Friday, January 27, 2012
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Spider Ethan, Spider Ethan
Does whatever a Spider Ethan can
Pretty good, huh? Did it myself. Okay, not really. One of Ethan's classmates had a birthday party at school during school, so they had a face painter come in. He was super stoked to be Spiderman for a day.
Pretty good, huh? Did it myself. Okay, not really. One of Ethan's classmates had a birthday party at school during school, so they had a face painter come in. He was super stoked to be Spiderman for a day.
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Blythe is 6!
Blythe turned 6 on January 20th. It really is still hard for me to believe. Brynn is learning to talk and tells me made up sentences with made up words and I answer "really?" and "wow" and "no kidding" just to keep my side of the conversation going. I swear I was still doing that with Blythe not that long ago and now all of the sudden she has grown up and is starting to ask real questions that deserve real, thought out answers. And I'm so not ready for that!
She is something else, I tell ya. She can make a new friend in about five seconds after walking into a room. I think she's friends with everyone on her bus, including a gigantic 5th grader. From what I can tell, she's friends with everyone in her class. Ethan started swim lessons a few weeks ago and within 10 minutes of the first class she had made a friend and they spend each swim lesson duration coloring, drawing, or designing.
She's also a smart little girl and is learning to read so fast it's incredible (to me at least). She never has trouble with her homework and I can tell already she is going to like math and be good at math.
She has a good eye for fashion and the girl loves her some accessories!
When she has a friend over, they still always go for the dress up clothes first. With Ethan, she'll play legos or Trio or dress up or make believe. When Brynn is in her room, she turns on the music and they dance together.
But Blythe is my crazy one. When she gets excited or just happy, she can be wild and difficult to calm down. She makes me nervous when she gets like this as she could easily break something or hurt Brynn or Ethan.
And while Ethan is generally my rule-follower, Blythe's probably more follows the "rules are meant to be broken" motto. And she's sneaky about it.
So in general, she's friendly, popular, smart, and sneaky, which will make for some pretty terrible teenage years, so I better enjoy these next few years while I can.
And for her birthday, she got an American Girl doll, which she has named Jasmine.
Today she had her birthday party, which was at "Paint Your Pot", a place where you choose your pottery and paint it. The girls (and Ethan) had a great time!
She is something else, I tell ya. She can make a new friend in about five seconds after walking into a room. I think she's friends with everyone on her bus, including a gigantic 5th grader. From what I can tell, she's friends with everyone in her class. Ethan started swim lessons a few weeks ago and within 10 minutes of the first class she had made a friend and they spend each swim lesson duration coloring, drawing, or designing.
She's also a smart little girl and is learning to read so fast it's incredible (to me at least). She never has trouble with her homework and I can tell already she is going to like math and be good at math.
She has a good eye for fashion and the girl loves her some accessories!
When she has a friend over, they still always go for the dress up clothes first. With Ethan, she'll play legos or Trio or dress up or make believe. When Brynn is in her room, she turns on the music and they dance together.
But Blythe is my crazy one. When she gets excited or just happy, she can be wild and difficult to calm down. She makes me nervous when she gets like this as she could easily break something or hurt Brynn or Ethan.
And while Ethan is generally my rule-follower, Blythe's probably more follows the "rules are meant to be broken" motto. And she's sneaky about it.
So in general, she's friendly, popular, smart, and sneaky, which will make for some pretty terrible teenage years, so I better enjoy these next few years while I can.
And for her birthday, she got an American Girl doll, which she has named Jasmine.
Today she had her birthday party, which was at "Paint Your Pot", a place where you choose your pottery and paint it. The girls (and Ethan) had a great time!
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Brynn is in love
...with her new bed. Okay, it's not a NEW bed, but we changed over her crib to a toddler bed and she LOVES it. We haven't tackled naptime in it yet, but the nights have been just fine. We put her to bed and I think she stays in her bed until morning time. Blythe and Ethan used to run around their room playing and throwing books, but Brynn makes no noise at all. We haven't used a monitor for Brynn since she was about 9 months old, so I have no idea really what she does in there, but she's quiet and when I check on her before I go to bed, she's asleep in her bed.
What she really loves is that in the morning Ethan comes into her room and she can play with him. They appear to play a while in her room, maybe some in his room, and then sometime later come and wake us up in our room.
Prior to her new-found freedom, she was in crib jail. Ethan would still come in her room in the morning and play with her. He would throw things into her crib for her to play with and then he would leave. He'd leave the door open, so she could watch him play while she stood in her crib and occasionally she'd shout "E-YAN!" at him. But Ethan would never try to get her out of her crib and Brynn also never tried to escape.
So now the 2 are morning buddings and Brynn couldn't be happier about it.
What she really loves is that in the morning Ethan comes into her room and she can play with him. They appear to play a while in her room, maybe some in his room, and then sometime later come and wake us up in our room.
Prior to her new-found freedom, she was in crib jail. Ethan would still come in her room in the morning and play with her. He would throw things into her crib for her to play with and then he would leave. He'd leave the door open, so she could watch him play while she stood in her crib and occasionally she'd shout "E-YAN!" at him. But Ethan would never try to get her out of her crib and Brynn also never tried to escape.
So now the 2 are morning buddings and Brynn couldn't be happier about it.
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
A little lesson in money
I can't remember. I think I might have blogged about starting an allowance for Blythe and Ethan. Anyway, we started a couple of weeks ago and it's been going pretty well. Making my mornings getting the kids ready way easier. Blythe has 5 chores - Make her bed, get dressed, do homework, clean her room, and say "Please" and "Thank you". Ethan has 3 chores - Get dressed, clean his room, and say "Please" and "Thank you". When Blythe turns 6 later this week, she will get 1 more chore.
Sometimes I still need to remind about Please or Thank You, but sometimes the Thank You's are a bit over-the-top. "Mom, thank you for making us breakfast" (after I just plopped down 2 pop-tarts directly out of the box). "Mom, thank you for letting Gommy and Laura come visit" (after they came to help while I was out of town). You get the idea. But excessive is better than not enough, so I'll take it.
At the end of the week after doing all chores every single day, they get $1.00. The first time, Blythe said, "That's it?" and I told her a dollar was a lot of money, so she was good with that.
I think Blythe had $1.00 to start with. They both got wallets for Christmas and I think Peep gave them each $1.00 for their wallets. I paid Blythe another dollar for helping me take down both Christmas trees, put away all the ornaments, and clean the kitchen. Then after 1 week of allowance, they each got another $1.00. So if you're good at math, you'll see that Blythe now has $4.00 and Ethan has $2.00.
Well, just before Gommy and Laura left on Saturday, Ethan was in a foul mood and decided he would break the crayons Blythe and Brynn were coloring with. Gommy caught him and told him to stop, but he kept on. When I came in and saw the damage, I told him those were my crayons and now he ruined them and would need to buy me some more. He was a little upset about this. Later I made him go get one of his dollars out of his wallet so we could go to the store. Then he was REALLY upset. "But then I only have ONE dollar left!". And I further explained that that was a shame, but he had to spend one of his dollars on new crayons.
We went to Target. Unfortunately for Ethan, they were out of the crayons on sale for $0.65 and only had ones that were $1.19 (I spotted him the extra change). Either way, I wouldn't let him get change from his transaction because then he'd think he got more money back than what he lost ("look! I gave them 1 money and they gave me back 5!"). I made him pay separately for his stuff and continued to ask him, "Next time you won't break crayons, will you?" hoping that this lesson will teach him to respect other people's things.
Since it was Saturday, just before bed both kids got paid another dollar for the week. So now Blythe has 5 dollars and Ethan has 2, which made him very upset again. Guess time will tell if this little lesson in money worked.
Sometimes I still need to remind about Please or Thank You, but sometimes the Thank You's are a bit over-the-top. "Mom, thank you for making us breakfast" (after I just plopped down 2 pop-tarts directly out of the box). "Mom, thank you for letting Gommy and Laura come visit" (after they came to help while I was out of town). You get the idea. But excessive is better than not enough, so I'll take it.
At the end of the week after doing all chores every single day, they get $1.00. The first time, Blythe said, "That's it?" and I told her a dollar was a lot of money, so she was good with that.
I think Blythe had $1.00 to start with. They both got wallets for Christmas and I think Peep gave them each $1.00 for their wallets. I paid Blythe another dollar for helping me take down both Christmas trees, put away all the ornaments, and clean the kitchen. Then after 1 week of allowance, they each got another $1.00. So if you're good at math, you'll see that Blythe now has $4.00 and Ethan has $2.00.
Well, just before Gommy and Laura left on Saturday, Ethan was in a foul mood and decided he would break the crayons Blythe and Brynn were coloring with. Gommy caught him and told him to stop, but he kept on. When I came in and saw the damage, I told him those were my crayons and now he ruined them and would need to buy me some more. He was a little upset about this. Later I made him go get one of his dollars out of his wallet so we could go to the store. Then he was REALLY upset. "But then I only have ONE dollar left!". And I further explained that that was a shame, but he had to spend one of his dollars on new crayons.
We went to Target. Unfortunately for Ethan, they were out of the crayons on sale for $0.65 and only had ones that were $1.19 (I spotted him the extra change). Either way, I wouldn't let him get change from his transaction because then he'd think he got more money back than what he lost ("look! I gave them 1 money and they gave me back 5!"). I made him pay separately for his stuff and continued to ask him, "Next time you won't break crayons, will you?" hoping that this lesson will teach him to respect other people's things.
Since it was Saturday, just before bed both kids got paid another dollar for the week. So now Blythe has 5 dollars and Ethan has 2, which made him very upset again. Guess time will tell if this little lesson in money worked.
Monday, January 9, 2012
Super Sunday
I finally made it to an NC State Basketball game last night! First ACC game of the year too and we won!
Blythe was there too (next to me, playing the ipod). And of course Braden took the picture, so it was a family event. We even made it almost to the end of the game. Pretty amazing.
We were a little late though as we had a very busy day. Poppa, Gommy, and Laura came the night before and stayed the night so we could attend Harper's baptism in the morning. Beautiful baptism for such a sweet little girl! And the kids were all even pretty good in church. Afterwards, we headed to Doug and Lynette's for some yummy BBQ and some Quirkle. For those of you who don't know what Quirkle is, look it up and then buy it because it's super fun. Even if I did get last place. I'm sure I could think of a clever excuse, but really I just didn't play well. Still fun though.
We had to play speed Quirkle though because Ethan had a swim lesson and we needed to go home first. We were home literally 15 minutes and Ethan got changed, Blythe got changed (into Wolfpack gear), Brynn had a snack, dogs went out, Braden got changed, I got changed, we grabbed snacks, and all changed shoes. Pretty efficient!
Ethan's swim lesson went well. There are 5 kids in his class. They started exactly on time and even went a bit late, so I'm happy with that. And he was under water and blowing bubbles within 1 minute of the class, so we had no anxiety about the lesson, which is always good.
Busy Sunday that started well and ended well and was fun all in between!
We were a little late though as we had a very busy day. Poppa, Gommy, and Laura came the night before and stayed the night so we could attend Harper's baptism in the morning. Beautiful baptism for such a sweet little girl! And the kids were all even pretty good in church. Afterwards, we headed to Doug and Lynette's for some yummy BBQ and some Quirkle. For those of you who don't know what Quirkle is, look it up and then buy it because it's super fun. Even if I did get last place. I'm sure I could think of a clever excuse, but really I just didn't play well. Still fun though.
We had to play speed Quirkle though because Ethan had a swim lesson and we needed to go home first. We were home literally 15 minutes and Ethan got changed, Blythe got changed (into Wolfpack gear), Brynn had a snack, dogs went out, Braden got changed, I got changed, we grabbed snacks, and all changed shoes. Pretty efficient!
Ethan's swim lesson went well. There are 5 kids in his class. They started exactly on time and even went a bit late, so I'm happy with that. And he was under water and blowing bubbles within 1 minute of the class, so we had no anxiety about the lesson, which is always good.
Busy Sunday that started well and ended well and was fun all in between!
Monday, January 2, 2012
Working on Mom of the Year...
For 2013.
2012 is already blown. I met up with one of my college friends at a park yesterday with the kids. While the kids played, we chatted it up. I admit I wasn't paying as much attention as I should. Brynn did a belly flop off a 5 foot platform, but fortunately landed pretty softly on the mulch and wasn't hurt. I did have to get the "look" from the disapproving grandmother who watched it happen though. Whatever...she was fine.Mom of the Year..
But later (again while chatting it up), Brynn apparently rolled down a set of stairs. Or at least that's what Ethan said happened. She was covered in mulch, so appeared that she actually did do quite a bit of rolling. And her face was scratched right by her eye. And she was crying. But she got over it. Went home and she took a nap and then woke up with a swollen eye that was a little but black and blue. Later we broke in Braden's new fire pit. While getting it going, Brynn decided to walk on the seating wall like a balance beam, and of course Clumsy fell off and scratched her face. That time I watched her fall and yet still couldn't prevent it from happening.Mom of the Year.
In an effort to salvage 2012, I took Brynn and Ethan to school today so I could spend the day with just one of the 3 kids. On the way, I put in Peter Pan in the DVD player. Before it started, there was a preview for Tinkerbell. These days Blythe asks me 1 million questions a day and most end with "...right, Mom?". So of course my response to her question, "Fairies aren't real are they? Right Mom? Are fairies real?" was "Mmm..Hmmm...No". She asked for further clarification so I said I didn't think they were real because I had never seen one.
She said, "Well, what about the tooth fairy?". Crap. Forgot about the tooth fairy. Then Blythe said, "Maybe the tooth fairy is real. Or maybe it's just people's moms and dads". What the crud? We haven't lost a single tooth in this house and already we're shooting down the tooth fairy? Geez, can't we at least make it through a few teeth? So of course I told her the tooth fairy was indeed real. I hadn't seen my tooth fairy, but I wrote letters to my tooth fairy when I was a kid. And she wrote me back and told me her name was Penny. That seemed to suffice as believable. At least for now.Mom of the Year.
I think I did salvage at least the day though. Blythe and I had a great day. We started at home by making a chore chart so she can start getting a weekly allowance. We'll see how that goes, but for today it was great. Then we took some of her birthday party invitations to mailboxes of her friends. Then we went to a pottery painting place and spent a couple of hours painting pottery. She painted a mug that turned out um...nice. I painted a dog jewely box for Brynn. Guess we'll see how they look in a week or so. Next we went to Chick-fil-a for lunch. Then went to the mall and hit up H&M. This was Blythe's first experience at a trendy store and I think I am completely out of touch. We looked at kids clothes only. Found lots of cute things, but I swear H&M isn't as cheap as it used to be. Blythe found a dress and some shoes she loved and I found a Lighting McQueen shirt on clearance for Ethan. Although I could tell the dress would fit just by holding it up, Blythe wanted to try it on. Her first experience in a fitting room. She was so grown up today. Makes me feel like she'll be sixteen before I know it. But anyway, we had a great day.
2012 is already blown. I met up with one of my college friends at a park yesterday with the kids. While the kids played, we chatted it up. I admit I wasn't paying as much attention as I should. Brynn did a belly flop off a 5 foot platform, but fortunately landed pretty softly on the mulch and wasn't hurt. I did have to get the "look" from the disapproving grandmother who watched it happen though. Whatever...she was fine.
But later (again while chatting it up), Brynn apparently rolled down a set of stairs. Or at least that's what Ethan said happened. She was covered in mulch, so appeared that she actually did do quite a bit of rolling. And her face was scratched right by her eye. And she was crying. But she got over it. Went home and she took a nap and then woke up with a swollen eye that was a little but black and blue. Later we broke in Braden's new fire pit. While getting it going, Brynn decided to walk on the seating wall like a balance beam, and of course Clumsy fell off and scratched her face. That time I watched her fall and yet still couldn't prevent it from happening.
In an effort to salvage 2012, I took Brynn and Ethan to school today so I could spend the day with just one of the 3 kids. On the way, I put in Peter Pan in the DVD player. Before it started, there was a preview for Tinkerbell. These days Blythe asks me 1 million questions a day and most end with "...right, Mom?". So of course my response to her question, "Fairies aren't real are they? Right Mom? Are fairies real?" was "Mmm..Hmmm...No". She asked for further clarification so I said I didn't think they were real because I had never seen one.
She said, "Well, what about the tooth fairy?". Crap. Forgot about the tooth fairy. Then Blythe said, "Maybe the tooth fairy is real. Or maybe it's just people's moms and dads". What the crud? We haven't lost a single tooth in this house and already we're shooting down the tooth fairy? Geez, can't we at least make it through a few teeth? So of course I told her the tooth fairy was indeed real. I hadn't seen my tooth fairy, but I wrote letters to my tooth fairy when I was a kid. And she wrote me back and told me her name was Penny. That seemed to suffice as believable. At least for now.
I think I did salvage at least the day though. Blythe and I had a great day. We started at home by making a chore chart so she can start getting a weekly allowance. We'll see how that goes, but for today it was great. Then we took some of her birthday party invitations to mailboxes of her friends. Then we went to a pottery painting place and spent a couple of hours painting pottery. She painted a mug that turned out um...nice. I painted a dog jewely box for Brynn. Guess we'll see how they look in a week or so. Next we went to Chick-fil-a for lunch. Then went to the mall and hit up H&M. This was Blythe's first experience at a trendy store and I think I am completely out of touch. We looked at kids clothes only. Found lots of cute things, but I swear H&M isn't as cheap as it used to be. Blythe found a dress and some shoes she loved and I found a Lighting McQueen shirt on clearance for Ethan. Although I could tell the dress would fit just by holding it up, Blythe wanted to try it on. Her first experience in a fitting room. She was so grown up today. Makes me feel like she'll be sixteen before I know it. But anyway, we had a great day.
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