Proud momma

Alright, maybe the last post didn't get across how proud I am that Wyatt is eating a little more. He is sitting at the table (most times) to eat and eating more of a variety. So I figured I'd add to my bragging with some video! (okay, if the previous post bored you, you probably won't care about my video)

Also I want to share how we are working towards some better behavior. After a whole year of "terrible twos" I'm hoping we will be able to make the threes more terrific. So we are using charts to work on some behaviors and end up getting a reward.

Our first go round was getting dressed - both in the morning, and after using the potty (thanks to Patrick's side of the family there is a desire to just bare it all - hehe). So we set up a chart - a getting dressed chart - and put a sticker on it for each time Wyatt got dressed with out a tantrum (and minimal help from me or Patrick). After a couple of not so good tries, Wyatt got the point and wanted to get stickers. Once the chart was full he got to go to the store and pick out a new book for his Tag (remember favorite gift from his birthday?)

Finished chart with reward

Well we have moved on to our second chart - eating at the table. I have to admit that I didn't force this issue while I was pregnant, or right after Levi was born because I was too tired or Levi's eating schedule was crazy. However, Levi is eating dinner with us now, so the whole family needs to be sitting together again. Who knew it would be such a chore! But our chart is helping. It's a little more slow going because there are less opportunities in a day though. That's alright, we'll get there.

I'm just super excited that we are setting goals together and Wyatt seems to be getting into it. Yay for the preschool years when kids start to understand, be understood, and want to see results - I might actually be good at this stage of mothering (well that could be up for debate).

Little Cuties

Realizing I had a picky eater took me a while to accept. We have battled over eating - not worth the energy. So I played along, and sneaked in the important stuff - at least we were a happier household. Yet I continued to look for ways to get my growing boy to eat more and different food.

Peeling his Cutie

Now that he is getting older, my newest technique includes peer pressure - yes I realize this sounds bad. I figure that if Wyatt see a kid he enjoys playing with eating well, he might copy that behavior. I try to get him to copy me but that doesn't all work. There is something about seeing peers behave a certain way that has the real impact.

So as a result we have added oranges to our diet! Yeah I know I probably shouldn't be so excited about another fruit he will eat, but hey progress is progress.

Enjoying every bite

We have been into opening (peeling) and separating cuties over the past couple of weeks. Wyatt likes that he can do it all by himself. I like that there aren't any seeds I have to watch for. What a nice snack for us!

Now if only he would the vegetables I put in front of him - no worries I hide them in smoothies.

Finding a beat

I would be willing to say it is known that Wyatt is fairly musical - he loves the drums, the piano and just making music in general. I mean how many two-year-olds get keyboards as a birthday present and love it? As an amateur pianist I must say that has always made me smile. So when Levi started to show an interested in Wyatt's old toy drums I was excited.

Wyatt (March 2010)

Levi jamming (March 2012)

Two musically inclined kids? Yippy!  Maybe they will be into the piano and I'll have to buy that baby grand Steinway. (hehe) 

Anyway, Levi has greatly enjoyed the toy since we dug it out about a month ago. Especially now that he can sit up on his extremely well.

Levi

He just sits there and pounds at the drums. Sure there is the reward of lights and funny music, but what better way to build his interest in music.

Wyatt Playing his drums (aug 2010)

Then just the other day Patrick had Levi sitting at the piano at my parent's house and Levi just pounded away at the keys.

Dare I say it? Another pianist in the making? I guess we will just have to wait and see - in the meantime I'm going to enjoy the musical noises of play time and start saving for music lessons!

The Power of an Ad

I'm not trying to toot my own horn, but I have been able to minimize the amount of ads Wyatt sees because we don't have cable. We watch PBS, or Disney Junior online, or DVDs (mostly from the library). As a result there aren't really any ads to be seen. Sure he has watched some football or basketball with daddy and there are ads. But comparably speaking he hasn't been very exposed. Which has made shopping for other people's birthday gifts easy. Either he likes it or he doesn't. There is no power of marketing telling him what he likes - well that period of time is over.

Wyatt has realized that the junk mail mommy throws away includes toy store ads. And they are shiny. And they have kids playing with awesome toys he didn't even knew existed before.

Can you tell that is a Cars page?

I'm not hating on the whole advertising/marketing world. They are doing their job. I just enjoyed having a child who could make up his mind without so many pulls from the marketing world. Oh well, I knew it wasn't going to last forever.


That all being said, the plus is that he is talking more.

Pointing out his favorites

He waits for his turn to look at the toy ads. He sprawls out on the floor, laying on his tummy and flipping through the ad.

The Cars section is always a big hit right now. I mean who wouldn't like Mater and Lightning McQueen? Oh and bikes - huge fan of the bike sections.

To top that off he has made it is job to teach Levi. I wonder if he realizes he missed out on precious time in the past three years where he could have been pouring over said ads and doesn't want Levi to miss out as well? (probably not, that's a crazy mom thought that pops up when you think about your kids)

I am guessing that Christmas this year will be a little more difficult as a list for Santa could be more important than our gifts to others. But that's alright - just another growing up challenge.

Outing Flopped

Decked out for St. Patrick's Day

Every week I look forward to our weekends because we usually find something fun to do. Plus I'm still a kid at heart and weekends are always better than work-weeks. This past weekend we had planned on taking the boys to the indoor pool, it was going to be Levi's first time to the pool.

However we made a last minute decision to go to the zoo instead.



Wyatt was reading one of his Tag books (a favorite birthday present) and suddenly came over to Patrick and said, "Go to zoo daddy - see monkeys!" I mean really how can you say no to that?

Plus the weather was perfect! We have had record-setting warmth this March, so we had to take advantage of the sun.

The ship playground is usually where he usually burns of the extra energy

Well we finally got all our stuff in the car and headed toward the zoo. The 10 minute highway ride put both boys soundly asleep (mind you it is only 11:00 am) which probably should have been the first sign the zoo just wasn't in the cards for us. I figured Wyatt hasn't been napping until 1:00 pm if he naps at all, so he will wake up when we get there and be fine.


We had to wake him up and he was a little grumpy but we were outside so that redeemed us. Once we got to the door we reminded Wyatt of the rules - if he wasn't going to stay in the stroller he had to walk near mommy or daddy. Seemed simple enough.

Well the first exhibit was alright - the penguins are always a big hit.

The ducks also kept him close by, but that was about the end of that. The high-energy-want-to-run-everywhere boy came out and he was no longer listening to us. I was hoping this phase was ending since his third birthday. Needless to say we didn't get through the whole zoo because I had to use my least favorite parenting line, "If you refuse to listen to me, we will go home."

I mean that is no fun for anyone! But I used it, he tested it and home we went.

He actually liked the sun, although it doesn't seem like it in this picture

The whole walk back to the car, strapped in the stroller he wailed - you know the kind right? The screaming like we are torturing him, when in fact he is getting a nice ride in a stroller. So many parents watched with different expressions - some of sympathy, others of joy (joy it wasn't their kid) and still others with a condescending look. And for that last group, I mean seriously? Your child has never disobeyed in public? Your child has never needed to be disciplined in the moment? Yes it is embarrassing and I wish I didn't have to do it. Sure I would love to have a kid who listens while we are the zoo so my whole family can have a good time. But right now, my high energy, wants to independent three-year-old is trying to find the boundaries, and it is my job to have them in place and then follow through with discipline when he finds the edge of said boundaries. I have to admit it is the one part of parenting I don't really enjoy (I doubt any parent does) but as I was pushing my boys out of the zoo I kept telling myself this is just part of the cycle of life we are in. One day I can hopefully tell this story and laugh, maybe even make Wyatt blush as I remind him of his independent streak.

Gorgeous weather

I said I would try to find time to put up some fun pictures from our weekend, it was so perfect we spent every spare moment outside. It must be part of living here where spring never comes this early or warmly (is that a word?).

supervising clean up

Wyatt enjoyed helping out - he weeded the flower bed - and he has greatly improved upon his weeding skills since last year. I'm glad because weeding is my least favorite chore.

pointing missed spots

running the grass through his fingers

He also helped daddy clear the yard of doggie "messes". Wyatt mostly just pointed it out and yelled for Patrick come clean up. I'm calling that helping.

getting a kiss

Levi enjoyed watching everything in his seat.  He was a big fan of being outside - there was so much to see and listen to. He was happy to be outside without anyone doing too much to entertain him, which is nice because he has started to demand some serious entertaining. Luckily Bisou kept him company while the rest of us were trying to get the yard ready for spring.

Out cold at 6:00

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this isn't some crazy trick and winter might sneak back in because I am totally ready for nice weather - it wears out my big little guy!

Nursery Rhymes

Since I'm currently a stay-at-home mommy, I've been trying to incorporate a little more structured activities into our days. I don't think I need to "home-school" exactly, but I do think a little bit of structure helps. Of course finding such activities and then following through isn't really my thing either! I'd rather just see how the day goes and let it be, but that tends to not have any really structure. So thanks to some other blogging mommies I have found some fun activities that teach and provide us some structure.

Wyatt's nursery rhyme notebook

Although these ideas came from a home-schooling mommy blogger, they are totally fun and very easy. So we've done a few. (If you would like to see her instructions here's her site)

I am a big proponent of nursery rhymes and fairy tales as a way to teach young kids - yes I realize this isn't really a popular thing right now, blame my English degree - but I think they allow parents to teach lessons with stories and I'm sure we can all agree that stories are easier to remember than straight up rules.

Coloring pages for his notebook

Dish and Spoon book

Anyway that made a nursery rhyme lesson easy for me to get behind.

Wyatt cut and colored the pages for his book

So our first try was "Hey Diddle diddle" because Wyatt loves the cow jumping over the moon. We made a dish and spoon book for Wyatt to read and colored a page to add to a nursery rhyme notebook. Wyatt seemed into it.






I followed that up with some sequence cards - helping to learn the order of things is a great skill for three-year-olds. That activity was a huge hit.

Little Bo Peep

Wyatt's sheep - the heads are his thumb print

The next week we went for "Little Bo Peep". Again we had a coloring page for his notebook and some sequence cards. But the big hit for this story was making a couple of sheep. Wyatt was very into gluing cotton balls! Then we would take turns hiding the sheep and finding them. Great fun.

Sorting big and small sheep - another fav

I'm liking this idea and hope to do a couple more soon - of course I need to figure out what supplies I need and actually act on this idea... I'm sure it will happen.

Springtime already?

I am shocked at the weather recently. I willing to say I am a little bit of a weather junkie. I actually understand weather patterns, and find an interest in, so I tend to really get into the weather. (Go ahead, I know you want to giggle)  Needless to say this "winter" has kept me very entertained.

I have already said I missed the snow this winter. Yes we had some, yes we got to play in it, but we didn't have much! In fact we went the whole year with only one major snow-shoveling event - we usually have weeks of shoveling. I'm pretty sure I won't hear any complaints from Patrick about that - I on the other hand, missed the shoveling. There is something about the quiet that snow produces. It is cleansing. Even the traffic noises tend to be less (partially because not as many people drive in such weather). But I am sure there will be a winter where I'm wishing there was less snow in the future, so I am going to smile and be happy that this was a light winter.

No more snowman outfits for this little guy (Feb 2012)

In the past week it has appeared that Spring has come, in fact it has come with really warm weather. Oh and lots of sunshine - a phenomenon we are not used to here in the overcast area of NEO. So we have been enjoying every second! Hopefully I will get some posts up this weekend from all the fun we've had.

But for now, here's a picture of Wyatt relaxing after some serious outside play - isn't he looking so grown up?

March 2012

Just another day

Our days are usually very simple. The routine can become boring and mundane, and that is how I feel, so I'm sure Wyatt gets bored.

The other day we came across two activities that helped break up the mundane completely by accident.

I found a foam craft we received as a gift a while back and figured we would give it a shot. Sure the age mentioned on it was 5 and up, but I figured it's a foam project, how hard can it be?  Oh man, not easy that's for sure. There were a million pieces of foam stickers that we were supposed to attach to half a sphere, then glue on eyes, ears and a tail to make a tiger. I think Wyatt was as good at it as I was! It took forever to get those stickers on that sphere, and they didn't really want to stay. Needless to say we had a good time trying to get that tiger put together with glue all over our fingers and pieces of foam sticking to us but not the project.

Our finished tiger

Then later it was time to do some chores. Wyatt has been scared of vacuum recently (I might have said this before) so I've gotten in the habit of telling him I'm going to vacuum so he can go to a different room to play if he would rather. But today he came up to me and asked to help. I mean who am I to turn down help with chores? So he went to town.

Going to town!

I decided he isn't really scared of the vacuum, just not a fan of the noise.

Over all our day was simple, but memorable, which makes it the best kind.

Lessons from Wyatt

Well once I get on a roll with something I can really get going. After putting those short videos of Levi together, I decided to try and capture a few other daily moments. And I lucked out because Wyatt was in a helping mood. He wanted to help teach Levi to roll over. Now Levi does roll over pretty well on his own, but here is what I caught while Wyatt wanted to help Levi.

I am so very grateful that my boys get along and like each other. I know there are many parents, even with kids this young, who wish their kids would just tolerate each other long enough to be in the same room. No sibling rivalries here (yet). I am sure there will be times when they aren't such good pals, but in the meantime, I'm going to enjoy this. Learning to be content with what I have been blessed with is easy when you can watch these sweethearts!

Gel writing

Alright I'm guilty - I've found a new way to waste my free time. Isn't that the easiest thing in the world to do?

I have become a crazy pinner on pintrest. Yep I spend way too much time on that site. I have described it as a female-friendly-online-favorites-store-er - you know how if you add a website to your favorites it keeps just the title? Well as a female I do much better remembering something if it has a picture associated with it, not just words. So Pinterest is perfect! (think about it, if a guy gives directions he says the street names, north/south, and miles, while women say how many lights/intersections and landmarks? yep it's a guy/girl thing)

Before you start getting too accusatory, I have found a ton of fun activities to do with Wyatt as a result, and I'm doing them!

Our first big craft was this squishy bag (or just check out my pintrest board). Yeah we didn't do the light box, but we still had fun. All we needed was about 10 oz of clear hair gel, food coloring (I used blue), one gallon-sized plastic bag, and some glitter. Sure it's not a new concept, but still great way to spend an hour.

Ready to get started

Wyatt enjoyed filling the bag with gel and then squeezing the bag to mix up the gel, coloring and glitter.

We practiced drawing circles, making W's and just making lines - all great practice for learning how to write.

Making circles

It was a fun activity and I don't even think he realized we were doing some learning along the way.


Bonus - Levi loves feeling this squishy bag - another texture for his little brain to figure out.

Levi's playtime

After a little bit of extra effort I've finally been able to put together a little video of Levi playing. I hope it makes you smile, because it makes me smile. Enjoy!

Learning verses

As I work at trying to focus my time in order to follow what the path God wants me to follow I have realized that my first baby step can't be jumping into a daily Bible reading schedule. Yes I want to be able to spend more time reading His word, but for some reason my daily life isn't allowing that. But I have to start moving in that direction, so baby steps.

One thing I learned was that when I was focused on clearing out even a little bit of time to actually open my bible and read a little bit of my days weren't so crushing. Sure they were just as busy, with just as many challenges, but I was energized and ready for them. I know that was because I was listening to the Word.

But once I was a mommy to two for some reason that essential part of my day got put on the back-burner. And before I knew it my life was crazy again.

I knew that I just needed to open that bible again but days kept passing and I never even touched it! I was getting frustrated, and mad at myself. How could I be smart enough to know the solution, yet not do it! (yes I know that is part of the human condition) In my desperation to feel better about my ignorant self I started to word vomit to some of my closer girl friends. And thank God I have the friends I have because one of them gently reminded me to do what I could do and let God move me towards more. (Yes I had to be told that obvious statement)

With this advice in mind, my brain clicked while I was making a Valentine's gift for Patrick. I could make a dry erase frame for a weekly verse that I would see when I first wake up and right before I lay down at night - yep I could go from never opening my bible, to seeing God's wisdom twice (on purpose mind you) every single day. Now that is a baby step I could easily manage.

The other baby step that comes with this Inspired idea, is that I have to record a verse for every week - meaning I have to find a fairly short verse, write it on a scrap of paper, and then change the verse on the frame each week. Which of course means more time focused on God's word.

I'm glad I have all year to work on this Kairos thing, because it is looking like those baby steps are going to be tiny for awhile. But that is okay.