Our Little Artist

Megan: "Grace that is such a good drawing, it looks just like the Grinch."
Grace: "No, Mommy, I'm drawing you!"
Scott: LAUGHTER

Grace's portrait of Mommy: 2/8/2012
And the first time she's drawn a face with definite eyes, nose, & mouth, with no assistance
Age: 2 years and 9 months exactly!

Pattern Blocks

I was introduced to pattern blocks while getting my teaching certification. I don't really remember playing with them when I was in school, but I know they were developed in the 60's so I'm sure I had to have, maybe I just have a bad memory.

Pattern blocks are a type of mathematical manipulative that allows children to see how shapes can be decomposed into other shapes. We also used them to help when teaching fractions. Pattern blocks are not only just for mathematics, they can also be used to build pictures including animals, flowers, boats and ships, rockets and planes, cars, trains, and many others. It's great for early development of colors; shapes and matching skills.

Here's the link to the basic set that we gave Grace for Christmas!

Organization Challenge

So much for my 21 Day Organizing Challenge. I've only organized 3 things so far. Our junk drawer, the cleaning supplies under the sink, and my biggest accomplishment MY CLOSET!!! It took 2 days but it's done!

Here's photos to prove our junk drawers are now organized. I'm still trying to decide if I should post the images of my closet, it's that embarrassing!

Pacifier

Bye, Bye Paci's! That's right! We've been paci free for 17 days now!

How did we do it?

Did we cut off the tip?

No! Grace would chew a hole in them and still continue to suck & chew on them so I knew that wouldn't work. I had to throw a many a paci away because of this.

Did Santa take it?

No, you probably figured that one out based on the days we've been paci-less. I just didn't want her to associate Santa with taking away something she loved so much.

Grace and had talked a lot about giving up her pacis. We kept saying that we'd give them to new babies because Grace was no longer a baby. I wanted to do something creative as a way of her giving them up so I saw an idea where you tie paci's to a balloon and let them fly away in the sky to find a home with tiny babies. Anytime this was mentioned Grace was VERY against the whole idea.

So us being paci free just kind of happened. When Grace and I were traveling back to Raleigh on January 10th we got around Rocky Mount and she started asking for her paci. I realized that I didn't grab one before we left and I was pretty sure she didn't have one when we walked out of the door either. I had a period of panic for about 30 seconds until I realized that this could be a good thing. I proceeded to tell Grace that she'd left them all at the bay and we didn't have one in the car and I wasn't sure that we had one in Raleigh either. Now, I knew that if we searched REALLY hard we'd probably find one but I figured this might be a good time to begin the weining process. She did have one at school and that seemed to sooth her over for the time being. At school she's only allowed to have it at naptime, so I was okay with her having it at nap that day. She asked for paci as soon as I picked her up from school (totally the usual), a lot that evening, and again that night before bed but I just kept telling her that they were at the bay and we didn't have any.

She asked for paci a lot on Wednesday when she and I were just doing things around the house. She never got too upset knowing she didn't have one. Often she'd come to me randomly and say, "my paci's at the bay." We went out that afternoon and I had to run grab something from the mall. As I was walking by the Build-a-Bear store I thought how neat it would be to stuff a bear with all of her paci's inside. I wasn't sure they allowed that so I went in to ask. I actually had to choke back tears as I was asking the lady. She probably thought I was crazy. I just knew this was a major milestone for us and how fast Grace is growing up. I discussed this idea with Grace and she seemed to be okay with putting them inside a teddy bear. Scott and I discussed the Build-A-Bear idea later that night in comparison with the balloon idea. He likes the balloon idea better because the paci's will be away/gone. He seems to think that with them inside a bear she would know they were near but yet she couldn't get to them and that would frustrate her.

On Thursday, when she went to school, I went in and took the paci out of her naptime tub and told her teachers what was going on. When I picked her up they said she cried a little when she didn't have it but that she finally went to sleep and took a good nap. I knew my next biggest hurdle would be getting back to the bay and finding the paci's (I was pretty sure there was atleast 3 laying around) before she did and not giving in to her asking for them there since she knew that's where they were.

On Friday I had a photo session at the bay and Grace was asleep when we got there. I went in the house first in search of paci's but didn't find any. (Isn't it amazing when I'm not looking I'd find 6, but when I was I'd find none? That happened often!) Grace was still asleep so I managed to get her in the bed still asleep { winning ;) } so I could set up for my session. She didn't sleep much longer but as soon as she woke up those three pacis were the first thing she went for, she obviously knew right where they were. However, instead of popping them right in her mouth she brought them to me. She showed such excitement from not seeing them for 4 days and the fact I knew I had to get them from her broke my heart! I told her that she'd gone most of the week without one and it showed how she was a big girl now and that she didn't need one anymore. I proceeded to tell her that I needed to put them away, and as I did she began to cry. And cry. I kept reassuring her that she didn't need one anymore and about 10 minutes later she was calm.

That was about it. She really didn't ask for them the rest of the weekend. I would make a big deal over it when we were around others and have Grace tell them what she gave up. "My paci" she'd respond and everyone knew that was a big deal so they'd hug her and clap, and cheer for her, which made her smile.

Since then she's seen babies with paci's and she calls my attention to them, even if its on TV. We've been REALLY lucky that she hasn't found them in some of her toy boxes or play areas of the house. I have found them before she has and have them stuffed in a plastic baggy, all 8 of them! :) She did see the baggy the other day and had a major meltdown. I let her hold the baggy for a few minutes and it calmed her down. Scott and I reassured her that she didn't need them anymore and we asked her if she wanted to put them in a teddy bear or tie them to a balloon to fly away for new babies. She chose the teddy bear. So we'll be making a trip to Build-A-Bear soon!

I'd say it was a fairly easy process. I'm glad it worked the way it did.

Are you trying to wein your little one from the paci? Below are some links with other tips:

Four Tips for Getting Rid of the Pacifier

How to get rid of the pacifier

Pacifier B Gone

How did you wein your little one from the paci? Hold old were they when you bit the bullet?

Grace was 2 years, 8 months, and 2 days old the last time she had a paci.

State vs. Carolina {UPDATED}

TONIGHT. 7pm. Hoping the Wolfpack and pull out a big W!

Update 1/27/12: Congrats to the Tarholes on their win last night. I think the Wolfpack stayed in Raleigh rather than making it to Chapel Hill.

A State fan and a UNC fan find a genie in a bottle. The genie grants them each one wish. The UNC fan says "Well, UNC is already the best at everything, the only problem is that normal people keep coming into Chapel Hill, so I want a huge wall secluding us from the outside world," the genie says okay and grants the wish. The State fan says "So you're telling me that all UNC fans are now in Chapel Hill with a huge wall around it?" The genie confirms, and the State fan states his wish, "Fill it with water."

Go Pack! :)

Article about Motherhood...

I recently read the following article. It was on the ncregister.com site. I enjoyed it and just thought I'd share.

To The Mother With Only One Child by: Simcha Fisher

Dear Mother of Only One Child,
Don’t say it. Before the words can even pass your lips, let me beg you: don’t say, “Wow, you have nine kids? I thought it was hard with just my one!”

My dear, it is hard. You’re not being a wuss or a whiner when you feel like your life is hard. I know, because I remember having “only one child.” You may not even believe how many times I stop and reflect on how much easier my life is, now that I have nine children.

But I remember having only one child, and it was hard—so very hard. Some of the difficulties were just practical: I didn’t know what I was doing, had to learn everything. People pushed me around because I was young and inexperienced. But even worse were the emotional struggles of learning to be a mother.

When I had only one child, I truly suffered during those long, long, long days in our little apartment, no one but the two of us, baby and me, dealing with each other all day long. I invented errands and dawdled and took the long way home, but still had hours and hours to fill before I would hear my husband’s key in the door.

I cared so much what other people thought about her—they had to notice how beautiful she was, they had to be impressed at my natural mothering skills. I obsessed over childhood development charts, tense with fear that my mothering was lacking—that I hadn’t stimulated her enough, or maybe had just passed on the wrong kind of genes. I cringe when I remember how I pushed her—a little baby!—to achieve milestones she wasn’t ready for.

I lived in terror for her physical safety (I once brought her to Urgent Care, where the doctor somewhat irritably diagnosed a case of moderate sniffles) fearing every imaginable disease and injury. In my sleep-deprived state, I would have sudden insane hallucinations that her head had fallen off, her knees had suddenly broken themselves in the night, and so on.

My husband didn’t know how to help me. I didn’t know how to ask for help. My husband had become a father, and I adored him for it. My husband got to leave the house every day, and sleep every night. He got to go to the bathroom alone. I hated him for it.

When I had only one child, I told myself over and over that motherhood was fulfilling and sanctifying and was filling my heart to the brim with peace and satisfaction. And so I felt horribly guilty for being so bored, so resentful, so exhausted. This is a joyful time, dammit! I should enjoy being suddenly transformed into the Doyenne of Anything that Smells Bad.

I loved my baby, I loved pushing her on the swing, watching squirrels at the park together, introducing her to apple sauce, and watching her lips move in joyful dreams of milk. But it was hard, hard, hard. All this work: is this who I am now? I remember!

So now? Yes, the practical parts are a thousand times easier: I’m a virtuoso. I worry, but then I move along. Nobody pushes me around, and I have helpers galore. Someone fetches clean diapers and gets rid of the dirty ones. When the baby wakes up in the middle of the night for the ten thousandth time, I sigh and roll my eyes, maybe even cry a little bit for sheer tiredness—but I know it will pass, it will pass.

It’s becoming easier, and it will be easier still. They are passing me by.

I’m broken in. There’s no collision of worlds. We’re so darn busy that it’s a sheer delight to take some time to wash some small child’s small limbs in a quiet bath, or to read The Story of Ferdinand one more time. Taking care of them is easy. It’s tiring, it’s frustrating, but when I stop and take a breath, I see that it’s almost like a charade of work. All these things, the dishes, the diapers, the spills—they must be taken care of, but they don’t matter. They aren’t who I am.

To become a mother, I had to learn how to care about someone more than I did about myself, and that was terrible. But who I am now is something more terrible: the protector who can’t always protect; the one with arms that are designed to hold, always having to let go.

Dear mother of only one child, don’t blame yourself for thinking that your life is hard. You’re suffering now because you’re turning into a new woman, a woman who is never allowed to be alone. For what? Only so that you can become strong enough to be a woman who will be left.

When I had only one child, she was so heavy. Now I can see that children are as light as air. They float past you, nudging against you like balloons as they ascend.

Dear mother, don’t worry about enjoying your life. Your life is hard; your life will be hard. That doesn’t mean you’re doing something wrong—it means you’re doing it rightAll right, so there is a lot more laundry. Keeping up with each child’s needs, and making sure they all get enough attention, is a constant worry. And a stomach bug is pretty much the end of the world, when nine digestive tracts are afflicted.

Nanny and Jacq

Nanny and Jacquelyn share January 16th as their birthday! This year we decided to get together for Nannys birthday at the Hitching Post for lunch. Jacquelyn surprised us and came too!

Helping Nanny open presents:

The birthday girls:

The lunch gang:

4 generations: