spring has sprung.

After one of the worst winters I can ever remember, it is finally warm enough to play outside in the sandbox.  Whew. 

I wasn't sure we could survive. 

This morning while I was helping Henry get dressed he asked if he could go play in the sandbox before school.  I told him he couldn't because we didn't have time and it was still dark outside.  He said, "but...but...but...but..." and I said, "but what?" and because he is my son he said, "crack."

win some. lose some.

Winning.

Last night I realized that I have actually made two really good decisions in parenting my son. 
1.  The timer.  I might set the timer 20 times a day in order to get him to do something but my god it works.  Instead of arguing with him and/or chasing him around to physically force him to get dressed/brush teeth/clean up/go inside/go outside/take a bath/pretty much anything, I set the timer and when that bad boy goes off, he doesn't argue and just does what he is supposed to do.  I am sure there are a million ways this is ruining my child but for now, I think the chasing and yelling and arguing that happens without the timer would be more damaging. 
2.  The lawnmower.  I spent about $15 on a toy lawnmower for him a couple years ago.  Last night he played with that thing for over an hour.  We take it on vacation with us.  We take it to friends' houses for the day.  There is lots of grass that needs to be cut in this world and Henry will pretend to cut it all.  And it's great exercise because sometimes he has to run fast.  I am currently trying to figure out how to extend the handle on it because pretty soon he's going to be too tall to use it comfortably.  He's still too short to use the real mower and it probably wouldn't be safe anyway.  Would it?

Yup.  That's pretty much it.

Losing.
Too many to count but at the top of my list lately are:
1.  Letting him see that anything butt related cracks me up.  Speaking of butt cracks, he thinks it's hysterical when he yells, "BUTT!" and I yell, "CRACK!" and it goes on and on and I can't stop laughing.
2.  Introducing him to youtube videos of combines harvesting crops.  His favorite videos have country music which means Henry can often be heard playing with his toys while singing about whiskey, dirty jeans with Copenhagen rings, shake it for me girl, damn this knuckle busted no paying job, shot of tequila, and so on.  He mixes the songs all together so it just sounds like the most fucked up country song ever.  I'm pretty sure that's saying a lot but I'm also pretty sure I'm not exaggerating.