"Cinderelly, Cinderelly, Night and Day it's Cinderelly"

If you didn't get it, that is a quote from a song that mice sing in Disney's Cinderella. The only difference is in the movie, it is Cinderella who is kept busy. In real life, it is Cinderella who keeps me busy.
Cinderella is the queen in our household. At least she thinks she is. What she says, usually goes. The only catch is now there is a king too. She's not sure she wants to share the power.
Cinderella is very smart. She may be average for an almost 3 year old, but to me, it always amazes me what she comes out with and what she can do. She can count past 10. She knows her colors, even though she sometimes gets tripped up over black, brown, and purple. She knows her shapes. At least the basic ones. Square, triangle, star, heart, rectangle, circle, arrow. She even knows that a square is a rectangle too.
Cinderella, loves to sing. She can sing pretty much any Disney song that is on the "Classic Disney" CD's. She loves to sing Old McDonald or as she calls it "Mickey and Donald". Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Row Row Row your boat, ABC's, Follow the Prophet, Book of Mormon Stories, I am a Child of God, Families Can Be Together Forever, and other countless primary songs are all part of her regular song choices.
Cinderella loves to dress herself. She picks her own clothes. They don't always match, but that is OK. She is become quite independent. Now if only we could get her to use the potty.

The Wonderful World of Sharing. or Guy Smiley vs. Cinderella

So now that I am done with my Alphabet Soup, I can move on to other things. So lately Guy has become a menace. At least in the eyes of Cinderella.

Cinderella loves her Little People toys. We decided that this year, we would invest in a Little People Nativity, to have out with our Christmas stuff. Part of this nativity is a stable that has a spot for an Angel to sit on top. Then you push down on the Angel and it plays "Away in a Manger". Guy loves to hear it play.
So picture this if you will. Cinderella is sitting on the floor. She has her "special" People (what we call the nativity Little People), all organized the way she wants it and is playing. Guy sees her playing and wants to play too. So here he comes crawling over, right through the Wise Men, and animals, knocking them all over, continues crawling, picks up a donkey, and sits down, right in Cinderella's lap. Then he turns to the stable. He pulls himself up on it, pushes down on the Angel, turning the stable over in the process. So do you think Cinderella is as happy as can be that her brother wants to play with her? No! She yells, "Guy, my people!" Or "Guy, play with something else!" or "I don't like you, Guy!" Does she like him, yes, just not what he is doing at the moment.


Guy loves his sister. He wants to do whatever she is doing. The problem: She doesn't always want him to play with her. So she has developed those lovely sibling qualities. Yelling, hitting, kicking, pushing, etc. You get the picture. So my question is: how do I deal with it?

So I want some feedback. How do you deal with sibling love? Or lack thereof? Lately I've been taking away a toy that is being fought over. Well, that is, after time out didn't work.

It isn't fair to expect Cinderella to always have to play with Guy, when she wants to play by herself. But it also shouldn't be expected that Guy never play with Cinderella, just because she doesn't want him wrecking her setup. Anyway I'll accept any suggestions. Let me know.

V is for Very Blessed, and Very Thankful

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!
I am so blessed. I have a wonderful family. A loving husband, who does much for me. A happy cheerful daughter who makes me happy, and cheers me up. A eager and energetic son, who reminds me to appreciate all I can do, and strive continually to better my self.
I have a body that works, without any major defect or handicap. I have a home to live in. My husband has a good job. We have food to eat, and clothes to wear. We are surrounded by a beautiful environment.
There is so much in this world that is wonderful. I hope you all think about it, and have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Y is for "You're It"

Or at least that is what I was told, so I guess more accurately I'm it.
My friend Shannon, tagged me, and I guess this is some sort of blog tag.
And because I took so long getting this post out, I've been tagged again, and so I'm combining Heidi's tag into this post as well. But her rules are a little different. So I have changed them them to the more complex.

This is a different tag, so here are the rules:
A. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning.
B. Each player lists 7 little-known facts/habits about themselves.
C. At the end of the post, the player then tags 7 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog. (Here's the catch. I don't know that many people's blogs so it will only be 3, until I can get my hubby to start a blog, and then he will be tagged from the get go. And I may come up with some others to tag as time goes on. We'll see.)

So here goes.

1. I play the violin. Well not really, but I could. OK so I took lessons starting when I was 4, and continued until I was about 11. The method I was learning is called the Suzuki method. You learn to play by ear, and then I guess they eventually teach you how to read music, but I never got that far. When I was about 11 my family moved, and finances were a bit tighter, and where I wasn't practicing, my mom stopped my lessons. I tried to to orchestra in school, but I didn't really know how to read music, all I could do is play by ear. So after 7th grade, I stopped that as well. I still know the rudementery skills. And could probably manage something simple if asked, but that is as far as it goes.
2. I like to write stories. Starting in about 4th grade I took up the hobby of writing short stories. Something that I haven't really done much of since I graduated from Snow College.
3. I would like to write a novel some time. This is something that may have to sit on the burner until all my kids are at least in school, possibly even longer, and may never happen.
4. From about 7th grade until I graduated from High School, what I really wanted to be when I grew up was a High School English teacher. In fact I kept every assignment I ever had to do in an English class during that time. I think I may even still have them.
   
5. I hate shopping. Particularly for myself. But if I have to shop I would rather do it online, and not have to drive to the store, deal with the crowds, and shuffle through racks to try to find the right thing in the right size.
   
6. I am great at starting projects, but terrible at finishing them. Right now I tend to blame that on the fact that I have 2 small children, but really, I was never really good at finishing projects. For example, I still have a latch hook rug, I was given when I was probably 13 or so. I have finally finished with the yarn, now I just need to trim it and back it. We'll see if that ever happens.
7. I once dyed my hair brown to be rebellious. The catch. My hair is brown, naturally, I just dyed it a darker shade. Pretty rebellious huh?
   

I am going to tag
both Adam and Brandi (I know you have the same blog, but I want to see a post for each of you.)
Kirsten
And as soon as my hubby starts a blog he'll be tagged from the get go.

R is for Red Hot

The Victim: Guy Smiley

The Offender: The Fireplace

So this morning as we were getting ready to go to church, I was in the kitchen packing the diaper bag, and my husband says to me, "Do you know what they are doing over there?" So I turn to go and see what the kids are up to, and I suddenly hear Guy wailing. I turn the corner round the couch and somehow I just knew, he had touched the fireplace. I ran to him, grabbed him, ran to the sink, and ran cold water on his hands. Thankfully they didn't even blister, and he is fine using them. But that fireplace was HOT! REALLY HOT!
So my question is, how do I keep it from happening again? The fireplace is right there, on floor level. I have to use it. Other than using the oven, it is the only way I have to heat the main living area of my apartment.
I have a similar problem in our bedrooms. We have box baseboard heaters. You know those rectangular metal boxes that stick out from the wall and get really hot when you use them, but you can't put anything closer than 3' from them?
This is our first winter in our apartment. We moved here in March and so I haven't crossed this bridge before, so let me know if you have any suggestions.

Q is for Quiet

Yes sometimes I do get some quiet, even with two young children. It doesn't happen a lot, but I enjoy the noise. However, what I really mean by quiet, is that is what I am. At least when you don't really know me.
Something I have recently discovered is that I am (as I heard someone put it, only I think I reversed their saying), an extrovert trapped in an introverts body.
What does that mean you say? Well I love learning about people. I love hearing about people. Some of my favorite books that I have read are autobiographies. I like to read self help books, not because I think I need the help, but because I enjoy reading the true to life experiences the authors often include in the books. So what is the catch?
So what's the catch you ask? I have an incredibly hard time talking to people I don't know. I quite often will just sit there and either wait for someone to talk to me, or just listen to what others say and not add to the conversation.
It's not that I don't want to talk to people, I really do. I just don't know what to say, and so I don't say anything. I think I have this fear that if people get to know me they won't like me. Silly huh? How can someone really like me if I don't give them a chance to get to know me?
Have you ever known one of those people who seem so interested in you, they ask the right questions, and make even the things in your life, that you find boring and commonplace, seem interesting? I have a brother that is that way. He is so much fun to be around, and I really enjoy his company, and never worry about what he thinks about me. That is the kind of person I would like to be. I just need to get out of my introverted self and maybe figure out how to ask those kind of questions, and what questions to ask.

G is for Guy Smiley

So I had my sister-in-law visit us for a week, and she decided Guy Smiley was a good name for my baby. So between that, and reading a few other blogs of people I know, I decided I want to include pictures of my children in my blog, but I am going to use pseudonyms for them, for security reasons.
Anyway so I will from here out refer to my son as Guy Smiley, possibly shortened to Guy or Smiley, and we will call my daughter Cinderella, because she wants to be her when she grows up, and talks about her dreams coming true.

Guy is one of the smiley-est kids I have ever had acquaintance with. He is perpetually happy. Unless he has a need; he is hungry, needs a diaper change, wants in his pj's (yes my 7 1/2 month old cries to get in his pajamas, and has pretty much his whole life), wants out of his swing, play yard, crib, or highchair, or gets hurt he is just plain smiley.
Guy is anxious to grow up, and be on the go. He was scooting at 3 1/2 months. Crawling on the day he turned 6 months old, standing up fairly well (mostly assisted, but unassisted for 5-10 sec.) all ready and he is only 7 1/2 months old. I figure he will be walking by the time he is 9 months old. He loves to play with his sister, and get into things he shouldn't, like the cords under the computer desk. But he is so much fun. I am glad to have him in my family.