I am once again

woefully behind on the task of jotting down my thoughts.  I write post after post in my head, only to collapse in heap every night, exhausted and too tired to note the 18,000 things I must not forget.  I realized today that I have updates going back to October that I would like to make.  In other words, there may be more new stuff soon, but it will be back-dated.  If you are one of my beloved readers with RSS, don't let the dates throw you off.

Tonight's post isn't anything really noteworthy, more of a note to myself.  Kelsey has been super-creative lately and the addition of her craft desk to my craft room/Pete's office has just fueled her imagination.  She made a card for a friend the other day, and spent quite a bit of time perfecting it.  She put it in a 'safe place', but then could not locate it tonight.  She wanted to give it to her friend at the friend's Valentine-making party tomorrow, so realized she might need to start over.

She created a poster (of sorts) instead.  When finished, it ended up being 2 sheets of paper taped together to create a long, narrow poster.  Unfortunately, she was not happy with it.  She came up to my room, showed me and then whispered in my ear, "I need to say the "S" word."

In our house, the "s" word is not another word for, er, waste, shall we say, but the word "st*pid".  The girls are well aware that we don't think it is a necessary word, but understand sometimes they feel the need to say it.  Tonight was one of those nights.

Kelsey then whispered, "I think this picture is stupid."

When pressed for an explanation, it turns out that the house and garage she drew did not come out quite right.  She was frustrated with herself, and wanted to express her feelings.  So, I let her despite my assertions I didn't feel that way. 

After getting her thoughts out, she marched off to her room to get ready for bed, and likely consider a new drawing for her friend.  I then realized that while she was upset with herself, it was much less than usual.  She didn't go on and on, and seemed to realize occasional do-overs won't hurt anyone.  And, no, not anything anyone else wouldn't have done…just so happy she had the confidence to tell me and deal with her disappointment so carefully. In the past, she has been a bit more vocal, and her frustrations sometimes seem to run deeper.

Tonight instead of freaking out, or worrying it to death, she just accepted that she could create a new project later.  No, not thinking about how fast she is growing up, or that it seems like she was only just a toddler, why do you ask?

Note:  The above picture is from November 2004, when we stopped at the Children's Museum in Pittsburgh on our way to Ohio for Thanksgiving.  This picture was taken in the section dedicated to Mr. Rogers.  To think I thought they were both so big at that point in time…