Sometimes your kids get a Christmas gift and you're not sure if it's a good idea or not. If your child opens a present from Grandma and it has this many pieces (see picture) you should deem it a "Grandma's house toy". If the gift is window crayons, do not even consider taking it home. Leave it at Grandma's house for use there. This year I made a rookie mistake (please, I've only been mothering for four years). We brought home an assemble yourself wooden train kit and window crayons. Again, on the window crayons - DO NOT BRING THEM INTO YOUR HOME.
One day Conrad was on an adventure with Daddy so I wanted to do something special with Max. Out came the window crayons. And it was fun! We colored and created beautiful temporary art. No problem, right? Crayola boasts "washable". I washed it right off of Max's face and wasn't concerned about his clothes or my sliding glass door because Crayola has not let me down yet. Out came the Windex and the window washing began. More like window smearing. It was a continuation of our crayon fun, but about 12 paper towels and A LOT of Windex later the fun started to wane, for me anyway. The color was gone before the residue finally came off. All evidence was gone by the time Joe got home. . .
Joe usually does the building projects with the boys. They go to the project days at Home Depot, at Lowe's, and they make up new projects to do in the garage all the time. Conrad has grand plans to build a race car and a house that we can all live in. So, one day while Max and Caden were napping we opened the "build it yourself train kit". I was not deterred by all of the pieces. I had to read the directions, but my little builder did all of the hammering. I kind of thought he would need me a little more.
He really didn't until we were short on nails that we needed. Then it became clear why Daddy does the building projects and I don't. I took the screws we had and just muscled them in. When that didn't work, I got out the wood glue and, in my opinion, I solved our problem and completed our train. Conrad is still complaining about how I messed up his train because the wood glue ran a little bit and you can see it on the outside of the train. Nothing a little paint won't fix.
Ahhhh, for all of the ranting I started out with, I have a confession to make. I still have the window crayons on a high shelf and I have a "build it yourself airplane" kit stashed away. Neither are going to be returned to Grandma's yet. Messy or not, they were things I got to do with my boys and I just can't get enough of that!
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