Saturday, April 17, 2010

Well, it's that time again, my 2 year old is ready to be trained. He shows all the signs of being ready. He goes to another room to do most of his business, he tells me when he pees or poops, he doesn't like to be wet. So how the heck do I train him, entertain a 3 year old, and take care of my wanting-to-be-held-all-the-time 6 month old?

I'm pretty sure we're going to try the 3-day method to start off with, and go from there. If you're not sure what that is Cafemom.com's blog The Stir has some information about it. Also, here's the official 3 day website.

Good luck to all the mommies potty training now, or in the future.

Thursday, March 4, 2010

If you have a preschooler or toddler like I do (ages 2 and 3, now), you know they have no attention span. I try to provide activities throughout the day, but they end up getting bored. I let them find things to do on their own, and they get bored. I let them watch a movie/T.V. show, they get bored.

So I started looking for online games for them, since they are obsessed with touching and playing with the computer anyways. I found kneebouncers.com, it's for toddlers to play with the keyboard. You can play to wake a monkey up, learn colors, abc's, numbers, trucks, fish and more. My son LOVES it (he still only will play for about 5 minutes because he has to be moving all the time, I'm beginning to think he's add, lol).

Another toddler website is avenscorner.com. This one teaches how to use the mouse. We haven't played with this one yet, because I just found it, but I think he will have fun with it for 5 minutes.

For the preschooler, I found zoodles.com. I love, love, love Zoodles. It has it's own internet server, so it eliminates the chance of stumbling onto non-kid sites. You fill out their age, and they pick games from all over the internet that are geared toward that age (I believe the ages they support range from 1 to 8). They have Disney, Nick Jr., PBS, Starfall, etc.. games. Your child would never know that they are learning how to read, math, science, life skills... My 3 year old would play Zoodles all day, if I would let her.

Check them out, and have fun!

Monday, March 1, 2010

Wow.

Well, Zeke is almost 5 months old. Where has the time gone? He's almost through the "boring" baby stage, and getting into the just starting to be mobile stage. I love the boring baby stage, but the mobile stage is so much more exciting. He just rolled over from tummy to back last Sunday. He did it 5 times in a row, then a couple more times for daddy. The little stinker has not done it since, though.

He is definitely our noisiest child. I know Hazel was noisy, and has always been a talker, and Zeb only screamed and squealed for the longest time, but Zeke doesn't stop making noise. Even when he was born he was making all sorts of noises. I called him our little Squeaker, now hes squealing and screaming and giggling. So cute.

We also baby him the most. By now we had the other 2 on cereal, whether they were ready or not, as soon as they turned 4 months out came the spoons. We decided to wait until Zeke was ready for food, because he clearly is not. He also gets held more, walked around more, etc... Perhaps it's because he is the baby (he is our last), perhaps we know a little more than we did before, I don't know really. We are making sure to enjoy these stages a little more, because we won't be going through it again.

Monday, November 23, 2009

Well, the terrible two's are upon us. Actually it's more like the terrible 18 months and so on. Zebediah is 22 months old, and is a VERY independent little man. He is just like a man too, lol. He loves cars, makes "vroom vroom" noises in a very growly voice any chance he gets, he loves his tools and "fixing" things, very hands on, and has very selective hearing. Selective hearing meaning that whenever he hears a woman's voice, he pretends not to hear, lol.

So, he has decided he doesn't have to listen, he can tell mommy no (even if it's to being sent to the corner), he even has started to hit. Ugh. So, now we have to stop spanking because of the hitting, because that's where he's getting it from, and he thinks it's ok to hit. I don't like spanking much anyway, so that will be a good change. But, what do we do to curb his defiant behavior. Well, I just went to my trusted source of advice, Parents.com to see what they had to say. I found the 5-Second Discipline Fix, here's some exerts:


The Friendly Approach to Discipline

Let's face it: If you had a dollar for every time you wanted your child to do something, paying the bills would be painless. You need him to listen up so you can make it through the day -- and keep your home from becoming a total disaster zone. Yet, like most parents, you probably don't want to be a nag (or a drill sergeant), so you constantly ask your child to cooperate. You figure he'll be more likely to pick up his towel off the bathroom floor or sit down at the dinner table if you come across as friendly rather than bossy. After all, you'll catch more flies with honey, right?

It seems like a reasonable approach, especially since that's the way that we typically talk to adults. "Being polite in our society requires making indirect requests, such as 'Can you pass the salt?'" explains developmental psychologist Linda Acredolo, PhD, a Parents advisor and coauthor of Baby Hearts. "If you interpret this question literally -- as young children always do -- it isn't actually a request for salt, it's a question of whether or not the person is capable of passing the salt." (Of course, you'd never expect your dinner companion to simply answer, "Yes.") So when you ask your child, "Would you like to take a bath now?" he thinks that you're actually offering him the opportunity to say no -- even though you really meant it as a polite way to make a direct command. The result? "You get upset and your child gets upset -- and confused," says Dr. Acredolo.

Watch Your Tone

Of course, that doesn't mean you shouldn't be nice. "Research has shown that children are much more likely to cooperate when parents use a pleasant tone of voice," says Alan E. Kazdin, PhD, professor of psychology and child psychiatry at Yale University. "Please" isn't called the magic word for nothing. Using it can get your foot-dragging toddler to put on her pj's without a fuss. "When you're giving your child instructions, it's also crucial to be very clear about what you want her to do -- she should be able to picture the behavior in her mind," says Dr. Kazdin. For instance, it's much more effective to say, "Please go into the den and clean up all the crayons on the table," rather than, "Didn't I ask you to clean up your crayons?" (Rhetorical questions will get you absolutely nowhere.)

The final word: thanks. "It's particularly important to acknowledge your child's efforts by saying 'thank you,'" says Dr. Acredolo. "We're all more likely to cooperate in the future when we feel appreciated."

Give Choices

The most effective way to get your child to cooperate is to give her two choices -- both of which you'll be happy with. When you say, "Do you want to wear your blue jacket or the green sweatshirt with the hood?" it'll be a win-win situation: You give your child a sense of control, and he'll be ready to go out one way or the other. Don't offer a toddler or preschooler an open-ended array of options ("What do you want to wear today?") because the decision will be too overwhelming. "Of course, you can't always give your child choices because you would never get out of the house on time," says Dr. Kazdin. "But do it whenever you can."


To get more tips go to parents.com, they have wonderful advice for everything. So, tomorrow we will be trying these tips and see how it goes. I'm going to give it a couple weeks, but I'll let you know what works, and what doesn't.

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Thank You!!


I just want to say thank you to all our troops past and present. Thank you for all you've done and all you will do for us and our country. My thoughts and prayers are with you.

A friend posted this song from YouTube on Facebook today, and I thought it highly appropriate for today (sorry it's a clicky, I can't figure out how to post it here). Enjoy.

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

He's Here!!

October 9th (my c-section date) came too fast. I was so nervous, because I didn't know what to expect. I knew how the c-section would go, but I never had one scheduled before so I didn't know how that would go. It actually was the easiest birth I had (minus the stress leading up to it and during). I got there, got settled in. First thing they did is put an IV in, and I almost passed out LAYING DOWN. I don't do well with needles, so I was expecting it. Once I calmed down, we went through all the normal health history stuff, boring. Got blood drawn, but I didn't get woozy for that one. They bring me to the OR and I get a spinal. I hated the feeling of numbness but still can feel touch and pushing, it is the grossest feeling in the world to me. I actually did really good, they didn't need to give me any "mental" drugs to calm me down. The only time I got really freaked out was when they were pulling him out, there was so much pressure on my lungs and everything else (the Dr. asked me later if I was in pain because of how I reacted to it, lol). It only took 45 minutes, but it sure felt longer. Ezekiel was born at 7:50, weighed 7 lbs 7 oz, and 20 inches long (I had to look that up, because when they told me I was so drugged up that I don't remember).

He's getting so big already. He's a month old, he's trying to hold his head up and does quite well at it. He smiles and giggles, but only when he sleeps. He sleeps more than I remember a baby sleeping, and eats quite well. The other two just love him, they give him hugs and kisses whenever they can. Hazel even decided one day to pick him up without help. He was crying, and I didn't get to him fast enough, and she wanted to help with her little brother. She helps feed him, and gives him his pacifier when he needs it. Zeb is too busy to do all that, but every once in a while he'll help feed him (for a minute, then he goes back to playing). So far, 3 under 4 yrs. old has been a lot of fun, and a lot of work.

Sunday, September 6, 2009

Photography



I have been interested in photography for about 3 years now, but have only studied it for almost 2 years now. I have gotten so much better than when I first started. I love this picture I took last night, I love being able to capture moments like this. I had a Cannon Powershot point and shoot camera for most of that time and could never get a picture like this on purpose, but this year I got a Nikon D90. I love it, and can do so much more with it than I could do with my Cannon. I recommend this camera to anyone upgrading to a DSLR. All you need to know before buying one is right here, http://www.nikondigitutor.com/eng/d90/index.shtml, this site even gives you beginners tips. Enjoy.

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