Simply, an update ...

Our house and calendar have been bustling with activities over the last couple of weeks and a quick glance at the near future indicates that it will be more of the same!  On Friday, I had my monthly check-up with my midwife and although things went well, he indicated that I'm "measuring small" for how far along I am in my pregnancy so he's ordered another ultrasound in a couple of weeks just to be sure that the baby's growth is okay.  I seem to remember this sort of occurrence when I was pregnant with Alex..... (any indication that it's a boy? hmmm... well, my gut has always "told" me girl but that's off the topic!).  So I'll go for my ultrasound and another appointment with the midwife in about 3 weeks.  From there, I'll  meet with the midwife every 2 weeks.

I've been diligently working on readying the nursery.  With Tim's portion of the work done, it was time for painting and it's seems that the painting hasn't stopped in the last 2 days.  Today my task was to complete painting of the crown and chair rail moldings.  I also began a project a few days ago of constructing wall mount book bins to hang on the wall behind the closet door, which I was able to get painted today as well.  I'm hoping to have the moldings in place and the room somewhat put together by this weekend so that Tim can see an almost finished room when he arrives home from Virginia.

On Sunday we attended the Cub scout Blue & Gold Banquet where Alex received his Tiger Cub badge and 1 year pin.  We were very proud of how well behaved both Alex and Emily were during, what turned out to be a long banquet.  Of course, it helped that they ended the banquet with a 30 min. presentation by a magician!

That's all for now... check back again soon!

Winter Adventures

For those of you that haven't heard yet, Tim and I decided a couple of weeks ago to build an ice rink in our backyard this winter.  We ordered some greenhouse covering plastic to hold the water in and grabbed some boards from Dad P. to create the frame of the rink.  The weather has fluctuated recently with some below freezing weather but not long enough to allow for the ice to remain frozen in our rink until.... this morning.  Tim tested the ice and although it wasn't strong enough to hold the weight of an adult, it was strong enough for the kids!  Here's a video of our children spending their first moments on our home ice!

Helping out in tough times... (Part I)

Okay, so everyone knows that the economy stinks right now and that most everyone is feeling the financial crunch.  Our family has been no exception, however, we've recently had some good fortune that has allowed me to breathe a little more freely.  Everywhere you turn, you see that food pantries and charities are having an increased demand in need for services/help, yet there's a decrease in organizations/individuals capable of helping out.  And with the approach of the cold weather season and the holidays, I tend to think of this sort of thing more.  Now, anyone that knows me knows that I don't have a long history of charity work, but that, in general, I try to at least help my friends and family when I can.  One of the values that I hope to instill in my own children is that of being thankful for what we have.  We've been talking more lately with the children about the difference between "want" vs. "need" and of course, this plays into the idea of being thankful for what we have.   I want my children to see that there will always be someone with less than they have, and that helping them out can make a difference.  So when I heard that Toys for Tots was going to host and event at the Desmond, Breakfast with Santa, I thought it would be a good opportunity to work on this value with the children.  I was disappointed when I called yesterday to make a reservation to learn that the admission was nearly $20 per adult (kids are free with toy donation).  Our feeling is that, we don't need a breakfast at a fancy place to teach our kids this valuable lesson.  So we decided not to do that and instead, I've found a local food pantry that's looking for people willing to sponsor families for Christmas.  I called and explained that while we can't sponsor an entire family, we'd like to donate a toy for a specific child on their list.  The representative called me back immediately and asked that our children purchase a toy for a boy 7-10 years old.  Our plan is to have each of our children take $1 from their piggy banks and use that toward the purchase of the gift.  For anyone that's interested in doing the same, the place where we are donating our toy is the food pantry/thrift shop at the four corners in West Sand Lake (behind Subway) on Rt. 150.  Their # is 674-4048.

Growing Pains ... (or lack thereof!)

We awoke this morning with some excitement in the house. Apparently, while I was in the shower, Alex awoke and made his way downstairs where Tim was getting ready for work. Alex told Tim that his tooth felt REALLY loose this morning (it's been loose for about 3 weeks now). Tim replied, "Well, then pull it out!" To our surprise, he did! Alex came upstairs extremely excited and as I was stepping out of the shower came barreling into the room with a ziploc bag containing his first tooth lost. I was excited for him and surprised at the ease with which this new milestone has come and gone. As a child, I remember days, even weeks, of playing with the loose tooth and dreading the day that it was time for it to come out. I remember my father tying floss around the tooth that, really, was only barely hanging on by a hair and I was just too scared to pull it out myself. He'd say he was going to count to three but pull it out on two instead and it worked every time! When Alex came home from school one morning announcing he'd had a loose tooth, I anticipated weeks of "it" being the topic of his every conversation. I anticipated a solid week of him terrified to have us help pull it out. To my amazement, he's be so cool with it, that you'd almost not even know he had a loose tooth. And the way he handled himself this morning just makes me so proud, and breathe a sigh of relief that maybe, just maybe, this whole business of loosing teeth will be different for him than it was for me. But then again, he's a boy and maybe boys are just different about these sort of things?!? Time to prepare for the tooth fairy!

Chaos vs. Control

You have to check out this video that I made! It's about a subject matter that is very near to my heart and I think you'll find it interesting and fun!

Update on Terrible 6's

Okay... so here I am over a week later from my recent post regarding 6-year old behavior and I have to say that this past week has been MUCH better and we are, in fact, heading to Hoffman's Playland this afternoon!  Although Alex has lost his opportunity to have a chapter of Harry Potter read almost every night this week, that is the only thing he's lost each day, having no warnings or second chances given throughout the day.  This said, I think being more strict with him has paid off.  This means that he's only done, really, one thing each day that would be considered "bad behavior" (enough to warrant punishment, anyway).  The attitude that he exhibited last week has diminished substantially and our trip to the grocery store was much more successful.  

I began our trip by telling them, once we were in the parking lot, that we would not be using the car cart as we had the previous week because both of the children showed me through their behavior that they could not be trusted to use one.  I continued by telling them that if they argued with me about not using the cart, they would loose storytime that evening, but if they were good, we could get a car cart for the next trip.  They were both well-behaved for this trip and I was quite pleased with their behavior.

Of course Tuesday would have been the day for good behavior since Alex was much too lethargic to be bold due to his minor surgery.  But for the rest of the week, both Alex & Emily have played well together, sometimes going for hours of pretend play without one of them running to mommy with a problem.  I've baked a cake, gotten caught up on the laundry, and witnessed some truly wonderful sibling play time.  The major thing that I've changed in my parenting this past week has been not to give in, even the slightest, to Alex's wheelin and dealin with his punishments.  I haven't given him any second chances.  And most of the time, he doesn't even get a warning because I feel that he's old enough now and knows what good/acceptable behavior and bad/not acceptable behavior is.  The next thing that we are working on now is having respect.  We've worked on it a bit and I think the attitude has improved, but he has still raised his voice at me a couple of times  in a sort of disrespectful & "blaming" kind of tone.  I hope that my children will, throughout their lives, be respectful and kind human beings.... thus, the foundation must be laid now.

Our little Trooper!

Well, I'm going to make this a quick post as an update on how Alex is doing.  Alex had very minor surgery done at the doctor's office this morning to remove a small "lesion" from the inside of his lower lip.  The little spot formed over a month ago, most likely the result of a cut on the inside of his mouth that didn't heal properly.  Unfortunately, the doctor recommended that he have it removed and removal required use of general anesthesia.  Alex was extremely sluggish and sore this morning and got sick from the anesthesia, but he is feeling MUCH better now.  He seems to be much more alert and has started making jokes with his sister.  Emily has been quite nurturing as well.  Having never seen Alex in that sort of "state" before, she became concerned and was mimicking some of the behaviors I exhibited, rubbing her hand over his hairline, etc.  Alex has had lots of hugs and words of encouragement this morning.  It's difficult as a parent to see your child in discomfort and know that there's little that you can do to comfort them.  We've been fortunate that we've only had to go through this sort of thing a handful of times in the last 6 years!  I think I can count on only 1 hand the number of times I've even been up at night with either of the kids due to illness.  It makes me really thankful, and my heart goes out to all of the mothers/fathers that have children who are chronically ill.