Cinderella

Cinderella is in a stage lately, where she is ornery all the time, and tells me that I'm the one that is ornery or frustrated. Then she tells me "You aren't very nice to me." And if I start to count (something I have been doing for a long time. I ask her to do something, and if she doesn't respond I start to count. If I reach 5 and she still hasn't responded, I either help her do the desired objective, or she has to go to her room, until she is willing to obey. It depends on what the objective is and if going to the room is an option.) she totally freaks out and says "DON"T SAY THAT WORD".

She is also getting to be a big helper. She wants to be entertained by Mama all the time, so I've started telling her things like, "I have to sort the laundry right now, you can help me or you can go an find something else to do." A lot of the time she will choose to help me. She helps me pick up toys (this one I don't give her an option about), unload the dishwasher, sort laundry, fold laundry, put away laundry, and sort socks. She also helps set the table, gets me things that I need for Guy, if I am unable to get them at the moment.

She is progressing on her potty training. She isn't there yet, and part of that is my fault. I don't stick with it enough. But I can see that she is making progress. I just need to stick with it, and be more assertive in getting her to use the potty.

Guy

So Guy turned a year old on the 20th, and I took him in for his 1 year check-up today. He is really a small kid. He is 29" tall (25 percentile). He weighs 18lbs 9oz (below the 5th percentile) however the doctor told me, this is in comparison with all of the kids in America, and a lot of them being over weight, it's not bad to be small. I think he was just trying to get me to not worry. But I'm not worried. So my kids are small, it's in the genes. The real disappointment over his weight is that it means that he still needs to be rear facing in the car. On our scale at home he weighed over 20 lbs, so we turned him around after his birthday. He was really not liking being rear facing, and really enjoyed facing forward. So I am dreading having to change that again.

Guy loves food. He loves to eat. He can say 3 words that I can identify. Mama, Dada, and num-num (for food). He eats a lot. When he is in his high chair, I sometimes think he eats as much as I do. I'm sure it really isn't that much, but it seems like it. He discovered a new food at Easter. Hershey's Kisses. He loves them. He will find a wrapper from one on the floor, that I somehow missed picking up, and he will bring it to me saying "num, num, num" and then get really disappointed when there isn't chocolate in it.

Guy loves to walk, but even more than that he loves to run. He almost constantly has a bump or gash on his head from falling against something.
He loves books. He will go and pull books out of the bookcase and flip through them. Sometimes he will pick one up and carry it to me. If I am sitting on the floor, he will turn around and back up till he falls on my lap. Then he will point to things in the book and speak gibberish. He likes to open it to what ever page, look at it, then close the book and open it again. He might even open it to the same page as before, but he is fine with that. He just loves to look at them. His favorite books are the touchy feely kind. Since he was little, I would hold him in my lap, open the book and take his finger and rub it over the textured parts of the page. One day I was sitting with him looking at a touchy feely book, and he grabbed my finger and started rubbing it over the textured parts.

Guy points. He loves to point, and point and point. Pointing is one of his main forms of communication.

Books

So I have a dilemma and I need some advice. But first a few facts:

1. So Cinderella is a 3 year old. She turned 3 in December, so she is a young 3.
2. Cinderella loves books. I think that is a good thing. I love books. Cinderella can sit and look at books for hours by herself. She will let me read books to her for hours.
   
3. Cinderella doesn't take naps anymore. She will maybe take one every 2 weeks or so.
   
4. I need quiet time. It is my only down time in the entire day from when the kids get up (somewhere between 6:00 and 7:00) until they go to bed (between 7:00 and 8:00). I only enforce it for 1 hour, but I need that hour.
5. Guy takes a nap during quiet time, so I really need Cinderella to be quiet.
6. For quiet time what I have been doing is I put Guy down for a nap in the play yard in the play room, and have Cinderella go in her room with some books and puzzles (which are toys that I think she should be able to play quietly with). She has the option to not have the books and puzzles, and to have her pacifier and take a nap instead. She has been opting for the books and puzzles most of the time lately. I tell her she needs to stay in her room unless she needs to use the potty, or has a messy diaper, until the timer that is on the stove beeps. I set the timer for 1 hour, and when it beeps she can come out.
7. A few weeks ago I went into the kids room after quiet time and found that Cinderella had torn one of the pages out of her book. So then I enforced board books only for quiet time. She could look at page books with Mom, but not by herself in her room.

So my dilemma. Today after quiet time I found this in her room.
If you can't tell from the picture, she started tearing the pages apart in the board books too.
I really don't know what to do for her for quiet time. I don't feel like at the moment I can give her books of any kind. She will just ruin them. But she only has 3 puzzles, and that won't keep her entertained and quiet for an hour.
So my question is... What suggestions do you have, or what do you do for your children, to keep them quiet for quiet time?
And what would you enforce about the books? I don't want to not let her look at books. I think a love of reading is something that is started young. But I don't want to just have her destroy books either. I want her to treat books the right way. Would you put all the books away for a time? Rule out books during quiet time? Or do something different?

Bird Watching

So the other day Cinderella and I noticed a bird outside out window. Now this isn't rare, there are many birds in our area. But one thing I learned from our year in Virginia, is that you need to document the way things are in the areas where you live, because sometimes you never know when you will be leaving.
So I pulled out our new camcorder and we did some birdwatching.
One thing I learned about myself is that sometimes I am quite unobservant. Take a look at this video and see if you can figure out what I am talking about.



So it wasn't until I watched the video that I saw the bird in the planter. Did you notice that Cinderella saw it the whole time, and I was just clueless. It makes me wonder how many other things in my life I am so clueless about.

Snack Time

OK so something that seems to be a recurring problem for me is trying to think of healthy snack ideas that don't take much work. And that don't present a choking hazard for a 1 year old.

I seem to remember having this same problem when Cinderella was about a year old too. The problem is I don't remember what solutions I came up with. So I want to ask you.

If you were making snacks for a 3 and 1 year old, and you wanted it to be healthy and balanced what would you serve?
Or what do you give your kids as snacks?

Potty training progress

We are making progress potty training. This morning Cinderella came in and said, "I can wear these." And she held up 6 pairs of her big girl panties. Then she said, "Just one though, not all of them."

At the time we were getting ready to head out the door, and my husband started to tell her that she could wear them when we got home if she wanted. Then she took one and did this.....

We were able to get her to wear them the right way later in the day, and she made it through 3 pairs, and not once in the potty, but hey it's progress.

Tag I'm it.

My friend Kirsten just tagged me. This one is a little different than the last one, so here goes.

10 years ago I was: A junior in high school

Things on my to-do list for today:

• go to the library
• make a shopping list
• finish the laundry
• clean the bathroom (we'll have to see if this one really happens or not)
  

4 things I would do if I became a billionaire:

1. Pay tithing
2. Get out of debt
3. Save some to pay for me to finish my education
4. Buy a house

3 bad habits:

1. Let my house sit in messy abandon while I check my e-mail and write blogs.
2. Don't do my hair and makeup most days
3. Don't reach out to others very much.
   

5 jobs that I have had:

1. Mom (and every thing that is included in that).
2. Microfilm reproductionist (this wasn't the official title, but it is basically what I did.)
   
3. Custodian
4. I was the aid for the language department in college
5. Custodian. (I know I already mentioned that, but in actuality I have had at least 4 separate custodian jobs.)
   

6 things most people don't know about me:

1. I spent all of my life living in Utah (I had only left 3 times for vacations even) before I went to college. Since I got married I've only lived in Utah for two months, in separate one month blocks.
2. I'm a perfectionist. To the point that I don't even try things a lot of the time, because I know I won't be happy with the way it will turn out.
3. I used to have a TERRIBLE temper. I would yell all the time, really loud. I still get upset at times, and sometimes yell, but not as badly as I used to.
4. I love to read. Particularly Historical, and religious fiction or any combination of those three.
5. I love to cook, if I don't have to. I have a hard time mustering up enough enthusiasm some times when cooking is a necessity however.
6. I sell USBORNE Books, kind of. I signed up to sell them, because now I can get their books for wholesale prices, and I think their books are some of the most awesome books I have seen. The best part is, I don't have to sell them, I don't have to turn in any required amount of sales to keep my account active. If I want to sell I can, and maybe I will put some effort into it when my kids are older, but right now I get a good deal on the books. So I don't really sell them, but I am a consultant.
   

3 people to tag next: I don't really want to tag anyone so if you read this and want to be tagged, consider yourself tagged.