Who Knew...

That a bag full of cans fresh from the grocery store could hold so much entertainment and new discoveries?

Today we bought 40 cans between chicken broth, cream of chicken and fruit because of a great sale. I was tired when we got home,(I've been sick with a cold for days, but had to shop while the 3 big kids were in school.) and hadn't put them away yet.

Rebecca started helping me put the fridge things away when she discovered the cans.
At first she was just pulling them out of the bags. Then I started stacking them and she started bringing them to me faster. She was even adding to the top of the tower. She got scared when they fell over, but quickly starting building them again.



After another fall she started to stack them, but saw me sitting on the rug, so she decided to bring them over to me. I am amazed what she can pick up with just one hand. She was stretching out her fingers so wide so she could pick up the cans. We think she is double jointed because of the way she can move her fingers, especially her thumbs.



She tried to get 2 at a time. She tried a couple of times getting one with one hand, then reaching down to get another. Each time the 1st one fell on the floor.



Once she had them on the rug, I moved to the other side of the kitchen to watch her. She started putting them in front of her, when she accidentally knocked one over and it rolled across the kitchen. She just sat there are staring at it. Then she pushed 2 more over and watched what they did-and they rolled too. Then she was pushing all the cans as quickly as she could to make them roll.


Who knew that making cans roll on the kitchen floor could be so entertaining.



She started picking them up and dropping them to see if they would roll. I showed her to set them down and push them. Soon we had cans rolling all over the kitchen, and an VERY excited Rebecca.



Watching her learn all these new things today was amazing. I can honestly say I saw the wheels in her head turning as she discovered stacking, trying to pick up 2 cans at a time, and then that they roll. I love this little girl and all the one-on-one time I get with her. I feel like I'm doing things for the first time with her, because I have the time to just sit back and watch her more. With the other kids I was so busy taking care of multiple kids at a time that the sit back and watch time was not as often.
I know this is the last time I'll have to watch a little one grow and learn, so I think I am also savoring it more because of that.

Ammon's Artwork

Ammon has been having such a great time in art class at school. The teacher Mr. Jones started there last year and he is awesome. All the kids just love going to art.
Today Ammon came out of class carrying a 3-D bug jar he had made. He was so excited about it.
I love the bright colors of the bugs. They look so friendly and happy.






A few months back Ammon brought this oil pastel masterpiece home. He made an animal collaged on it. He was so excited about using oil pastels. When he discovered that we had some oil pastels at home, he was in heaven and was making more art projects to share.



He has also been very into drawing pictures and adding words to his drawings. This one he made/drew for his cousin Tanner in Idaho. He is very into vikings and dragons right now, and they seem to find their way into most of his drawings right now.

He regularly sends things to his Nani & Papa in California, and his preschool friend Christopher that moved to Washington over the summer. He is making guest appearances to cousins in Wisconsin and Idaho. We are trying to work on letters on Sunday mornings, so hopefully he'll have more to send. He loves to draw and write and sending them to others makes them even more special, and getting a letter back in the mail makes his day!

I am loving watching Ammon discover how to spell new words and watching how his drawings are changing and getting more detailed. He is learning so much at school and just soaking it all in.

What happened to the pumpkins?

I walked outside today and saw all of our pumpkins laying in the flowerbed. My 1st thought was "Who would come by and knock all of our pumpkins down?" This wasn't something I would expect to have happen in our neighborhood.


Then I got to thinking-Ammon swept the porch yesterday, maybe he knew something. I asked him if he knew why the pumpkins were in the flowerbed. He told me simply "I put them there so the squirrels could get the pumpkin seeds out easier."
What a sweet boy he is.
A few days ago I had told him about when Rebecca and I had been watching a squirrel out front. It would disappear behind Simeon's pumpkin and then come up eating a seed. It was reaching through the pumpkins mouth and pulling the seeds out. Ammon remembered this when he was sweeping the porch and decided to help them get their snacks easier.

Focused

This afternoon I walked by my room and say Ammon playing a Thomas game on the Leapster. He was so focused on it that he didn't even notice me taking his picture. I love how he can get so into things.






He's in his new Toy Story pj's that he picked out at the store today. He came home tried them on and didn't want to take them off. They must be comfortable!

It's been a tooth losing day around here

This afternoon Simeon was playing football with dad and our neighbor Joe, when I heard "It's a good thing you caught it", but it wasn't regarding football. Simeon had thrown the ball to Joe and it hit him in the mouth. It was a soft ball, but with Joe's tooth being so lose, it knocked it out. Tooth count for Joe: 8



Then while eating dinner Simeon started to hold his mouth and said "My tooth fell out! A chip got stuck between it and the next tooth and it pushed it out." He hadn't been saying much about this tooth being lose, so it was a surprise to us. He currently has an adult tooth coming in behind a tooth on the other side, but this tooth hadn't had much attention.

Tooth count for Simeon: 5

Warm Fuzzies

When I was a child I remember our home teachers coming over and talking to us about "warm fuzzies" and "cold pricklies". The warm fuzzies were pom poms about the size of a ping pong ball that had googly eyes and big feet. They were the funnest things with their big feet and the softness of the pom pom. The cold pricklies were warm fuzzies that they had gotten wet and frozen. They had spikes of fuzz sticking off of them and they were cold to hold.
The lesson was about how we should give others warm fuzzies and not cold pricklies.
I still remember those warm fuzzies more then 20 years later.

A few months back we tried to earn warm fuzzies as a family to earn a trip to the water park. I bought the shiniest, brightest pom poms I could get my hands on! We'd stick a warm fuzzie in this big jar when we did something nice for another. Well the jar was too big and we lost motivation for it after a few weeks. The good behavior continued and the trip was still earned, but the warm fuzzy idea went on the shelf.

Recently we've had some undesirable behavior from one particular child that needed to change. We instantly thought about the warm fuzzies. Warm fuzzies bring thoughts of happiness, cuddles and positive things. Warm fuzzies could be the reward for changing the undesirable behavior to desirable behavior.



And it worked! Everytime this particular child did a positive thing, did their chores the 1st time, stayed calm when upset, used kind words and was nice to others they earned a warm fuzzie. The jar (which was smaller this time) was filling up fast and the undesirable behaviors were fading.

Then all the kids wanted to earn them because they were fun and exciting. So now all 3 big kids have their own jars to collect warm fuzzies in. Not only are they fun to earn, but the are so pretty to look at in their jars. It's like a rainbow of smiles in a jar!

Rebecca loves them too and if she sees someone earn one, she needs some too. She always needs at least 2 warm fuzzies-one for each hand. She will walk around with them in her hands for a long time. She smells them, plays with them, and exchanges them between her hands. If we need to change her clothes or diaper she has to hold them the entire time, switching hands as needed. If she has them at bath time they have to sit on the toilet seat where she can see them, and as soon as she gets out of the bath, she needs them back. She has even tried to take them into her crib with her.



The big kids get to trade their warm fuzzies in for prizes. Some of the prizes include notebooks, little toys, a package of sours, extra Wii time, playing a game with just a parents, or an extra book before bed. We've had to experiment with the exchanging of warm fuzzies. Some kids were good at saving them up for bigger items, while others wanted to spend them as soon as they could. We have a "store" that is now open Friday afternoon after they have gotten their weekend chores done.
Also this week we have started collecting the shoes, toys and other things that they leave laying around and they have to buy those back from us. Shoes can be bought back any day, not just on Friday.

Each child has different ways they can earn them, and then there are ways they all can. A few of the ways they can earn them are: I do 'surprise' checks on bedroom floors, backpacks, and toothbrushes in the bathroom.
Corrine can earn them by keeping her thumb out of her mouth, and by beating the clock when she does the dishwasher. Simeon can earn them for remembering to take a step back from Rebecca and for being positive, and Ammon can earn them for listening the 1st time and doing things quicker. Some of the things they all earn for are: pushing their chairs in at the table, and clearing their dishes without reminders, listening quietly during scripture study, and keeping their weekly rooms clean.

It's fun to see the joy on their faces as their jars fill higher with bright shiny warm fuzzies, and when they exchange them for their prize. The best part though it that the harmony and peace in our house has increased. We have to give less reminders, they will sometimes do things before we even ask, and they look for ways to do extra things to earn more warm fuzzies.



I'm so grateful for the lesson about warm fuzzies I learned when I was my kids age, and how that lesson is helping our family today.

Safety Zone

We've always had a "safe" spot for the kids to stand while I open the oven. We trained them to go there when we said "safety zone". Rebecca is currently learning where her "safety zone" is. We tried having her stand by the white cupboard, but there wasn't anything marked out for her to stand on, so we switched to the rug by the garage door. It's a little harder since she's more behind me, then to the side so I can't see her as well. But having the rug to stand on really helps her define her spot.
Right now we are working on saying "safety zone" and having her go there on her own. It's a work in progress.
Today she was standing on her rug holding her hands watching me and just looked cute. When I got the camera out, I got such an adorable expression out of her. She looks so full of happiness tipping her head back, wide smile across her face.


Then as she walked towards me I snapped one more picture. Here my little Rebecca is frozen in time-a memory I want to forever remember. I know I'll turn around one day and my toddler will be in school and I'll miss these times with her.