Confessions of a perfectionist

Sometimes I think that being a bit of a perfectionist does not bode well with motherhood.  For example...

I decided it would be fun to make Halloween sugar cookies with the kids today.  I had this vision of us rolling out, cutting, and decorating these adorable, yummy cookies.  And we did.  However, I forgot about that perfectionist thing. 

#1. Mixing.  Natalie wanted to add all the ingredients to the bowl, which I let her do.  But I did find myself panicking on the inside a bit because she kept coming awefully close to spilling a bit outside of the bowl.  Heaven forbid.  I managed to calm myself down and let her work. 

#2.  Rolling.  Natalie wanted to roll out the dough.  She even had her own little rolling pin.  Sure, no problem.  Until I watched her start to roll.  She was trying so hard, but it was so lumpy and bumpy and getting paper thin in places while others were still an inch thick.  I couldn't handle it.  I very nicely told her that I would roll out the dough for her and she could cut.

#3.  Cutting.  Kelton decided to join in at this point.  I showed them how to wiggle the cookie cutter just a bit after they cut the cookies so that it separates the cookie from the dough a bit.  Well, Kelton got slightly carried away with the wiggling part.  Alarms started going off in my head because the cookies were getting a bit distorted.  Because everyone knows that you can't have lopsided sugar cookies.  Heaven forbid.  I tried to calm myself down.  Then Natalie placed a cookie cutter right in the center of a large area of nice smooth dough and cut out a cookie instead of placing the cookie cutter at the edge and fitting it in as closely as possible to the other cookies.  I think I actually gasped out loud a bit.  She didn't do it again.

#4.  Frosting.  I knew this one was going to be trouble.  So I prepared the best I could.  Frosting sugar cookies is hard.  I'm not even that great at it.  And I must say, Natalie did a pretty good job.  I was thankful that Kelton didn't want to try.  But I will say that when I would look over and see this...

it would take every ounce of self control to not reach over and smooth it out with a little more frosting.  But I never did.  I just took really deep breaths and, well... tried not to look.  Oh, and this cookie is a haunted house that Natalie wanted to decorate like a candy corn.

So there you have it.  I am crazy.  I need rehab for perfectionist mothers trying to raise kids who will hopefully not pick up their crazy mother's perfectionist ways.  :)

We really did have a lot of fun making cookies.  Natalie was very proud of her creations.  It is fun to see how much she likes to create things--just like me.  She loves making things and painting and things like that.  Which is why she had so much fun decorating cookies.  (And she had no idea that her mother was employing deep breathing techniques right next to her in the meantime. Kidding.  Sort of.)

Here are our finished cookies--which I may or may not have eaten like four of tonight.  We have spider webs, ghosts (which are sideways in the picture) moons that look a lot like happy bananas, candy corns, pumpkins, cats, haunted houses, and a couple of maple leaves.

Weekend trip

Last weekend we went to Snowflake just for some time away.  We had a lot of fun enjoying some cooler weather (including snow in Show Low).  Natalie and Kelton had tons of fun playing outside with cousins all day at Grandma and Grandpa Webb's.  On Saturday, Nate and I went golfing with my dad and Melanie and Sean.  Then on Monday before we came home, Nate and I went back to the golf course with my dad and we took Natalie and Kelton with us.  They had a lot of fun coming with us.  Kelton refused to ride in the cart for about two holes (until he got tired) and wanted to walk right along side grandpa.  Natalie had fun driving (steering) the golf cart.  I'm not too excited for her to turn sixteen.  Luckily I have a decade to prepare.  Oh, and Nate got his first ever birdie.  It was on a par three hole.

Kelton kept saying the funniest things while we were there.  Here are a few that I can remember.

(while in the car--driving somewhere)
Natalie: "Mom, can we get a pumpkin and carve it?"
Me:  "Yes, we will get a pumpkin when it gets closer to Halloween."
Kelton:  "Halloween??  I like Halloween.  I just love candy!"

Here's the setup for this next one.  Kelton had been jumping on the trampoline with a metal tent spike.  I might insert here that this was not on my watch.  I got home after the injury.  The personal injury attorney was on duty.  (Hmm, I wonder if the packaging on the tent expressly states that tent spikes are not to be used while jumping on trampolines.  Hahaha.  You never know... my blowdryer instructions say to not operate while sleeping.)  So I walked in to find Nate in the bathroom cleaning up a very scared Kelton who had a little cut on his forehead, right between the eyes.  Nate got the blood all wiped up and we went downstairs to find a band aid.  Kelton still looked very scared and sad.  You know that look kids get when they are terrified--he had it.  A few minutes later, I found a band aid and cut it down to size to fit between Kelton's eyes.  I very carefully placed it over the cut.  Then Kelton got up and walked over to the back door, opened it, and in the most exuberant voice, called out,

"Natalie!  I'm all fixed now!!!" 

He then sprinted out the door to continue playing on the trampoline with everyone.  It was then that I realized that I have severely underestimated the power of band aids.

Then one afternoon I walked into a room where Kelton was.  He came up to me and asked,

"Where's DVD?"
Me: "DVD?"
Kelton: "Yes, where is DVD?"
Me: (confused) "Do you want to watch a movie?"
Slight pause... (I could see the wheels turning in his head because he realized he said the wrong thing and was trying to figure out how to fix it.)
Kelton: "Where's... Steee...V-D?"
Me:  "Are you looking for Stevie?  Your cousin?"
Kelton:  "Yes.  Where's Stevie?"

This boy cracks me up.  Lately he is having troubles with any word that ends in the "vee" sound.  For example... the television is a TVD.  In his mind, V must always be followed by D.  As in DVD.  And Stee-V-D.

I love this little boy. 

(You can see his little cut in this picture--it has been healing for almost a week and is not much more than a little red mark now.)