In the past four years, I’ve made a lot of poor parenting decisions.  I admit it.  In fact, my motto for the first couple of years was, “Gimme a break! I’m just wingin’ here, kid.”  I don’t always know what I’m doing, and I’ll be the first to confess that sometimes there is absolutely no logic behind some of my decisions.  However, every once in a while, I get something right, and sometimes it’s when I’m not even trying.  Take Tivo, for example.  One of the best parenting decisions Ken and I ever made, and we weren’t even doing it for the kids.  In fact, it was a birthday present to me from Ken before we even had kids, but man, has it paid for itself several times over.

To begin with, we don’t have to own a lot of kid movies.  I just record them off the TV and bring then up with the touch of button.  Awesome.  Plus, if Edie’s really in a Charlie and Lola phase, then I can record that as well to have on hand in a pinch.  But my favorite thing about Tivo (in relation to the children, that is) is that Edie doesn’t watch commercials.  In fact, I think she has seen about two in her whole life.  Ok, maybe that’s a bit stretching it, maybe three.  If her show even begins to start to break to commercial, you can bet in the next second she is going to yell out, “Can someone turn my show back on?!”  Which on a side note, completely baffles me because she will say this while I am sitting on the couch RIGHT NEXT to her and she’ll be looking directly at me.

“Yea, sure, someone can,” I’ll say real sarcastic back to her because, you know, four-year-olds totally get sarcasm.

Anyway, back to my main point, the kid never watches commercials.  She has no idea of the toys that she’s been missing out on because she’s so impatient during commercial breaks.  There is a whole world out there just waiting to advertise to her if she will just give them the chance.

There have been a couple of times I was slow on the draw and didn’t get to the fast forward button in time.  It seems like every commercial she sees, she then declares afterward that she MUST have what they are selling.  Again, just another way that Tivo has paid for itself.

Well, the other week, we were in a similar scenario, and either I didn’t hear the request for “someone” to fast forward or I was messing around on the computer and tuning it out.  (Don’t act like you don’t do the same thing with your kids!) Either way, Edie saw a commercial, and within seconds, she was running in asking if I would buy her a Butterfly Garden.  Seeing a chance to teach her a life lesson, I said, “No.  I’m not going to buy you a Butterfly Garden, but if you earn the first $15 dollars of it, I will pay the rest.”  Let’s face it, that’s more money than she has ever seen in her whole life, and I really thought she might get that Butterfly Garden sometime around her eighth birthday.  But I momentarily forgot that she is a product of Ken McKibben.

She washed every dish she could get her hands on, and she hosted another lemonade stand.  She picked up leaves in the front yard after her father trimmed the shrubs, and she even straightened her brother’s room for a quarter (which took a lot of pride swallowing since she didn’t make the mess).  She was not above asking family members to donate to her cause, but don’t worry, I always followed up that she needed a chore to perform before she could take their money.  And she scrubbed the bathroom mirrors at the first sight of smudges.

It only took her two weeks before she had saved enough to meet her end of the bargain, and so, I made good on my promise.

Edie is now the mother of four hungry caterpillars.  She spends a large part of her day watching over them and giving us minute by minute updates on their shenanigans.

Running into the kitchen from her bedroom, “Look Mommy!  Arthur is upside down!” or “Shhh!  The caterpillars are all sleeping.”

I wish I could remember all their names, but Edie is asleep right now, so I will have to introduce them all to you later.  But for now, here are the four newest members of our family in all their caterpillar glory:

DAY TWO

The clown who painted Edie’s face said she would make her look like a “butterfly princess”…I know, again with the princess thing.  But I was actually pretty impressed with the level of face painting talent that was exhibited.  These butterflies are a far cry from the crooked sunshine we used to get painted on our cheeks during the May Day celebration at school.

Edie has never had her face painted before, and therefore it was a BIG deal to her.  I took her to Wal-Mart afterwards, and as we were walking in she said, “I think everyone is going to like looking at my face.”  She was right.  She did turn a lot of heads.

She came in contact with a face painting clown while I ran a 5K race this weekend.  I was training for the 8K, but after having fever for several days before the race, I chickened out and signed up for the lesser one instead.  In all honesty, if it wasn’t for my friend, Joy, who was running with me, I probably would have slept in altogether.  I guess that’s why it is good to do these things with a partner. 

And I use the term “running with me” loosely.  It was more like blasting past me.  Of course, she has run several half-marathons and is in way better shape than I am.  Even though my mom keeps pointing out that Joy has much longer legs…yea Mom, that’s why she finished the race in 26 minutes and I followed behind six minutes later…because of her long legs.  Anyway, I did finish, and considering the month I had and how much of that time I’d spent lying in bed and wishing I was dead, I was pleased. 

Here’s another picture of the butterfly princess:

I should note that I didn’t post any race pictures this time because they came out blurry.  I like to think it’s because I was running so fast the camera couldn’t keep up.  But in all honesty, it probably has more to do with the fact that we had just bought the camera that week, and there is still a learning curve on how to operate it.  Sorry, Joy!

I know you were all disappointed when I blogged about our Halloween and then didn’t even post any pictures of the little squirt in her costume.

After trying on every costume Old Navy had to offer, she decided on the butterfly as we were walking to the cash register. She was finally convinced it was the right choice only after reading a book about My Little Pony who went to a party dressed as a butterfly.

Now every time we read that book, she likes to remind me that she was also a butterfly for Halloween. For some reason, the fact that she and My Little Pony decided on the same outfit is a big deal to her.