The Saturday 7
I'm writing this Friday night because Saturday is going to be crazy busy. Kent City Baptist EXPO from 9-2 (I'm working in the kitchen - come visit me!), home for a quick nap, then Libby's Bachelorette party. Woot woot! 4 of the attendees are under 21 and 2 are pregnant, so there will be no drinking. We'll have plenty of fun, though!
Anyway, here's the Saturday 7:
1. We put Lucy in the 2s and 3s class at church for the first time on Sunday. It's so weird to think she's done with nursery and moving up to real classes! She cried when I dropped her off, but had good things to say about it when I picked her up. She thought it was so cool that she got to sit at a little table to eat her snack. And she was so proud of her craft. Adorable. I'm going to start working in there once a month. I can't wait to see how she acts.
2. She gave me a run for my money this week. We had our first major battle of wills. I am just so over her not listening to me, and realize the only one to blame is myself. I have got to crack down on her and make her realize I'm serious. We were coloring at Chase and Lyla's house when she dumped out the entire box of crayons. I said, "Don't do that," and started to pick them up, when she angrily swiped them off the table. Actually, it's a big table, so only 2 fell on the floor. I told her to pick them up and she exclaimed, "No! You do it!" I got her down and insisted that she pick up her crayons for the next 45 minutes. She cried absolutely hysterically, pretty much hyperventilating the whole time. There were points when she laid on the floor crying, climbed on my legs crying, stomped around the room screaming. Haha. Finally, I forced her hand over the crayons and put them on the table. Maybe I took the easy way out, but I was so done listening to her cry, and no amount of spanking or time-outs was helping. (Trust me. I tried.) Sometimes I think I'm crazy for having another baby . . .
3. And then, at the same time she can be so stinkin' cute and hilarious. Tonight, I was folding laundry and she was walking around the house with a huge basket of play food slung over one arm, her baby in the other arm, saying, "It's a nice day for a picnic!" over and over. Lol. I made a list of the funny words she says. Most of them are pretty inappropriate - which is what makes it so funny.
Kitty: titty, birdie: boobie, sucker: cucker, deodorant: yogurt (she knows the difference, the 2 words just sound identical when she says them), sunscreen: ice cream (they sound the same), bracelet: bray bray. So cute. :-)
4. In non-Lucy news, Justin started his new job this week. He's realizing it's going to be a lot to learn. But I think he's enjoying it. The bad thing is he's just as exhausted working 8-5 as he was working 6-4. I was really hoping he'd have more energy. Heaven knows my energy is non-existent thanks to this baby-growing business I've been doing. Poor Lucy gets the short end of the stick most evenings as we lay on the couch trying to stay awake 'til bedtime!
5. The Germans have a tradition called Kaffee und Kuchen. It's kind of like the English tea time - a break in the day for coffee and cake. This week, my friend Kelly and I Americanized it to "Coffee and Couchin'" - a time to sit on the couch and drink coffee while our girls play! :-) And when the girls went down for their nap, we pulled out the scrapbooking stuff. I got 4 pages done, and am up to Lucy's 2nd week of life! Lol. We tell ourselves every time, "We really need to do this more often," but never actually do. We're feeling doubly motivated, though, since we're both pregnant. And as we sat on the floor surrounded by scrapbooking stuff for hours, we realized we're not going to be this agile in a few months. Time to get crack a lackin!
6. I spent an hour the other night reading birth stories online, and getting so excited for my own! I loved giving birth! Haha. I had an amazing epidural, no complications, and an easy labor. Sure hope I can replicate that this time around!!
7. I'm down to 7 (non-consecutive) days left of my nanny job. I've been thinking I should get the kids some kind of parting gift, but I'm totally stumped. They have every toy imaginable, and don't want anything my budget can afford. I don't really have any pictures of them for a scrapbook or anything. I thought about blankets with their names on them, but they already have a boatload of blankets. What do you think? Any suggestions? They're 6 and 4.
Anyway, here's the Saturday 7:
1. We put Lucy in the 2s and 3s class at church for the first time on Sunday. It's so weird to think she's done with nursery and moving up to real classes! She cried when I dropped her off, but had good things to say about it when I picked her up. She thought it was so cool that she got to sit at a little table to eat her snack. And she was so proud of her craft. Adorable. I'm going to start working in there once a month. I can't wait to see how she acts.
2. She gave me a run for my money this week. We had our first major battle of wills. I am just so over her not listening to me, and realize the only one to blame is myself. I have got to crack down on her and make her realize I'm serious. We were coloring at Chase and Lyla's house when she dumped out the entire box of crayons. I said, "Don't do that," and started to pick them up, when she angrily swiped them off the table. Actually, it's a big table, so only 2 fell on the floor. I told her to pick them up and she exclaimed, "No! You do it!" I got her down and insisted that she pick up her crayons for the next 45 minutes. She cried absolutely hysterically, pretty much hyperventilating the whole time. There were points when she laid on the floor crying, climbed on my legs crying, stomped around the room screaming. Haha. Finally, I forced her hand over the crayons and put them on the table. Maybe I took the easy way out, but I was so done listening to her cry, and no amount of spanking or time-outs was helping. (Trust me. I tried.) Sometimes I think I'm crazy for having another baby . . .
3. And then, at the same time she can be so stinkin' cute and hilarious. Tonight, I was folding laundry and she was walking around the house with a huge basket of play food slung over one arm, her baby in the other arm, saying, "It's a nice day for a picnic!" over and over. Lol. I made a list of the funny words she says. Most of them are pretty inappropriate - which is what makes it so funny.
Kitty: titty, birdie: boobie, sucker: cucker, deodorant: yogurt (she knows the difference, the 2 words just sound identical when she says them), sunscreen: ice cream (they sound the same), bracelet: bray bray. So cute. :-)
4. In non-Lucy news, Justin started his new job this week. He's realizing it's going to be a lot to learn. But I think he's enjoying it. The bad thing is he's just as exhausted working 8-5 as he was working 6-4. I was really hoping he'd have more energy. Heaven knows my energy is non-existent thanks to this baby-growing business I've been doing. Poor Lucy gets the short end of the stick most evenings as we lay on the couch trying to stay awake 'til bedtime!
5. The Germans have a tradition called Kaffee und Kuchen. It's kind of like the English tea time - a break in the day for coffee and cake. This week, my friend Kelly and I Americanized it to "Coffee and Couchin'" - a time to sit on the couch and drink coffee while our girls play! :-) And when the girls went down for their nap, we pulled out the scrapbooking stuff. I got 4 pages done, and am up to Lucy's 2nd week of life! Lol. We tell ourselves every time, "We really need to do this more often," but never actually do. We're feeling doubly motivated, though, since we're both pregnant. And as we sat on the floor surrounded by scrapbooking stuff for hours, we realized we're not going to be this agile in a few months. Time to get crack a lackin!
6. I spent an hour the other night reading birth stories online, and getting so excited for my own! I loved giving birth! Haha. I had an amazing epidural, no complications, and an easy labor. Sure hope I can replicate that this time around!!
7. I'm down to 7 (non-consecutive) days left of my nanny job. I've been thinking I should get the kids some kind of parting gift, but I'm totally stumped. They have every toy imaginable, and don't want anything my budget can afford. I don't really have any pictures of them for a scrapbook or anything. I thought about blankets with their names on them, but they already have a boatload of blankets. What do you think? Any suggestions? They're 6 and 4.
I'm so impressed that you stuck with it after 45 minutes! But that's exactly what you have to do. It helps to have a plan in place ahead of time so that you know exactly what to do when that happens. They will happen less often (or at least shorter in length) as you perfect your system. You'll still have off days, it sounds like you are right on. I remember literally forcing Hannah through the motions of cleaning up crayons, but I wanted her to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that my request was NOT optional. Good job, Mama!
ReplyDeleteOh birth stories. I could read them for hours and hours. What's your birth plan this time? Any different?
Karen, my birth plan is get an epidural and have a baby! Haha. Thanks for the discipline encouragement!
ReplyDeleteDiscipline is haaaaard sometimes. No advice there but to stay strong!!
ReplyDeleteThe words that sound like swear words always cracked me up- O was soooo bad about that. Ha!
I haven't started Desmond's scrapbook yet :/ But at least I made it easy on myself and only scrapbooked Orion's birth and hospital stay and put the rest in albums, so I'll do the same with Des. But I haven't touched Desmond's baby book!!
I like the idea of Bibles, but maybe put a couple other things in the bag too, like another book, candy, and a small toy.
I was thinking about the crayon thing again -- it doesn't happen often anymore, but I remember it happening a lot when B was Lucy's age...the whole refusal to pick something up that she dropped/threw on the floor. My technique was always "We cannot move on and do anything else until you pick that up." She would wail and cry, and if she tried to move and do something else, I'd just put her back next to the thing and say "Nope, you have to pick this up first." Eventually, she'd realize I was serious and that life was going to be fairly boring until she picked it up;)
ReplyDeleteThe one time it failed was in the middle of an aisle of Target, because I couldn't very well stay there all day, blocking everyone's path -- so that one turned into a cart timeout of "I'm so sorry you didn't choose to pick up that shirt you threw on the ground. Now you'll have to sit buckled in the cart the rest of this trip instead of getting to walk around."
Oh teaching our kids...such fun!:)