I'll Give You A Clue

Everything is a game to Bayley. Good, since that's what we were going for with the Playful Parenting approach. Still, I wish the kid would nap on weekends. Here was Saturday's exchange.

Jeff: Bayley, back upstairs. It's nap time.
Bayley: Daddy, I can't.
Jeff: Why not?
Bayley: I can't tell you.
Jeff: If you can't tell me, then you'd better get to sleep.
Bayley: I'll give you a clue.
Jeff: Okay, what's my clue.
Bayley: You have to flush it.

Bayley's first poem

There once was a banana
who loved to ride coaches
One day he met a tuba
and his twenty pet roaches

Mr Clean Magic Eraser

A Mr Clean Magic Eraser saved Hayden's childhood today. If not for this cleaning breakthough, I surely would have done damage to the boy that I'd be paying for in therapy later. He's really on quite a tear. Today he ate a purple crayon, broke Bayley's elephant bank, and decorated my bedroom with a Sharpie.

It's not as if I left him alone. He ate the crayon while I was trying to help Bayley peel off some stickers. This was a bit and gulp, people. Chomp and swallow. He threw the bank, but in his defense he throws everything. There are probably four breakable things in our house. Well, three now. And my back was turned making Bayley's bed.

He decided to play "While You Were Out" in the at most sixty seconds it took for me to lug the vacuum cleaner upstairs. He found the marker (in a child safety locked drawer, such a good use of money) and colored my nightstand, door, carpet and Rogue's dog pillow. Lovely.

I yelled, boy did I yell. I attacke dthe marker on the carpet first, hoping if I was quick enough I could get rid of it. I did. By that time he thought it was a game, climbing on me as I rubbed the carpet. Little jerk. I almost cried, thinking of my door - I could paint over it I guess - and nightstand. But then a lightbulb went off, just like in the comic strips. If Mr. Clean can remove crayon from walls (again, Hayden) then maybe...

I'd kiss Mr. Clean if I could. The only victim of Hayden's artistry is Rogue's pillow. I flipped it over. He'll never know.

We're Famous!

Not really. But Bayley is the star of a blurb I have in a magazine. Parents September 2005 issue, page 275, It Worked For Me!, All Set. His baby book is going to be stuffed!