Usually I don’t have that much to say about our everyday life, but lately all kinds of funny little things have been happening.
First of all, I have to record about how my kids morphed into teenagers overnight…
In September, Benjamin was telling us after school some days that he had to “flip a card” at school, which means he got in trouble. They have a system where each child has a set of cards; they start at orange and if they misbehave (or have trouble listening or whatever it might be) they flip their card to green. Second time, it goes to yellow (and a note is sent home), third time it goes to red, then black (and they have to go to the principal's office). Anyway, he told me had to flip a card, and then he described how he got into a little scuffle with another boy and had to go to the principal's office. Great, so he had to go to the principal’s office after, what, only ten days of being in school? That night we were talking while he was in bed and he said, “Well, going to green isn’t a big deal. Red, that’s a big deal. Yellow, shjeeeh! (and a shake of the head, like ‘that’s real bad!’) Black – principal’s office! (in a “that’s so bad!!” voice) …… but… The principal’s office wasn’t really that scary… I thought it would be huge… but it was just like (and then motioning with his arms ‘yea long’)…” So not only did he get sent to the principal’s office, but it also didn’t intimidate him at all!
A couple weeks ago, Benjamin started telling me that he had been getting chocolate milk for lunch. He described to me how he saw his friend Zachary get a chocolate milk, so he went and got one too. He is funny when he tells me stories like this. He includes little details like how he hands the lunch mom a ticket that says “Benjamin Walker” on it and then he picks up a chocolate milk and on his way back to his table he gets a straw. Well, this story confused me because I hadn’t paid for hot lunches, and so I wasn’t sure how he was getting a chocolate milk. These stories suspiciously coincided with the fact that he had been coming home with nearly untouched lunches for a few days. I put two and two together pretty quick and decided that he must be relishing that chocolate milk, with the straw, for 40 minutes every day during lunch period.
I wrote a note to his teacher asking about it, and she called me to tell me that he had been ordering a milk for a few days and it was 50 cents each time, but from now on if I wanted him to take his water bottle to lunch, she would help him do that. So, bottom line: Benjamin saw something he wanted and just “charged his account”. When it worked the first time, score!- he kept doing it! It made me chuckle – my five year old figured this trick out?!
I felt guilty depriving him of this pleasure and indulgence, but… I knew that he was just sipping his chocolate milk and not having any time to eat anything else, so this was for the better!
Two weeks ago, Benjamin had to flip to a ‘yellow’ card two days in a row. That was his first time going past green. So Jed and I talked to him and we decided that if he could go all week – Monday through Friday – on orange or green, then he could order a chocolate milk on Friday at lunch. If he went all week on orange then Jed would take him to McDonalds for an icecream cone. Wow, did we see a difference last week! Monday and Tuesday he stayed on orange! Wednesday he flipped to green, which was a bummer for the icecream, but we told him that he could try again next week and that he could still get the chocolate milk. And sure enough, Friday rolled around and he got to order his chocolate milk. Good for him! Every day this week I’ve put a snack baggy in his lunch with a note “Remember to stay on orange! Obey everything Mrs. H. says!” and one orange M&M inside. Maybe this little mid-day reminder helps because “brain rest” is right after lunch, and this is when he has the most trouble. They have to stay still and quiet for 30 minutes, laying down on beach towels in the classroom. Benjamin hasn’t taken naps for years and really isn’t tired at all, so he starts to get fidgety and this is when he usually gets his card flipped. He complains about brain rest, saying he likes everything about kindergarten except for that, and even told me yesterday, “I h-word brain rest!!” (This week he coined ‘h-word’ which means hate – a naughty word in our house! And ‘s-word’ is stupid, and ‘d-word’ is dumb. He doesn’t say those often, he just started this week really, but when he has, it surprises me to hear him say “d-word” and “h-word” as if he’s thinking of swear words or something!! :)) Anyway, with those incentives, he has been doing better at brainrest. And the ‘getting in trouble’ that we are talking about is wiggling around during rest time or waving his arms when he should be paying attention. Not rebellious behavior or anything, but it makes me chuckle that I have to be concerned about his ‘school behavior’ at such a young age. :)
I took this picture today. Ben was reading A Bugs Life to Eliza on the couch.
As for our two year old, last month there was a day that I thought she must be in her terrible ‘teens’…
Eliza goes to a ‘playschool’ with a few other 2 to 3 year olds every Wednesday morning. My friends and I just rotate houses for who hosts playschool, and we do a very loose schedule of learning and fun activities for the kids. Well, the first Wednesday when I picked her up from my friend’s house she did not want to come home. I finally had to carry her to the car, hold her down and buckle her in so that we could leave. She was not too happy with me! At first she was crying and mad at me. Then she became quiet.
I thought she was over it, so I asked her in a happy voice, “So, Eliza, did you have fun?! What did you do today at Sister Gough’s house?!”
She said, “Noffing.”
I said, “Nothing? You didn’t do anything?”
“Noffing.”
“Well, did you get to color?”
“Noffing!”
To try to get some info out of her, I kept asking questions enthusiastically: “Who else was there? Was Jacy there?”
“Noffing!! Don’t talk to me!”
“Hmm… Did you get a snack?! Was it yummy?”
“Noffing! Don’t talk to me!”
At this point, I recognized the humor of this moment – Was she seriously telling me not to talk to her? Giving me no information about her day as a punishment to me? For heaven’s sake, she is TWO YEARS OLD! I asked a few more happy questions but to no avail. She would only say “Don’t talk to me!!” So funny!
Picture taken today, when we were playing "Pretty Pretty Princess" game together.
Secondly, big news! Eliza wears panties!
I started potty training Eliza a week ago Monday. Over the weekend we had already picked out new panties with Disney princesses and fairies (she loves Tinkerbell). We had also picked out Tinkerbell fairy fruit snacks. And on Monday morning we put on panties and ceremoniously threw away the rest of her diapers! The book Zoe's Potty (and the chart and stickers that came along with it) that my mom gave Eliza was a huge hit!
It's been one week and she hasn't had a peepee accident since Wednesday, her third day of potty training. She is doing so great!
The first couple of days, when she would have an accident, she would say, “I’m peeing on them!” meaning she was peeing on the princesses on her panties. Then she started to break the news to me by simply running up to me and saying, “But you still love me!”
I would say, “Eliza, did you go peepee in your panties?”
She would only repeat enthusiastically, “But you still love me!” The way she would say it was so funny - with an enthusiastic smile, but also expectant – like she was hoping for a good response from me. Such a funny girl. How could I argue with that sweetness?
“Yes, of course I still love you! But we need to go peepee in the potty, okay?”
“Okay, mama. I will!”
She's my little helper. While I was getting Sam his food,
she sat next to him with her arm around him, talking to him. So cute.
And third, last of all, I have to record some darling little things the kids have done lately.
Last Friday I was reading to Eliza in the afternoon when I got very sleepy. It was during that time of day that I would normally lay her down for a nap, but I had to leave soon to drop her and Sam off at a friends house so that I could attend Ben’s “parent hour” at Kindergarten. So when I got super tired, I told her that I was going to rest on the couch. She said okay, and tucked Sam’s blanky under my chin and gave me her dolly to cuddle with. Then she left to go get another dolly for me. For the next few minutes, she kept coming up to me and giving me tender kisses and re-tucking the blanket under my chin. I kept pulling it down a little when she would leave, and every time she checked on me she would pull it up again. Then, about 10 minutes later I woke up (from a very light sleep) and she was sitting in the room playing quietly with toys. I thought it was so cute how instead of me putting her down for a nap that day, she put me down for a nap! :)
She has been mothering me all weekend, calling me ‘sweetie’ and pretending that she is my mommy.
One day last week I went in after her nap and found her sitting up and cradling and singing to her baby doll, which she had wrapped up in a pink blanky.
Yesterday Jed had to work a shift at the hospital, so it was just me and the kids at church. In the morning Benjamin got ready for church before I got out of bed! I seriously love it when he gets all ready for the day without any nagging from me. Consequently, he got to play on
The Friend Magazine website while I got the rest of us ready for church.
After we got home we had lunch, Eliza went down for a nap, I fed Sam, and then Benjamin and I read a few chapters from his Old Testament Stories book. At that point, I got super sleepy. Yes, I know, I have a sleeping disorder that only shows itself when I am trying to read to my children! So anyway, after reading for about a half hour, I just fell over on the couch and said, “Ben, I’m just going to take a little nap.” I fully 100% expected him to protest, but instead he was totally supportive. He said, “Okay mom, just go to sleep.” And then he started to quietly and comfortingly sing, “Rock-a-bye, don’t you cry…” (He sings that when we are playing pretend; if he wants me to pretend to sleep he will sing that and I will pretend to sleep while we are playing make believe.) I thought it was absolutely darling that he was singing that to me for real! I peeked at him, and saw that he was making his way toward the kitchen, and when he saw me peeking at him, he said, “Close your eyes, Mom. Just go to sleep.” And then he restarted the song for me. A minute later, I heard a few clinking noises, so I peeked again and he had gone into the kitchen and opened the dishwasher and was putting away all the clean utensils. Then after a moment, I heard a kitchen chair being dragged over to the dishwasher, and even though I didn’t open my eyes that time, I heard him start singing “rock-a-bye…” again, because he thought the chair may have disturbed my rest. Well, I blissfully rested to the sounds of clicking plates and cups, until I heard Eliza calling me. I jumped up (a habit I’ve formed this week since we are potty training) and went up the stairs, saying, “Ben, I’m just getting Eliza.” He answered, “Okay, Mom. And then you can go back to sleep, okay?” Upstairs I helped Eliza out of her crib, helped her go potty, tidied up her room, got Sam up, and then the three of us went downstairs together. When I got downstairs, Ben said, “Mom, just go back to sleep. You can go back to sleep, Mom.” As I laid Sam down with some toys on a blanket, I said, “Well, I’d like to see you…” He then said, “Mom, do you want to see what I’ve been doing?” I walked over to him and he was just finishing up the last items in the dishwasher. He was beaming, knowing that he had served me. I gave him a big hug and told him how happy I felt, and what a sweet boy he was.
He said, “I’m doing what the boy from The Friend did for his mommy! I’m serving you! Do you feel good, Mom?” I was so proud of him, and so touched by his sweet nature. He is such a sweet heart. He had internalized a story he had read and watched on The Friend website and had acted it out himself. I thought that was so sweet.
