Chloe Playdate

We had Chloe over for another play date today. We just planned on hanging out and playing for a few hours, God had something else in mind. Bo and I have spent countless hours talking about parenting and how we will do it when the time comes so we’re on the same page about things (no, the time is not coming yet)…. Anyways, we had a blast with Chloe today, she pretty much ran around the house with the cat toy screaming and laughing, we had lunch and even went to the park. So the story of what God revealed to us today really has NOTHING to do with any of the pictures, but i’ll tell the story throughout the pictures anyways. Just remember, the pictures are just of us playing today, they don’t coincide with the story at all. :)

Chloe (actually bowser) finally got bored of all the chasing going on and decide to find something else to do. For bowser it was to pass out, for Chloe it was to find something else to play with.

Her parents sent her over with a bag full of toys to occupy her with. Stuff she loves to play with at home, though we’ve never actually played with the toys she brings here. It’s more fun to play “get you!” or racing down the stairs (on our behinds) or just having Bo fling her around.

Mom also came over to have me help her with something, have Bo fix an electronic for her and to hang out for a while. Mom and I went up to the office to work for a minute and Chloe of course was right on our tails.
She found uncle Bo’s ball in the office, one of those huge exercise balls… it was like she found a toy store. She asked if she could please play with the ball and I said “tear it up!” figuring it’s a huge soft rubber (or something) ball… what harm can it do? (I am SO not a mom yet….)

She asked if she could take the ball downstairs to play with it downstairs with uncle Bo. Again, sure, why the heck not!?!? Seemed like a great idea to me! (again, i’m SO not a mom). I may have even mentioned to her that she could just toss it down the stairs… (oops) Not 10 seconds later mom and i hear **CRASH** and lots of glass breaking and things falling. We run to the top of the stairs to see Chloe midway down the stairs, Bo in the dining room and coffee all over the wall and the carpet. Then I noticed our new center piece we had registered for and received for our wedding had been shattered and there was glass everywhere. Our cell phones were on the table with my camera and my mug of coffee. Did i forget to mention that the dining room table is right at the bottom of our stairs? And I had told Chloe to go ahead and throw this GIANT ball down the stairs? Yeah, I just wasn’t thinking.
Bo did really good handling it, started grabbing stuff off the table and cleaning up the mess and getting Chloe out of the dining room so she didn’t get hurt on the broken glass that had blown up all over the entire room. He didn’t yell at her or anything which was GREAT because he had NO idea that it was my fault, she didn’t do anything wrong, I told her to go ahead and throw it down the stairs. I was really thankful for that. So Chloe never even got upset at the incident and usually she’ll start crying when something bad happens (or she has done something bad and is about to get in trouble) but she didn’t get upset at all. Mom and I ran down to help clean the mess and I explained to Bo what I had done and told him to be upset with me not with her because it was my fault.
He was really bummed that we shattered the cool centerpiece we had in the middle of the table. Mom said she would buy us a new one (as did my sister when she came to pick Chloe up and we told her what happened.) Ironically, we just recently received a gift card to Pier 1 Imports and have plans to go out and buy something new for the house on Friday, I told Bo we could use that to replace the center piece and he was ok with that and felt better about the loss of it.
Chloe wanted to keep playing with the ball… Bo didn’t want her to. The ball got put back upstairs but mom and I went back up to finish what we were doing real quick. She of course came with us and found the ball again. I told her she could go play with it in the loft as long as she kept it away from the stairs. Bo came back up and found her playing with it again and told her we were going to put the ball away. Rather than “submitting” to his decision as I am supposed to do (and have actually AGREED to do in our MANY parenting discussions we have had in the past) I put up a fight.
In front of mom and chloe I told him she should be able to keep playing with the ball, I didn’t see anything wrong with it, it’s a huge loft with almost nothing in it, she can easily keep it away from the stairs and it’s a fun toy for her to play with. Bo had his own valid reasons for not wanting her to play with the ball but I didn’t care, I got sarcastic (imagine that) out of anger of him taking away her toy and was totally rude to him about it.
We eventually did have a chance to talk like civil adults about it, about how we’ve agreed that with parenting, I am to let HIM discipline our kids (or any kids that are in our house) and if I disagree with him, I take him aside and in a calm manner explain my concerns, away from the child or anyone else who’s around. I agreed to do that in the past, I agree that it’s the appropriate way to handle things but I failed. Oops. My bad.
So we had our little tift about the ball, made a quick recovery (ALL thanks to him) and went to the park to continue having fun for the day then talked about it later.
It’s just funny how some things SEEM so clear, so black and white when you’re not in the situation, I can IMAGINE that whole situation going better in my head, I see it play out very differently than it did. I had agreed to handle it differently and really thought that’s how it would be when the time came yet when the situation actually happened and feelings were involved, everything I had said and thought went straight out the window when I thought Bo was needlessly taking a toy away from her. Not like it even mattered anyways, she had a whole bag of toys to play with downstairs and didn’t even get upset about him taking the ball away, I was the only one who got upset about it.
It’s also interesting how Bo was so bummed about the center piece yet God had already worked that out to be replaced for us with the gift card we just received to a really cool store where I’m sure we will find something nice to put there.
I guess I need to work on the whole “application” part of things. Bo and I talk and in my head, I imagine myself acting appropriately yet when I get upset, the good me flies right out the window and Mrs. Sarcasticangrypants takes over. That’s not how I desire to be, yet I am still there, living in my flesh. UGH.
All in all it was a great day! We had a nice morning sleeping in, folding laundry, enjoying a cup of coffee and cleaning up around the house. Then we got to play with Chloe and nana (my mom) for a couple hours then made a batch of beef jerky (still cooking), watched a movie, made salmon for dinner and relaxed in the evening. We even got motivated again and cleaned out the office upstairs, it’s been the dumping ground since we moved in back in September and we haven’t done anything to clean it up until tonight so that was a load of fun for me. Bo got burned out pretty quick but we got a lot done so I’m happy with it.
It’s midnight now, i’m ready to lay down on the couch and relax a bit more. The only thing we have going tomorrow is church but we get to sleep in again since we go to the late service then i’ll see if I can talk him into going to Fred Meyer with me to look for some glasses (UGH again). I’ve had a LOT of headches lately and can feel a lot of it has been because of eye strain because my eyesight has changed pretty drastically in the past few years since I had laser surgery done and I either need to get glasses/contacts again or have the surgery re-done which I would have to pay for again. No thanks, I don’t want either but contacts/glasses are currently the lesser of 2 evils.
That’s about it for now! Hope you enjoyed the pictures, we sure did!
God Bless!
Bo and Kari