Who's in charge here?

I think one of the biggest doses of reality as a parent comes when you realize you are no longer in control of your life.  It starts when you are pregnant (feeling ill all day every day for weeks at a time all the way through to moving around so slowly and carefully that you find yourself eating the dust of passing snails), smacks you in the face big time when you have a newborn (when you kiss the days of sleeping until noon, let alone two hours in a row, goodbye) and becomes more and more clear the older your kids get.  I feel like I've spent much of the last three years looking for ways to fool Zoe into thinking she's NOT in control.  It's been an impressive array of performances involving smoke and mirrors and fishing line, and I must admit, I've had a good run...until now.  I don't know if it's the lack of sleep, and therefore, the lack of patience but there has been a radical change in the air these days that's left me uttering the absolute last words you want to utter to a three year old:  "You are NOT the boss!!"  Cue the snarky smirk from said three year old and it's all downhill from there.  Seriously, folks...wish me luck because I'm being bossed around and manhandled (by my "getting-stronger-and-stronger-everyday" 6 month old) more than I care to admit and it's causing me to lose my Cool Mom Mojo. 

I did manage, finally, to find a little project that Zoe actually stayed interested and involved in enough to see through from beginning to end!  I got the idea from The Chocolate Muffin Tree for these tie dyed coffee filter Easter eggs and it was so fun and simple.  I cut out the egg shapes the night before so the project wouldn't be about cutting the filters into teeny tiny pieces, but everything else she did with me.  Zoe gave a couple of them (my favorites) away, but we were left with a bunch to hang in our window.  We had colored water in our spray bottles left over from spraying snow this winter and although it added a tinge of color, wasn't worth mixing it up just for this project.  Zoe tested it out by spraying a couple without coloring first with the markers.  I can't wait to make more--so easy!

Coloring the coffee filters with washable markers

Spraying with water

Letting them dry (I ended up putting them on towels and they dried fast)

Voila!

My little rascal