Clothes and Behavior

Nothing really exciting is going on. I'm going to a wedding on Saturday so I've been searching for the right outfit to wear. I decided that I would wear the black skirt that I wore to Dan and Katie's wedding, and then I ordered some tops for "tall people". I got 3 shirts for $150 which is a little terrifying to me, but they're nice shirts so I can't complain too much. When I stretch my arms all the way out the shirt never leaves my wrist. I don't have many shirts that do that.

E had a rough week last week. She was cranky all the time. And whiny beyond belief. I've started mocking her when she whines which has managed to help a little bit. I also talk in the voice I expect her to talk in kind of as an example. We call the whiney voice her "cranky voice", and her normal voice her "big girl voice". She'll start talking and I'll say "Ah, ah. Use your big girl voice please."

I'm also going to start a rewards system for her for when she's good at daycare. I'm not sure how I'm going to implement it yet, or what the reward will be, but I'm working on it. Any suggestions? I was thinking about how to track good days... here are my thoughts on that -- (1) Stickers on poster board; (2) cool magnets on a dry erase board; or (3) quarters/dimes/nickels to go in a "good behavior" jar.

Ok, well, that's it. Have a good day.

Little Song Bird

Do-ah-di-de-di-de-dum-di-de-do. Singing do-ah-di-de-di-de-dum-di-de-do. I'm hoping to find a cd with this song on it so that I can make E listen to it and love it the way that I listen to it and love it. Mostly because she is unbelievably adorable when she sings, and I think this song would be really cute for her to learn.

We've been listening to the Broadway version of The Lion King a lot lately. She LOVES Hakuna Matata. She sings it all the time. Except she sings "Aku Ta" and it's awesome. She also really enjoys the music from Mary Poppins. She likes Spoon Full of Sugar and Let's Go Fly A Kite. She'llsit and watch the entire movie, which she hardly ever does with any other movie.

We got School House Rocks and Donald Duck in Mathmagic this week from the Disney Movie Club. She watched Donald Duck already, so maybe we'll watch School House Rocks tonight. I haven't seen that movie since elementary school. I'm looking for The Lion King. It's been out of the Vault and apparently it went back in already. I guess I could probably find it on eBay.

Being a member of the Disney Movie Club has been beneficial. We have gotten a lot of the movies I loved as a kid and a lot of new movies for pretty great deals. My favorite to date is Swiss Family Robinson. What is your favorite movie from your childhood??

Did I say Mob?... I meant Mulch

So, E tangled with the mob yesterday. Check out her eye. -- You should see the other guy.

She was a really good girl yesterday. Which totally blew me away because the night before was her first night without her pacifier, which she calls Fafi (said "fah-fee") -- we left it at the daycare provider's house and didn't have a spare at home. She did fairly well for her first night without it. AND at daycare yesterday she only had ONE wet diaper and it was after her nap!!! Which is totally awesome since I've been trying and trying to potty train her. Ah... my baby girl is growing up.

Yesterday one of the guys I go to church with came over to look at the downstairs bathroom and laundry room. He says that he'll do my plumbing (or re-plumbing) for me. He says it won' t be too difficult, which totally rocks because it looks really difficult to me. For those of you who have never seen my downstairs bathroom... it's ridiculous. First of all, you have to walk thru the bathroom to get to the laundry room. There's a shower down there that's basically made out of paper. The toilet doesn't work and the water in it smells like doo-doo. And it appears that at one point a previous home-owner kept their dog in there because the molding on the door is chewed through. Gross. So, needless to say, there's a lot of work to be done. But, luckily, that work "won't be too difficult".

Terrible Two

I realize I haven't blogged in a while. A lot has happened over the past 2 weeks, but as I sit to write about it, it doesn't seem like that much.

E is becoming the definitive Terrible Two. I'm trying my best not to use spanking as a threat, but time-out isn't working and neither is taking away benefits. The other day it took her an hour to actually sit in the time-out chair. She only has to sit for 2 minutes, but she kept getting up. Last night we only fought for about 20 minutes before she finally sat down for 2, so she's getting better. Gah! Beyond the fact that she's terrible, she has been doing some pretty cool things lately. She now can write the first 3 letters of her name. The E sometimes has additional horizontal lines in it, but she knows that the ones on top and bottom are longer than the middle.

This weekend I bought a new stove, a new microwave, and a manual lawn mower at Lowe's. It was fun. I also went to my brother and sister-in-law's house to meet my new nephew. He's adorable!! I'll be heading back out in 2 weeks to spend the day with them and I'm looking forward to it.

That's all for now.