Jay-style

Yesterday I was at the computer and Rose came walking up the stairs saying, “Mommy, Jay do my heer.” I looked over and sure enough, she had a very Jay-ish hair accessory crammed onto her head.

It’s from Jay’s play tool set—a plastic plank and a black screw with 3 washers screwed on the end. Somehow Jay had managed to tangle it into her hair. It reminded me somewhat of Pebbles from the Flinstones.

The stylist and his subject. It looks amazingly clean in the background because yesterday was a vacuuming day—which only happens 2 or 3 times per month. You know how I feel about freshly vacuumed floors. Nirvana.

Another day this week I didn’t accomplish much of anything except THIS glorious playroom world. It makes me look like supermom, but how the day really went was: Mommy busy around the house/on the computer/in the kitchen all day till 3pm when she finally paid her kids some attention. These buildings took about 2 hours—not all day.

I saw a quote the other day that said something like “When I smile, it’s not because my life is perfect, it’s because I’m grateful for what I have and I make the most of it.” That more or less describes how I feel about record-keeping (journal, blog, photos, etc). I try to record a good enough mix of the good and the less-good to keep it real, but I naturally want to focus on the GOOD! We all want balance in life, but let’s be honest, who actually wants EQUAL portions of bad and good? I’d rather have and remember much more of the goods than the blahs. Which is why I’m hesitant to even insert comments like “I ignored my children all day and then made up for it with 2 hours of building in the playroom.” I don’t want to destroy the joy of this good-mom moment! But in a year or two I don’t want to look back at this post and think “wow, I used to be so much better” because I neglected to insert the slice of reality into the memory. I think I’ve mentioned this topic before. Well.

ANYWAYS…

During that fun, happy moment, we built a ginormous train track intertwined with our felt road strips and the orange Hotwheels track, connecting to the felt car town. On the sides, clockwise from the left are:
1. the two Star Wars walker ships that Jay won’t let us destroy (who knows when we’ll be able to build with those big Legos again)
2. a blue version of the Ninja Turtles’ hideout (they’re all swinging from a baby chain)
2.5—hidden from view—Jay’s small block city
3. A school
4. A block house
5. Jay sitting behind his Star Wars big Lego creation (I think it’s a ship)
6. the train tracks/road combo with the Brie cheese wheel Millennium Falcon parked nearby
7. Rose sitting next to her block house (I helped/built block houses—one for Jay and one for Rose)
8. To the left of Rose’s house, there’s a box-barn full of horses but it didn’t fit into this picture.

A few close-ups for fun, and because Jay loves to look at his old buildings when they’re gone:

Jay’s house (that paper leaning against the wall is actually a printed picture of another old building we made which Jay wanted to copy).

Rose’s house (we were running out of blocks at this point, and then Jay invaded it with his medicine-bottle toy soldiers).

Jay’s “Block City.” Using his favorite library book as inspiration (Robert Louis Stevenson’s poem Block City, with pictures by Daniel Kirk), he builds these things laying down on the floor so they don’t tip over.

The ninja turtles’ lair, with all 4 of the gang swinging on the chain while their cardboard pizzas get cold in the background.

The barn, with a chain of twistie tie people hanging from the roof and a tractor pulling a load full of sparkly My Little Ponies.

The fairy tale peoples’ house, built by Rose.

And while I’m at it, I should probably post a picture of a version of the block city we finally got to destroy to build all the other creations. Jay gets very attached to his buildings, and usually refuses to destroy them for weeks at a time. It’s very hard to play when all the blocks are used up. It’ll probably be another month or so before the current playroom world gets recycled.

Some (most) days it feels like I’m spinning my wheels and not getting anywhere because every time I start something, I have to stop and go intervene in various Jay vs. Rose disputes/random undeserved attacks, but there are times when I actually accomplish tasks and enjoy my kids. These two things don’t often happen in the same day, but it’s best to look at the week as a whole, or maybe even the month. Over a week, there are days of awesome and days of toys tipping over, causing double-dramatic meltdowns.