Dirt + Little Boys

A few months ago Merrick of Merrick's Art posted about a party she threw which included cactus in tin cans.  I thought it was adorable, pinned it, and kept it in the back of my mind for the next few months.  I try, not always successfully, to keep my Pinterest as more of a "to-do" list and not just pin things with no intent on making them.  That is my attempt. So, I was going through my board a few weeks ago when I was reminded of the cactus in tin cans and decided to make it happen.  Conveniently, on a quick Lowes run I was waiting for some paint to be mixed when I noticed a shelf of clearance cactus.  For $1.  I think that's a pretty clear sign it was time for this project.  That and the two cans I had already cleaned and saved.

Because I have a slight addiction to spray paint, I added a color band to the bottom of my three cans (I eventually saved another).  Let them cure and then added my cactus. 

I had painted my cans in blue, green, and orange with the intent of putting these in Luke's room.  You now might see where this post is going, if the title didn't already give it away.  I thought pokey cactus would deter a certain little boy from messing with the cans of dirt.  I mean, it would work on me but I also have a pretty big interest in keeping dirt out of my carpet as well.

The cans got knocked over.

Luke told me he was a farmer and he was making his farm (he also occasionally loses his farm, sometimes up in the tree.  I'm not sure he knows what a farm is.).  This may have been modeled after the episode of Daniel Tiger where it is raining but Daniel and Prince Wednesday want to go to the beach.  So they make an inside beach.  With sand in the house.  Mom Tiger is not pleased.  Darn you, Daniel Tiger.  You are supposed to be teaching him good things!  (Side Daniel Tiger note, if you've ever watched an episode or two, read this.  It made me laugh.  A lot.  Thank you to my friend Monica for passing that on.)

So we cleaned up that mess and I added more dirt to the cans (will I ever learn??) and I moved them to a higher shelf, one I don't see how Luke could reach even if he stood on the chair underneath.

Well you can guess what happened a the next week.

In his (weak) defense...he wanted to get down "the Star Wars book!" that is on the shelf.  Even though we've never let him look at it anyways.

You might be shaking your head and saying "why do you keep things in his room that you don't want him to play/touch/read even though he's up there a few hours a week, awake and unsupervised??)

That is an excellent question.  That I don't have a good answer to.  Current place of those cactus?  Still in Luke's room on the same shelf.  I might be a glutton for punishment.

Lesson (not really) learned: pokey cactus will not deter 3 year olds from getting dirty.
Other lesson learned: cleaning dirt out of carpet twice in 2 weeks will not deter Diana from trying to decorate Luke's room.