raisegoodkids

I am excited to announce that I have started a second blog. Please find it at www.mommomsharmony.blogspot.com

As most of you have probably already been made aware, Today.com has instructed us to remove our Entrecard widget. I will be doing so in the next week. However, to all of my frequent droppers, I will be adding your site to my blog roll. I would love it if you would do the same for me. I will continue to visit your sites (daily if possible), but I just will not be able to leave my card. Sorry for all of the inconvenience. Any of you bloggers out there that do not use Today.com, please let me know how you like your sites. I am considering setting up another blog not associated with Today.com and you can just bet that once that happens I will be signing up for Entrecard once again!

1.) Spring collage - cut out magazine pictures of flowers and plants

2.) Coffee filter flowers - color white coffee filter with markers, spray with water, allow to dry then glue to construction paper, draw a stem, and complete picture by drawing more to make a Spring scene

3.) Flower sort - cut out magazine pictures of various flowers of different colors, sort by same colors

4.) Trees - paint hands and part of forearm with brown paint, press onto paper, dot green paint leaves across finger branches

5.) Sun catchers - cut wax paper into Spring shapes (flowers, bunnies, butterflies), you will need two cutouts each, sprinkle crayon shavings onto one shape, press the other shape on top, lay towel on top of wax paper and then iron to melt the crayon shavings

6.) Hand and feet flowers - paint handprints and footprints, press onto paper, draw stems, and finish Spring scene

7.) Cloud pictures - on blue construction paper spread white paint on 1/2 of page, fold paper over, press and open, what does your cloud look like, encourage your child to use his imagination and come up with what the cloud could be

8.) Easter Bunny story - help your child come up with a story about the Easter Bunny, how does he make his Easter Eggs, where does he go, what does he eat, what does he do after he hides all of his Easter Eggs

9.) Tissue paper eggs - spray water on paper egg cutout, press small pieces of tissue paper onto wet paper, spray with water again and allow to dry, remove tissue paper after egg has dried completely

10.) Rhymes:

Springing Up! (to I’m A Little Teapot) - I’m a little seed down in the ground. There’s dirt on top of me and all around. But I want to grow. So I make a sprout: Then I push, and I push - till I spring right out!

Raindrops - The sun peeks out as the clouds drift by. Raindrops falling from the sky. Little puddles can be found dancing on the wet, wet ground.

Easter Bunny - Easter bunny wiggle nose. Easter bunny touch your toes. Easter bunny stretch up tall. Easter bunny go down small. Easter bunny hop around. Easter bunny pat the ground. Easter bunny jump up high. Easter bunny wave good-bye.

We have been in a battle of wills with Sam. I’m not sure how or why it started, but we’ve had issues.

A little over a week ago, he just decided that he wasn’t going to poop anymore. At first, I thought he was actually constipated. Now, though, I believe that he had his mind set on just not doing it anymore. Why, you may ask. I’m chalking it up to Toddler Control.

Sam has been potty trained for a few months now and that was really about one of the easiest things I’ve ever done. He just got it and then we were done. I was amazed at how quickly he caught on. Since he’s been potty trained, however, we have had a few issues with constipation. So, last week, when he hadn’t went for a few days, I started treating him for constipation. We increase his juice and water. Took away his bananas and cheese. Then, when he started complaining of a belly ache and he still hadn’t pooped, we treated him with PediaLax laxatives. The directions on the box stated that it should produce a bowel movement in 1/2 to 6 hours. A day later he still didn’t have a bowel movement. The whining continued and we continued to try to get him to go. Another day went by and then, as the day was coming to an end, he finally had a BM. We cheered and relaxed and thought that all this drama was over.

Jump ahead four days and Sam has not pooped again. The whining continued. We tried fiber and bran. We gave him the laxatives again. Nothing. Another day started, still no poop. My mother found a PediaLax suppository. This was supposed to produce a bowel movement within one hour. We tried it. An hour later, no poop. We tried distracting him by taking him outside. We thought that maybe he could run it out. It works for our dogs. They start running and within a few minutes they all have to stop and poop. We ran. He would cry, “I poop. I poop.” We would go to the bathroom, sit on the toilet, cross our fingers and pray. “Nooooooo! I done.” No poop. We go back outside and soon discover that he is attracting flies, he stinks so bad. Why won’t he just poop? Finally, I call the doctor. There has to be something wrong with him. He wouldn’t be doing this on purpose …. would he? The doctor asks about his belly. Is it hard or swollen? No. Has he been vomitting? No. Let him go a little bit, just forget about it. Give him some Mylanta in the morning. Words of wisdom - he can’t hold it in forever! The next morning he gets a dose of Mylanta and we go back outside. We play and work. He continues the, what I’m now calling a game of, saying “I poop” and then everyone stops what they’re doing and run inside with him just to discover that he will not go. Grammy and Gramps come by to visit. They both try to get him to go. Grammy says that if and when he poops she will take him to the store to get a new dinosaur toy. He seems excited and upon her leaving, he announces, “I get dinosaur when I poop.” So, he seems to understand what he needs to do. Does he go, though? No. Finally, 4:30 yesterday afternoon, “I poop”. We take him to the bathroom, he has some in his underwear. He sits down on the toilet and he just couldn’t hold it in anymore. Out it came! Grammy comes and takes him to the store to get a new dinosaur toy. Thank goodness!

So, why did he do this? Upon hearing other people’s stories I have found that about half of all parents experience this with their toddlers. Toddler Control. You can tell him to do this, but you absolutely cannot make him go. He has discovered that this is something he can control. Our mistake, I believe, was to make too big of a deal out of it. It became a game and unfortunately we played along. He had us right there in the palm of his hand. But what were we going to do? Is it really wise to just let it go and not try to make him poop? It isn’t healthy to hold it in and it just makes it harder to go, too. We’d appreciate any advise on what to do if he continues to demonstrate these control issues. Do we play along or just let it go?

I don’t want this post to turn into a gossip column, but I wanted to see if any other “normal” parents with “normal” families were thinking the same things as I am about this family.

First of all, let me say that I enjoy watching this show. However, it is starting to lose it’s appeal. I became fascinated at how Kate was able to take care of the babies and stay organized and continue to be somewhat cheerful (at least to the cameras) throughout the day. This was early in the shows production. Recently, though, I’ve noticed a lot of changes in how some of the “cast” is portrayed and just in their general lifestyle. Here’s a list of a few things I’ve noticed and do not like:

1.) The kids seem to be doing little mini commercials throughout the show. One show they were playing with some flip cars and on another a bounce house. You could tell that the whole thing was staged and it left me wondering how much money they received for using these company’s products on the show.

2.) Kate’s attitude problem has definitely increased and appears to be a producers dream. I really hope that she is not as rude and downright hateful in real life.

3.) I think that Jon has completely lost all of his manhood. Kate has chipped away at it enough that whenever she speaks he seems to just want to curl up into a little ball. At first it was amusing, it seemed like he did things to annoy her on purpose and then he would roll his eyes and grin when she exploded. Now, though, does he ever pick his head up and show any kind of self-confidence?

4.) Why is Mady being portrayed as the evil sister so much? The cameras are always around whenever she has a meltdown. Sometimes I wonder if she isn’t told by producers and the film crew to step the tantrum up a notch.

5.) When the show first started, you often saw Kate with little-to-no makeup on and wearing sweats and t-shirts. This was a mother that I could relate to. Now, you never see her without her hair perfect, makeup on, designer clothes, high-heeled shoes, and her perfect tan. I thought she was so incredibly busy and had 8 children to take care of?

6.) Also, when the show first started, you always saw other people helping out and the family had friends around often. What happened to all of those people? Now, instead of friends being around they go on vacations all the time.

I really wish that Jon and Kate would go back to the simple little show they had before. The one’s where I actually learned a thing or two from them, like the one where they learned to recycle, save energy, and use “Green” products. I learned something from that show, the only thing I seem to be learning from them now is product placement and where to go on one of my many vacations!

My 2 year old’s current favorite phrase is “I want that.”

He wants everything and anything that he sees, whether it be in the house, outside, or on TV. “I want that.”

Sam wants the bird that he sees at the bird feeder. He wants the can opener on the counter. He wants the pillow on the chair. He wants the airplane high up in the sky. He wants the toy he sees on TV. He wants Dora and Diego to come to his house. He wants the baby’s dirty diaper. He wants the dog in the backyard. Anything he sees he wants.

Answering him has become difficult. You cannot have the bird because you scare it when you run towards it. The can opener is not a toy, even though it appears that I “play” with it often. The pillow is one of my pretty’s, it is not for your little fingers! The airplane, well, I guess if you can reach it up in the sky, then you can have it. The toys on TV, maybe for your birthday. Dora and Diego? I really don’t know how to answer that at all! The dirty diaper is gross and it goes in the trash, you may take it to the trash can and throw it away, but DO NOT play with it. The dog in the backyard is yours already and you may go play with him. That one was easy.

I want, I want, I want. Talking about everything that he wants can be very exhausting, especially when that’s about all that we talk about throughout the day. Does all of this “I want” talk mean that we cannot take him shopping with us anymore? Will we have to dodge the toy and candy aisles? Will we leave shopping carts full of items when we have to remove him to stop a temper tantrum?

I hope that he ends this stage of his language development as quickly as he entered into it. It’s almost worse than, “What’s that, mom-mom?”

Baby Max, 8 months old, is working on his first top tooth. He has had his two bottom teeth for a few months already. The first bottom tooth was a tough one, it seemed like he worked on getting that one for months. However, the second one just appeared one day without any problems, we didn’t even realize that it was coming.

Max started showing some of the typical signs of teething last week. He’s been crabby and has had long drawn-out crying spells. He has not been sleeping well and has been waking up several times throughout the night. He also has not been eating as much. He leaves bottles half full and spits out more of his baby food than he takes in.

Then, over the weekend, we noticed his upper gums were extremely swollen and you could see the gums starting to split where the tooth should soon appear. Max’s gums must be very tender because he does not want us messing with them, he doesn’t even want us to touch around his mouth.

What do I do? Well, of course the first thing I reach for are my Hyland’s Teething Tablets. They work to immediately calm him, so he can finish a bottle or even take a little nap. However, he does get extremely irritated at times and I can tell that he is uncomfortable and in pain by the way he grabs and pulls at his mouth and cheeks. When he demonstrates these behaviors I go for the big guns and pull out the Tylenol.

The tooth still has not come through completely, but it is getting closer. I had expected to see it already last night, but that did not happen. Maybe it will make it’s first appearance today. I can’t wait for this process to be over!

I have started a new adventure. This morning I started some volunteer work for a local animal shelter. I will be working with them on fundraising and promotional ideas, as well as, assisting with maintenance and feeding of the animals and working in their thrift store. I am excited.

This morning I was shown around the shelter and I helped feed and clean the cat houses. It was very sad to hear all the stories about pets being given up for various reasons: owner is in the hospital or nursing home, family lost their home, or the dog was “too jumpy”. Seriously, the dog was too jumpy. Later in the week, I will be shown around the thrift store and learn the ins and outs of it’s operation.

My hope is that when Sam gets to be a little bit bigger and Max gets much bigger, they can help me work at the shelter. They can help put food in the kitty bowls and possibly draw attention to the store with their cuteness. Instead of “How much is the doggy in the window?” it could be “How much are the little boys in the window?”

It is important to not always think about yourself and I hope that my children will learn that also. If it is true that children learn by example, then I hope they will learn to take care of others just by watching us.

My son will not be three years old until July, but I worry constantly about his speech development. I believe that most of this comes from my background as a former Early Childhood Special Education teacher. Deep down I know that he is still very young and he has many years to go before he needs to be completely and accurately articulate, but I can’t get these nagging thoughts out of my head. I fear that he won’t be accepted in groups or that he will be made fun of all because he may not be understood all of the time. Some of these new fears are the result of something that happened this past Sunday. He attended Sunday School at church for only the second time, the first time I attended with him. Each Sunday has new and different teacher volunteers and this Sunday’s teachers did not know his name. When they asked him what his name was, he did answer with “My name is Sam.” However, the teachers could not make out what he had said. After church, I sought out the teachers to make sure he was okay. He is the youngest to attend and this was only his second time attending. They said that he was perfect and participated in all the activities, but they couldn’t make out his name when he gave it to them. The fear sets in, again.

So, today, I am on a mission to make an alphabet and sounds book for him. I have cut out pictures of objects from magazines. I will glue them onto construction paper and make it into a book. Then, we can read the book, name the objects, and practice our sounds together. I also have the idea to make the book a fun book by rewarding him with stickers each time we practice our words.

I know that I may be over-reacting, but I feel that I need to do something to assist him in his speech development. Like I said, it’s the teacher coming out in me. I would do anything to keep him out of special education or just the public school in general.

We built a new house and moved in a little over a year ago. Needless to say, we have not completed every project and there are quite a few things I would still like to do.

With Spring’s arrival being anticipated, my husband spent the entire weekend working endlessly on finishing our backyard deck. It still needs a little work, but we spent last night enjoying the sunshine on the new deck. It was wonderful!

I would also like to complete a patio in the front yard, coming off of our porch. Oh, and landscaping. We definitely need landscaping! I would like to put a row of hedges in front of the porch and plant some more rose bushes, too. Maybe a few shade trees in the front yard and some fruit trees in the back. Lilac bushes, I love lilac bushes. We will need to find a spot to plant a few of those, also.

I have several ideas for the inside of the house. I want to put a big shelf along the ceiling line in the living room. Once that shelf is up, we will need to check out some antique stores. Some old crocks and jars would be pretty sitting up there. Our bedroom needs some sprucing up, too. We finally put curtains up on the windows, but it’s still missing something. A little love seat with a small book shelf would be nice. Then I could sneak away for a few quiet minutes with a good book.

Okay, so that’s it, I am completely dreaming. I think the sneaking away for a few quiet minutes brought me back to reality. But, just in case my husband does read this today. Honey, Please!!! I love you!!!