AP Moment of the day ~ granting wishes.

I may have mentioned this before, but life is so much nicer for small children if they can have their wishes granted.... if only in make believe! I read this is in one of my parenting books but for the life of me I can't remember which one now. It was probably Kids Are Worth It, but I can't promise that! The point is, if a child really wants to do something that just can not happen, it's a simple case of saying "You wish you could squirt water at Mummy all night long, don't you?" ... honestly, if you have guessed right and that is JUST what the child wants to do, then you are rewarded with a smile, or at least an acknowledgement that yes, that IS what I would like to do, but I know that I can't for a plethora of reasons....!! I did that with Jack tonight. He really wanted to squirt me with a toy from the bath and he was soaking the bathroom floor in the process. I wanted him to get ready for bed so told him to put the toy away.... he cried and cried. He was over tired and really needed to get to bed, but his upset prompted me to reach for the (t)rusty tools and see what I could remember. I dug deep ... and pulled out the old reliable "Wish Granting" !! :D "You wish you could squirt Mummy all night long, don't you?! " and sure enough, he sobbed out a "yes" ... and gave me a big hug!!

I really don't know why this works, I'm sure there's a good explanation for it, but sometimes it's best just to believe in the magic of it and trust it!! : D I've done this when he doesn't want Daddy to go to work " You wish Daddy could stay home all day, don't you?" ... yup. He's been heard, he's been understood, and he's been sympathised with. He knows that Daddy can't stay home all day and he KNOWS he can't squirt Mummy with water all night long either.... but it sure would be nice! :D

Satisfaction, guaranteed..... at least in theory! :D

AP Moment of the... wait.. how long has it been now!?!? :D

Hmmm..!! It's been busy around here!

We've decided we are going out of business... the Baby Making Business that is! We've decided it's better to just bite the bullet, say we are done and make it our decision, rather than feeling that nature is deciding for us!!! HAH!! WE decided people!! :D

I have been going through the baby room and bagging up and sorting out baby clothes, boppys, exersaucers, strollers, high chairs, slings, shoes, toys, mobies, bouncers... the lot!! All of it is going!! It's for sure going to be a clean sweep and is almost scary to do it, but I'm going to feel so much better when it's all gone. It was getting too much to walk into the old nursery and see all the reminders of how we have failed to make more babies!!! And hey, you know what they say!?! Once you throw out all your stuff you are almost CERTAIN to get pregnant again!! LOL!!! Well I'm hoping it's not true, but if it is, then heck, I guess we'll have to get ALL NEW STUFF !! LOL!!

A friend of mine walked with me through Super Target the other day and we cruised through the baby aisle looking at all the stuff... I am AMAZED at how things have changed in only 5 short years!!! They have such FABULOUS stuff, beautiful bassinets, car seats that are gorgeous, lovely clothes.....!!!! It certainly wouldn't be too hard to have to get new.. you know.. if we HAD to ! ;D

Actually it's nice to no longer think of the room as a baby room, but instead we will think of it as a tween room!! :D Our great friends from MN come over frequently with their tribe of 4 and the oldest girl and Jessie love to share a room. I've told Jessie that they can pick out some borders and maybe some paint and we'll make it more of a big girl space for when they come and stay!! It will be lovely to have it USED again! :D

Anyway, I suppose this is AP'ing me. It's meeting my needs by clearing out old memories and making room for new ones. It's taking charge of events, removing negativity and moving boldly on.

Onwards, onwards, ever onwards.

AP Moment of the century!! ;D Do you Caucus?! Of Caucus!! :D

I took Jessie to Nebraska's first Democratic Caucus today and have to say it was sooo exhilerating!!! I had a wonderful time and really enjoyed the atmosphere!! Jessie got to participate a little but more than anything she got to be there. She got to be a part of something that has the potential to be huge.

I've never been very interested in politics, despite studying it in college ( I was actually hoping for a psych class but it was cancelled!!) and since I haven't always been a US Citizen I really didn't care much about what happened in the White House. Things have changed!!! I am so excited for this year's election and am hoping to instill some enthusiasm in my daughter too.

Showing your children they can make a difference. It's the AP thing to do!!!

AP Moment of the day... Good LORD it's THURSDAY?!!?

Hooo boy!! :D The week is just flashing by and I have to say That Darn Cat is one of the reasons I am so behind !!! 'S'ok though cause we love her! Sorry! Him!! Yah... that was a shocker!! :D Our newest family member is a neutered male, so we may well be calling him Herman! ;D Get it?!!?

Gah!! Anyway, I'm worn out over here I'll tell ya. The kids have me ready for a short little vacay somewhere hot and beachy. Just me, a beach towel and an ocean. Ahhhh. I'd sleep. The entire time. !! :D It's so cold here at the moment with occasional bursts of above freezing temps. The cold and snow keep me from wanting to leave the house and the kiddies aren't all that keen on it either. Shuuuuuudddderr!!

That said it's not like I'm getting a lot done here IN the house...!! We're basically hibernating, shutting down and running on bare minimun until the days warm up a bit!!! We'll be flying before long, until then it's "Goodbye from me, and it's goodbye from him! "

AP Moment of the day ~ Pets are people too....!

So not only do I try to be an AP Momma to my kiddoes and an "AP" wife to hubby, I now find myself AP'ing the critters too!!! :D We had a brief explosion in the creature numbers so now we have one dog, one gerbil, 3 rats and one cat. It's only a matter of time before we get fish too as Jack would LOVE some fishies...!! The dog is scared of the cat and the cat is scared of the TV. The rats are scared of the dog and the gerbil is scared of everybody!!! The house is just fraught!! ;D So we have to make sure that each pet gets enough love and attention so it doesn't feel it's missing out somehow!!! I made sure to play ball with the dog and buy her some doggie treats today, the kids and I keep finding the cat snoozing on the spare bed and go and pet her for a while. Tonight I had the rats out for an hour so they could play and get lots of love and fuss!! They love to have their chins and behind their ears tickled!! and finally I opened up the gerbil tank, topped off her food and chatted with her a little ( that's more than enough attention as far as she is concerned!!! )

Now it's time to sit with hubby and try and make him feel a little special too... then to bed and tomorrow we begin again!!! First with the kiddoes and then down the food chain from there!!
;D

AP Moment of the day ~ You Tube?

Well today we had our first near miss with the joys of the internet. Jessie had been watching an educational video on chocolate and decided to do a quick Google search with the terms "How to make Chocolate" ... I'm sitting across the room and hear some rather punk music playing and ask Jessie what she is watching. "How to make Chocolate Milk" .. she said.

...

minutes pass....

...


"WHAT!?!?!?! WAIT!!!! STOP!!!!!!! TURN IT OFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

A (very) large breasted woman ( thankfully wearing a (low cut) T shirt) was making chocolate milk by pouring milk and syrup into a glass and then jumping up and down vigourously. The camera was focused on the glass... which was held deep in her bosom.

Poor Jessie was just sitting there watching it and was probably pretty confused... especially as I scrambled to turn it off!!!! It's really hard to find the right buttons in time when you are flustered!!!!

So from now on You can Tube, I can Tube, Jessie.... she can't Tube. Yikes.

AP moment of Oh what a day.

For reasons I refuse to discuss we have acquired a cat it seems. This poor critter has a bum leg, possibly a disclocated shoulder, but that didn't stop her from belting off from me when we took her to the vets, 30 minutes away in the country. I had to climb into ditches, over railway tracks and through barbed wire to get her back and I look as though someone has taken a knife to my chest thanks to her VERY SHARP claws. Sigh!! :D Still, there were some bright spots to the day!

1) the vet, once I had re captured the cat, came over to chat with us. The cat was now ensconsed under Jack's car seat and there was no way anyone was going to be getting her our, so we chatted a little before we drove back home again. Jessie began to regale him with the tale of how we found the cat... she's chattering on , as she does, when he suddenly blurts out "How old ARE you!?!!" We explained she is 8 and homeschooled... he said he was amazed at how mature she sounds when she talks!! ;D ( I bow, inwardly!! )

2) Once we had the cat under the car seat I took the kids to Petco. Jack LOVES to go to Petco as he loves to watch the fish. You know we are going to end up getting fish too... right??! It's just a matter of time!! Anyway, he also loves to go apeshit and run away from me, usually resulting in my abandonment of cart and purse and chasing him around the store. Ha HAH. Not this time buster. Thanks to Parents Please Don't Sit On Your Kids I decided to ignore him. He ran off, Jessie and I walked towards the checkout. Presently we heard "Mummy!!" and here he comes looking all worried and accompanied by a friendly Petco assistant. Moments later he ran off again, announcing as he fled "Bye Mommy!!" ( a clear invitation to chase which I ignored again. ) I tried to explain to the bemused check out girl that I had lost my son but I wasn't worried about it ... and again, after only a minute or two he comes running up to me. "Hello Jack! " I calmly said as I took his hand and we left the store!!! Honestly the BEST trip to Petco we've had in years!! :D Yeahy! and Go Me!! ;D

3rd and final) On the way home Jack was talking and Jessie and I were trying to figure out what he was trying to say. Many of his words are very clear now, but once in a while we are stumped. Jessie said "I could write a Jack dictionary!" and I said what a great idea that was...
" but I CAN'T !! " she said. why not?! "Because he won't stand still to give me all the words!!" LOL!!! For some reason I thought that was really funny!! He'd have to stand still and give her all the words at once!!! ;D

Maybe it's just me!?!? :D

AP Moment of the day ~ I'm open to a little experimentation!

My smallest child loves Curious George ( or, "Norge" ) and likes to play on the George website on PBS kids. One of the things they show is a clip of children in a classroom doing an experiment to see what dissolves. Jack watches this clip over and over again. Today he obviously decided he had the gist of what they were doing and I spotted him hurrying into the kitchen muttering "Ditholves? ditholves?" ... he started tearing through the pantry, hauling out spice jars and filling large glasses with water...!!

" WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?!?! " I quietly enquired! (!ahem!) then, remembering my recent readings, tried again. "Are you hungry?!" I asked.

"No!" he said and carried on scouring the pantry.

I had no idea what he was doing!! :D Suddenly I flashed back a couple of weeks to where Jack was found floating bags of herbs, packages of pasta and other such items in glasses of water. It hit me with a rush... "DISSOLVES!!!" Hah!

"So, you want to see what will dissolve?!"

"Yes, ditholves! .... thalt " !!!

(thalt?! thalt?) "OH!! Salt!! You want to see if salt dissolves?!?! " ...

and so it went on!!! He would procure the necessary ingredient, find a glass and fill it with water then conduct his experiment!! When he'd satisfied his curiosity with one condiment, he would run back to the computer, play the clip again and find the other things the class had used!!! He tried salt, sugar and pepper, and one or two of his own making, including cinnamon, cold tea and some cold left over oatmeal!! ;}

He was happy for about an hour but what thrilled me the most is he did it all himself!!! I got down the items requested if he couldn't reach them and I poured a small dish of sugar out for him rather than give him the entire bowl ( I'm flexible, I'm not stupid!! ) but other than that, it was all his gig!!! He certainly had a ball and I figure he learned a few valuable lessons if nothing other than old oatmeal will not dissolve in cold tea and if you try and eat it it's pretty darn nasty!! :}

LOL!!

AP Moment of the day ~ No comparison!

Or, don't read other homeschooling blogs if you don't want to feel like an inefficient,- deficient, something else ~fishent- homeschooling- layabout -slacker Mom!! ;D
or words to that effect!! :D

Today I thought I'd peruse some of my favorite Homeschooling blogs. I love to read what everyone else is up to, always of course, in the vain hope that I will be able to say "PAH! We do SOOO much more than that!!!" .... Hmph. I'm clearly reading the wrong blogs!! :D I won't name names... you know who you are, but some of my FRIENDS * sideways glance * are I'm sure conspiring to make me feel like a nonce!!! :D Yeah! That's it!! They work together to come up with fanciful schemes and then write blog posts about them JUST TO MAKE ME FEEL LIKE A SLACKER!!!! ;D LOL!!! Well... I'll show them! We do all SORTS of school at our place!! ;D .....

Today Jessie decided she wanted to work more on her new passion... Wizardry. Yep. She wants to be a Wizard. Or she did, until some smarty pants told her that a Wizard is a boy. So she now wants to be an Enchantress. She asked if I was happy that she would be the first Enchantress in the family since she couldn't be the first artist. Of course I was well into my third scotch and soda by then so my reply was less than coherant. I hope. She wore purple Wizard robes all day long, walked around wearing an amulet of sorts, carrying her small dead owl and her books. Apparently they are spell books. Uh huh. She spent some time online searching for spells ( computer studies? Right?!?! ) and then carefully and of her own accord, wrote them into her spell book. ( handwriting!) She then practiced the spells until she could say them with her eyes closed ( memorization! ) and recited them carefully ( public speaking !) When the wished for Unicorn failed to materialize ( comprehension!!) she did not give up ( perseverance! ) but headed back to the computer to try again!! LOL!!! This counts, right!?!!? I mean, she plans on trying to make Gold next week, so that will be Chemistry covered!!! And perhaps we'll be able to weave in Social Studies as she discusses her plans with the fire marshal! ;D LOL!!

I suppose I need to stop reading other people's blogs and focus more on our life together. No one has a perfect life, despite outward appearances, and although from the outside I'm sure our life looks a little Kooky to say the least, inside it's all heart!!! :D

( with a little bit of Magic thrown in!!)

AP Moment of the day~Poop Happens!! ;D

Well... it finally happened!! :D

Jessie and I were in the front room together working on something or other this morning when suddenly from the living room we heard "HURRY!!! HURRY" and Jack ran into the bathroom in a mad panic!! He slammed the door behind him and I jumped up and ran to assist!! :D I opened the bathroom door only to have him shove it closed again yelling "NO!! Go 'way!!"

"Don't you need help?" I asked? ( Pleaded, begged...!!)
"No!" he calls back.

I decide that this is his big moment and I walk back to the front room and Jessie and I sit and wait to see what will happen next. Suddenly a half naked Jack BURSTS into the room with a flourish and spreads his arms wide "TAH DAH!!!" LOL!! He had taken himself to the bathroom, removed his pants and pooped ALL BY HIMSELF!!!!! ;D YEAHY!!!! Jessie and I gave much cheers and kudos to him and he beamed with pride!!!!! A moment later I realised that he would NOT have wiped...... so we quickly headed back to the bathroom........ 'D

However! It's a milestone people!!!! It's a HUGE milestone!! :D

AP Moment of the day ~ Puddle Jumping!

It was 64 degrees today!!! SIXTY FOUR!!! That's just crazy! All the snow is melting but for a tiny bit on the North side of the house. We went for a wonderful walk wearing short sleeves and little else!! The warmth of the sun on our faces and the smell of the warm earth was such a simple but deep pleasure. Ahhhhh. I could feel my blood pressure falling...!! :D

Jack thought it would be wonderful to stomp in every single puddle he could manage and I decided I wasn't going to stop him! It's just water after all! :D Jessie was careful to walk AROUND the puddles as she was wearing a pretty skirt and didn't want it getting wet. We'd walked quite a long way when we discovered we would have to walk through a very deep and large puddle... there didn't seem to be anyway around it!! Jack was so excited and Jessie asked if she could take off her shoes! SURE!! Why not!?!? It's not every day you can go bare footin' in the middle of winter for heaven's sakes! We stopped alongside the puddle. The dog lay down to rest and the kids had at it!! :D The stomped, splashed, sperlooshed and essentially played like they hadn't played in a long while. Curious as to the effect, I casually mentioned that as long as we were playing in the water, we would miss Cyberchase on TV if we didn't hurry and head home!

"ACCCKK!!! We must hurry and GOOOO!!" yelled Jessie.

"Hmm... " I asked her..."What's more important? TV? or Real Life?"

Jessie thought for a moment....."TV!!" she yelled.... laughing!! Then she said "Just kidding!! Real life of course!! Besides, who knows WHEN we'll be able to jump in a puddle this big again!?!"



Simple pleasures, folks!

AP Moment of the day ~ If I ignore you, maybe you'll go away?!

Or at least you might stop throwing a fit and tearing around the room blowing raspberries?!?? No?!? :D

Hot on the tail of the fabulous advice I've been sharing from the Parents Don't Sit On Your Kids book comes this little gem.... Ignore your children's terrible behaviour!! S'right!! Ignore 'em!! Now it does seem to go against the parenting grain, to "let them get away" with bad behaviour but any parenting philosophy that actually suggests I do LESS than before is a winner with me!! ;D Kid goes crazy?! IGNORE!! Child beats up sister?! IGNORE!!! Child stands in front of TV with arms akimbo in order to block as much of the TV screen as is physically possible?? IGNORE!!!!!! Sounds kooky, eh!? :D So naturally I thought I'd give it a whirl!! I'd asked Jack to go the bathroom before watching a movie and he took that as his cue to run, whooping, from the room. Normally this would result in a little noise as I would delicately skip after him in joyous fashion quietly calling out his name in little pixie whispers whilst fairy dust shot out my ass..... ( or something not at all like that...!) but this time... IGNORE. "OK Jack! " I said. And I turned and walked away. Momentarily Jack tears into the kitchen and goes "Nya nya ny Nya Nya!!" wiggling his tongue and fingers at me in a clear attempt to provoke me into a chase. I look at him.. "Are you ready to go to the bathroom, Jack?" He runs off, giggling. "Ok Jack," I said and I turned and walked away. He ran in and blew raspberries at me. He tugged on my jeans' pockets..... to no avail. I simply would ask if he was ready to go the bathroom and without an appropriate response I would turn and ignore. This went on for about 5 minutes when suddenly he decided he was ready to go pee so I could help him with his movie. He went straight into the bathroom, I helped him with his pants and then helped him with his movie, not once mentioning his acting out. It worked like a charm!!!! He's realizing I mean business. I'm giving him one shot to do something then I will help him with it. He is learning that acting up will not get him the attention he is seeking, but he will get positive attention if he does as he is asked! :D

We'll see if I can keep it up! :D

AP Moment of the day ~ We're having a heat wave!

It was 54 degrees today!!! Whoo HOOO!! The sky was blue, the sun was shining... the snow was MELTING!!! The kids and Daddy went outside and had snowball fights, played on the sled and generally made merry in the remains of the white stuff! It was a glorious time for them all!

Meanwhile my internet connection has been shady at most lately and if you know me well you know how happy that makes me.... * please note sarcasm and eye rolling here * so I am posting this quick now and will hopefully post a better post later today....!

AP Moment of the day~ Get out, get out, GET OUT!!!!

Or, what to do when the weather finally gets above freezing! :D

It was above freezing, in fact it was in the 40's today, for the first time in a month I'm sure. We have been cooped up now for what feels like MONTHS and today was the first time we've been out in a while! It was like getting out of prison (I imagine!!! ... I don't have first hand experience of that!!) the sun was so bright! The air smelled so good!! The sky was so blue, the birds sang so sweetly!!! We spent the first few minutes blinking in the bright light and looking about us like transplanted Moles... hauled out of our dark and musty depths and thrust out into the open and the crisp, clean air!! We stared about us as we walked! We splashed in the puddles left by swiftly melting snow. We made up Haiku on the fly and I honestly FELT smarter as we strolled!!! We identified birds, we counted trees, wings on birds, legs on dogs, hands on sisters...! We read STOP signs and house numbers, we named colours .... in short we shook out the cobwebs of our minds and took one giant stride towards spring!! :D I LOVE Nebraska for it's spring~ in ~the~ middle~ of~ winter~ness!! You don't get that everywhere and it was JUST what we needed!! :D

Tomorrow's forecast..... SNOW!! :D ( not really! I have no idea what the forecast is! ;D )

Little kids say some funny things!

I LOVE the way Jack talks. Jessie used to say some cute things too. She would say "A way a guis a wah woos " for I want a drink of water!!! I don't think I'll ever forget that!

Jack says "Sassoo" for Lasso, he says "Nam~nam" for hammer and "Foo fipher" for screwdriver!! I LOVE it!!! I'm always telling him "Say Lasso!!! Say Hammer!! Say Screwdriver!!!" LOL!! He's so obliging!! He'll always say them for me!! And he giggles too.. he knows it sounds funny! But I don't correct him!!! I don't want him to say it "right" !! I want him to say it his way! I LOVE it!! :D

Other Jackisms as I think of them....

"Fee fee" TV
"Boonan" Brecon ( our dog!)
"Burbil" Gerbil!
"Wats" rats
"Schoop" soup
"Peee yo" pillow
"Gicky" sticky
"Heffy" heavy
"Big an stwoooong" Big and strong
" up an ears" up stairs
" down a nears" down stairs
"Wuh one" that one
"Up a down" upside down
"doin up" ( actually this sounds more like "door knob" ) means "Going up" or pick me up!
"Yey yeee" or these days "She' shee" Jessie


Also...!! "BOWN it!" for Found It!
"Gikken" for chicken
"mawl" for Small

I may add some more to this list... I hate that his speech is improving!!! It means I'm going to forget how he used to say things!!! It's sad when they grow up... exciting, but sad too.... "}

AP Moment of the day ~ Making chores FUN! :D

I'm an eeejit! ;D All these years I've been cleaning my floors the old fashioned way.... hands and knees, scrubbing away with my bottle of vinegar solution and paper towels... woe is me....!! ;D Actually the kitchen is about 2 foot square, so it's not all that much of a toughie, but still, the key part here is I have been doing it!!! Twerp! :D I finally let go and let the kids have a turn!!! I had them put on their swimsuits and socks, filled a tub with hot soapy water, gave them a couple of small towels and let them have at it!!!! Who knew cleaning the floor could be such a treat!!! They were giggling and laughing!! Sliding around the floor and swimming across it on their bellies..... Never again.. well... ok, not for some time will I clean the floor the old fashioned way again! ;D I imagine I might have a hard time getting them to do it this way when they are in their 20's, but hey, who knows!! ;D The floor looks sparkly clean, the kids got exercise, had fun, kept busy, worked as a team and giggled...!! Win Win Win! ;D

AP Moment of the day ~ Amazing...!

You may or may not have picked up the hint that I am quite keen on the latest book we are reading on our booklist, Parents Please Don't Sit On Your Kids, by Clare Cherry. I was reading more of it at the dinner table tonight ( a treat Jessie, Jack and I indulge in when Daddy isn't home for dinner! ) and came across an interesting little chapter. The author suggests using gerunds, which are nouns, created from verbs. These words always end in "ing" and are used as gentle reminders for children. !! I was intrigued and read on.... The words she uses are those such as "Waiting", "Not touching", "Walking" and so on. I really thought the woman was a kook. Jack was at the table and had basically given up on dinner. I looked at him and said "Jack, Eating!" ..... and wouldn't you know it, he picked up his fork and ate right away!! Hmmm... a fluke, thinks I, but I vowed to try again soon. Well, after dinner it was time to go up to bed. I needed Jack to help carry some things up the stairs but he had a whistle in his hand and refused to put it away until morning. I said "Jack, Putting away!" .. and he went and did it!!!!! Immediately!!!! I don't know what this magic is, but it WORKS!!! I said to him "Carrying!" and he picked the stuff off the stairs and hauled it up, no questions!!!! :D

Gerunds. Mother's little helpers!! ;D

AP Moment of the day~ Doing it their way! :D

I had a talk with hubby last night and it emerged that much of my stress is in my head alone. I always tend to get stressed by thinking hubby would be annoyed by the behaviour or actions of the children, so in order to prevent him being annoyed, I yell at the kids instead!! This yelling, it turns out, is more annoying to hubby than the behaviour of the children! AND he expects the children to be children, he is charmed by our daughters snarky attitude and wiseacre comments. He is amused by her free thinking~ness and also amused by Jack's "curiosity" and boy~ness!!! Hmmm. All this time I was running around like a headless chicken trying to stop them being themselves so that Daddy wouldn't be annoyed.... and a) that was more annoying and b) he wasn't bothered at all!! :D

SOOO today we tried things a bit differently! :D I tried to stay very laissez faire about everything. I told Jessie she didn't have to ask permission for so many things any more. She knows the way things are here and she knows the way I feel about things. She should feel free in her own house to get a drink, get snacks, leave the room (I'm kidding!) without asking permission. She asked if she could have some gum. I HATE gum. She knows this! :D We have some gum that is all natural and I don't mind that... it's supposed to be actually GOOD for her teeth and I was seen chewing some, so I knew she'd want some too.... OK, the new way...
"You don't have to ask me any more, Beans. If you want some, get some!!!"
She looks confused.
"If you want some gum, please just help yourself. Only ask me permission for things that are more serious...."

**blink blink**

" sooooo...... can I have TWO pieces!?!??!" she asks!!!!!!!!!!!! GAH!!! This is going to be harder than I thought, but for BOTH of us!! LOL!!

Later in the day I noticed Jack opening the cupboard under the sink and taking out the furniture spray polish. He was muttering to himself and I heard him say "Cweeeening"!!! Uh oh. This gets messy!!! I leaped up and asked him if he was going to help me clean!!! He proudly said YES!! so I offered him my feather duster!!! What kid could resist a feather duster!! ( Yes, it has purple feathers if you were wondering!!) so he happily dusted for some time... but the call of the spray polish proved to be too much, so I handed him the dust rag, showed him how to spray the can and took him to a VERY DIRTY wooden table!! 'D Have at it, kiddo!!! ;D Looks like I can go with Jack's flow pretty easily!! :D

At this point I do have to brag.

Ahem.

Today I had a migraine headache which was getting steadily worse and I was fresh out of Excedrin Migraine. ( the stuff rocks!! ) I held out as long as I could but even Jessie could see I was in a bad way. "You ought to go to bed" she offered!! Bless her!!

Jessie had spent the day studying China. She decided she wanted to be able to write Chinese, and so went off from there! : D She had chosen to have Sushi for dinner. I put the rice cooker on, laid out a packet of tuna and some Mache greens.....and I headed up to bed!!! Jessie and Jack made dinner themselves!!!! I came down as they were getting it ready and I offered to help but it was unnecessary! They had it covered! ;D Jack had a new "recipeeeeeeee" he wanted to try and so I put his stuff in bowls on the floor and let him have at it! He added salt, pepper and Dorothy Lynch dressing to his meal and apparently it was darn tasty!! They did such a great job today of letting me sleep and of taking care of things.... There was no yelling, everyone was well behaved and I made sure to talk to them kindly and respectfully rather than bossing them about like minions!! It worked well !!!

(This has mostly arisen from the latest chapter in "Parents Please Don't Sit On Your Kids" where the author points out that we speak terribly to children but we speak kindly to strangers!)

We'll see how tomorrow goes!! :D

AP Moment of the weekend!

Or rather, Jack is a nightmare in hotels...especially this one!! :D

We had a lovely and fun weekend with our friends despite the 10 hours of driving it involved! :D
We stayed ( in the -13 degree temps I might add) at a hotel with a pool, hot tub and sauna! It was raaahter chilly though and the windows got icy on the inside! The kids all thought it was a hoot to put their handprints in the ice... nuts!!

Anyway, I really had to put my parenting hat on a lot of the time this weekend. Jack is renowned for running off in this hotel. He can get out the room in a flash. Literally we were all standing in the room and he **POOF** was gone. He'd gone so fast that when we, seconds later, looked out of the door neither hubby or I could tell which way he had run to, so we both had to fly off in opposite directions and catch him. He laughs and giggles the whole time he is running.. he really enjoys the chase and having spent 5 hours sitting in the car and being a really good boy, I'm not surprised he needed to get his energy out a little. We let him run. We'd call him back and run away from him so he would chase US, then he'd turn and run away and we'd chase HIM... we all got lots of exercise!! :D

Another event occurred which tested my parenting skills and I came up with the goods!!! Jack was bound and determined to putz with the heater in the room. He wanted to mess with the controls and turn up and down the heat etc.... with it being as cold out as it was I wasn't going to allow ANY messing about with our one heat source!! Realising that to tell a child "Don't" do something is basically telling them "Think about nothing else until you can't help but do the thing you were just told to not do..." I instead told him... "TOUCH THE CHAIR!!" ....so there he sat!! Looking intently at the heater... and reaching out to touch the chair!!!! I was so proud!!! :D

Baby steps, people. Baby steps.!!!

AP Parenting goes on the road!

Today the kids and I decided that since we have pet rats, we might as well use their smarts to teach them some neat and fun tricks! Since we DON'T have as many smarts as they do, this was met with limited success but I did manage to make a "click" trainer for them, using the top from a jar of apple sauce!! Later in the afternoon I made the mistake of taking the kids out to the store. You'd think I'd have learned from the library van debacle, but to be honest the weather was sooo horrendous this morning I would have been criminal to take them out then. So and therefore we could be found once more chasing Jack up and down the aisles of Petco and wrangling him and wrestling his solid little body at the checkout trying to prevent him from a) leaving the store or b) ripping open any packages he may find. I do believe he is getting worse and I am at a total and utter loss as to how to deal with him. My stress is going down thanks to the hormones, but honestly I'm still stuck. HOW do I deal with this!?!?! It's impossible and incredibly humiliating. So, whilst standing at the checkout I noticed a click trainer! It was MUCH louder than my jar lid and only a buck. I picked it up and added it to my pile thinking I'd use it on JACK. We went on to Target ( I know, I know, I wouldn't have gone anywhere but Home if I had an option. I adore Target but knew that Jack was going to be a nightmare. ) We walked in and the first thing I did was buy a bag of popcorn. I told Jack that as long as he was good he could have a piece. I told him he had to walk with Mama and each time I said "Walk with Mama" and he did, I clicked the clicker and gave him a piece of Popcorn!!! LOL!!!! He was walking along with one hand on the cart and his mouth open...!!! LOL!!! I felt like an idiot and also like some vile parent who treats her child like a dog!!! The clicker was SOOO loud!! It seemed to work for a while until he lost it, I grew hot and tired and we basically just battled our way around and out the store.


GAH.


Onto Happier News!! We are going to Minnesota in the morning!! What do you mean "Where's the Happier News!!!???" LOL!! Yeah. We're taking the coldest weekend of the season thus far... and we're going somewhere colder yet. For one night. To Swim. !!! If it wasn't that I was going to see one of my dearest friends and someone who can give me some ideas on Jackster and his weirdo behaviour, believe me, I'd be staying home in front of the fire. But no, we're off on a wee road trip! :D

Wish us luck. And please keep me in your thoughts as this particular hotel is laid out in a square and there's nothing Jack loves more than running around and around it hell for leather with one or two adults tearing, panting behind him. * sigh *