It’s very noisy here, and hard to imagine that two 11 year olds girls coming down stairs really do make furniture shake. The phone rings constantly and I’m the only one who seems to hear it and have to be chase down one of four missing handsets usually found under beds or in sofa cushions.
Within our chaos naturally we have plenty of oopsies. The fridge is always overful. OK, OK. I’m a leftover person. And I like to have four types of mustard, several salad dressings, and at least three jellies just in case someone asks for them. When the fridge door opens anything can happen. We have learned to bend at the waist when we open the door to protect our toes from crashing yogurts or glass jars.
And then there are the cupboards. Things are precariously balanced in every cupboard, especially pots and pans. This is why I am a huge fan of plastic. Thank goodness the quality is so good now you don’t feel like you are eating a picnic. Target’s melanine plates this year actually look like Spanish glazed plates – incredible. And even more incredible they go in the dishwasher, and bounce when you drop them.
I have a noisy eater and a messy eater from birth. She’s 11 now and I still have to say ‘slow down’, ‘take the food to your mouth, not your mouth to the food’ and then always the final check before school – it’s usually an oops shirt change situation. I’m usually in a rush, because I love life and want to do it all. But with that comes more oops. I’m bad at typos as I type very fast, to keep up with my thoughts. With speed comes errors. And I slink into a corner when I hear people say that a typo is absolutely a reason not to interview someone for a job, or use a company. A typo means unprofessional! I’m not unprofessional, I just type too fast and ok, should go back and carefully check…. But I’m on the next email by now making typos in that one too.
But I just discovered a wonderful new children’s book called ‘Beautiful Ooops’. I love everything about it and particularly the message that it’s OK to make a mistake. In fact, hooray for mistakes! A mistake is an adventure in creativity, a portal of discovery. A spill doesn’t ruin a drawing—not when it becomes the shape of a goofy animal. And an accidental tear in your paper? Don’t be upset about it when you can turn it into the roaring mouth of an alligator. Barney Saltzberg, the effervescent spirit behind Good Egg, offers a one-of-a-kind interactive book that shows young readers how every mistake is an opportunity to make something beautiful. A singular work of imagination, creativity, and paper engineering, Beautiful Oops! is filled with pop-ups, lift-the-flaps, tears, holes, overlays, bends, smudges, and even an accordion “telescope”—each demonstrating the magical transformation from blunder to wonder. The smudge becomes the face of a bunny, a crumpled ball of paper turns into a lamb’s fleecy coat—celebrate the oops in life. Reading level: Ages 4-8. Hardcover: 28 pages measuring: 6.8 x 6.8 x 1.2 inches