a new car!

Today M spent a little time on the website http://www.uptoten.com/, which has tons of free games and songs and stuff. Even better, the makers seem to be French Canadian, so you get the bonus of fun accents or everything in French if that floats your boat. But I digress. One little section has 2 characters playing in their cardboard cars. M now thinks I'm the coolest mom ever because I helped him make his own. It's not much -- just a big box, still proudly advertising a Canon printer, one flap cut to be a steering wheel, and 4 cardboard wheels taped on the sides. (2 are beautifully painted by M.) As soon as it was done, M drove to work at his factory where he makes cardboard cars and forklifts.

What I loved about this process is that V immediately understood what we were doing, ran to the same pile of cardboard boxes, grabbed her own and sat it in. M wanted lots of help to get his car the way he wanted it, but V just took care of it herself. She picked the smallest box of the group, an Amazon box so tiny that I still can't believe she was sitting in it. It bulged a bit. Once I adjusted it, she drove around in this miniature car and then sat down in it at random intervals, with her knees up to her chin. She visited her factory, where she makes small cars. ("Mom, she's copying me!") Thanks goodness the copying doesn't bother M yet. Only a matter of time.

Oh, and all this reminded me of the totally fabulous cardboard car my sisters and I made for little bro one time. It took ages to make and all of our red crayons. We didn't have red for years. But I think he liked the car?