Eventful weekend

Of, course, if you have three days for a weekend, you should do something with it, right? Well,we had all sorts of miscellaneous things this past weekend. Lex pooped on Bry-D for the first time. Which isn't a big deal-it was bound to happen, but when Bry-D threw his _very_ poopey pants in the washer for a spin cycle with a double rinse(just to be sure) he forgot to take his phone out, and it wasn't until he called it a few hours later, that he remembered where it was. Which lead to a discussion about getting new phones. We found out he wasn't due for a free upgrade for awhile, but I was. My mom had also kindly offered me her old blackberry pearl. I'm pretty basic when it comes to my phone-Camera-not necessary, but I'll use it if it has one. MP3 player-my phone has one and I've never used it-can't see the purpose in it if I'm always home or close to a radio. As long as it sends and receives texts, and calls, I'm fine. We made the decision that he could take the pearl at least until he could upgrade. This was fine with me, but then Bry-D started looking online, and picked out a phone he thought I'd like. He isn't usually someone to just spend money because(even with the contract it cost $$), so I went along with it. It's a pink Blackjack refurb, Bry-D used the pink part as a selling point to me, which I thought was cute-it has these bells and whistles that you don't care about-and it's pink, which you do care about! Yes, I have chosen most of my cell phones based on their color-it's what matters to me. Then we had a surprise sleepover invite for Eliz from my sister. So I met her halfway-we live about 45 minutes apart. A friend had asked if we wanted to go to dinner, which I thought was cool, but Bry-D wasn't interested-"I thought you wanted to hang out just the two of us." How sweet. We stayed in, but rented a movie, and in the morning, I kept waiting for Eliz to come into our room. It felt too quiet to me w/o her there. Bry-D didn't agree. After church we went to my parents house fro a cookout/birthday get-together. G-man and Taters were both turning 3, so Shell made a cake, that had G 3 T on it, and Char(formerly known as Chuck) didn't get what it meant, even after we explained it to her. Who's the 3? Dad grilled and, as usual, it was phe-nom-inal! Oh, yeah, and there was this race in town, umm, the Indy 500, I think it's called. Bry-D didn't go, we had a really small group this year-I guess we're all getting old. I got some crafting in, made Lex a butterfly mobile, check my other blog for the step by step how to. So, now I'm tired and still waiting for the postman to deliver a couple of books I ordered. Drive faster! Skip everybody else and come to me first!

Lazy Parenting

Every parent has had at least one instance of lazy parenting. There are all sorts of examples-you can hear them in a place they probably shouldn't be, and instead of doing what you should, you ignore it. Maybe for a minute or so, maybe longer. When you get up to take care of things, you've got the aftermath of Katrina to deal with. That's the thing with lazy parenting-you are the one who suffers-not your kids-they are going to remember it as the time they got to fill the bathtub up with an entire bottle of bubble solution. Even if you make them clean up what turns out to be an entire tube of toothpaste squeezed out all over the bathroom, you're still going to deal with the worst part of it. Either the time lost, or something needs to be replaced, or guilt b/c you waited to see if the baby would go back to sleep, only to find out that he'd gotten himself stuck in an uncomfortable position. And we usually know that we're going to get bitten in the butt, so why do we do it? Why do we continue to sit and watch, or read, sew, whatever, knowing that when we go in there, we are _not_ going to like what we see-a beautiful painting...in the carpet...I really thought I'd get smarter with age, but as I look back at the lazy parenting moments of my life, I feel totally clueless. Anyone care to share these moments?

What made me think of my ox...

I was reminded of Bry-D's stubborn streak because of a discussion we had about Eliz and Lex, and schooling, and just general lifestyle. Because Eliz's birthday is in September, she can't go to school until 2010. Unless we go my route, and she goes to a Montessori school. If I could have my ideal, she would go to a Montessori school until she graduates, but there aren't many that go to that age. Montessori is divided by age and the age groups are called Periods-I think the 15-18 age is Period 7, but I'm probably wrong. Anyway. I would definitely define myself as Montessorian, and also, passionately so. Before Eliz was born, I started telling Bry-D about all the things I wanted to do. And all those things were, at the very least, unconventional. Bry-D's response to, well, all of them, was, "No." And sometimes he added, "That's not how my parents did it, so it's not how we're doing it." He even admitted once, after Eliz was born, that he felt his parents way was the only "correct" way. All the things I wanted to do were Montessori-before I had even gotten pregnant, I had been studying the Montessori Method, and loved it. If I were to define Montessori in one word, it would be Freedom. Freedom for your child to discover what something is, and not be told. Maria Montessori called it independence, and the way it's done, they are about the same thing. She also said, "Follow the child" When something in one of MM's principles doesn't quite mesh, I follow the child. In all of MM's theories and principles, you can see the foundation comes from following the child. This is not to say that children run amuck, they are given a prepared or controlled environment to discover in.
I wanted to follow Montessori as much as possible, and once I started staying home with Eliz, I started to implement it. When I showed Bry-D that I had started training Eliz to get her food space set up and cleaned up at about 18 months, he was like, "cool!" But I never told him I did it because it was Montessori. I've always been really picky about her toys, and there are toys we were given that I intentionally never encouraged her to play with. I'm not going to be a tyrant to other people, but I will be the filter for my daughter-I decide, in the end, what she gets to play with. Out of a guilty conscience she has gotten to play with everything anyone has ever given her, but things I didn't like got rotated out faster than others. So, I've been working at home with her, using primarily Montessori methods. And to be honest, I think in my heart, I've come to the conclusion that if she can't go to a Montessori school until at least age 12, I'll home school her. Now then, with Lex, things have definitely changed. When I brought up some of the things I wanted for Lex that Bry-D hadn't allowed with Eliz, he was hestant, but in the end said, "I trust your judgement, we'll do what you think is best." Wow. Hearing him say that, I fell in love all over again.

How I get my ox to move

My ox is my dear and sweet hubby, Bry-D. I am not insulting him by calling him an ox, I think that sounds alot better than calling him phlegmatic. If you've ever read about personalities, you might recognize either of these-Tim LaHaye has a book about four different personalities, based on Hippocrates four personalities. And Bry-D is very phlegmatic, or a strong ox. The ox personality is stubborn. Unmovable. Really, just like an ox. I was thinking about Bry-D's ox traits because of a completely different subject that I will post about later, but I realised some interesting things. First, I'm glad I read about personalities-if I hadn't I might have tried to change Bry-D, and honey, there ain't no changing an ox. Think about an ox-they stand and do what they are interested in-eat grass. Ever tried to move an ox? Try pushing, shoving, hitting, kicking, or yelling at him, and the most you will get is either a look or maybe he will shift his weight. You can get an ox to move by taking a big stick, hitting him upside the head as hard as you can, and telling him, MOVE. Then he'll amble away, disinterested, and not really sure why you felt the need to be so violent. Sheesh. All you had to do was ask. I realised early on that Bry-D was unmovable, and if things were going to go well, I had to adapt. And that was fine, b/c I'm good at that. Mostly I had to change how I went about trying to get him to move. See, as I've mentioned, I love change, Bry-D hates change. New things, different things, go completely against his nature, so I've come to the conclusion that God brought us together so that I could teach him how to have fun, and try new things. Likewise, Bry-D teaches me to be responsible and stable. As much as I'm able. So, I realised that I've found out his weakness, or the big stick that I have. It is me. If something is important to me, he'll do it, because he's a softie and wants me to be happy. It's not as simple as it sounds, though. I have to get his attention, get him to consider whatever it is, and then make sure he understands, this is important to me. And, just because he's agreed to do something, doesn't mean he jumps on the wagon and moves forward in that direction. He seems to have two speeds-slow, and slower. I have tried to jump on his back, dig in my spurs and yell "giddyap!" He just looks at me like I'm crazy and keeps eating grass. So, I have learned to wait. And wait. And sometimes, wait some more. Frustrating man moves slower than a turtle. And I have to be repetitous. I have to say over and over again that I want to do something, in several different settings, and then, somewhat unsure, he'll say, "this must be really important to you, you've mentioned it before." Well, duh. Pain in the neck ox.

How did I get so confused?

Okay, so now, instead of having the whole week free, we have something going on everyday! It's so crazy! I got my weeks mixed up, and today is the second to last MOPs, so I didn't want to miss it, Thursday I have to go to get an estimate on the car, and Friday I'm working(also working Sat) So, EC starts next week, please disregard my earlier statement as lunacy brought on by warm weather. And an over eagerness to avoid poo. In other news, the general rearranging of the house is going well, altho Bry-D wasn't thrilled(to say the least) when he came home from work and found a dresser in the bed of his truck. He rode his motorcycle, so his truck sat there all inviting and empty, so I filled it with the afore mentioned dresser(which is just huge). I called a friend, and we grunted and groaned the dresser into the bed of the truck. I was supposed to drive it to goodwill while she hung out with our kiddos, but well, we talked a bit, and I never made it. However, Eliz's room has been put back together, quite well, if I do say so. Now to paint it! And, yesterday I had a big surprise when I opened the gar5age door to let Bry-D and his motorcycle in...

She has never, never, been willing to sit on his bike when it's on, let alone ride on it! She was in the backyard when he came home-I've heard him hollering for her to climb on before, and usually she comes running inside to tell me Daddy's bike is to loud and scary. So this is a big moment. He had a huge grin, it only took him 4 years to get her on it.

That's it we're going diaperless!

Well, so much for in-house fort week-it's supposed to be really nice all week. No, I'm not really complaining, just letting you know that we'll be making crayons and probably kaleidoscopes or pinwheel's this week. Or maybe mobiles for Lex. We'll see.

As for the title, yes, I've decided to infant potty train or Elimination Communication, or whatever you want to call it. I call it I-don't-want-to-change-poopie-diapers-from-a-table fed-baby. I babysat for my big sis, and she has 1 year old twins and a almost 3 yr old that's been resisting potty training. Altho her message earlier said potty time was going well. After one morning and two poopie diapers, my memory is refreshed of the stench. And I'm selfish enough, I'm not going to do it. Please, don't think I'm some over-achiever(trust me, nothing could be further from the truth) this has everything to do with my own comfort. I'd been seriously considering it, and I'd mentioned it to Bry-D, he was fine with it-not having to deal with yucky poop is worth a little extra effort for him. Michelle(big sis-aka the bossy one) and I had talked about getting together for two days in a row and potty training her kids, and I had said something to her about my interest in infant training Lex. Well, after tomorrow we have no where to go this week, so I'm going to start holding Lex over the potty and saying "Pss, Pss" or "Ugh, Ugh"(this is an oversimplification of EC, by the way). I have been asked to fill in on Friday @ my former workplace, and I'm already supposed to be working there this Saturday, so that may make things hard. I'm not going to ask someone else to potty train my child, or use cloth diapers if they aren't used to them. Unless it's my sister. Then, well, she's my sister, I'll be as unreasonable as I want to be. EC is a cultural thing in some places, and also Montessori, as well as being recommended in "To train up a child" which is my favorite book on raising children. Bry-D and I will have to talk about how it's going so he'll know what to do. He doesn't really like cloth diapers-to much contact with poop-but disposables really go against EC(I like how short that term is-that's why I use it)so he'll have to suck it up. Or as the rather appropriate saying goes, Put on his big boy undies and deal with it.

Here's a couple cute pictures of Lex on his movement mat.

The little booger didn't want to sleep, so I laid him there for a bit, he started sucking his thumb and laid his head down, so I moved him to his bed; he was still fussy, but now he's quiet. No, wait, he's fussing again. I think he's hungry. He may be ready for some cereal-lately he's seemed hungry even after a full feeding. Have to call the Dr. and see when his 4 month checkup is. Maybe they'll ok him to start some rice cereal a little early. Which means stinky poo. And that's what I want to avoid. Woo-hoo potty seat here we come!

Watercolor recipe and other how to's

It has occurred to me that people may want to know how to do some of the crafts I post about, mostly because I just read a how to about no-dig gardening that was really neat-not something I would do, but still cool. Anyways, I've posted pictures about three crafts, all really simple, and really fun. So here are the directions for each of those three.
#1- Rock Paperweight-
Rock-the size of my fist, or your fist, I guess
Paper-any paper will do, it's easier if you use lightweight paper, tho
Glue
Water
Wax paper or some kind of work mat-unless you want to try to clean glue off of the table
Big Paintbrush

Mix glue and water, stir really well. Tear paper into pieces, and dip or use a paintbrush to cover paper with glue. Press paper onto rock, use as much paper as you'd like. If you are using a heavyweight paper, you will have to get it _really_ covered with glue for it to bend around the rock. Once you are satisfied(or just done watching the child cover themselves with glue) use the big paintbrush to shellac the rock with leftover glue. This can take up to a day and a half to dry, so keep it on the work mat and put it where it's out of reach.

#2 Rainmaker/music shaker-
Cardboard tube-ie, paper towel or wrapping paper
Tape
Glue
Various sizes of beans and rice
Heavyweight paper
Misc. decorating supplies-crayons, markers, glitter

Cut out 2 circles the size of the tube end, and tape one circle onto one end of tube. Use lots of tape to make sure the you don't spill the beans and rice-a pain to clean out of carpet(unless you have a dog that's a vacuum cleaner, then you just call them over and let them suck it up). Pour any mixture of beans and rice into the container. Different amounts of different sizes will give a different effect-heavy rain-lots of big beans(Lima) soft rain, lotsa small grain rice, etc. Tape the other circle to the other end, again, really well. Now decorate! I usually glue a piece of paper over the taped ends for looks, then decorate over those, but you do what you like.

#3-watercolor paints
4 tbsp baking soda
2 tbsp white vinegar
1/2 tsp glycerin(some stores you have to get it from the pharmacy, some stores have it out, it's used for all sorts of things, making lotion, stain removal, so you'll have to ask where it is)
2 tbsp cornstarch
food coloring

Mix baking soda and vinegar, after it stops foaming(which is a great sink cleaner, btw)add glycerin and cornstarch, stir well. If you've ever made Goo(cornstarch and water) the texture will be familiar. If not, check this link, it's great! Anyway, spoon about a teaspoon or less into small compartments-egg carton works really well, but you'll be tempted to use to much per compartment, then the paint doesn't really work(this is the voice of experience, not just an opinion)so be careful! Now add food coloring, and make different colors. Let this dry overnight.

So there are those. I'll keep posting about our crafts and I'll make sure to post how they are done when I post them. The forecast for next week is more rain, and I'm kinda excited about that. Indoor Fort Time! I'll be heading over to Sears and getting a couple big appliance boxes to use for that. Need lots and lots of duct tape for that, too. Happy Friday and everyone have a great weekend!