Shoes, a lack thereof

I am a big proponent of natural consequences as often as possible.  I try to avoid punishing when the situation has provided its own punishment.

Monday Tiger decided to play outside without his shoes on.  I was busy sewing, and while I really wanted him to have shoes (and pants)  I just didn't feel like stopping the fun because he was leaving me alone.  A few minutes later he came in and told me, "toe owwee."  And this is what I saw:

He had been riding his big Tonka Dump Truck outside without his shoes on.   The reddish dirt on his socks is from the stones/mortar in our patio.  

I should probably have been really mad that he ruined a pair of socks that didn't otherwise have holes in it, but I wasn't.  He was really upset about the two little spots where he skinned his big toe so I explained  to him that it wouldn't have happened if he had been wearing his shoes.  I figured the pain was enough punishment, and said nothing further about it. He whined about it until bedtime and went to bed early.  

Yesterday when he wanted to go outside after breakfast he was insisting on shoes.  I just showed him the picture  while I have been posting and he rehearsed to me the need to wear shoes when you go outside, and about the owwee he got for not wearing shoes.  Hooray for natural consequences.  He learns best from experience. 

o-eight in o-eight

Saturday Blanket turned eight months old.

Those are 3-6 months clothes.  Hopefully, he will be out of  them by the time he is 9 months old. The pajamas are starting not to fit.  But all the clothes and onesies still do.  

He still just sits and rolls over when he really wants a toy.   He jabbers and cuddles, but is happy not going anywhere.

Getting ready for church

I put Blanket in the chair as I was gathering the last few items for church and Tiger crawled up there with him.  I couldn't resist taking the pictures because they looked so cute all dressed up for church.

Pink

There was a point when I was much younger that pink was my favorite color.  That is no longer true.  I did, however, spend most of my weekend playing with pink.  I made these for my niece, Birdie, who will be born in October.  Sorry to spoil the surprise, Froggie, but I wanted to show off what I have been doing.  I have two little things to fix, and then I will pop them in the mail.

About the pink, I have boys and love to shop for boys' clothes.  When I go looking for gifts for baby girls, I usually end up in the boys' section looking for boys' clothes that little girls could wear.   I think the ships and lions and trucks are so much cuter than the flowers and butterflies and birds.

If anyone else wants  one of these, email me or comment and I will get back with you.

It's over.

Most of the pictures from vacation are on my brothers' (Zephyr) camera.  He and his wife are picture taking fools.  My sister-in-law (Froggie) took 100 alone the day she and I had the boys and went 2 places!  But we did take a couple with our camera right after they came on Saturday (and I had finished my mad preparations).  As soon as my nephew (Leprechaun) came in the house he and Tiger started playing like old friends.  They were sharing and having a great time.  They were so happy to see each other.  They haven't seen each other in 10 months.

If you don't know, Tiger is one month older than Leprechaun.  Leprechaun has 2 inches and 8 pounds on Tiger.  Leprechaun will be having a sister (Birdie) in October who will be 11 months younger than Blanket.  I will be blogging about the rest of the vacation when I get those vacation photos from Zephyr and Froggie.

A mid-madness post aka Chocolate Baby

Yes, Blanket is the object of everyone's affection, but that is not the point of this post.  I put these clothes in him at 7:30 clean.  Then I brought him downstairs.  Leprechaun had a chocolate chip cookie that he enjoyed while he fawned over the baby.  I found chocolate smears on his face, and sleeves and those are the spots at the top of the outfit.  I also saw some on his back (somehow the cookie got underneath him).  He was sitting on the floor at my feet and Tiger dropped his cup of chocolate milk right in the baby's lap.  It's nine-thirty and he needs his outfit changed! I took this picture as he was fussing for his nap sorry he is not so happy.  

Looking forward to the afternoon at the baseball game (without surround sound whining, fighting, laughing, screaming, tantrum throwing).    Glad today is adults only.

A fun tag

I saw this on someone else's blog and thought it would be fun to do while I wait for B.A.R. and my family to arrive

1. What was I doing 10 years ago?
I was in the MTC waiting to go to Russia on my mission.  Wow, that was a long time ago!

2. Five things on today's to-do list:
* Make dinner in the crock pot before 8 am
* Go grocery shopping
* Fold and put away a mountain of laundry
* Unload, load, and unload the dishwasher 
* Take a shower

Proud to say that I did them all before 4 pm

3. Snacks I enjoy:
* Chips and salsa

* Almost any kind of salty snack food

* Chocolate

4. Things I'd do if I were a billionaire!
* Pay off my mortgage
* Buy a large piece of land in the sticks (B.A.R. really wants this)
* Quilt endlessly
* Move some family or friends close enough to visit regularly
* Race go carts


5. . Places I have lived:
* Provo UT
* Rexburg, ID
* Perm, Russia
* Volgograd, Russia
* Sochi, Russia
* Rostov na Donu, Russia
* Belleville, MI

* Ypsilanti, MI

* Virginia Beach, VA

* Hesperia, CA

6. People I'd like to know more about:
Anyone who is reading this, especially if I don't know you very well or at all.

Prior to my absence

As I have company coming I will probably be missing from blogland for a few days.  I have cleaned  my house.  Folded mounds of laundry.  Shopped for extensive amounts of food.  Planned menus weeks in advance.  Coordinated schedules/locations/attendees for different events.  Gotten a babysitting bunch for 3 kids under 3.  Washed a car seat pad.  Tackled all the reruns in the fridge.  Vacuumed the whole house, and steam cleaned the family room and the office.

Finished or brought to a pausing point all the ongoing projects in the house and put away my sewing machine and all related stuff.  Repeatedly resisted the urge to sew (I sew to unwind).   Coordinated the passenger  pick-up on the freeway. And made dinner for tonight in the crock pot this morning before 8

I still need to do the weekend loads of laundry, but I am waiting until the camping clothes come home.  I still need to set up the sleeping arrangement for my guests, and make last-minute ticket purchases for events.  We still need to finalize the schedule of activities.  I still need to find my happy place.  This vacation is crazy, and I am not even going anywhere.

Mama said there'd be days like this

Why is it that the days that seem the hardest are the ones when B.A.R. is out of town.  They don't just get hard after 5 o'clock or when he would normally come home.  No, these get out of hand in the early afternoon and they just don't seem to get better.

Tiger spent the whole morning at the Children's Museum running away from me and ignoring me.  He was being good, and even went potty without leaking while we were there.  But every time he wanted to change activities, he would just run away.  I could be saying his name over and over and over and it was like he was deaf.  Totally oblivious.   Then when we got home, I swore he still couldn't hear me.

This afternoon he would wet his pants a little before he told me he needed to go, and each time it was worse than the time before until his pants were very wet.  I took them off about 6 and let him be naked the last hour before bed.  During this time he runs in, says potty, and POOPS on the carpet!  I did make him clean that up (with my help).

Blanket was a bit crabby this afternoon, but I think the kid just needs more calories.  I feed him 1/4 cup cereal 2 times a day and usually 1/4 cup fruit or vegies, but the vegies seem to give him diaper rash.  The really good news is his intolerances for tomatoes, eggs, and chocolate have seemed to clear up, and I need to see if the cabbage/broccoli issue is gone too!  I am so happy now that I can have noodles, salsa, ketchup, etc.  It was really hard not just eating whatever I wanted.

Tiger didn't take a nap today.  Lately, it has been really hard to get him to take a nap and if he does finally go down, he won't go to bed until 9:30.  He needs a nap around 4, but I will placate him as long as possible and put him to bed after 6:30 so that he goes down without a fight and sleeps all night.

This week has been kind of busy because my brother and his family are coming to visit us on Saturday.  B.A.R. left on a camping/fishing trip with his buddies.  He promises no fishing so I sent him with some books (close your mouths all you disbelievers! he will read books if I find the right books for him).  My brother is supposed to pick him up at some on-ramp on I-70 Saturday afternoon.  I guess his camping gear will show up on Sunday when his buddies come back.  

I have been trying to coordinate the schedule for the vacation so that we get in as many activities as (reasonably) possible.  I had to schedule a pair of babysitters for one afternoon/evening  For Tiger, Leprechaun, and Blanket and I still need to get tickets/reservations for a couple of events.  My dishes aren't done (no real surprise there), my laundry isn't folded (again, normal), my kitchen is begging to be wiped/scrubbed, and the whole house needs to be vacuumed and tidied.  All I want to do is sleep in but if I do the house gets destroyed.

I'm tired of the vacation, and they aren't even here yet!   I know we will have fun when they are though!  I hope tomorrow I get a whole bunch of stuff done so that I can reward myself with a trip to the pool with the kids.  Maybe I'll settle for a trip to Del Taco or Quizno's.  

Memories

I love comments, so make my day and send me the best/worst/happiest/saddest/craziest thing that comes to mind.  My blog is open to all to comment, no excuses.

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you.

Thanks again to Jenny over at The Wealth of Home for giving me something to blog about.

Just a quick note

Sorry I have been missing from blog land, but I am not sure what to post about recently.

Jenny over at The Wealth of Home turned me on to Readthescriptures.com.  Thank You, Jenny.  I always find time to get online, but not always to read my scriptures.  Readthescriptures.com will email you your daily scriptures.  They even send me my weekly Primary lesson on MONDAY!  No excuses any more.  And if you want to read more, they will send you more in 2 minutes!  I like the audio feature to read them to me. 

But my favorite part is. . . I can open other windows and search meanings of other words, or find geographic locations during biblical times.  You can really find anything you want to know.  I went in search of the word firmament because I didn't really know what it meant.  Go find out for yourself!  I can now find answers to some of those questions I get while I am reading, but I gloss over because I am not in a place to find the answers.

Thanks again, Jenny, I am now reading my scriptures almost every day.

Fireworks

Until a few days ago Tiger had never seen fireworks.  Never.  As a baby he was trepidacious about everything.  We made a conscious effort to avoid unnecessary upset.  Tiger's first 4th of July he was 5 months old and in bed before the festivities got going.  All we did was light a few bottle rockets off in the back yard.  Last year we were in Utah and having a family get together with my parents and my brother's in-laws. Tiger and his cousin Leprechaun (not his real name) were still young so we avoided fireworks then too.  

B.A.R. set up our Freedom celebrations months ago (February or sometime).  Starting last Monday, I started asking if he wanted to see fireworks.  His response was always,, "Yeah."  On Friday we went out to Weld County for a barbecue and Fireworks display disallowed by local law.  The fireworks were waiting until dark, but we did have some parachute style ones and firecrackers to wet the kids' appetite.  Tiger kept begging, "More Fireworks. More Fireworks"  There were little snaps and some toys to play with so he stayed busy until dark.  

At dark when we started the show Tiger was exhausted.  He kept saying "John Deere tractors and John Deere flail chopper."  He has seen them in the video but I didn't know he could say "flail chopper."  Then we would light a bunch off and he would laugh and giggle.  Then he would repeat, "More Fireworks.  More Fireworks."  

I have been teaching him to say "I like. . ."  for things that he likes.  On Saturday he said, "I like fireworks!  More fireworks."  

Everyday since he has said 3 or 4 times a day, "More Fireworks."  

For a kid who used to be afraid of everything new, he sure LOVES fireworks.

And I am ignoring the fact that he got out of bed and is playing trucks in the other room.

What's new

Our little Blanket man likes to sit.  He can actually sit for 5 minutes or so if he concentrates.  If I prop him on the couch he will actually pull himself into a sitting position and sit for quite a while. 

Tiger can get out of his bedroom.  I know I wrote about this before, but now he can unlock the door and get out.  There is no stopping him.  After the 5th time he got up last night I finally figured out how to get him to stay in his room.  I just take away cloth!  For nap time today I had to take it all away (in 2 steps) but then he got the message. I did discuss with B.A.R. turning his doorknob around so that he is conventionally locked into his room, but locking our kids in their rooms is not something we really want. 

I gave Blanket a bottle the other day (his 10th or so ever) and he put his hands on it and tried holding it in his mouth.  It seems like magic.  Tiger didn't hold his own bottle until 10+ months (about a month after I weaned him).  He also didn't feed himself anything until about a week before his first birthday.  Blanket will suck an animal cracker to death if you just hand it to him.  How different my boys are.  

I have been working on my quilt, but the boys have been less than helpful so very little is getting done.  Ah, someday.

Kids say the darndest things

Ever since Blanket was really small he has always grumbled, "mama."  I think he has no idea that this sound means me, but then again, who knows?  Recently, he has started doing the "dadadada" noises.  

This morning he was laying on the bed while I was getting dressed.  Tiger was sitting next to him.  Blanket kept saying, "Dadadada."  Tiger said, "No, not dada, that's called Mommy."  I stepped out of sight and then I hear, "No, that's a Baby Blanket." (he used his real name).  Tiger thinks that he is really saying "Daddy" and is confused about who people are.  

Now for an update on Tiger. 

He started opening doors by himself about a week ago.  He can now let himself out of his room instead of going to bed.  DH did a nice police job the first night to make sure he stayed in bed.  Now we let him get up if he is not quite ready for sleeping because when he is, he goes to his room and stays there.  He can let himself outside into the backyard, but hasn't figured out the front screen door so no running away.  He needs help with the self-closing door to the garage, and that has to be open for him to open the garage, so again, no running away.  We are having trouble getting him to close the door behind him though.

About 10 days ago he said, "See ya later."  I was shocked.  I didn't know he could say that. Now he says it all the time.  I often recognize when he says something new because he is saying so much now that it's hard to keep track.  Also, people ask me how old he is because they think he is 3 because he speaks so well.   But don't think this means that he is easy to understand.  I still have trouble with certain words and am constantly asking him to repeat himself (he is saying things that I don't know that he can say.)  

Sharing is getting better, he doesn't share well at home, but in public it isn't as much of a problem, especially if you ask him to.