It's been another good few days. There hasn't been any serious drama to report and my kids have been pretty good. Ryan has been creating a bagging system for his lawn mower and it's been frustrating him to no end. I was going to take a picture so you could have a visual of what this "thing" looks like but he disconnected it because it wasn't working. After two days of tinkering with it to make it work he still ended up taking it off so he could mow the lawn. He was so frustrated and discouraged. I still have faith that he will get it working to his satisfaction. I know he'll at least try and try. He believes the reason it wasn't working was because the lawn was too long and too wet. You see, he has this 4 foot long tube that runs from the lawn mower in to a trailor and the grass kept getting clogged. It was and is an excellent idea but I believe the tube is too long and needs to run more straight. We'll see once the grass is dry and now that it's not too long.
Kieran got his Halloween costume yesterday. Yeah, he's already driving us crazy about Halloween and I was silly enough to say he might be able to have a party. I feel kind of bad for him because his birthday is in August so he's not in school to invite all of his friends to a big birthday party. He always has family parties. So, I was thinking that a Halloween party might be a good way to make it up to him. We'll see though...
Lately, we've been trying to teach Kieran how to save his money and not spend it the minute he gets it. It's been hard trying to get this through to him. If anyone has any ideas please email them to me or post them. He has the opportunity to earn a dollar a day doing chores and if he doesn't complete his chores or his homework he doesn't get his dollar for that day. Instead of giving him the cash each day we put stars and X's on a calendar and total the amount at the end of the month. He gets a star for the days he earns his dollar and an X for the days that he doesn't. We usually tally the amount on a sheet of paper and tell him that it's going into savings. He's allowed to "get" money from us and it's taken away from his total. This keeps him from having cash and spending it like it's burning a hole in his pocket but we want him to desire to save his money for something nice. It's evading to us what to do.
Steffanie has been quite the good little girl. She's been acting a little too independant though. She's been taking off outside when she feels like it and she's been going down our driveway to play in the gutter. We've tried all the disciplinary ideas we can think of and the only thing she truly hates is being put in time out. It's so dificult being a parent and trying to teach your children boundaries.
The napping and taking a rest idea that I mentioned in a previous post is working out really well. She took a rest yesterday but the 2 days before that she took good naps. She's been getting up somewhere between 6 and 7 and napping at around 1. Then to make things all that much better for me, she's been going to bed at about 8:30, 9:00...I love the break I get at nap time and then having her going to bed early has been a super treat.
Sadie has been quite animated lately. She's been pulling some of the funniest facial expressions and she just babbles away. She has been so cute, but honestly, when have I mentioned her being anything but adorable? She is such a mellow and content baby. I can hardly believe that when she was born she cried all the time and slept terrible. She's still not a big sleeper but she is a happy little critter. Don't get me wrong she will still crawl over to you and cry til you pick her up but she usually just roams around and plays on the floor. Her latest thing is to crawl after you as you go from room to room. She likes to be part of the party. She also just started pulling herself to her knees from anything. She likes to get on her knees. She usually will get on her knees and rock back and forth. It's so stinking cute.