Weekly Happenings

Well, this week was a little different than most. The big thing was a trip from Grandma (Kyle's mom)! She visited with us on Tuesday and Wednesday this week. We went to the beach, the park, and the Cow Cafe, Vivi's favorite place to eat. The kids had a great time and greatly benefited from having someone other than me to look at. Vivi's ready for Kyle to be home, although I think he's been gone long enough for her to be officially mad at him for leaving. She hides her face when he calls now. She still talks to him some though, and I know she'll forgive him for leaving as soon as he comes home (hopefully just a little over a week left).

This was also Vivi's last week of school! She'll start back again in September. They had a water party, so Vivi got to wear her swimsuit to school, which she thoroughly enjoyed. She really enjoys playing in the water, and I wish I could figure out how to let her play outside more. It's just tough trying to figure out how to keep Bryton settled while she's outside. She can't go outside by herself (nor does she like to play alone) and he's awake more and more these days, so I can't just leave him inside sleeping to go play outside with her. He takes frequent naps during the day, but not long stretched out ones, just 30 minutes here and there. We have a lot of ants in our yard, so I hate to put him on a blanket in the grass. Plus, the mosquitoes here are awful. Yuck. So anyway, we feel kind of trapped sometimes. Oh well...I'm working on the juggling act and will get it down pat one of these days. I have a feeling his naps will become more consistent soon so she and I will be able to spend some time outside.

Here's a little update on Vivi's behavior. Which punishments work, which ones don't, etc. The naughty corner (aka time out) has been pretty effective for us. Spankings work sometimes, other times they don't. Sometimes a little pinch in the store will help her listen better, sometimes it doesn't. But, the Store People threat has worked every time, so far. Here's how it happened. We were walking through Target and were near the toilet paper display. They have a wall that's lined with roll after roll of toilet paper and paper towel rolls. The cardboard tubes that the paper is rolled around sit on the shelf, holding their roll of toilet paper, and wrapped in plastic. Well the plastic shows the rolls, and the hole in the center of the cardboard tube is just too tempting for a little girl to keep her finger from poking through the plastic. I saw her poke a couple of holes in the plastic and told her that the store people would not be happy with that behavior because it destroyed the packaging, making other people not want to buy it. For whatever reason, she became very interested in these "store people" and started asking questions about what she could do to make them happy. So, I told her that we would have to keep our hands to ourselves, and they would be pretty happy about that. Anyway, it's worked ever since. If she looks like she wants to climb on the shelves in the store, or mess around with items, etc, I just ask her if I need to call the store people. She stops every time.

We are headed to the Farmer's Market tomorrow morning. I'm hoping to find some blueberries and strawberries. Have a great week!