I'm tired of seeing snow everywhere. I'm used to typical STL winters where we get a good snow, then in 2 days it's 45 degrees and it melts down!! I miss seeing green. Heck, I'd even settle for the dead brown grass. I even changed the look of the old blog to make it more springy and fresh. Anything helps!!!
Joey has being going through a "Mr. Independence" phase lately. It started when he realized he could climb down stairs upright (as opposed to scooting down on his tush). Since then, trips to drop/pick-up Ben at pre-school have doubled in length, as Joey insists on going down the stairs unassisted. If I reach over to help him, he tells me with THE most stern look on his darling little face: "No Mommy, no!" Of course, that sort of talk at Mommy isn't acceptable, so I taught him to say "no thank you." And he still says "No Mommy, no!" and I reply "What are you supposed to say?" And that little stern look melts back to Joey cuteness and he says with a coy smile, "No fank yuuuuu." He is also talking in third person all the time. Typical phrases: Joey do it. Joey want [fill in the blank]. He also has quite the affinity for one of the middle school girls at church named Angie. Tonight when we took a trip to the mall and Joey saw we were getting shoes, coats, etc., he said "Go see Anshee?" Cute. :-)
Ben is doing super well with his household jobs and he's accumulating marbles in his jar. It's a rather large jar, so I hope it fills up fast enough to make Ben feel like it's all worthwhile. He brought home a list of sight words from pre-school and can do several of them. Sounding words out is important too so we practice that as well. Up until recently he has worn pull-ups for bedtime because I thought he was still wetting overnight. I told him that if he kept it dry he would get an extra marble for his jar in the morning. Well that little bugger has been keeping it dry! We had several nights of underwear only at night and he did great. He had his first accident this morning (laundry was going by 6:15), but I think it's because we had a Superbowl Party at church and he was running around and probably drinking gallons of water from the water fountain. We put a pull-up on tonight with the promise of a marble in the morning, so I anticipate that returning to undies alone.
As for the Momma, I started a new little venture. The director from Ben's pre-school asked me to come in a two times a week to do music with the various classes. Right now I'm mainly teaching a half hour to each of the full-time classes (that are like daycare) and I will go in to Ben's part-time class a couple times a month. Joey can come with me and he amazed me with how well he did sitting and participating with the older kids. I guess the group peer pressure and good examples the 3 and 4 year olds were setting paid off!! It's a super huge blessing in that my payment amounts to about 50% of Ben's monthly tuition, so in that we are grateful!
Joey has being going through a "Mr. Independence" phase lately. It started when he realized he could climb down stairs upright (as opposed to scooting down on his tush). Since then, trips to drop/pick-up Ben at pre-school have doubled in length, as Joey insists on going down the stairs unassisted. If I reach over to help him, he tells me with THE most stern look on his darling little face: "No Mommy, no!" Of course, that sort of talk at Mommy isn't acceptable, so I taught him to say "no thank you." And he still says "No Mommy, no!" and I reply "What are you supposed to say?" And that little stern look melts back to Joey cuteness and he says with a coy smile, "No fank yuuuuu." He is also talking in third person all the time. Typical phrases: Joey do it. Joey want [fill in the blank]. He also has quite the affinity for one of the middle school girls at church named Angie. Tonight when we took a trip to the mall and Joey saw we were getting shoes, coats, etc., he said "Go see Anshee?" Cute. :-)
Ben is doing super well with his household jobs and he's accumulating marbles in his jar. It's a rather large jar, so I hope it fills up fast enough to make Ben feel like it's all worthwhile. He brought home a list of sight words from pre-school and can do several of them. Sounding words out is important too so we practice that as well. Up until recently he has worn pull-ups for bedtime because I thought he was still wetting overnight. I told him that if he kept it dry he would get an extra marble for his jar in the morning. Well that little bugger has been keeping it dry! We had several nights of underwear only at night and he did great. He had his first accident this morning (laundry was going by 6:15), but I think it's because we had a Superbowl Party at church and he was running around and probably drinking gallons of water from the water fountain. We put a pull-up on tonight with the promise of a marble in the morning, so I anticipate that returning to undies alone.
As for the Momma, I started a new little venture. The director from Ben's pre-school asked me to come in a two times a week to do music with the various classes. Right now I'm mainly teaching a half hour to each of the full-time classes (that are like daycare) and I will go in to Ben's part-time class a couple times a month. Joey can come with me and he amazed me with how well he did sitting and participating with the older kids. I guess the group peer pressure and good examples the 3 and 4 year olds were setting paid off!! It's a super huge blessing in that my payment amounts to about 50% of Ben's monthly tuition, so in that we are grateful!
Yay Ben! What if instead of him filling up the whole jar, first he fills the bottom half and then the top half, therefore getting two rewards? Just a thought we did that with our kids that way the reward seemed more attainable KWIM? I feel you with the independence. Lauren has been wanting to do everything herself lately which can make normal simple things drag. However I know this is a part of growing up, so we just grin and bear it. Good Luck with your music classes.
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