I posted a while ago about Ian’s bedtime stall tactics.

He has been doing better at going to sleep without a fuss lately. We do the same thing every night. I turn out the lights and tuck him in. Then turn on his music. As I go to leave, he asks me for a drink. I get him a small sip of water and then kiss him and tell him it is time to go to sleep.

He always says “WAIT……I just have to tell you one more thing.!”

Then he waits for a minute while he tries to think up something to say. It is the same every night, he doesn’t really have anything else to say. He is just stalling.

The last few nights as I go to close the door he yells out “You are the best mommy in the whole world……and you are a knock out!”

I’m not really sure where he learned the word knock out, but I think it is sooo cute!

The other morning Ian came in early and climbed into bed with me. I had been having a bad dream that we had lost him in a crowded place. I was so happy to see his sweet little face when I woke up. I scooped him up and cuddled him in bed. I told him that I had a bad dream about him. He looked at me and said “So, you had a nightmare? Remember that nightmare that I had?” Then he proceeded to tell me the story of when he got eaten by a giant spider.

“First, it took a bite of my legs all the way up to my knees.”

“Then it took a bite of me all the way up to my stomach.”

“If the giant spider at me up to my stomach, I would have to be in a wheelchair, sitting on my stomach. Wouldn’t that be funny mom?”

It was such a cute little moment. I just had to write it down so someday when he is all grown up I can remember all his cute little stories.

And then there were two……bike riders, that is!

Emma decided that today was the day she was going to learn to ride her bike. That was pretty much all it took. She just had to decide she was ready, and I knew that she would be able to do it.

I showed her how to get one pedal at the top of the crank. Then to put her foot on the upper pedal and push off while she got her other foot on the pedal. She started working on that. She did it over and over until she started getting a pedal stroke or two. She worked really hard on it. Her shins were getting a bit beat up from the pedals. The bike she is riding is too small for her, and not meant to be ridden without training wheels. It doesn’t have brakes, and the pedals turn when the wheels are turning. When she gets going the pedals keep turning an hit her in the shins. She stopped and took a break and rode her scooter for a bit.

A few minutes later I looked out the window and she was riding her bike again. Before long she was putting four and five pedal strokes together. She was so proud of herself. All she had to do was get a little taste of it, and then she worked really hard, over and over until she got it.

By the end of the day she was flying up and down the driveway. She was beaming because she was so proud of herself. I was proud of her for working so hard and accomplishing the goal she set for herself. Way to go Emma!

These last few days I have really noticed that Nora is growing up. She isn’t a baby anymore and is quickly turning from toddler to little girl. I keep telling Scott we need to get out the video camera to record her cute little voice. She has the cutest voice and the cutest way of expressing herself. I know that if we don’t catch it soon she will speaking less like a toddler and more like a little girl. I have already noticed that so many of her cute little pronunciations are gone.

Nora has a special bond with my dad. From the time she could speak she called him “Bampa”. She just adores him, and he adores her. He loves to tease her. She in turn has picked up on the habit, and now she loves to tease him back. But her little pet name for him has disappeared. Now she has moved on and usually calls him Grandpa. Once in a while a cute little “Bampa” still slips out, but for the most part he is now Grandpa.

Another cute word she says is “Sanks” when she is trying to say thanks. From the time she could first talk she was always very polite. She always said please and thank you. It wasn’t something we tried to teach her. She just did it on her own. But she has the cutest way of saying “sanks”. She is just so animated. But already, I am noticing more and more that “sanks” is being replaced with thanks.

It all just reminds me how fast the time goes and how special this time with my children is. I can’t believe that Emma is already seven and that my baby is 2 1/2. I don’t know where the time has gone. But for now, I know that I am enjoying this time with my kids and I am savoring every little Nora-ism while I can!

I posted back in November about Nora and her interest in using the potty. I tried having Nora wear dresses with no underwear for a few days to see how she would do. The first couple of days were good, but as soon as I tried to put underwear on her she couldn’t stay dry more than a few minutes. After a few days I decided to give it a rest and try again in a few weeks.

A few weeks turned into a few months She started wearing Pull-Ups and used the potty every once in a while. When she started preschool in February she started using the potty consistently again. She would stay dry all morning at school and then wet her pants as soon as she got home. Her teachers suggested that she start just wearing underwear to school. I decided to just take it one step further and put her in underwear all the time. I think that switching back and forth between Pull-Ups and underwear is just too confusing.

She has been in underwear full time now for about 2 weeks and it has been going really well. She has been doing great at pooping on the potty. At first she had a few accidents. I decided to resort to bribery She LOVES chocolate. I told her that she could have a chocolate every time she pooped on the potty. It has worked like a charm! She still had daily pee accidents, but I can live with those. Heck, I lived with those for almost 2 years with Ian. In fact, he still has “accidents” on a fairly regular basis.

I am really looking forward to being done with diapers. That is one part of parenting young kids that I will not miss!

biking from Kerry's Ramblings on Vimeo.

While we were gone on our world travels Ian learned how to ride his bike!

Grandma Dava sent me email updates while we were gone. Once she told me that Ian was practicing riding his bike in the garage. She said that he was getting the hang of gliding on his own little bits at a time.

When we got back he couldn’t wait to show us what he could do.

I was SHOCKED! He wasn’t just practicing. He actually knows how to ride his bike. He was pedaling around in the garage. He is figuring out how to turn, and how to use the brakes. Once he gets outside where there is more space, there will be no stopping him.

He was so cute and so proud of himself. You can see it on the video. He looked at the camera and said “Wasn’t that good?” It was really adorable!

I have been working really hard with the kids to get them to do more things themselves. I expect Emma and Ian to be able to go downstairs in the morning and pick out their clothes and then get dressed. I have them take their dirty dishes to the sink and clear the table after they eat. They usually feed the cat. One of the things I have been really laid back about is the tooth brushing. I ask them to do it in the mornings. The problem is that mornings are so crazy and we are usually rushing and just trying to get out the door on time.

Yesterday we made a visit to the dentist. Emma and Ian had four cavities each! I guess now we are all paying for not paying more attention to the tooth brushing. Luckily for Emma, her cavities are fairly small. She won’t even need Novocaine to fill them. Ian was not so lucky. His are all deeper and will need numbing to fix them. He has two on each side, so the dentist suggested doing it on two different visits so they don’t have to numb his entire mouth. They gave me some prescriptions so that he will be somewhat sedated before we go in for the procedure. I am sure that it won’t be much fun for him.

Since the visit we all have a new dedication to tooth brushing. Hopefully this will be a wake up call for the kids (and me ) to give us the kick in the pants that we needed. Tooth brushing, both morning and night, is now mandatory for all of us!

A few weeks ago I posted about a parenting seminar that I attended at Soaring Wings.

Last week (or maybe it was the week before ) I attended the second class in the series. This one was titled “‘Honey, I Sold the Kids’ and other discipline strategies.

We started out talking about what exactly discipline means. From Wikipedia:

In its most general sense, discipline refers to systematic instruction given to a disciple. This sense also preserves the origin of the word, which is Latin disciplina “instruction”, from the root discere “to learn,” and from which discipulus “disciple, pupil” also derives.

To discipline thus means to instruct a person or animal to follow a particular code of conduct, or to adhere to a certain “order.” Consequently, “in the field of child development, discipline refers to methods of modeling character and of teaching self-control and acceptable behavior.

For me, the ultimate goal of discipline is to teach my kids to tap into their own compass of right and wrong and use it to make their own good decisions.

Lisa described discipline as guidelines. She spoke about 3 types of guidelines: No guidelines, off the path, and on the path. No guidelines means just what you think–wide open, no rules, do whatever you want. Off the path mentality is when you only talk about what not to do. It could also be when you make the “correct path” so small that it is hard get it right no matter what. The last one, on the path mentality, is what we all strive for. This is where we point out what behaviors we want to see. Then we catch them doing those behaviors and point them out.

We wrapped up the seminar by talking about the 2 Keys to Character Building Discipline. This tied everything together and was the most useful part of the seminar for me.

1) Crystal Clear Guidelines: Use forward focused questions to get them focused on the positive and what is coming.

This works wonders for me. If I can explain to my kids what is coming next ahead of time it saves me so much hassle and drama. When we get home from school I start doing this as I pull into the garage. We talk about how when we get out of the car we will take all of our things with us. When we get into the house we will take off our boots or shoes and put them away. Next we will hang up our coats and our backpacks. After all this is done we will all get to do something we enjoy, like have a snack, do some art projects, or just have some free play time. It is so much better to prepare them ahead of time, rather than yell at them later when all their stuff is either in the car or all over the laundry room floor.

2) Follow Through: this is the key to everything for me. You need to mean what you say, and then actually do it, every time. This sounds so easy, but in practice it can be so hard.

So far I have learned some things at both seminars that have been helpful. More than anything, it just helps to be reminded of some of these things. I know most of them, it is just the putting them into practice that needs more work!

Emma had her second parent-teacher conference this week.

I was a little worried about what her teacher might say this time. Not academically, I feel like she is right where she should be in that regard. I was more worried about how she might be acting in class. She tens to be a bit silly and chatty. She frequently tells me about “funny” things that her and her friends do in class. I expected to hear that she has been disruptive in class.

I was pleasantly surprised.

Her teacher had a lot of good things to say. Academically she is doing fantastic. They look at something called the DIEBELS Assessmant to determine her reading progress. By the end of First Grade they like students to be at level J (A being the beginning and on down to J). Emma is at a level K right now, with almost half of the year left.

Her letter formation and handwriting is great. Her only issue is that she sometimes slips a capital letter into the middle of a lowercase word. Otherwise she is doing really well in that department.

Ms. Hensler described Emma as in awe of everything. Her face just lit up when she spoke about Emma. She loves her personality and the way she is so excited to learn about things. She said that when she gets off task, it is never in a disruptive way. It is more that Emma gets distracted and kind of goes off in her own little world. Sometimes she has trouble completing work on time because it takes her so long to get going.

Again this time, Ms. Hensler expressed how happy she is to have Emma in her classroom. She said that she is always disappointed and misses her when she isn’t in class.

I was really proud of Emma. She has a few things that she needs to work on, but she is doing great. It felt really good to hear her teacher just gush about her. Emma is lucky to have such a great First Grade teacher.

I think Nora has officially entered the terrible twos.

I know she is my third child, and I should be expecting this. I have been through this with 2 other kids, right? Funny thing is I must have amnesia or something because I swear I just don’t remember it being quite like this. I remember Ian being crazy and active, but I don’t remember him doing things specifically to push my buttons. I am sure that both he and Emma both acted like that, but I just don’t remember right now.

I also don’t remember how to deal with it. I watch her do things and I just feel powerless and flabbergasted sometimes. This morning was particularly difficult. She woke up about 5:30am and started calling for someone to come get her. Her yelling woke Emma up, so Emma went and got her out of bed. The first thing Nora did was come into our room and ask for “yummies”. When we grunted at her and rolled over an went back to sleep she broke down in tears. The same thing happened over and over for about an hour, until I finally got up and made her breakfast. She ate a few bites and then proceeded to throw her entire bowl of cereal onto the floor, milk and all.

Next she grabbed Emma’s box of crayons, looked straight at me, and threw the whole box onto the floor. Emma’s new crayons went all over and many of them broke. I was so angry at her. I asked her to pick them all up. She looked at me and said “No mommy, I not pick up the crayons”. UGH! I picked her up and plopped her down next to them and told her not to get up until they were all picked up. While she was picking them up she kept saying “Mommy, you are stupid” and “Mommy, I hate you.” After some prodding she did finally pick them up, but I was so angry at her.

Today was her first official day at school and I was so glad to drop her off. I felt bad after I left for feeling that way, but she just pushed my buttons this morning. I feel bad for losing my temper with her and yelling, but sometimes I just can’t help it. I know that this is a phase, but for now I just need to figure out how to deal with her.

I had a talk with my good friend Vicky today. I really value her parenting advice. She gave me some good tips. She reminded me how I dealt with Emma when she had some of these defiance issues when she turned 6. I realized that she was just rebelling because she needed more independence. I think that Nora is trying to tell me the same thing. She isn’t a baby anymore. She has been ready to move out of her high chair for a while. I think now is the time to move her. She is a great sleeper, so she is probably ready to start getting up when she is ready. It is probably time for me to move her to a bed, or at least take the side off her crib so that she can get in and out of her bed. I think that these things will help with some of her issues, now I just need to gear up to make some of the changes.