Little Sister's Birthday Party

Today we had a small birthday party for Little Sister. It was supposed to be a Teddy Bear Picnic, since she loves to sing "Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, Turn Around" and another cute little bear song. I had visions of picnic blankets with bears and baskets and a visit to the playground.

But the weekend kind of snuck up on me and many people were busy for Memorial Day weekend, so we kept it small.

And then it rained all morning so we kept it even smaller. And even made it a little later.

It was still a cute little party.



We let Little Sis open one of her gifts to find some more fun picnic toys.

We'll work on the hula hoop...

Next it was time for some Teddy Bear cupcakes.

Little Sister helped sing to herself.

And Big Sister (and Shep) helped blow out the candles.

I think everyone liked the cake.

As soon as we finished singing the birthday song, it started pouring. It was quite loud on the new tin roof!


But the rain provided the entertainment for the kiddos...

...and the grown-ups who watched them!


In this picture, Little Sis is trying to stick her head in the puddle.


She did it. Numerous times. See her hair?

The kids had so much fun in the puddles, it was hard to get Little Sister to stop to open her gifts. But about halfway through, the rain picked up and a storm blew in.

We tried to wait it out, but the lightning and thunder were getting crazier (and scarier) and the rain would not let up. We eventually pulled our cars as close as possible and raced to pack everything up.

It was a good thing we didn't wait any longer. We made it out just as the roads began to flood!

The girls were soaked and sleepy as we drove home. As Aunt Lala said, "We definitely know how to throw memorable parties!" Thanks to those of you who braved the elements to celebrate with us, and those of you who wished Little Sis a Happy Birthday from wherever you are.

Song for Sunday: for my second child

Song for a Fifth Child
by Ruth Hulburt Hamilton

Mother, oh Mother, come shake out your cloth
empty the dustpan, poison the moth,
hang out the washing and butter the bread,
sew on a button and make up a bed.
Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?
She's up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.

Oh, I've grown shiftless as Little Boy Blue
(lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).
Dishes are waiting and bills are past due
(pat-a-cake, darling, and peek, peekaboo).
The shopping's not done and there's nothing for stew
and out in the yard there's a hullabaloo
but I'm playing Kanga and this is my Roo.
Look! Aren't her eyes the most wonderful hue?
(lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).

The cleaning and scrubbing will wait till tomorrow,
for children grow up, as I've learned to my sorrow.
So quiet down, cobwebs. Dust go to sleep.
I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep.

Happy Birthday, Little Sister

Yesterday my big girl graduated from preschool, and today my baby girl turns two.

Sigh.





Happy Birthday, Little Sister. Your beauty, silliness, and determination have brightened our world for two years now.


What a blessing you are!

The Graduate

Big Sister never seemed so big.

She said her lines and sang her songs.

She marched across the stage veeeerrrryyy intentionally and very seriously. So seriously, in fact, that it made the rest of us tickled. (I don't have a photo of this because I was taking pics with the teacher's camera during the ceremony. I'll try to post one soon.)

Then she had snacks and cake and celebrated with her classmates...

...and those wonderful teachers I mentioned in this post.

She posed for pictures.



And then we went to celebrate her big day as a family. We actually went back to the place we took her exactly two years before, when we wanted to celebrate Big Sister's last evening as an only child- Chuck E Cheese!

It was a great way to end a special day.

I can't believe how grown up she looks!


I'm VERY proud to be your mommy, Big Sister.

A new system

The other day, when I was beginning to lose faith in my ability to raise and/or discipline children, I asked Big Sister out of frustration, "Why do you behave at school and at church?! Why do you only act like this for me?!"

Her answer? "Because at school I get smileys."

Let me explain these "smileys." They are Smiley Faces that were drawn in her communication folder on a daily basis. There were categories such as "listening" or "being kind to friends." If a child did these things during the day, the teachers drew a smiley face for the parents to see and celebrate. If not, the teachers drew apathetic or sad faces to let parents know of a problem.

That's it. No classroom rewards; no other incentives. Just smileys. And a reliance on parental support to reinforce the system.

Now, Big Sister has the most wonderful teachers in the world. I don't know if any other teachers will ever live up to the standards they have set. And as simple as their plan seemed (and in early childhood they are limited a lot more than in the elementary school system, by the way) it worked for Big Sister. She got ONE apathetic, straight lined mouth smiley. ONCE.

Every day when I picked her up, she asked, "All smileys mom?" as I signed her folder. It was apparently all the motivation she needed.

So, here I was, in the middle of dealing with a crazy tantrum, when she tells me she behaves for the "smileys." I sighed, and tried to explain through gritted teeth that the smileys were just a way for Moms & Dads to know how kids behaved and deal with it at home. Which was what we were doing, right then & there...

But she's four. And she doesn't get the similarities. Because there are no smileys.

Or there were no smileys. Because I took this comment, prayed about it, thought about my classroom management and behavior philosophies when I was teaching (by the way, I've got a post brewing about how that ruined my chances at being a normal mom... stay tuned), and read a few books. And I came up with my own smiley chart.

Big Sister now has a chance to earn nine smileys every day. Some are very easy for her, and others are problem areas like "attitude with Little Sis" or "cooperation at bedtime." That way, she has small victories and new challenges.

I added a reward when she earns all smileys and has a "perfect" day. She picks a card with something like "put $0.50 in your bank" or "stay up ten minutes late" or "play a video game with Mommy & Daddy" or "draw from the goody bag."

I've also tried to remind her that one mistake doesn't ruin everything. That we all make mistakes but that it's how we learn and recover from them that makes a difference.

And guess what?

Since Sunday, she has had THREE "perfect" days.

We're seeing a LOT of smileys. And not all of them are on paper.

Watermelon and such...

Yesterday I shared a picture of my girls enjoying their first watermelon of the season on Sunday.

I'm usually one of those people who waits to buy watermelon until Memorial day. Or until it gets under $5, whichever comes first!

But on Sunday, our church hosted an end of the year celebration at a local elementary school. My girls napped until it was almost over, but I woke them up with a half-an-hour to spare, knowing that if we just made it to the petting zoo and pony rides, they'd be happy campers.

We did just that. Both girls rode ponies, petted cute baby goats, picked up a rooster(!?) and snuggled baby bunnies.

They also had super-melty, super-messy ice cream cones.

Then we went to the school playground for a few minutes. It was made for bigger kids, and was definitely not made for toddlers who insisted on wearing Ariel flip-flops two sizes too big for them. But they had fun, until Big Sister tried the tire swing.

Let's just say that riding the tire swing with the big kids is a lot different than the few times she's gone by herself at church. She has a HUGE strawberry on her shoulder and a scrape on her arm to prove it.

She was super brave. Lots of love & attention, some quickly obtained ice, and the fact that her old boyfriend from the four-year-old class put his arm around her probably helped.
You can see her arm war wound faintly in the watermelon picture.

Which brings me back to the watermelon and why I paid too much too early... as we were leaving the playground, Little Sis found some watermelon. Someone else's watermelon... rind.

She found it, began to scrape & scoop it with her little fingers, and eat it.

As I carried her away from that nastiness kicking & screaming, I promised we would stop at the grocery store and get her some watermelon. We had such a good time, I threw in some way-too-expensive juice in novelty reusable bottles and a bag of Cheetos.

It was a celebration, after all.

Yum

Our first watermelon of the season.


Bring on the summer!