She Got Her Hands Dirty // Happy Friday

My kid doesn't like to be dirty. She likes to be put together and clean. She likes order. Oh she can make a mess like the best of them...on her terms. But if you try to throw off her system then things can get ugly fast. And one of those these that Addison doesn't do well is get her hands messy. She doesn't like to touch her new things. It usually leads to meltdowns if you get her hands dirty and she can't get them clean. It's just the way she is. And although I want her to be able to be flexible, her sticking her hand into paint or into a pile of mud isn't something that means that much to me. Some people just don't like to get their hands dirty.

But that doesn't mean we don't introduce those things and show her that it's not scary and that it really is okay. We want her to not want to do it because she just doesn't want to, not because she's scared.

For Christmas this year she got several different sets of stamps, which is something I had never thought to let her try before. But the other day we were doing a bunch of different arts and I let her try the stamping. I had no idea how it would go. Would she be willing to try it? Would she freak out if her hands got ink on it?

She watched me do it a few times before attempting it herself. And she got her hands all kinds of messy. And much to my surprise, she didn't even notice.

She played with the stamps for about twenty minutes, her fingertips almost black from the two colors mixed together and yet she still didn't care.

To some parents this may seem a little weird because their kid goes running towards the first mud pile he/she sees, but to us this is big. She didn't care. She didn't notice. She was having fun.

So I'm proud of her. I'm proud that she didn't mind her fingers being a little dirty. I'm proud that she let play come first.

Of course when she was done, I told her that we needed to wash our fingers and she headed straight upstairs to her little stool and waited to get her hands washed. I love my little neat freak exactly the way she is and I'm proud that she was willing to try something outside of the box this time and get her hands a little dirty.

Have a great weekend!

Happy Friday!