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So, here’s what I’ve been working on lately.
Up until last Wednesday, I had been growing more and more impatient with AJ’s lack of interest in using the potty. I know, they all do it in their own time, but it was Time. The Skittles rewards we had started were no longer working, and I wasn’t really ever enthused about giving her Skittles for using the potty, anyway. Giving her stickers alone never meant much to her, and neither did affording extra privileges (plus, we couldn’t come up with many; it wasn’t like we could say “you can stay up an hour later” or “watch an extra hour of TV” or anything like that). But I finally felt like the time had come.
I knew it was mostly my fault that she wasn’t using it, anyway, because I wasn’t being consistent enough. So, last Wednesday, I finally sucked it up and launched a full-on Potty Attack. I printed a sticker chart, laminated it and put it on the fridge, then I gathered our stickers and told her we were going to start filling up her chart. I sat her on the potty, then afterwards she chose a sticker, and I set a timer for one hour. Then when the timer went off, we repeated the process. She loved it! Every so often, she would say she needed to go on her own, so she went and received another sticker to put on her chart. And miraculously, we had a Completely Dry Day! And on we went throughout the week, eventually waking up dry (!!!) and being able to take a 3-hour errand trip while wearing big-girl panties yesterday. I am so relieved! I no longer have to set a timer, either. Most of the time, she’s just going on her own.
The chart we printed had seven boxes for each of seven days, and when we had almost completely filled the chart with stickers, I told her that when she filled it up, we’d go to Target and pick out a small toy as a reward ($5 or less). We did that yesterday, and she has been telling everyone that she got her new Care Bear “buddy” for filling up her chart. She couldn’t be more proud, and really, neither could I.
There’s DJ’s 100 Chart to the right. He has many more squares to fill before he gets his cheap made-in-China toy!
Boy, does anyone else have spring fever? I’ve been outside this afternoon sprucing up some baby equipment that I’m giving to a friend at church (double stroller, pack-n-play, two baby gates…yes, mom, we’ve stopped locking the children up in the living room). It’s so gorgeous outside, and all I want to do is stay out there and do something, anything, to enjoy it. But I had to come in to get some things done.
Really, I’m so weird about the seasons and the weather. At the first sign of winter, I am so ready for cold days and hot tea and snuggling under a blanket. I love cold weather. I used to go skiing with my family every year when I was growing up, and I doubt I ever complained about the cold. I loved getting good and cold, and then going into the lodge for some hot chocolate! So every year when the weather starts to warm up, I resist it. Not that there is anything I can do to stop it, but I just dread the start of spring. But then, give me one warm day outside, and suddenly, I can’t wait for it to be spring. I start wanting to plant things and walk outside and do all of that fun spring stuff. I guess it just takes me a little extra nudge…most people I know hate the winter and long for the warmer days to come. Of course, maybe I resist spring because I know it will only last for 23 days and then turn into the tropics. South Carolina gets gross in the summer. It’s just like one bad hair day after another.
We had a few cold days at the beginning of this week, though, so we had to think of fun things to do inside. I have really been trying to come up with fun activities to do with the kids. I remembered a craft that I think my brother did when he was in preschool, where they poured some plaster in a cup, then stuck a tree branch in it, then decorated the tree branch with tissue paper flowers. I thought we would do the same thing, but we didn’t have any plaster…so we improvised with some homemade playdough that we had in the fridge.
They were a lot of fun to make! And I think the playdough in the cups added some extra color to the project. D & A liked every step, from tearing up the tissue paper to peeling the glue off their fingers. And later they also decorated the cups with stickers. They love their stickers.
We had a lot of torn tissue paper left after we made our trees, so then we made some collage art. AJ and DJ drew pictures and accented them with tissue paper, but I made mine mostly from the tissue paper. That was a lot of fun, too…but maybe not as much fun as making the trees.
Can you tell which one is mine? (And, does anyone else’s fridge look this messy? Whew. And you haven’t even seen the top…I need to spring clean the photo gallery. )
We were in need of something fun to do yesterday afternoon. I have been planning to bake big bunny cookies for DJ’s class Easter party on Thursday, and I knew I could just pop them in the freezer, so I told D & A they could help me make cookies. I cut out all of the school bunnies and set them aside, then helped the kiddos cut out dinosaurs, hearts, bunnies, and ducks. We used our favorite butter-not-sugar cookie recipe (thanks, Robin!). And then, because plain cookies need some embellishment, we painted the cookies. I had seen some cookie paints in the latest King Arthur Flour catalog, but since we didn’t have them, I asked my friend google for help. I found a super-simple formula for cookie paints–mix some cornstarch with a little water until it’s stirrable (too little water leaves the cornstarch oddly gloopy and lumpy), then add food coloring. Or cake decorating gel colors, which is what we used. Then you paint onto the unbaked cookies, using a clean paintbrush, and bake. The colors stay nice and bright, and it actually doesn’t affect the taste of the cookies at all. We had a lot of fun painting our cookies!
More rave reviews for the Wonderful Wallaby pattern.
The Wonderful Wallaby
Size 4, 2.5 skeins of Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece in “Tea Rose”
Size 8 Denise Interchangeables
The story behind this one is nice, too. While I have to beg DJ to wear his, AJ started asking for one just like it, “but pink”. She was especially attracted to the hood and started asking me almost daily for a pink sweater like DJ’s, but with a hood. So, of course I obliged. The night I finished knitting the hood, she asked me to finish it and wash it so she could wear it the next day. You have to love that! So I did, and she wore it all day yesterday. It was the perfect day for a cotton sweater with a touch of wool.
This is just one of my most favorite sweaters to knit. It’s so simple, but the results are so satisfying! I keep thinking I should knit one for myself, like Jen’s, which I have coveted ever since I saw it on her blog.
I only wish I had thought to get another “thumbs up” photo.
…you say it’s your birthday! It’s AJ’s birthday too, yeah!
We were quite sad this morning when we browsed our iTunes library and didn’t have “Birthday” by the Beatles. I have a few Beatles CDs (Rubber Soul=my favorite by far), but no White Album. Oh well. My girl is 3! I can’t even begin to believe it. We had a little party over the weekend, because my mom and dad were here and it was the perfect opportunity to celebrate with them. AJ doesn’t really have any little friends her age yet (except for my friend Kristin’s girls, but I haven’t been able to get in touch with her in forever–Kristin, is your phone broken?), so we just did it low-key. We had a close-enough to Hello Kitty cake,
and opened kitty presents,
and just had a fun time.
We also spent some time looking at houses this weekend, because now that we discovered we don’t want our kids to go to school in the district we live in, we have suddenly gotten serious about moving. So far we haven’t found the right place, but I feel like we will. I’m just scared of listing our house. That would mean I have to keep it clean on a daily basis. Which reminds me, I need to vacuum.
