COMING CLEAN

Ethan,

I have to be honest with you about something...bandaids are not recycled and put back into new boxes. Neither are balloons, boxes, or any other form of packaging etc. I told you that after we saw the movie Toy Story 3 because it made you worry that every toy, and apparently everything else, had feelings. I had to tell you that so that you wouldn't make me keep all of our garbage. Today when you asked me if you could recycle your plain, skin colored bandaid - I told you no, the manufacturer didn't need that one in the recycling, you insisted that they did so it could go back into a box that we could buy again. I had some feelings of guilt, and I felt it best that I get all that cleared up. I love that you're so tender hearted and worried about the feelings of every living and non-living thing. You are precious. Please forgive me for misleading you - it was for MY own good. ( :

I love you.

Mom

P.S. You and Brynn are such good friends - I love this shot from lunch at Wahoos... you were sharing your favorite drink with each other, Rootbeer. ( : (Note those bracelets on your arm. They're called silly bands, and they're all the rage right now. They come in all sorts of different shapes, and you love to collect them - but typically you wear them for all of about 10-15 minute increments before you have to take them off and play with them. Today was one exception).

PRE-BIRTHDAY TORTURE

Poor Ethan has to wait 3 more days until he can actually OPEN his presents. Today when I picked him up from school, the first question he asked was if Brynn and I had gone to the store to buy his presents. When I said we had, he immediately asked where they were. I told him I had hidden them and he'd have to wait to open them until his birthday...that's when his world fell apart. He sobbed and sobbed and talked about how he just wanted to see them and how he was going to find them etc. I was heartbroken for the poor kid, and tried to console him, but he wanted none of it. He simply wanted to see the presents. Ouch. When I tried to back track and tell him I hadn't actually purchased them yet - that seemed worse, so I just let it go and tried to take his mind off things. He's currently taking a nap, which I believe was part of the problem to begin with. He work up at 5:30 this morning and didn't fall back asleep - so I think exhaustion played a huge role in the pre-birthday meltdown we just experienced. I'll wait and see what our world is like when he wakes up...hopefully it's not like this for the next 3 days. / :

As for torture of a different kind, the other morning after breakfast (while we were all still in our jammies) I decided it was time to sort through a stack of mail and other misc. junk that had been piling up on my desk in the kitchen (yup, it becomes a stacking spot for anything and everything). I came across a junk mailer that had a ton of stickers in it, so I gave it to the kids thinking they would busy themselves for a few minutes while I finished my project.

I was right about one thing - they did find a way to keep themselves busy, and it included them decorating my legs with the stickers. They both thought it was so funny that I pretended to be surprised when they put the stickers on my leg (the first few times at least), that they just couldn't help themselves. It was pretty funny, and since I was still able to do my sorting, and they were both having a good time, I just let them go with it. Here are a couple pictures Ethan took. ( :