Saturday, January 29, 2011

Making Valentines

The girls had fun the other day making valentines cards. It was so cute listening to them think of all the people they needed to make one for. Their grandparents and cousins were at the top of the list and they thought of a few friends too. I tried to remind them to leave a little space to actually write something but they were way too excited about all they decorations that they could glue on. I think they turned out just perfect anyway. I guess we'll just have to write on the back.

They were very focused on the task


and they had so many goodies to choose from.


Ella was so proud of her first finished card. I think she made this one for Grammy.


My sweet girls did a great job on their cards!


Breakfast Today

Mmmm... I had plain nonfat greek yogurt with a scoop of flax, a handful of blackberries and a drizzle of honey. Too bad the first thing I ate was one of those cute cupcakes we made yesterday! Oh well, healthy for the rest of the day. The girls tried the yogurt but it was not a hit with them.

Friday, January 28, 2011

Valentine's Cupcakes

Ella had a fever last night so she stayed home with me this morning while Payton went to preschool. She actually wasn't feeling too bad so we decided to make some heart shaped cupcakes.

She's ready for baking

Mixing the Batter

Of course she got to lick the beater

She put the perfect amount of spinkles on each cupcake

They sure turned out yummy

and very pretty too!


Baking in our jammies was a fun way to spend a sick day. I don't know if a cupcake a day keeps the doctor away, but Ella seems on the road to recovery.

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

When is it a threat and when is it a consequence?

As a mom, I really want my kids to listen to me and do the right thing simply because I ask them to. I don't want to be the mom always yelling, "Stop that or your in timeout/we're leaving/I'm taking that toy away/etc." I agree with assigning natural consequences to a behavior, but sometimes I feel like I can't stop my kids from doing something without making a threat.

My normal procedure of disciplining my kids is first to ask them to stop what they are doing and tell them the reason they are not supposed to be doing that action. Ideally, I would like for that to be the only warning. Really, who wants to be saying the same thing over and over again? In reality, I know I will have to repeat many key phrases umpteen times until my kids are finally grown and hopefully leave the house! I guess my usually consequence when they continue the behavior is timeout, loss of whatever they might be fighting over, separating them from each other, or leaving and going home if we happen to be out and about.

Recently we started a good behavior chart involving stickers and money because I also want to make sure a majority of my parenting is positive and rewards good behavior. So far it seems like the chart is working well. The kids like getting their stickers at the end of the day and it gives us a chance to talk about how the day went and what they need to try to work on tomorrow. But, I've realized even that can be turned negative when I am threatening that they won't get a sticker on their chart if they continue doing XYZ.

Last weekend we were at a birthday party and Payton was just pestering Ella for no reason. I was seriously thinking to myself, there a tons of other kids here and you can bother your sister at home anytime. What are you doing? First I ask her to leave  Ella alone. I then put her in time out right outside the open door of the party room. She seriously did not care. I would think it would be embarrassing to be in timeout at a party, but I guess not. Finally, I threaten that we will have to leave the party if she doesn't stop. I hate that I had to resort to the threat and I'm not sure if I would have in fact left if she didn't stop. I would like to say I would have, because there is nothing worse than making a threat and then not following through with it. On the other hand, leaving the party would have been totally unfair to Ella. Thankfully Payton did find some other distraction and left poor Ella alone so I didn't have to worry about what to do next.

For the most part my kids are usually well behaved. Some days are great and being a SAHM seems like the easiest job out there. But there are those not so great days where I feel like my whole life is a series of, "if you don't stop doing X, then Y is going to happen." My question is, how do other parents get their kids to stop a behavior without making a threat? When is it a threat and when is it simply telling your kids what the consequences will be? Thanks for the input!

Monday, January 24, 2011

My First Post!!!

On my first official day as a blogging mom I thought I would do some crafts with the kids, take some photos and write something. We do lots of arts and crafts around here, so it seemed like the perfect first post. I guess as a mom I should know that nothing ever goes as planned.

This morning I went for a run with the dogs while the girls were in preschool. My knee was a little sore during the run but nothing too bad. Like a true tough mama, needing to complete my workout, I kept going. When I got back home, I stood still for a minute talking on the phone.  I hung up and started to walk out to the car to pick up the kids and I nearly collapsed! My knee has been killing me ever since and I looked like a nut limping into the preschool. Needless to say, I've been on the couch with my leg up all afternoon.

Luckily the kids have been sufficiently entertained since our neighbor, Isabella, came over to play. They played happily upstairs for several hours and are now watching a movie. I'm a little scared to go upstairs and survey the crazy mess of toys that is most likely waiting for me. I really can't hobble up their right now so I'm not going to think about it until the Hubs gets home. Thankfully, Payton was able to bring me the laptop. Unfortunately, my first post is not too exciting.
By the way, the dog in the picture is out Boston Terrier, Mighty.