redecorating

"He's the next Martha Stewart!"

It's not what you want to hear about your son. Even if it's true. It seems Little Boy has developed an interest in interior decorating and event planning. I get lovely centerpieces created on my kitchen table on a daily basis. Sometimes it's a dinosaur theme. Other times it's a rock and pinecone theme lovingly donated from his private collection. My personal favorite is the dinosaur theme with a bit of whimsy thrown in by adding Monster Trucks crushing cars.

One day Little Boy woke up insisting that we were having a party that day. I repeatedly talked him out of it, but he just kept saying "Okay, we'll do it tomorrow." All my hopes that he would forget about it by tomorrow were dashed when I woke up to find that Little Boy had the table all set for his Party:

(I added the table cloth to hide our horribly scarred table top and helped him minimize his centerpiece to just the two trucks, but the rest was him.)

I couldn't think of any really good reason to say no, so we called up some friends and invited them over and picked up some cupcakes for the kiddos and some watermelon for the adults. little Boy declared it "A Silly Party" and wanted to decorate with streamers, balloons, and a silly party sign. I nixed the balloons and streamers, but gave in on the sign. He decorated the letters himself.

It was a really fun time and Little Boy was completely thrilled with it. Since then, he's been throwing parties and decorating all over the house nearly every day (and I'm sick of it thrilled with his creativity!)

Right now he's trying to talk me into throwing a birthday party for "his brothers" (no, he doesn't have any brothers, but he insists he does. His brothers are his imaginary friends. There are three of them and they live in a striped monster truck in the mountains). He wanted to buy toys for them (I said no), make a cake for them (I said no), and has been wrapping presents (putting his toys in grocery bags and piling them on the fireplace) for days. At what point do I say enough?

If you see a dinosaur/monster truck centerpiece on the cover of your favorite decorating magazine in 20 years, you'll know that Little Boy has fulfilled his true potential. I'm going to encourage him and let him become the next Martha if he wants to---as long as he stays out of jail and doesn't become this guy.