I'm not very good at playtime. (This may or may not come as a surprise to *you*. Pst, I'm being just a wee bit sarcastic.) I'm too much of a "do-er" to be good at playtime. This doesn't mean I don't recognize the value in playtime, I'm just not very good at it. But today I was grateful that I allowed myself space for playtime with my nephew. I just decided to let go of myself and play with him and we had a great time! I have made these letter bags for him and I to discover together. Each bag focuses on a letter of the alphabet and the items in the bag, be it pictures or actual items, start with that letter. We opened "F" today and I had put a small flashlight in there for him. So we turned on the flashlight and went exploring in all the dark places of Papa and Gma's house and then we jumped on a bed in the dark with the flashlight. And I was grateful for playtime with my sweet boy.
There are two probable origins for this idiom and I think both are equally plausible. The first one is that when you spread butter on bread you are buttering it up like one would do when trying to flatter someone. The second is in ancient India there was a practice of throwing balls of butter at statues to ask for favor, i.e. buttering them up. ( source ) When we use the phrase today we generally mean that extreme flattery is used to gain information or favor. It's not always necessarily a compliment.
I should do these for my littles!
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