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Was cleaning out the pile of kids art we had lingering on the table, and K1 had a coloring page that was a large mandala flower, with a quote at the bottom that said "The question isn't who is going to let me; it's who is going to stop me. -- Ayn Rand".

I'm just glad this kid can't read. I wonder if because last week was "read across America" they just printed out a bunch of shit with quotes on it.

Starting to warm up here so been trying to take the kids outside more. Really hate winter since there’s so little to do especially with kids.

Was at a park over the weekend with our 4yo and 2yo and my partner. Our 4yo wanted to play on the big slide and our 2yo wanted to play in the tunnel, so we split supervision. My 2yo made a friend with a little girl who seemed to be on the autism spectrum. (Edit: Sorry that sounds a little bit insensitive. What I mean is that, taken as a whole, her behavior, speech, and vocabulary are similar to many students I’ve known who are on the spectrum. I didn’t mean to imply people with autism ‘look’ or ‘act’ a certain way). She was probably 5 or 6 and very sweet to both my kids. My partner and I watched the three of them play a lot. Normally I don’t allow my kids to climb up the slides (years of being a recess monitor at an elementary school will do that to ya), but my 4yo was being so encouraging and kind teaching this girl how to safely walk up the slide that I let them do it. The look of pride on their new friend’s face when she got to the top was priceless. Beaming ear to ear. Lots of clapping and cheers from my kids. Her dad walked up to her and she said, “Dad! I made it to the top!”

He yelled at her for climbing up the slide. She completely deflated. Dad sounded not just upset but angry with his daughter. My 4yo ran away and got me, my 2yo found my partner too. Their new friend was crying and being reprimanded by both her parents. I was about to go over to them with my kids to explain and apologize. My partner and I told our kids it wasn’t her fault and that we didn’t know their rules, so we should apologize. On our way over the parents shot us a nasty look and left, their bawling daughter in tow.

Both my kids have a hard time making friends. They’re just different, they wear their hearts on their sleeves, they’re awkward, they have super vivid imaginations that can be overwhelming for their peers. They’re also followers. So them making a friend independently is a big deal. They were really upset the whole way home, our 4yo especially. They thought it was all their fault they got their friends in trouble. Our 2yo has been asking to go back to the park to find her new friend. I really do hope we see them again so I can explain what happened. I hate that my kids don’t have closure and didn’t get the chance to say bye. I feel terrible too. She looked so happy and proud climbing the slide. I wish I would have said something straight away.

I've decided to upgrade one of the kids to undies at childcare. Not because they've been making progress with toilet training, almost the opposite. A few days in a row last week he'd come hope with a sore bum that was so red, he was in so much pain and at times we wouldn't shower him because it would hurt too much. He has a habit of waiting for a fresh nappy to go to the toilet, then doesn't tell anyone. So at care he's going the maximum interval with a dirty nappy, and you combine that with the blueberries he's been eating and he's been having problems.

So I decided undies for him. He'll either be more mindful of going to the toilet or he won't be able to hide it. We've tried talking to him about letting someone know before or after he goes to the toilet but there have been too many repeat days of this and I don't want him to be in pain.

It's a long weekend here and we went to a blueberry farm as well because they have this dinosaur display. It sounds like an odd combo but 3 year olds love berries and they love dinosaurs to props to them for making that connection. He's going to be eating a lot of blueberries in the coming days so I'm not dealing with this for the next week and I know he doesn't want to either.

Sick this week, kid is sick, spouse is sick. I'm at a significant negative PTO balance right now, so I'm literally not allowed to take any time off, so I'm going in to work and making everyone else sick. sick. sick sick sick.

Little Beaver has been smirking and acting defiant whenever she misbehaves. It's clearly becoming a little game for her, and so we're discussing approaches to working towards discipline. She's still very young, and so doesn't understand very much at all about what we're saying. That results in a lot of situations where she's doing something unacceptable (sticking her hand in the toilet, climbing onto her table while she's eating), but we can't easily communicate what we want her to do... or not do.