottery animals in her room - she was so excited to see that this time they had hamsters, and she also found a tiny penguin. This was Sarah's first time & she chose to paint that fabulous big penguin in the first picture. As for me, I'm always stumped by the vast array of unpainted dishes and things in there, I never know what to do - I like all the dishes white, as they are and can never bring myself to choose one of them - plus my kitchen storage space is limited - so I usually end up with some sort of holiday knick-knack. In that last photo, on the right you can see the Santa wearing his bathrobe that I chose. Holy heck that thing is tedious - I painted all the polka dots white & wanted to do the robe red - you're supposed to do 3 coats of paint to get the best color coverage. Needless to say, I can pick up the girls' animals on Sunday, and hopefully I will have my Santa finished & can leave it to be fired. Because it's currently sitting on the kitchen counter half-finished, along with the paint and brush they sent me home with. As if I have time for that :) Photos courtesy of Sarah!!