Can’t Get Enough of Brown Bear November 9, 2009

My children love the book Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See? by Bill Martin Jr. and Eric Carle. They enjoy reading it and having it read to them.

Before naps and at night, Baby picks up her Brown Bear board book and takes it to her room.

The girls also enjoy reading and retelling the story with their Brown Bear flannel board animals.

Then I found this!

Aren’t these fabrics cute? Well, I decided to use them to make a blanket and pillow for both girls. I’m so excited and I hope they will be too!

I’ll post some pictures when I’m done with the pillows and blankets.

Facebook…to friend or not to friend? November 2, 2009

One of the biggest dilemmas for me when it comes to Facebook is whether to add a “friend” or not.

Recently, I received a friend request and I’ve been wondering if I should accept it or not.

The funny thing about social media…it’s really all about being sociable. Sometimes it means being sociable even with those who you don’t necessarily choose to be social with IRL. Twitter is a perfect example of this. Since you only share snippets of information at any one time, it’s still not really personal if you don’t want it to be.

On the other hand, Facebook tends to get more personal especially if you post pictures of yourself and your family and friends. The posts are usually about your personal life. The prompt FB uses (share) implies that you are  willing to and enjoy sharing information with others.

So what do you do when you don’t really want to share that information with certain people? What do you do if someone sends you a friend request? Do you ignore it? How long will you ignore it?

Does ignoring it mean that you don’t like the person? What does the person think if you don’t accept it right away? Up until recently I was only sending friend requests to certain people who I felt comfortable sharing my personal life with. If I received a friend request it was usually someone who I pretty much kept in contact with IRL.

This recent request came from someone who I knew a long time ago but haven’t seen or spoken to in many years. I think they found me through a mutual friend on FB. Hmmm…does that mean this person wants to reconnect? Wants to be “friends” again?

So, what do you do when you get a friend request and you’re not sure if you should accept it? Tell me why you’re hesitant to accept it and why you did or didn’t accept it. I want to hear from you!

It’s Pumpkin Carving Time! October 30, 2009

We finally decided to carve the pumpkins that we picked at the pumpkin patch. We had to do it early since one of the pumpkins had a little bruised spot that looked like it was going to rot soon.

So here’s our first attempt at carving pumpkins for our family. I hope you get a good laugh out of  my lack of artistic ability.

 

We decided not to save the pumpkin seeds this time…maybe next year we can.

Princess said she wanted a “happy face” on her pumpkin. I was to lazy to make teeth for the smile. That’ll have to wait until next year too.

Putting the candle in wasn’t too easy since I didn’t cut a big enough opening on top…oh well, it worked anyway.

All lit up in the dark…so cool! The girls loved it!

Princess said she wanted Baby’s pumpkin (the oblong one) to have a sad face. Hmmm…I wonder why? Mr. MaD said we should do this instead.

Happy Halloween from our family to yours!

Pumpkin Patch 2009 October 18, 2009

We did our annual pumpkin patch visit this weekend. Of course, the girls enjoyed themselves. This year we noticed that there was a whole section of white pumpkins but Princess insisted on the more traditional orange ones.

This year we decided to go for medium sized pumpkins. We usually pick mini pumpkins since it’s easier for the girls to handle. Besides the pumpkin picking, the girls enjoyed the hay ride and the petting zoo.

Here’s my album cover created on PSE7.

 

Here’s our oblong pumpkin. 

 

Here’s our round pumpkin. 

What I’m thinking…

I wonder how long these pumpkins last? Will they last until Halloween?

Where do I find a good pumpkin carving knife?( I heard that Martha Stewart had a good one last year.)

What to “create” out of these pumpkins? (Maybe I need a template – suggestion?)

New Strategy for Princess September 25, 2009

Recently Princess has decided to demonstrate her independence at home and at school.

Translation: She wants to do what she wants when she wants to.

Princess has always been pretty easy to discipline. She usually complies with our rules and expectations. Then all of a sudden (over the last 2 weeks) she’s been saying “NO” to almost everything. Along with the “NO” comes the whining and the fussing.

Mr. MaD and I were like, “What the heck is going on?”

Last week when I picked her up from school I told her teacher about the change in her behavior. She said that she noticed that Princess said “NO” to her that same day. I explained that I didn’t know where all of this was coming from. Then she told me that she thinks Princess has learned it from another student in class who says, “NO” and talks back with a “potty” mouth.

My first thought was “Just great! Princess has to follow the student who has inappropriate behavior!” I guess that comes along with territory when you send your child to preschool.

In the last 2 days, Princess has decided to “step it up a notch” at school. She has decided that she does not have to sit at Circle Time. Instead, she walks around or plays around. During nap time, she doesn’t sleep. Instead, she talks, laughs, or walks around. The teacher has tried putting her on time out but Princess has decided that she doesn’t need a time out. 

When I received her daily report for the last 2 days, I was so upset and frustrated. We’ve talked to Princess about her behavior. We tell her our expectations every day before she goes to school. Mr. MaD reminds her again when he drops her off. When we asked her what she is supposed to do, she can tell us.

So last night I told Mr. MaD that whatever we (teacher and us) are doing is not working for Princess. For some reason, the time out is not working at school. I think it wasn’t the right motivation.

After rereading some of the 1-2-3 Magic book, I decided we needed to use a strategy for what is referred to as a Start behavior.

So…I decided to make Princess a goal sheet. Something very simple and focused on  the 2 areas that she is struggling with. I made it for one day just to see if it would work. I decided that her reward would be playing an online game on the computer when she gets home from school.

What a difference a day and a reward makes! Today, Princess sat nicely in Circle Time with her hands in her lap and she even participated. Then a nap time she slept. Wow! I was so proud of her. I could tell that she was proud of herself too.

She was very excited to play the Curious George game on the computer. (By the way, it’s for the PBS site.)

I sure hope this works again tomorrow! If not, I don’t know what I’ll do next.

Any suggestions?

Here’s a sample of the Goal Sheet.

Speaking of Bath Time September 23, 2009

Did you hear about this? It’s absurd.

I can’t believe that some innocent photos could lead to such disruption in a family. I know many families who have photos of their children taking a bath or playing in the bath. It’s a big deal, especially with your first child and their first bath. I mean we even have a photo of Princess getting her first “bath” in the hospital after being born.

If you’re a scrapbooker, then you know that many scrapbooking products for baby pages include a bath time item…a sticker, an embellishment, a template, etc. Why do you suppose companies make them? It’s because bath time is a milestone for most children, esp. their first bath as an infant and then later as they graduate to the big tub. It’s also usually a fun time for toddlers and children when they realize it’s just like water play.

The thing that bugs me the most about this story is that it got so out of control. First off, why did the Wal-Mart employee even report it? Secondly, why did the police even make a case out of it? Didn’t they even do a little investigation before charging the parents and taking away the children? I can’t believe the state of Arizona could even spend the time and money on this family.

Don’t they have better more important things to do…like catch some real sex offenders?

The mother got suspended from her job for a year. The children got taken away for one month! The parents are now on a sex offender registry. That is simply ridiculous! Supposedly Wal-Mart settled out of court but it’s too late. The family is scarred for life, especially the children. Frankly, no amount of money is going to give them back the life they had as they knew it.

It really upsets me when I hear stories about real sex offenders out in the community breaking the law (Jaycee Dugard kidnapping) and re-offending.

Are we getting so paranoid that we are willing to subject innocent people to such hardship? I believe in being cautious but I also believe in being rationale.