Young chicks learn old tricks

If you're here I'm glad... (hanging head) I know it's been a really long time, so welcome back...!

In the last few weeks my mom has been here, TBG has been away in Asia and Riel and I have gone for wonderful journey to London, England, (we even played hooky from school!) but more (with lots of cool pics) about that later.

The visit with my mom was fabulous as it always is, we just hung out, did quiet stuff with the kids, and in general had a really nice visit....but the very best part is that I've brought her over to the "Blog side".....you can check it out here, and who says YOUNG CHICKS CAN'T LEARN OLDTRICKS...I must say my mom as well as being constant inspiration to me, is a living proof of this addled adage, as she is on here her about fourth, fifth, or sixth foray from one art to the other....and now she is blogging!!!! (HA!) I love it!

Currently she's insane about willow, collecting, growing, harvesting and weaving, and thanks to this current insanity we were the lucky recipients of a beautiful, large, handsome, and serviceable basket for firewood (that served as luggage on the way over the pond, smart lady) that is still perfuming my living room with the scent of freshly cut willow...thanks Mom you're amazing!!

Dear Mom,

Thank you so much for dragging yourself once again across the ocean , I know it's a long haul, I know that that oversees flight really is nasty, and I know it's hard to be away from home. We really appreciate the time and effort, all the little gifts, all the sweet things you do. We enjoyed the time you spend with us so much, the kids just love it, and so did I. Doing not a lot of anything was just super, just hanging out ...and being together.

Why is it that being a Mom makes one realize what a super Mom one already has?

Thank you for all the mothering that you have given me, I realize that all the things that I love about myself as a mother have come from you ....you are the best, and we miss you lots.

Love your daughter...

Nomad

Scone?

Lily is going through what shall we say is a "Sensitive" food period...it has been going on for a while now and ooooh, as patient as I am, I am beginning to loose it...the patience that is.

It usually starts out as some quiet whining, then escalates to something a bit louder and more difficult to ignore. About midway through the meal after she has succeeded in garnering everyone at the tables attention she starts telling me that she is "full" even though she has eaten almost nothing on her plate and is still carrying around the "before-dinner-when-I-was-still-grumpy-and-hungry-look" on her face. I have tried ignoring it, I know it is stage that WILL PASS...but arghh!!

Today after exactly the same routine and with her plate (on which there was origionally only a teeny tiny portion) still more than half full I decided to let it go and ...well, not worry about it. When I offered her a tiny piece of freshly baked scone she immediately gobbled it up, promptly asked for another with Jam.

!!!

I am loathe to admit that I am being manipulated by my children as I prefer to think of it as them expressing their needs in a child's way...(any way they can and who can blame them) but I must confess I think I am being dangled a bit and ...and well... I guess she got me, (right where she wants me) again...

Boxed In

The tedium…the humdrum…it is starting to get grey and chilly here (plus the chocolate is all gone) …*yawn* and it’s not even February yet…

My kids are at school all day today and so far I have had a German lesson, lunch and a nap. Not so good. Sort of gearing up for a crazy weekend as we have some of our friend’s children for two days and TBG comes home today (at least that’s my excuse). Somehow I always feel compunction to have the house compulsively tidy whenever he gets home…sort of like I feel we need to rack up against Sofitel…(*Chuh*)…like he has not seen our place a mess and like it is my job…*ughhh*

Gosh gotta get to the laundry, run some errands-sort out dinner yada-yada-yada…

Whatever

My kids more specifically. Riel is utterly, utterly absorbed right now with making houses out of cardboard boxes. On my last trip to Ikea I came home with a slick office chair which of course included a nifty kid sized carton and the lights I bought also included even niftier doll sized boxes. Quick as a blink Riel had fashioned himself a set of carving knives out of Lego, (really)…with such an imagination the child will never lack for anything that’s for sure, and he instantly set to work carving out openings and fitting little boxes into big ones and constructing all manner of magic access panels and such.

This cardboard box thing has reached epic proportions and has been going on endlessly for about two weeks now. Every time I go into the play room, nay even turn around, he and Lily have built an entire subdivision out of a combination of boxes, the play table, its chairs, a compilation of the dissected elements of both their beds including the foam mattresses and blankets. The room is FULL. He has his quiet time in there all fortressed up, roofed in under some sort of contrived combination of things, having dragged in his comforter and Cleo. One day I walked in to discover him on the floor lying IN the barely big enough box on its side head-first-with-just-his-bum-hanging-out happy as a clam. Very funny.

All well and good. But the mess and subsequent Mommy driven reconstruction bi-daily not too mention the constant distraction from the things-that-must-be-done is driving me INSANE. Every time I turn around it is like a Greenspan building site in there and the child cannot walk past any of it without completely losing his way. I have threatened to pitch the whole kit and caboodle, as it is driving me crazy, but can’t quite bring myself to do it as they are deriving such obvious pleasure from it all.

Yesterday I picked up something downtown that had been ordered and had arrived (god forbid) in a box. Riel was with me and his eyes instantly lit up. He timidly asked the sales clerk if he could have the box.

“Oh yes, yes” she breathed in her French-sales-clerky way…”Ve have many many boxes here, you can always come and pick up as many as you like…

This and That

The children’s star system is working brilliantly; we have been doing it for about a month now. The kid’s love it and it has had the desired effect of changing my focus from harping endlessly about all the stuff that is bugging me to chatting more about what we like to see…(it just occurred to me maybe I needed it more then they did!! *cringe*…)
In any case we have had to revamp the rewards section a bit do some tweaking and fine tuning as they were doing so very well it was getting a bit ripe around here with rewards.
I would have to say overall there has been a pretty dramatic improvement on the behavior front and they are now actually dreaming up new “GOOD” things to do to earn stars.
Gotta love it.

On an entirely different front we have had a little trouble in paradise. TBG went up to the caravan a few weekends ago to discover that it had been broken into. Nothing to serious for us but not only had it been broken into but several others as well and one of them even had been set to fire, burning it right to the ground. It seems all that was left was but a charred frame with only the fenders left (not even the tires) causing its two propane canisters to explode turning them into nice tidy little missiles that were discovered several tens of metres away. Apparently the culprits were 3 local boys aged 12-16 who were found at the scene in the middle of the afternoon.

As a parent can you IMAGINE????

Star Track

One day a few weeks ago after a terrible day with my children I decided…

OK….

That’s IT…! We are making a change.

Well…Here is the change and man does it work well.

Each child has a list of things they can do well.




There is a sheet with reward stars every night for great behavior.


There is a sheet listing rewards the most interesting to them by far…must be the clip art...
Green chip first level takes 20 stars to earn with which they can spend on a first level reward or save to trade. Blue chip can be bought with a 5 "Green Chips" to spend or trade up. Red chip can be bought with 5 "Blue Chips" the reward a big bonanza "Theme Park" day...wooohoooo!!! at the bottom.


And then we keep track on a pie plate.


It took about 1 hour to set up.

It has been 3 weeks now, my kids drag me to do their stars every evening, and they just cashed in their second level “Blue Chip” for a trip to the Toy store after 3 weeks of amazing behavior. We celebrate the great stuff, end the day on a positive note by talking about all the things they did really well, and they are learning the routine chores much more quickly as we review the elements every day.

Wow.

Huge satisfaction.