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The Dyer FamilySit Back and enjoy the ride.....
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5/22/2008 Weekend in previewI am soo looking forward to a long weekend that I have been thinking about it for the past few days.
We really do not have all that much going on this weekend but it will be three days rather than just two. That is enough to celebrate in my book. Of course Brian will be leaving on Saturday late morning (10am) and not returning until later on Monday--after dinner--I think.
The kids and I will be up to no good!!! WE have a date with the local donut shop for breakfast and coffee (no I will not feed the kids coffee, they do not need any more energy) then off to Julianna's gymnastics (Alex does not have a game or practice since they squeezed it all in this week). After that we are off to shop.
I have to get some errands run with them. I need to get everything I am responsible for the Monday Fun Run. OH wait..... I have yet to mention this on here. Or have I?? My friend and I have organized a small event for the neighborhood children. A Fun Run. We are hosting about 24 children split into age groups of undre 4, 5-7 and 8-10. None of the children over 10 wanted to participate. Can't say that I blame them it is more designed for the little guys!! The kids are running a race and then winning a prize. We have prizes for all who are participating and also some yummy food for them. Some healthy and some junk too. You need to balance this stuff out! Since it will not begin until 10am we have all morning to set it up and get it ready on Monday. I will have my camera on hand to take lots of picutres for the families. Believe it or not it is turnign out to be a success. All the families with children are participating witht he exception of 4 who are gone for the long weekend. Plus several families who have no children will be coming out to line the sides to cheer on the runners. It will be so adorable. Several kids have said to me "I am practicing Rose so I can win!!" then they run off.
Back to my weekend.
For the run I am responsible for the first prizes (a single movie pass), the finish line (crepe paper), the donuts and a portion of the door prizes (just small dollar typ stuff--from target or the dollar store).
We have to return a duplicate gift from Alex birthday and head over to Borders to pick out a book for each child. Alex has a gift Card and we can not leave Borders without a book for Julia too.
I need to run into Target and get a hanging stuffed animal holder for Julianna so her animals can get out of her toybox and off of the top and mak her tiny room a little more bearable (for me to look at!!) Thank goodness she is great at cleaning it up (for 3 years old) when she has friends playing in there but it is just a small space so it seems crowded. We should really look at donating toys to the daycare.
We also need to haed to the fish store and pick out the bottom feeder. The tank is finally looking nin need of his services. I will probably let Alex pick out another fish to add to the mix to--another red barb since the nipping and chasing is still going on.
I need to get a trash can for the deck. It is such a pain to have to run inside everytime we need to throw something out.
Then we are home for the rest of the day--until the evening wehn I leave to go scrapbooking with my friends. Papa will be taking care of the little ones while Dottie joins me. I just recieved the latest order of pictures yesterday. With Alexanders birthday in it. I will complete his album then. I will need to purchase a new one for him and for Julianna since I have yet to do that yet.
Sunday is a day home until about 1pm. I was hoping to head to the nursery to purchase some plants for the hanging pots and to plant in our little flower beds. I would love to be able to get the holly bushes I want too but we will see. Then after lunch time we are heading down to New Hampshire for a 50th birthday party and bonfire. Oh I need to pick up that gift on Saturday when I am out and about.
Monday is Fun Run morning then hopefully some throw together BBQ at a neighbors house. I would host but without Brian here I just do not feel right about it. Plus I have a difficutl time turnign on the grill. I should really get to learn that better--well in all reality another could turn it on for me. It would just be easier to walk up the streeet carrying food than to open my house and yard to it when Brian is not here to assist. Also when he dos arrive he would rather have the house all quiet and walk up to find us rather than come home to a huge shindig.
Hope your memorial day weekend plans are fun too!! 5/20/2008 My time....for the 5k was
27:27!!!!!!!
I improved by a lot. I think most of it had to do with the fact it was actually above freezing out!!
We will have to see if I can do better on July 4th. I will not hold out much hope.
That is all for now...Brian is taking care of the kids (daycare) for me while I go to a Doctors appointment so I need to make sure everything is set up and hope nobody needs a diaper change!! He said his diaper changing days are over!!! Good thing the kids love him so much or they would probably save all their poop up and punish him wiht it!!!
5/19/2008 Julianna's picturesSince I handed the camera over to Alex to take pictures of the webkinz, Julia needed her turn in the limelight too.
So she wanted the camera in daycare to take pictures of some spots she sits.
She gave a description of each of the pictures when I showed them to her the computer screen.
Here they are:
5/16/2008 It snuck up on me...My second 5K is Saturday.
Tomorrow.
I knew it was coming but I kinda sorta forgot. Good thing I have been running--the past few weeks anyhow.
It is supposed to rain. I hope it does not until after the race. I do not mind running in hot weather rain but not in spring time rain. It will barely be 40 degrees out Saturday morning so if you put rain on that it sill really chill me to the bone.
The kids and Brian are going to be there to watch, Dottie and Paul too!!! Alex has a game tonight--6:30pm. So late!!! We are going to skip on Julianna's gymnastics.
Tresa and Linda will be running as well.
I am again just looking to finish. I have not done well at trying ot train to get a better time than before. I have not really run all that much--I took almost 2 weeks off after the last race.
Naughty Naughty me!! Who knows I may surprise myself and do well.
have a great weekend! What am I teaching him?I will be the first to admit that everything I do is not exactly what I want my children to do or learn. I need to be a better role model for them and remember that what they see is what they will learn and emmulate.
That being said:
We, as parents, need to remember that what we teach our children is how we live every day. It is important to remember that even teachable moments may seem like they are directed in the correct manner but may come off wrong and perhaps teach the wrong thing. The opposite of what we may want to teach them. At least that is what happened to me.
A week or so ago, I had a child here and he was acting in a very inappropriate way. I thought that I would use that as a teachable moment for my son. The other child was not polite, acted very young for his age and was just annoying (to me). I later discussed this behavior with Alex. I mentioned that this child did not act politely and was being rather childish and acting like a 2 year old. I said that this was not appropriate and is not something I expect of him (Alex). Upon discussion and many question by alex as to why this child was behaving this way etc...I mentioned that his parents were not doing the right thing by him by letting him get away with that sort of behavior and it was wrong.
***side note....Alex was acting just like this child when he was here. He was imitating him and I was reprimanding him every step of the way. Alex did a very good job at balancing trying to be like this child but not upseting me. He would immediately listen to me but then smirk at the child and encourage the behavior of the other child. The other childs mother was present and she found nothing wrong with his behavior so she did not discipline him--even when I was doing so to Alex. She just smiled and stared into space like nothing was going on. FLAKE!!!!!!!!!!!--opps sorry. Alex walked a fine line while the child was here. So I decided that later I would use this as a teachable experience.
So anyhow....I will try to get back on track........
I was lecturing Alex and making an example of the child. Just to make the point that when your are 6 you act 6 not 2. I was also trying to teach him how he should not imitate his sister and do the things that she does. Trying to have him learn that she is not doing it to be silly but she is still learning some things and talking silly because she can not say the words all correctly etc. etc.
It backfired. He said that he was friends with this person, child. He said he thought he was funny and he liked him. He said that this child is nice and fun to play with. He genuinely thinks of this person as a friend and I dissed his friend. I made his friend sound like a POS. I made Alex feel bad just for liking this boy. Alex did not know what to do, feel or say. He was just stunned. I felt horrible.
What a terrible mom.... I took what I felt was a teachable moment and turned it into something bad. It was like saying "look at what you are doing and look at what they are doing" as if we should really compare. What is good for him and his family may or may not be good for our family. If it is okay for him to act that way to his parents who am I to say it makes him bad when he does it here? Who am I to say what they do is wrong in the first place? He is only a child and he is only acting the way he was taught.
After talking to Alex about this and how he was feeling, I learned that I was making Alex feel as though he should feel sorry for this boy that his family does not care for him enough to teach him how to behave properly and give him what he needs, and that he (Alex) is lucky to have parents that did this for him.
I was sooooooooo wrong. He should never ever feel that he has it better than anyone. Everyone does what they need to do, want to do or what they feel is right to do. Everyone has different standards for what they want for their children and selves. Nobody should dictate what is right or wrong for another.
I just almost taught my son that what we do, in this house, is perfect and what everyone else does is wrong. How bad it that?
That is ABOLUTELY NOT how I want to raise my children. I want them to have the ability to respect that everyone makes their own decisions and nothing is better, right or wrong.
I want them to understand that all people are different and they will do things, learn things, act, say things differently and that is fine.
I want them to never say that another person is weird because they do not follow the norm or to expect all people to live the way that he does and has been taught.
Why would I want him to think our way is the best and no other way is appropriate? What kind of person will that develop into? Isn't it more interesting to talk to someone with differing interests, thoughts and opinions than yourself? I find it rather invigorating and educating. I love to have my eyes opened and to get anothers perspective on a topic. To me a conversation with someone who shares my beliefs to a T is boring. Why would I want to have a conversation with a person like that? I may as well be talking to myself!!!!!!
I think everyone should take a moment to think about this and be sure they are not accidentally pushing ideas into our children that because they do it one way it is the best way. They (children) need to know that sometimes others may be doing is just as well, but differently.
I rectified this and apologized to Alex for it. I am going to try to ensure I do not do this again to him. I need to put my annoyances aside and do what is best for my son. Not teach him that he is better than others. That is the worst thing I can do for him.
Okay I shall step of my box for now......
oh............ Ineed to add that a few days later Alex had this boy over again and they were playing Star Wars and Alex wanted to be Mister Grievious (??) and this boy wanted to be Princess Leah. Alex question sho she was and why. The boy-who is 6- said because she is almost naked. Alex looked at him for a moment and shrugged then began the battle with the light saver swords.
I bit my tongue, tried not to laugh or judge and will try not to discourage Alex from playing with this boy--at least overtly!!! 5/15/2008 A message from JuliannaSince Alex shared so did she.....Alex took the pictures.
I have webkinz. Elephant, pink pony, brown kitty, bunny, coon. I want pig to be webkinz. I cried when I thought he was but he wasn't Mommy said it was okay he was still a pig. I sad but maybe next time we can buy a pig webkinz!!
A message from AlexAlex wanted to share this with everyone (he dictated I typed--he loved it!!):
Hi
Here are my webkinz. I have 7 of them but only 6 animals. I have one frog that I do not have a real animal of. It is Allie the big frog. A girl the only girl. I got it on a webkinz card. My webkinz names are Longy the snake, Jumpy the small frog, Softy the koala, Fasty the turtlea, Chocolate the brown dg and Gray the dog witha beard like grumpy. Olivia got me a soldier bag to put them in but I can only fit 5 in there. They are squishy and I have a hard time to zip it up. Oh yeah I also have a panda bear that is a star bear I named him blacky but he is not a webkinz.
Here are the pictures I took.
5/14/2008 End of the fish dramaThe fish we purchased at our last visit (a week ago yesterday) survived. With the exception of one of the red barbs. We may have to get another one when we get our bottom feeder. The other two are chasing the small silver guys around a ton!! Alex thinks it is a hoot because they are playing tag. he may not like it if he sees them take bite though.
He is doing a great job at taking on the responsibility of feeding the fish every morning or afternoon--or both sometimes!! For his birthday Dottie and Paulpurchased a great book aobut fish. We have read it several times and he loves it. It is all about how fish swim, eat, breathe and live underwater. It even talks about the food chain. Alex liked that part. He said "they just keep eating things that are smaller than them. Not like us we eat cows and they are definatley bigger than we are!! It is probably becasue we use guns and fish cant since they have no hands. But since I don't really like burgers I like Turkey and they are smaller than us so I am like a fish because I eat things smaller than me, only when I get bigger I can use a gun so I may like to eat cows, then I wont be like a fish anymore."
Without any further delay here is a photo of the fish tank.....
We have to face it..Speedy is gone.
We last saw him on Sunday May 4th at 8pm when he was let out doors. He was begging to go out. He was always in and out and in and out. He loved to be outside. He was just getting to the point where he would explore yards other than ours. He was noticed on our neighbors porch or in the gully area across the street. He even tampered with the black lab next door and almost got himself killed infront of us!! He was barely quick enought o get away from the dog.
He has yet to come home. I am curious as to why. Is someone in the neighborhood feeding him? He is relatively young and new to the neighborhood and they may not know where he belongs.
Is he dead? What could have gotten him? Should we worry that something which possibly killed our cat lives in the woods near our home??!!??
Should I put out posters saying we are missing a cat? Would he even go to a stranger if they tried to catch him?
Oddly enough the kids have yet to notice that he is missing at all. I guess they became used to not seeing him much after he began going outdoors. We have not yet had to deal with that aspect of losing him yet. How sad is that going to be? Alex still gets teary over Sadie and that was 3 years ago this August!! Even Julianna will say she misses Sadie and she was only just over 6 months old when we had to put her down.
As much as I would love to replace Speedy I cannot make any promises. Ashely is still alive and kicking..believe it or not!! She has survived in the woods on af ew occasion for a long time without going all feral on us so maybe he can too.
The worst part is we just got through the nasty kitten stage of scratching things and playing with everything. We also just dumped some money into him to have him spayed and all his shots.
If he returns I will let you know but for now may he rest in peace. 5/13/2008 A big girl nowAbout a week ago I was having a conversation with my brother and sister in law about their son who is the same age a Julianna. I was asking if they had a safety gate on the bed he sleeps in. They did not. They mentioned that they did not have any trouble with him falling out and getting hurt etc.
We had been toying with the idea to encourage her to get up herself and not yell when whe is ready to be taken out of bed. I was worried that she would fall out and get hurt. With Alex we took it off when she grew into the bed. I never gave it much of a though because he was 4 and we had to put it on her new bed.
Any how after the conversation we went home and took it off. She was sooo proud to be a gbig girl. She beamed as she looked at her bed. We (as we have multiple times before) told her tha when she wakes up in the morning she can get up all by herself and come to get us. We also reminded her that she can get up when she feels she has to go potty too so she can begin to keep her diaper dry at night. She nodded like usual and went to sleep.
The next morning who appeared in our room at 5:40am??? You are right Julianna. She was so happy that she did it all by herself. She said I a big girl now. She even told us exactly how she got up and what she did. Funny girl.
So now she is just over a week into it and has gotten herself out of bed daily, even for the few naps she has had too. Ww have not had one incident in which she gets up several times or has fallen out of bed. Coincidentally on the second night Alex fell out of bed. Brian heard a big thud and thought for certain it was Julianna but nope it was Alex. He was in the process of getting himself back into bed when Brian went into his room.
We even had one morning she woke up dry. Not that she got up to go potty in the middle of the night but because she actually held it all night. I hope to see more of this. We are fast approaching her being potty trained for a year and a half now and I am anxious to be done with all things diaper in this house. Plus it just irritates me to no end that she is still in the size 3 diaper!! I put her in the pull ups for 2T-3T at times but they tend to leak for overnights.
One downfall is that she is getting up almost an hour earlier than she used to--about the same time as Alex 5:15am. I guess I will have to start putting her down for naps so she can get the sleep she needs and not becomes too grumpy at 3pm.
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