Making Messes

This morning started early, with Olivia waking up at 5:30, which, to be fair to her, is the usual wake up time during the week. But it's painful when she does this on a Saturday, a day when we don't have to get up. I managed to convince her to lay there for another hour but by 6:30, her growling stomach convinced me that it really was time to get up.

I greeted the day feeling motivated. I'd planned to clean out the fridge this weekend and that's just what I did.

It was quite a chore that took quite a bit of time and attention.

As I was cleaning, Olivia was making messes.

Did I mention at the beginning of the school year she hated scissors? She refused to even try to use them. She hated the way they felt in her hand and she hated trying to use both hands together to hold a piece of paper while cutting.

But now, six months later, she's become a cutting maniac. Just a couple of weeks ago, I found strands of her hair beneath the table at my mom's house. O had cut her own hair. Not enough to make it obvious but...damn! We've just gotten past the pulling thing, please let's not experiement with self-styling here, kiddo.

She's promised never to cut her hair again and because I know how important using scissors is to her fine motor skills, I have to trust her.

So this morning, as I was throwing away food that expired back in 2010, she was sitting on the living room floor with a pair of scissors and several magazines.

I waited to vacuum until after she was done cutting. I thought. But you know what? These are the kinds of messes I don't mind at all. We've worked hard for her to get to the point where she CAN make messes with paper and scissors. I'm not going to take that away from her just because I don't want to clean up a mess.

So tonight I have a sleeping little girl, a pile of cut up magazines and a clean refrigerator.

I'm calling it a successful Saturday.