Rescue efforts, strawberries, and penguins

I managed to rescue the papier mache creation, lol. I figured, hey, it's paper pulp - right? So what if it doesn't look quite the same, at least I won't have been responsible for wasting work she was really proud of... I soaked it in a bowl of water for a few minutes and carefully tore down one side with a knife before peeling it off in sections and gluing them back together with a few more bits of tissue paper added - it's a bit wonky but hey, she's delighted with it anyway (and doesn't know that I nearly had to throw it away).



Currently they have a bowl of strawberries from the garden and are sharing them out. There hasn't been a peep out of them since I handed over the bowl! The only problem seems to be that in the time it has taken to tell you about the strawberries, they've eaten them all. Morgan was happily sharing hers with her "baby". I think I've probably mentioned him before. She has fixed on this large grey stuffed-toy penguin and decided in her wisdom that it is her baby.

She rocks it, nurses it, shushes and pats it, and best of all insists that it has the first turn at everything. If we're on the park, the penguin has to go in the swing first. If she's coming for milk, the penguin has to be offered the breast first. And if she's eating strawberries? Yup, you guessed it, the penguin gets COVERED and then she gets really stressed and asks me to clean him up.

Martin and I had a long talk last night about how we've been reacting to some discipline stuff. We're reading through Non-violent Communication and going back to How to Talk so Kids will Listen as well (has anyone else cursed such a long title when trying to tell people about this book??), and we have both decided that the main thing we have to do right now is let go of the control freak in us and live with a bit more chaos.

There are times when it's right to forgive yourself for yelling, accept that sometimes it's understandable and probably not all that damaging, and move on - and times when it's really just time to get a grip and try to do something about it... This is one of the latter.