The Very Hungry Caterpillar

This was our first week of preschool for the year, and this month I ignored my Funshine Express curriculum book and went with something with more flexibility since I also started a 12 week old baby last thursday.

This month we are reading various Eric Carle books and doing extension projects related to the books we read.

This week we focused on The Very Hungry Caterpillar among other books.  We are also working on the literary concepts of "Cover", "Title", and "Author".

Our first project was simple and adorable!

fingerprint caterpillars

The second project (different day) was to make Hungry Caterpillar hats!  This one was mostly a gluing project for these guys, we're not ready for cutting circles yet, they found it enough of a challenge to work the glue stick, and manage to line up and stick the eye parts down that were also sticking to their fingers!

 And of course we've been doing the calendar every day, figuring out the pattern and predicting the picture on that day's piece, watching the weather and recording it, and have been working on the letter A, number 1, and color Red though those haven't made it onto the board because -well - I have a 6 month old and a brand new 12 week old also in the house. :o)

This is only some of what we've been doing this week, and it's been fun!

Connor: The Good Stuff

I've been complaining a lot about Connor lately, on Facebook and in my last blog post.  When I realized that too much negatives were coming out of my mouth and onto the computer screen, I wanted to write up a quick post describing some of the good things about Connor these days.  Because I love him, and he's not that little hellion I may have been making you think he is.

He is generous with compliments.  He regularly tells me and other people that he "loves" various things about them.  He tells me things like, "I love your shoes!" or "I love your eyes" or even "I love your ears".  Makes me smile! :o)

When we have living room picnics for dinner we always sit on a sheet to protect the carpet.  When we had quesadillas I was going to let the kids just sit on the carpet (not much risk of spills), but Connor insisted on a sheet.  "We need a blanket!" he told us.  A toddler's need for consistency can be a beautiful thing some times!

He likes to jump over things lately, especially bumps or cracks.  Big jumps!

He held hands with Izzy in their theater seats when we all went to see The Avengers on the big screen.

He wants to hug and kiss pretty much everyone.

When he smiles, it lights up my world.

He's my baby boy, and there is no one else quite like him.

I Might Just Move Out

I'm having kind of a bad day.

It's one of those days where I feel like I'm failing at life, which I realize is ridiculous because I can name off plenty of things I'm doing right, but I'm having a moment of self-pity I suppose.

I feel like I'm not living up to anyone's expectations, particularly my own expectations.  I'm feeling helpless, clueless, and as a result - a little hopeless.  I'm sure that in reality this isn't true, but the feelings are there from time to time and it makes me want to bury my head in the sand until I'm magically feeling better about it all.

Thing is, if I'm waiting for a magical cure-all, I'm going to be waiting a LONG time, so I should really just take care of things myself.

High up on my list is parenting Connor.  He is really well behaved for the most part when I am not around, which honestly makes me want to just move out from time to time, but when we're together he's all whining and naughtiness.  Mikayla had temper tantrums, Izzy hasn't always been a gem either, and perhaps it's because I'm just stretched thinner as a mother of 3 than I was before, but I'm pretty sure Connor secretly wants me to move out.  Ugh.

A week and a half ago during the Wizard of Oz cast/crew potluck, Spencer and Connor were eating their food while I was getting myself ready to go to a call-back for another play.  As soon as I sat back down with them Connor starting whining/complaining about his food and wanting to get down and being just plain ugly about it.  Spencer says, "he was fine until you got here."  Double UGH!

We've made some progress though.  I pulled out my good ol' behavior chart and added a reward at the end of the day for everyone age 3 and up who get's to the star at the end of the chart.  They get a hershey kiss if they get all the way there (every hour or so of good behavior gets them a step toward their star, bad behavior moves them back).  I give my daycare boy's treat to his mom for her to give him when she deems it appropriate, Connor and Izzy get theirs as soon as daycare is over (Mikayla too actually, but she doesn't need the chart).  Out of sheer desperation for not wanting to put Connor on craigslist, I also bought a cheap 5-pack of matchbox cars.  Until the cars are gone, if he is really good all day he can have one at the end of the day.  I don't think it's appropriate to keep that kind of reward going, but for the 5 times he gets one it will hopefully drive the point home that good behavior is rewarded while bad behavior gets nothing but punishment.

He's also spending more time in time out, which he hates, and he didn't like how mad I got at him yesterday when he was being particularly horrendous.  I know he's a three-year-old and it's a totally different kind of difficult than age 2 is, but sheesh!

Also, until I can get him to behave himself around me, the potty training thing just won't go well, because he doesn't seem at all apt to please me.

I'm sure I'll pull out of this funk eventually, I'm just hoping that it's sooner rather than later.

Thanks for listening!!

Lights OUT

Connor's new thing has been turning on his light, since he can now reach it without standing on anything, when he's supposed to be sleeping.

On and off it goes during nap time, which doesn't bother me much, and at night, which bothers me more.  A few nights ago it was a real problem.  He turned it on, and instead of playing the on/off game with him all night I just let him keep it on and when he fell asleep I turned it off for him and went to bed.  When I woke up to use the bathroom 5 hours later his light was back on and he was asleep again.  I turned it off and went back to bed.  When I woke up in the morning it was on again.  Clearly he wasn't getting much sleep if he was turning his light on constantly - which made him horrendously crabby the next day!

He has a night light, and I don't think at this point that it's a fear of the dark thing... I think it's more of a Connor's-being-a-booger thing.  After a Monday from hell with him, Spence and I agreed that since he can't keep his light off when he's supposed to, he will lose his lights for a while.  So I loosened his light bulbs so no matter how many times he flicks the light switch, he will get no reward.

Monday night he got a bit more sleep and was considerably less possessed-like on Tuesday.  Tuesday night he fell right asleep and got a good 12 hours of sleep.  And the verdict?  He was still just as cranky as ever this morning.  Maybe he needs more than just one good night sleep to cure him of his nastiness, we can only hope.

He wasn't happy about his "broken" lights, but I told him since he was being naughty and turning his lights on at bedtime, we took away his lights.  He doesn't like it but he doesn't seem scared of the darkness, and I know that our solution is far more to his liking then returning him to the hospital.  Plus they won't take him back... I asked.

Connor & Mommy Night

Sunday evening ended up being a Connor/Mommy night.  Spence and Mikayla went to some friends of ours's house to watch wrestling (the grown-ups) and the kids played video games.  Izzy was sleeping over at Nana and Papa's house because she was bummed that Mikayla was going somewhere and she couldn't (Izzy doesn't handle staying up till 10:30 at night very well the next day).  So by around 6:00 it was just me and Connor left at home.

 When a family of 5 suddenly becomes 2, it is SO much quieter!  First Connor and I cuddled on the couch eating Thin Mints and watching Gold Rush.  He loves all that machinery!  We've been meaning to take him down to the John Deere place nearby one of these nice days to get a close up look at front-end loaders, backhoes, and all sorts of bucket/blade wielding heavy machinery.  After watching Gold Rush for a little bit we got down on the floor and built car/block castles.  Then Connor would knock it down, look all apologetic and say, "Sorry", and we'd build another one.

 He was really hamming it up that night, even wanting me to forever capture the image of his foot.

 And his other foot.

 Then there was more building,

More hamming it up,

And then we sang songs.  This first video demonstrates how he doesn't like to let me sing with him (which may be why he gets most of the words wrong ;) oh well!), and how he has a flair for the dramatic.  

And one more, even BETTER ONE, in case you think he's as cute as I do.  Even MORE dramatic and mixed up!!

Clearly, we had a great time!  It is rare that he and I get one on one time, so that made it extra special.  And to top it off, once I put him to bed at 7:00 I had the house to myself for 3.5 hours!!  WOO!

Hiding, Pinning, Zyrtec, and More

Time for a stream-of-consciousness post of sorts.

The toddlers in my life are big into hide and seek.  They are generally terrible hiders, but that doesn't stop them from squealing with glee every time someone finds them!  Connor's found a few spots lately that we wouldn't have found him quickly at all had he been quieter.  It cracks me up how every child I've known thinks it's a good idea to hide in the same exact place (or maybe one of three places) every time.  Also, I often take my time finding them.  I mean, why not enjoy a minute or two of silence right?

Speaking of games, Connor and my 16 month old daycare boy made a game out of cleaning up these little snap-together beads.  Daycare boy stood next to the bucket about 6 feet away from the pile of beads.  Connor would pick up a small handfull, or sometimes just 3 or 4 beads, bring them to daycare boy and put them in his hands, and daycare boy would put them in the bucket.  This took them a good 5 minutes at least to pick up the pile, but they had fun and were developing their team-work skills!

We spent a few days working on Valentine pictures for the daycare kids (even the baby!) to give their parents. They are turning out really cute!  Here is a picture of the baby's Valentine, I covered up his name.  I'll show you the bigger kids' version in a separate post.

I've started following a few more people's boards on Pinterest, but have been more selective in which boards I'm following in order to keep my main page easier to keep up with.  Specifically food boards!  It's hard to look at all that yumminess when you're on a diet!

I've become slightly addicted to wintergreen life savor mints.  They help me keep my mouth occupied when I'm hungry so I don't snack all day long.

I've finally started taking Zyrtec to deal with my many environmental and seasonal allergies.  While I'm still often itchy, it doesn't feel as bad as it was.  The main difference I've noticed, though, is how much easier it is to breath!  I didn't realize what I was missing until I had open sinuses!

I'm thinking of making the Pioneer Woman's pot roast again on Sunday because it is Oh So Yummy!

My Kids Names

Hello out there!

If you haven't noticed, I haven't blogged much lately, or at all in the last couple weeks.  The longer I took to get back into blogging, the more I felt like I needed to do some massive recap or something which made me want to write even less.  So I'm going to skip any kind of massive recap and just pick myself up off my ignored blog's floor and get writing!  It won't be every day but hopefully it will be more often than... never.  Hopefully.

A while back I had mentioned that I was thinking about using the kids' real names, and after hearing lots of helpful input, and thinking about it a bunch, and running it by the hubs, I've decided to go ahead and introduce you to my kiddos!  I will not be using our last name though.  For those of you who don't know my kids' real names, here they are:

Mikayla

Isabelle (Izzy)

And this is Connor

Sorry! Wrong picture!

This is Connor

Aren't they cute!?  :o)