gotta love cardboard

Everyone who knows me well knows of what a sentimental person I am. Sometimes I forget that not everyone is like me and I have to, and do, respect that. However, I was surprised to how open Maysen was to us getting rid of our play area. Maysen was 1yr old when we moved into our new home. Every summer that is spent in our backyard has been spent playing around our play area. However, last summer it became filled with bees and wasps, Maysen getting stung twice. Spiders make their huge webs in there, catching all kinds of scary bugs. So we decided that not only was it taking up a huge part of our lawn, it was getting unsafe for him to be playing on. So we sold it … sold his “tree house”, his playful castle-like fort.

On Monday Bailey got her new basket in the mail. She sleeps in a blanket-filled basket which Griffin found a weak twig in the 7yr old basket, and started pulling it apart stick by stick. It, too, became too unsafe for us to have around. Her new basket was delivered in a huge box. When Mase saw that, his eyes lit up and I jumped up to get the markers. When I was small, my dad would get us refrigerator boxes. These hummers are huge! We turned them into our own homes. I was immediately took me back to the summers we slept outside in our new little cardboard apartments.

I helped Maysen draw his name on it, cut out windows in it, and he has informed me that this is his NEW playhouse. So, this will remain his inside playhouse (which he’s been sleeping in) and when summer comes (seems so long away) we’ll replace his play set that was taken away with a newer, smaller, safer version. And I'll have a lot more grass to my backyard getting all the mulch chips up and getting new grass put down in the missing area.

Karate

Karate started back up recently after taking a 4-week break. It was a baaaad night. He didn't listen to the instructors at all, ran a MUCK, and thought it was a joke. I had recently talked with them about his behavior and I was told that a) they don't "sit them out" because they want the experience positive and not negative b) he was the youngest in his class, but he's actually very good for age c) Maysen is very smart, and he's getting what is going on and manipulating it. They told me to just relax and they'll work with him. They will not let us intervene (as in, remove him from karate when he's not listening) and therefore he's taught how he can act there, and man does he lay into it. He would even look back at Nate and smile while goofing off knowing they wouldn't let Nate intervene. So, we are removing him from karate for a bit - maybe wait until fall when he's learned a bit more self-discipline. This karate outfit doesn't provide the type of structure that he needs.

Maysen does very well at school - he listens, he obeys, he's put in time-out if he's out of line, or he's removed from the project if he's messing around. And he does great there! He can sit on the church pew and wait his turn, will stand on stage and sing while behaved. It's not my son....it's how they've allowed him to get away with horse play ... and it's blatant that he's not 100% interested right now. So, onto another activity!