Children's Garden

Alex finally started at his new school yesterday, and he did super! The director noticed that he was reluctant to let me leave him on the playground so she came over and asked him to be her helper with breakfast in the kitchen. He was more than willing to go be her helper and even cracked a smile as he said by to me. :) I called later and they let me know that he was doing fine and had eaten a good lunch. When I picked him up he told me that he really likes his new school and that he had a lot of fun. I was pleasantly surprised to find a note from his teacher in his cubby. It was very thoughtful of her to tell me about his day and really put my mind at ease. :) Today was pretty good too, although there were some tears as I left. I called at 10:30 and they said he was doing fine and stopped crying shortly after I left. The two times I have called up there, they know exactly who I am and can instantly tell me all about who he was playing with, how his day is going, etc. That makes me feel so confident that he's getting the care he deserves.
I got a phone call from them today at about 12:30, I was worried when I saw their number on my caller ID, ususally a phone call means that he's either sick, or upset, it was his teacher calling to tell me that he was still doing good, had eaten a good lunch and was sleeping soundly. :) Ahhhh, I feel like I can finally RELAX a little, he's in good hands.

TEXAS WINS!!!!

WHAT A GAME!! Vince, you are my hero. :)

Report Cards

Miss Ashley has done it yet again. Her report card came home with straight A's today! We are so proud of our girl! Way to go Ashley!

Happy Retirement Big Daddy!!!

This was all Ashley's idea.

We love you and wish you all the best dad...now go fishin already!

Alex-isms updated

I added a few Alex-isms tonight:

Alex-isms

Reverse Psychology?

Our everyday eat-your-dinner battle has reached a new level. We've tried just about anything and everything to get Alex to eat his dinner, to the point of giving him a standing ovation for each bite taken, that didn't work and neither did bribery, which is our last resort catch all. Tonight we took it to a new level. I was talking to Mark about positive reinforcement and how that's the thing to do these days. We chuckled about how grateful we'd be to get the opportunity to give him positive reinforcement, but that he actually had to do something positive first. lol I decided that I would dupe him in to some reverse psychology by praising him for taking a bite even when he didn't. So I praise him, he gives me a funny look, but remarkably, he responds and takes a bit. Wooohoooo! We're on to something here. So I can't just take my winnings and leave the table, I have to have more, so in a weak moment when he's on his knees playing in his chair I continue the lying mommy's version of positve reinforcement and tell him how proud I am at how good he's being by staying on his bottom and eating so well. He responds by saying "but momma I was doing this..." and he stands up on his knees to demonstrate his poor behavior. By the end of his demonstration Mark and I are holding our guts laughing out loud. Turns out we're the ones that got duped. The lying mommy's version of positive reinforcement is a crock. I guess that's why I've never actually been given this advice and why it's not published in any child rearing books. One thing the lying mommy's version of positive reinforcement did do was provide a pleasant dinner. When that didn't work, I decided to use it on Mark instead. "Mark, thank you so much for cleaning up after dinner" didn't work too well either. ;)

2006

Happy New Year! It's hard to belive it's already 2006, it's a bittersweet year, chock full of changes and new beginnings, and we're only a few days in to it. The year that my baby girl will turn 10 and enter the era of double didgets and everything else that goes along with it. My baby boy will turn 5. He will have to use an entire hand to tell his age, and coordinating his little fingers in to small numbers will be a thing of the past. This year my dad will enter the retirement years and my brother will have his first baby and enter the world of parenthood. 2006 is going to be a very big year in our family. A year to be thankful for, a year to open our doors to and welcome with a smile. Clearly, we will all have big resolutions for the new year. As for me, I'm going to enjoy my family more than ever this year, and appreciate the little things a little more. Keep in touch with family a little better, maybe send out Birthday cards for once in my life, and try to do the little things that I know mean so much. I'm going to smile more, think more and play more. Most of all, I'm going to work on being a supportive wife, listening mom, caring daughter and supportive friend.