A Valentine's DOOP

Some very special people in our life, sent the kids Valentine's Day cards…homemade cards even…eat your heart out Pinterest!
Riley LOVES sending and receiving mail, although he doesn't quite trust the USPS.  He finds it fishy that I put his letters in a big metal box and he always yells "NO! DONT THROW IT AWAY!!!!!!"  So when I show him that mail also gets brought to the magic box…he is thoroughly suspicious, especially since our mail box opens with a key…SO. MANY. QUESTIONS!
Anyways…the boys were thrilled with getting the mail.   I told them the mail was from Jen and Jesse.
Riley opened his envelope and inside were knights and dragon stickers and he "read" his card…
"Dear Riley, we love you…you can have the new shiny lightning mcqueen and you get pizza tonight…the end"  when he got done he turned to me and said
"WOW mama…did you hear that!?  JessinJen said I can have the shiny mcqueen and pizza!"
 I responded…"Oh yeah?  well, what does Blakely's say?"
"OH SURE!"  Riley read Blakely's Valentine "Dear Blak-A-Lee…We Love you very much…but you don't get stickers.  The End?"
"ok…" I said, "now what about Tate's"
"oh, right" Riley read Tate's Valentine, which had Elmo stickers in it…"Dear Tater-stinky-Potater…you have stinky Tater farts and you have to play with the old dirty mcqueen…the end.  PS Riley gets the shiny mcqueen and pizza…the end."  Riley turned to Tate and said "DID YOU HEAR THAT TATE!!!! I get the SHINY MCQUEEEN!  but you get the dirty one….but it's ok, you can try harder next time."
And Tate responded "NO!"
Riley redirected "YES Tater! Say Yes…"
And Tate Said "YES!"
Riley then said "OKAY! Tate lets go get your stinky dirty mcqueen and my shiny new mcqueen…OK?"
Tate responded "NO!"
Riley redirected "say yes Tater..yeessss?"
and Tate said "YES!"

Why do I have the feeling we all just got dooped by a 4 year old?

Natural Born Pickers

This past October, you remember we had a garage sale at Clear Lake…

Remember this Salesman?

Well…this particular day was cold and rainy…and not much to do.  So whats a redneck to do when he gets bored…shoot something!?  No…the gun was on the top shelf this day.   

Well shoot…it's time to start picking  

While I was putting Blakely and Tate down for a nap, Riley was up to something…I knew this because he was quite and the tv was not on.  So after I was done changing, rocking and hugging, I came down the stairs to this:

Riley was supposed to be PICKING UP the toys…but I guess he could have easily mistaken what I meant.  He became one bonafied picker…picking things he thought would sell, like Dad's sunglasses and a couple rolls of toilet paper (in the doctor's kit) and Tate's left shoe and the TV remotes.  He was even offering up the Dog.

Of coarse I asked "what are you doing?" 

Riley said "I'm having a sale, you need to buy something"

I said, "what do you mean, this is all my stuff that I already paid for!"

Riley said "well you don't need this stuff, so now I am selling it…"

I said "Fine…how much for the toilet paper?"

Riley stiffly said "$50 zero zero dollars…cash"

I responded "What!  I am not paying that for toilet paper, I'll pass!"

Silence after a couple minutes…

SIGH

HUMPH

WHEWWWW

"What's the matter Riley?"

"no one is coming to my sale" he sadly responded

"well, maybe you need a sign" I suggested

"OK!"

I told him how to spell "FOR SALE" and he wrote it on his board and placed it in front of his store

silence again….

SIGH

Double HUMPH

WHEEWWWWWWWWW

GRRRRRRRRRR

"Now what's the matter?"

"No one is still coming to my sale"

{I then realized this was a REAL sale}

"Well..." I said "everyone is at work right now like daddy, I bet when they get off work they will come"

Riley's eye brightened "YEAH!  it will take the customers a while to put their shoes and coats on and drive their cars to my sale…I KNOW I KNOW! I will put the sign where they can see it from their cars."

"OK!" I said from the kitchen sink, thinking that was the end of it.  

Silence

Front Door Opening and Closing…

And I walk in to the living room to find Riley smiling…

I suspiciously walk to the front door and look out the window to find this:

I turned to Riley and said "FIRST OFF…you ASK to open the front door and SECOND…

 good idea!"

are you smarter than a preschooler?

We recently had parent/teacher conferences with Riley's teachers…I didn't want to go, dreaded what the teachers were going to say.  But it ended up Ryan went instead of me.  I won't go into the bragging details, so you can just look below to see what Riley has been up to the last 7 months.

our hall of fame door, for all our favorite preschool projects

His glueing skills

working on patterns

oh mat man caused a lot of stress in our lives…

Riley didn't like mat man because it sounded like another super hero who is WAY cooler and would fight mat man!  So this picture below shows riley's enthusiasm for mat man 

cutting skills from november till january.  

 In a nutshell…Ryan said the conference wasn't what he expected.  The teachers seem to like Riley and called him words like "sweet" and "creative"?  He has room to improve with his social skills such as not hoarding all the dinosaurs and only wanting to do the move it move it dance…but we'll get there.

If you know Riley, you will find the assessment below rather humerous…most of where he got a "S" for sometimes, is because he is stubborn and has his own idea of how to do things.  

The teachers want him to have ALL "Y" by the end of the year

Numéro Uno, Numéro Dos, Numéro tres

What have I learned this week…



Potty training #1 was a lot easier when there was only one.  Potty training #2 is blood-pressure raising since there is 1, 2 and 3.  When I thought about having kids, I KNEW I would have each kid potty trained before the next one was born ( I was NOT changing 2 sets of diapers).  I did this with Riley, who was potty trained 5 months before Tate was born.  I planned on doing this same thing with Tate if and when we had a third…well things don't always go to plan.  And so, I have been changing 2 sets of diapers for 6 months and no, it's not so bad.  But with Tate,  I have started to feel like I am changing a small man's diaper, so I decided... we are moving on.

I potty trained Riley by the "book" when he was 16 months and it was a major FAIL!

So we tried again with my own approach when he was 2 and he was (what I consider) potty trained in 1 month.  He was diaper free during the day and wore a diaper at night for accidents.

My approach is simple…no diapers…no training pants.

Cold Turkey Undies.

yes. there are more accidents in the beginning, thats why I make the kids play in the kitchen on the laminate floors.

yes. you have to watch that toddler like a hawk striking a field mouse. and as soon as that kid squats in silence you fire drill to the potty.

yes. you will have to invest in Elmo's Potty time and a large bag of peanut butter m&ms

yes. you will have to give your toddler tons of water…cuz you want him to have to pee

DO NOT leave that sneaky little toddler out of your sight, he will pee as soon as you leave.  and it could take hours before you step on the cold wet spot.  

I constantly ask "are you wet or dry?"  and teach him to touch his undies to feel wetness.

The first day is always amazing, you will think, "MY KID IS A POTTY GENIUS!  THIS IS GOING TO BE A CAKE WALK!"  you are fool if you think day #2 will be as successful or day #3 or day #4…and just when you start to think "MY KID WILL BE WEARING DIAPERS TO HIS PROM!"  Day # 5 comes and then things start coming together.  Pavlov's theory is kicking in and as soon as the toddler gets that "feeling" he also starts salivating for that delicious treat.

Tate is at the point where (when mommy is changing #3 diaper) he remembers mid-pee "OH YEAH!  I'm not wearing a diaper anymore!"  and hustles to the potty, slipping in his own pee and sitting down on the potty, without pulling down his undies and finishing the job.  I very much appreciate his effort.  However, if I am not changing a diaper…

i ask.
he answers.
and we RUN to the potty

…turn on some Elmo's Potty Time on the portable DVD player and wait.  He is getting quicker about peeing and has gone #2 several times (which is normally the hardest to convince them to do)  When he is done and was successful,  he gets 1 peanut butter m&m (which he calls A&As) and a sticker on his chart.

Today, we made it taking Riley to preschool and a 90 minute trip to Walmart with no wet underwear.
Also today I left the bathroom while Tate was on the potty and while I was attending #3, Tate decided to try and dump his own potty…that was a wet spot I couldn't miss.

Quit Touching ME!