Brilliance and not-so

I don't feel that over all I have good and bad days as a mom. But I have good and bad moments. For instance, the photo below was a bad moment. The boys have been helping feed and water Scrubs as part of their chores every day. As I went to hand Isaac the bucket of dog food, I spilled the whole thing. The "bucket" contains about a week worth of food so after cleaning it up as best I could, I decided to let Scrubs eat his breakfast in the following fashion:

His face cracks me up here. It's as if he is saying, "Really? You want me to smile for the camera, now, while there is all this good food to be eaten?"

But just the day before I had one of my "brilliant" moments. That moment where I came up with an idea that revolutionized my day. I say day because one thing I have learned as a mom is that a new idea doesn't last as long as I would hope. Kids lose interest, mature, get bored, or figure out how to work around my idea in a matter of hours, days, or if I am lucky, weeks. But a temporary moment of intelligence, alone, is worth a pat on my own back. Check out this picture below and see if you can see my brilliance:

So what did I do? Well, Abigail wants to be outside on one of the bikes all day every day. We are outside a lot, but I can't be there all the time, and there are too many places she can get into trouble to allow her to be there by herself. So I utilized the gate Kristy has let me borrow to section off a small side of the porch. Abigail can now come and go as she pleases and play on her bikes whenever she wants. (If you look closely, she is there in the front right corner.) The kid has ZERO itnerest in baby toys. She wants to play with bikes and balls and lately, only bikes, all day long.

The only thing that this brilliant idea can't account for are the times when Abigail wants to exercise her acrobatic skills which far outdo anything her brothers ever attempted. See that little bike on the inside of the glass with the yellow push bar behind it. Shortly after I took this picture, Abigail came inside, stood on the green seat of that bike, leaned on the glass and as the bike moved, she fell forward right onto her face. I saw the whole thing, but I was on the other side of the table and could not get there fast enough. Great tears ensued.

That sort of overshadowed my brilliance but only for a moment. Five minutes of crying later, she was back outside playing again.

Oh and one more point of brilliance? I put a big X on the front of the boys shoes. If the X's are touching, the shoes are on the right feet. I haven't answered, "Are these the right feet?" one time during the last week. Okay, so, yes, some parents wouldn't like to see their kids running around with a big X on the front of both of their shoes. But I'm cool with it.

Go me.