Stickers from Granna

Dinner preparations have gotten a little stressful in the Lee Household. It has only been about 3 weeks Miller has dropped his late afternoon (5:00) nap. The routine used to be that I would put him down, fix dinner, get him up around 6:15 and we would eat dinner. Oh, I miss those days! Miller is sooooo sweet. But, he loves to be held! When he is not held and he wants to be held, he is not quite as sweet. Of course, around 4:30 or 5:00 when it is time to start dinner is when Miller is determined to be held. Which I cannot do if I am going to get anything done. The past week he has been in the hop n pop crying the entire time I fix dinner. Which maybe I could persevere through that if Ella was not whining and pulling on my leg the entire time!

So, yesterday I was determined things were going to be different.

The first situation I was going to try to make better was Ella. Ella has never been one to play with toys. She would much rather just be with me or Murray which when we are doing something and cannot give her our full attention she usually gets very frustrated. The one thing that can keep her attention for a little while with out us being right there is art. Ella loves to do any kind of art, stickers, painting, markers, drawing.... I needed something that Ella needed a little less supervision on because the other night while she was drawing with her markers, I looked over and saw that she had colored all over her white dress with brown marker! Thank goodness for washable crayola! All the marker came out. Her dress would have been a great commercial for their markers. So, yesterday when we were in Michael's I bought her some child (very dull) scissors and some foam stickers (a small bag). Ella has been very fascinated lately when I use the scissors so I thought this might hold her attention. And stickers always keep her busy for at least 3 or 4 minutes. Evidently my mom and I were on the same wavelength. When we got home yesterday there was a package at the front door from Granna. When we opened the package it was full of all sorts of fun "art" things including one of the big boxes of foam stickers. Ella was so excited and so was I because I knew between those stickers and her scissors, Ella would stay busy for awhile.

All day I had been planning to get as much done as possible for dinner during nap time to eliminate as much crying as possible and keep a little sanity. This in itself was a big sacrifice for me because that is the only hour and a half I have to get anything done that I want to. But I figured the sacrifice was worth it in the long run. So, I get both kids down for their nap and head to the kitchen to start the chicken and realize that I forgot to take the chicken out of the freezer! There went my great plan! I was able to get the chicken thawed and cooked before Miller woke up which was huge, but I still had about 30 minutes prep time.

When I realized that my great plan of not having much to do when the kids were awake was destroyed, I definitely opted for the big box of sticker over my small puny bag. I knew at least Ella would be happy. So, after nap time we all sit down and play together in the kitchen. I taught Ella how to use the scissors and we played with some of the stickers. Miller was happy, Ella was busy, it was time for me to make my break while things were good. Miller lasted a few minutes before the crying started, but I was determined not to be distracted, I was on a mission and I was going to get dinner fixed as quickly as possible. It has been about 5 or 10 minutes and I realized I had not heard anything from Ella for awhile which was very unusual. I looked over and saw this...



Ella had dumped out the entire box! I laughed and took a picture. Then told Ella she did not need to have all the stickers out at once and needed to start putting the stickers back in the box. And for some reason I thought she could do this unsupervised (I am in the same room). So, again I get back to cooking! My attention is focused on getting the job done, which I did in record time I think. But at the same time I realize once again that amidst all the crying, I have not heard anything from Ella. I look over and see her attempt at cleaning up.


Oh, what a night! Poor Miller though, he still was not too happy with me. At least I laughed, Ella had fun and the enchiladas were good!