Saturday, March 12, 2016

Build and Grow

The kids and Hubs and I went to Lowe's for the Build and Grow workshop. I saw the sign-up on a freebie website (freeflys.com). We meandered our way to the lumber department, and stood in line. A pretty short line, luckily, and I got a waiver form. Signed and addressed, I got back in line, got two aprons, two monster truck kits, and two little hammers. The Boy and Hubs started building theirs and The Baby and I built ours. Turns out the nails were different lengths, and were to be used for different pieces. I did not know that, and spent some time pulling out one of the short nails because the top of the truck wasn't adhered to the bottom. The Baby and I also took a walk/break into the lighting section. When we got back to the workshop (which really was more of a supervised gathering), The Baby was ready to put the nails in and do some hammering. I felt a swell of pride when I saw his face puckered in concentration and his little fingers manipulating the nail into the pre-made nail-hole. He got it in! I let him hold the hammer while I was holding it, so we hammered together. He briefly got to hammer on his own, but quickly tired of focusing just on the nail (moving on to the table and trying to go for various other areas), so I took the hammer from him. He worked well for another few minutes, then wanted to wander, so The Hubs took him for a walk and I finished up his car. With The Boy's help. 
The Boy spotted a lost nail between the boards of our make-shift table (which was a pallet made of several loose boards from the lumber department, tied together). He's got eagle eyes, that one. Anyway, he was able to help me pound the nails in, although when I was holding the nail and he was hammering, my confidence in The Boy waivered. On account of the fact that he was looking around and not at the nail while hammering. I tried to correct his behavior, by way of explanation, but he just looked at me with his big green eyes. I let it go. He put the stickers on, all 'wrong' but he seemed proud of himself, so I didn't mind or correct. Besides, my skills needed work too; I put the sticker on crooked and needed to undo my nailing because I used the wrong size.  
Another mom and I were joking around after she asked no one in particular if they were building the car correctly. I told her about the nail-length issue, and then said that I heard her talk about being able to follow the directions better this week. I made a few jokes about our kid's happiness being on the line, and about how I thought I was good at stuff like this, but it appears not. She laughed a lot, luckily.
There was another mom and son, but she was doing the whole project! Every time he picked up the truck, she snatched it back from him. He was restless and bored, because she was doing his work. I couldn't help but wonder what else she did for him. And if she does everything, how will he know what to do when she isn't there? I felt she was robbing him of a chance to feel proud of himself for accomplishing something. Me, judge? Never.
Our kids seemed pretty proud of themselves after building those cars, and I was pretty proud of us too.
The Hubs says Home Depot has a similar activity, so I might sign us up for one of those.
Happy building!

 
 

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