Starting each day with YES

I don't know if all kids wake up this way, but our kids wake up and begin the day with the words "I WANT" nearly every day. Most mornings this annoys me, particularly if I have yet to enjoy my morning cup(s) of coffee. There are also things that I have been loathe to allow my 2 1/2 and nearly 4 year olds to begin because I fear them - these things include unrestricted access to painting, play-doh, stickers and other creative items which might easily result in chaos and destruction.

However, a new day dawns and this morning when the princess asked to paint in her new Dora Easter paint book (thanks auntie Shan!), I decided to say YES. And you know what? She's a pretty good little painter, although she did manage to mix everything to make purple, and paint from there forward with nothing but purple. (How do yellow, orange and green make purple? Who knew?).

Of course, once the lazy bear bigger brother woke and saw what said 2 1/2 year old princess was doing, he wanted in on the action. So, my worst fear begins and they are BOTH painting (water colors, but STILL!) and when all was said and done (for now) they did a fabulous job and there is no paint anywhere other than their pages and a little on hands and faces and a tad bit on their table.

So I publicly vow to try to begin more days with YES and less days with "not right now" or "no." It doesn't seem to have reduced the volume of noise in the home, but it hasn't made it louder or messier by much, so we'll keep plugging!