A New 4 Year old Stage

Well - Tuesday morning was just as great at Monday - except it was the concrete mixer! I sorely wish I'd had my camera with me.

While there, I was HOPING the workers wouldn't realize that Ben had on the exact same outfit as the day before. Recently we've been having a few issues getting dressed in the morning because Ben only wants to wear jeans. Until this week, it's been over 90 degrees everyday so I wouldn't let him. Last week he asked so much I finally pulled down the box of winter clothes - only to find, the child only has one pair of jeans. He does have several pairs of pants, but they don't look like a cowboy! So, we trotted off to Old Navy to pair two pair of jeans. I guess that is not enough becasue every day since then, we have been wearing jeans. He finds them from the dirty clothes (me thinks I might protest too much). Monday he found a red/white/brownish plaid shirt from the winter clothes box that he has deemed his cowboy shirt. Fine - wear it. Monday night he hung it in his closet so it would be ready for Tuesday morning. Tuesday I explained all the reasons why you really need to wear clean clothes each day (thankfully there was no fuss over clean underwear because Monday they matched but Tuesday they didn't!). Over and over and over I explained these things. I really meant to do laundry last night but other things took over and I totally spacecd it - to find Ben dressed and ready this third day in the SAME outfit - the plaid shirt and jeans with the place for his hammer. I was talking with my mom on the phone this morning while trying to explain that cowboys can wear all different types of shirt and went through his closet and showed him each one that would look great with his cowboy stuff and boots. Even Grandma said she really likes cowboys that wear green. He just looked at me with his arms folded across his chest like - I'm not changing no matter what you say. So - lots of words/threats/pleadings from me and we are off to JoAnn's with Ben still in his cowboy clothes. Oh well, right?! So, I just go to start another load of laundry - knowing full well I told Ben to put his clothes in the dirty clothes so they could be clean for school tomorrow - only to be missing these jeans and shirt! That little cutie-pie had his DIRTY shirt hung up so nicely in his closet with the buttons all done up! I'm sure he's thinking, "Lady, leave my clothes ALONE!" He does look so cute that it's impossible to stay upset with him for too long. Soon he'll be in the world of reality - we'll let this cowboy stuff go on for awhile - especially since I am almost done with his horse quilt - FINALLY!!!

What a Fun Morning...

We went on a little walk this morning and on our way home, we got to watch a backhoe change from the jackhammer part to the little scoop part. It was cool and fits just like the foot on a sewing machine. One of the men came over to chat (a grandfather-type of man) with Ben who was dressed as a cowboy standing next to his bike. We found out they were getting ready to dig up some of the alley around the corner from us. So, we all walked together, with the backhoe and dump truck following us down the alley to our house. We stopped to drop off Ben's bike then went to meet the trucks. They kept waving us on until we were about 10 feet from the actioin where we sat on the grass and just watched the backhoe work its magic! The backhoe driver and the dump truck driver communicated with walkie-talkies, which I thought was really neat! It was such an exciting experience!