So we have a lot of fun at our house, but some days, there can be a lot of drama too! And it seems like we just bounce from one thing to the next! I try to get the kids to pick-up, but sometimes the house is a disaster by the end of the day! Some days I just wonder where the day went! Here are some random snapshots, many from the same day, to give you a glimpse of what we've been up to!
Here we are painting....the kids LOVE painting and I absolutely cringe at the thought of paint getting all over. I keep meaning to hide half of the 12 containers of paint that we have as well as 2/3 of the brushes...because of course, the kids wants some of EACH color to paint with and like to use ALL of the brushes. I've started using the ice cube trays to allow them to have a selection of colors. They are usually done painting by the time I have filled each color and gotten the lids back on the paint jars! Oh, and they drop a few paint brushes on the floor too, which splatters paint all over! (picture me cringing at the thought of paint splattered all over) I let the pictures dry in the garage, but now Makayla likes to carry hers out by herself (picture me cringing again at the thought of wet paint getting on the walls). I get the paint shirts off and get them washed up as quickly as possible and then I go back to clean up the mess! This is an activity that I don't suggest very often! LOL!!
We decided to make playdoh one day. It's actually really easy! We did it when Lydia was napping and it was a quick activity. However, by the time I was finished making it, Makayla had pretty much lost interest in it, so we bagged it up for future fun! Makayla was off to the next activity while I quickly tried to clean up the kitchen...if I remember, this might have been a mess that I didn't get to right away!
While eating breakfast one morning, Makayla spilled on her shirt. I think it was just water, so instead of wasting another outfit, I suggested she dry off her shirt with the hairdryer. This prevented her from changing clothes and entertained her for a few minutes!
Using the hairdryer morphed into playing beauty salon...so we had to get out one of the boxes of barrettes and pony tail holders. The kids love to play with them...they sort them, put them in their hair, put them in their dolls' hair, put them in my hair, play kitchen/cooking with them, and just about anything else you can think of....oh, and they usually end up fighting over them too!
Here's Lydia...she had to take her shirt off because Makayla had her shirt off when she spilled on it! Lydia hates getting dressed and hates getting her diaper changed. She'd run around naked all day if I let her!! However, she's not that lucky! I do let her run around without pants and/or a shirt, but the diaper is a must! The only place she can sit completely naked is in her crib...and that happens when she is fighting her diaper change and I run out of patience...so I have her sit in her crib until she's ready to wear a diaper. Surprisingly, she will sometimes sit in there naked for quite awhile! And she hasn't peed on her bedding...yet!
While Lydia was napping Makayla decided to make Lydia some presents and pretend it was her birthday when she woke up. This was totally Makayla's idea that she came up with when I gave her a bucket of art supplies...and the bucket contained some assorted paper bags, some of which we had made into puppets on a previous day as well as some blank stickers/labels! So she stayed busy for quite a while decorating and wrapping all her presents for Lydia! I helped her write on the tags and stick them to the bags to hold the bags shut! Here she is with all of her presents lined up and waiting for Lydia!
Whoops, one more present...had to wrap up the little purple riding toy!
Here are some pix of the kids having fun opening Lydia's gifts!
After Lydia unwrapped the presents, then the kids wrapped them back up for Chad to open. The paper bags lasted for a few days and they played with them off and on.
Here are some more of our art projects. The kids were busy cutting up strips of paper one day, which was great practice for them using scissors! Then we had piles of paper pieces so Makayla had fun gluing the collage and rainbow one day while Lydia was napping. We also made butterflies one day...it gave Makayla more cutting practice...I drew the outline of the body and then she cut out the butterfly body! Makayla LOVES doing art projects!
A few other random tidbits...
Makayla is very aware of traffic rules, especially people speeding! Any time I pass on the high-way, she asks if I am speeding! And if anyone passes us, she asks if they are speeding and tells me that they are going to get a speeding ticket!. She will even spot-check me as I am driving down the road and make sure I am not speeding! LOL!
Makayla has a bit of a temper (perhaps this is an understatement) and tends to hit Chad or I when she gets mad. We've been using time-outs for her and/or her toys, but I've decided to try some positive reinforcement. I created a paper flower with 6 petals...if she has a day where she doesn't hit (or I don't get to 3 when counting if she starts hitting) then she gets a flower petal. When the flower is complete, she gets a new toy! The first 3 days were great, but then she struggled for a few days to get her 4th petal. We've got 2 petals left, so we'll see how it goes. Unfortunately, since she knows she can't hit, she's started biting...so this may not be working as well as I hoped....
A few days ago at church, Makayla's temper came out...it got to the point where she was screaming and hitting me in the bathroom at church. I was SO EMBARRASSED and just wanted to get out of there. However, Chad was sitting in the front of church and there was NO WAY I was walking down the aisle with her to get the keys for the van. So I bee-lined it outside, where she continued to misbehave. So then I grabbed her hand and said, "come-on, we're going home!" I made her walk a mile and a half home with me. It was a good cooling down period for both of us. She complained a few times, so we just stopped and she rested her legs and then we kept going. Then, I made her sit in her room until Chad got home...which was only about 5 minutes. That day she did not get a flower petal and she also lost her trip to the zoo and her bike for the day. She was such an angel the rest of the day...go figure. These angry spurts just come on and go away in the blink of an eye! This is certainly a phase I won't miss....however, I also know need to nip it so that she doesn't think she can hit me or be a brat and get her way!
One day when Makayla was behaving poorly, I gave her some lecture about there being consequences when she was naughty. That day we were up north and I got to 3, so she lost her dessert (which we really only ever have up north). A few minutes after Makayla settled down, Lydia says to me, "Mom, I want some "consequences" too" and then she proceeded to intentionally hit me 3 times. So I counted to 3 and she lost her dessert too! Then she was happy! (And so was I because neither one of them really needed any extra sugar to enhance their activeness up north)
Both kids are very independent and want to do everything themselves. This requires me to have incredible patience and to plan on leaving the house 10-15 minutes sooner than I want so that I can allow time for them to get their socks/shoes on and buckle themselves into the van...and all the other random things that distract them along the way! Don't forget that I can't speed because Makayla will scold me...LOL, so we just try to be ready early! Lydia gets easily frustrated and mad when she can't do all the things that Makayla does.
Both kids love brushing their teeth and using mouthwash. The love to floss too, but don't always remember to do this unless they see me flossing. They typically fight over who gets to brush first...especially now that Lydia has learned that being first is important...hmm, wonder who she learned that from!
Makayla is also a very good helper around the house...when she's in the mood to be helpful. She can fold laundry, clear the table and put things in the dishwasher, and vaccuum the kitchen with my little sweeper vac, just to name a few things. Today I asked her to clean up a few things from lunch and then start the dishwasher. I was starting to give her a few more small tasks, but then she says, "Mom, I just got home from school! Why are you making me do all this work? I just want to go play!" LOL! Guess she wasn't in the mood to help out. I had her finish the couple small things and then she went off to play!
Lydia loves playing with her baby dolls. She has 2 favorite babies and she typically heads straight to play with them as soon as she gets up in the morning. The babies go everywhere with her, including outside, and are getting pretty dirty. I have wiped them down before and my Mom even washed one in the sink (long story). I plan to look for replacements this Christmas season, but not sure if Lydia will let me swap them out...even if I find an identical baby doll!
Both kids also LOVE chewing gum. The gum is in my purse and in the van. Makayla likes to root through my purse to help herself to gum, which drives me nuts. And the first thing the kids do when they get into the van is help themselves to some gum....which also adds time to the buckling in process. Sometimes they chew the gum for 5 minutes and then spit it out so they can eat something...this also drives me nuts! I had just decided that we needed a break from gum chewing and then I found a piece of gum in Makayla's hair this morning...most likely from her falling asleep in the van the night before. Grr...all the more reason to end gum chewing for now. Maybe next summer we can start it up again. And in the meantime, I'll have to find a better way to freshen my breath during the day!
Makayla is pretty much done napping. She went through the no nap transition over the summer. Now Lydia has decided she doesn't like to nap either. She probably skips her nap 50% of the time recently. The nice thing is she doesn't get nearly as crabby as Makayla does when she's tired...but she does get clingy and wants to be carried around all the time. As much as I hate them not napping, I just love them both going to bed at 7:30 and falling right asleep b/c they are so tired!! Makes for an easy and quick bedtime routine. I always try to get Lydia to nap, but most days she just stands up in her crib and says, "Mom, can I get up now? I promise I won't be crabby!" She also knows that I want her to potty train, so she's started telling me she has to go potty, which I hate to ignore! I have started ignoring her when she tells me she's hungry because I know that's just a stall tactic, especially at night time.
I've been trying all summer to spark Lydia's interest in potty training, but it's not really going anywhere. She's shown slight interest over the past week or 2, but nothing consistent. I've offered bribes of stickers, of chocolate (her favorite food), and bribes of a new big-girl bed, but nothing seems to excite her. It's so strange because she HATES having her diaper changed...you'd think she'd just get over it and potty train. I get so frustrated because of the diaper fights! And I think I mentioned above that I sometimes make her sit in her crib when I run out of patience fighting with her to put a diaper on! Luckily, she hasn't tried to climb out of her crib yet! Phew!
Well, that's about it for my stories for now! Hope you made it to the end of this long post!
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