Movie night...

We've been doing movie night for about 2 months now, and this is something I needed to blog about coz its one of the things that I really want to remember.

Channel 7 have been kindly showing great kids movies at 6:30pm every Saturday night. Perfect timing for our little ones. The movies usually finish at about 8:30 (sometimes 9pm for a longer movie or one with more ads!) so the kids think they are staying up REALLY late!

We've had special movie food-popcorn and a milkshake. The kids think its fantastic and hey, if you can't have junk food at the movies, when can you, right?

So far there has been lots of Disney Pixar films shown, which are my favourite. We've seen the likes of Toy Story 1, 2 & 3, the Incredibles, Finding Nemo, Up and loads more. Hopefully they will start to head into Christmas movies now that we are almost in December.

Luckily we have a good stash of kids DVDs so if anything undesirable is scheduled, we can change things up and the kids will be none the wiser. (I have my fingers crossed for the Tinkerbell series soon...I love them!)

I know this new tradition won't last forever, in fact it will probably only last until Channel 7 realised there is something better to show than old cartoons!

But for now it's lovely to snuggle on the couch, in our PJs and watch some awesome animated movies.

Big Kids..

There are many signs of becomming a big kid...some momentous, some not so...

Alex knows he is a big kid now because he does wee and poo in the toilet.

Megan knows she's a big kid becuase she no longer needs the straps on the back of her thongs!

Recent events...

Here are some recent events at our place...

Lego is still a winner, though the interest is waning. We have only pulled out a few handfuls from Mike's massive stash, but that hasn't stopped the odd Lego man appearing under furniture and usually under my foot!

We painted some cardboard yesterday to create some cool dinoasurs for Alex's Dinosaur Party in a few weeks. Alex's interest was held for about 15 minutes, Megan's was much longer. Surprise, surprise!

 

 

These are our completed Dinosaurs, except Mr T-Rex is now extinct because the dogs chewed him up. Not happy Jan!!!!



Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer Chocolate Crackles have been a hit too. Mike made these for work, but we got to eat some...and there are ingredients left over. SCORE!!!!!

Toilet training with Alex has been going really well. Amazingly so. And apparently it's ok to let little boys have a wee in the garden. I'm not quite sure, but it has made much less washing for me coz he doesn't have to race inside, so I'll put up with it.....for now.

 

Different versions of the same child...

Why is it that the Version of the child that we know is so different from the version they show everyone else?

What is it about parents that seem to bring out the worst in their child?

Of course we also get the absolute best bits as well, but there seems to be distinct personas that are brought out in certain situations.

As a teacher, I often get to see the good version. Perfect angels in the classroom get labelled as horrors by their parents. Why is that?

Recently at Alex's creche there was an "altercation" with another child and Alex was hurt. Immediately I asked if Alex did anything to the other child and the staff almost laughed at me. "Not Alex!" one said with a chuckle.

Really?? Don't they know my son and how nasty he can be? I guess he doesn't show that version of himself at crèche.

Here's my theory on the unconscious dialogue that goes through kids heads...

About the teacher:
"I think I know my teacher pretty well, I've tested out all the boundaries, but just in case, I'll do what I'm told and be good." (Of course there are always exceptions to this theory- in fact I can name several!!)

At home:
"I'm comfortable with Mum/Dad, they will love me no matter what so I can throw that tantrum and they will still love me tomorrow"

Makes sense right?

But I also know those kids who don't have a good home life and I really can't be sure if Mum/dad will love them no matter what. What about them?

They push the boundaries a bit further at school, and are generally a bit harder to deal with but most teachers can find a way around them. What is it that makes them want to be good for their teacher?

I can't figure that one out.

Thankfully Alex IS part of the "Mum/Dad will love me tomorrow not matter what he does" group, but I'm still crossing my fingers that he continues to only lets his inner demon out at home!

Little White Lies...

*****Spoiler Alert**** 

Don't read this to your kids
 (as if I really think you do anyway!!!!!)

Why are little white lies ok?

Is it because we want our kids to hang onto that childhood innocence as long as possible?

"Santa Claus, fairies and dragons are all real"

Or is it because we want to save ourselves some sanity?

"When you press the walk button at the lights, it takes ten seconds for the lights to change. If you keep pressing it, it still takes ten seconds from the last time you pressed it"

"When the ice cream truck plays music, it means they are out of ice cream!"

I'm sure there are more sanity saving little white lies out there....please share some of yours. I'm sure I'll need them one day!!!

It begins again...

I thought of a few titles for this post that weren't exactly savoury. "#1s for Number 2" was the one that made me chuckle a little too much!

The fact of the matter is that we took the plunge and took Alex's nappy off...not just for nudey time, but hopefully for good.

He has been interested in the toilet on and off for a few months. He has been to the toilet successfully a few times as well, but never more than once. He has even been grabbing himself through the nappy, and when asked "Do you need to go to the toilet?" his reply was always "No!" coz it was too late.

But since there was a stretch of days ahead of us where Alex would be mainly at home or at the Grandparents, we thought "Let's go for it!". The nappy came off and the undies went on. He seemed to know what he had to do and when and he loved running around with his little jocks on and no shorts. (That was his bonus for wearing undies - and my laziness... if he had any accidents, I only had to wash undies and not pants as well!)

Overall, I would class day one as a success especially by the fact that he didn't want the nappy back on at bedtime. But we can only deal with one thing at a time, and night toilet training can wait a little while.

But as we learned the hard way with Child #1*, toilet training is not as easy as all the toilet-train-your-child-in-two-days gurus make out.

So we will wait and see.....with fingers crossed...and toes...and eyes....!

     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     * 

*If you aren't up to speed on the looooooong saga with Child #1, see here and here!

Pocket Money...

We've started giving the kids pocket money...and so far so good!

I've also heard different ideas when it comes to pocket money.

1. Do jobs around the house to earn a certain amount. If you don't do your jobs, you don't get any money.
2. Do jobs around the house simply because you are part of the family and it is expected that everyone helps out. Get money regardless of doing those jobs.

There are aspects out of both of these methods that I like. I think kids understand the idea that if I don't do my bit, I don't get the other bit. This teaches the valuable life lesson of GETTING A JOB!But I also really like the concept of doing things for the good of the family. It's the whole intrinsic/extrinsic motivator issue from my uni days!!

So we have kind of combined the two.

The kids HAVE TO keep their rooms tidy by:

• putting shoes and toys put away
• keeping their bed tidy, eg, doona pulled up= making their bed, and pj's put away

and they both get $1 each weekend.

Not part of the deal and things they have to do regardless of pocket money are:

• setting the table at dinner time
• taking own plates/cups to the sink after a meal
• taking own clothes to the washing baskets
• taking creche/kinder bags to their rooms

I wondered if it was a bit too early for pocket money, for Alex especially. But Megan is very good at remembering what she has to do and Alex tends to follow her lead. The simple reminder of pocket money is enough to get them doing those few things to make my life a tad easier.

They bought a bag of lollies each on the first pay day, and a toy on the next (thank heavens for Kmart's $1 toy range!). Neither like the idea of saving this week's money to use next week, but that is fine.

I think we can stick to $1 until they start to realise there is such thing as $2 and notes!!

Losing Robbie...

For those familiar with our family, you'll know who Robbie is and how important he is. For those new around here, he is a blanky-type toy belonging to Alex. Robbie is there when Alex feels sick, sad, and almost everything in between!



Robbie can get quite gross after being dragged around so much.
Read here and here for my thoughts on that!

As is normal for an almost 3 yr old, Robbie gets dropped as soon as something more interesting takes Alex's fancy. Which means we find Robbie in all manner of places.

And sometimes, Alex deliberately hides Robbie in weird places...coz it's fun. The only problem is that he forgets where that weird place is and we spend hours and hours (seriously!!) looking for him.

The other night we couldn't find Robbie again, even after looking in cupboards, under couches and in the fridge (yes, we've found him there before!) So Alex went to bed without him, without much of a fuss I might add.

We did find him the next day, hidden at the very back under Alex's bed. Heaven knows how he got there.

The new rule is he must always stay in Alex's room and is only for bed time. So we might be at the stage where he doesn't need his bunny-blanket-thing as much as he used to.

One more indicator that my baby is no longer a baby, and he is well on his way to becomming a a bone-fide boy!

Gushing...

We FINALLY received Megan's kinder photos yesterday, and I thought I'd share, coz they are just SOOOOOOOOOO beautiful! (and surprisingly not too pricey!)



If you look closely, you can see that she is writing her name...CUTE!!

I was undecided about sending her for photos in her boring Kinder t-shirt, that was no doubt smudged with playdough, paint and fruit. But I figured This is what she is like at 3yr old kinder and that's what I want the photographer to capture.

And now presenting, my absolute favourite photo of them all.......



A family past-time...

My family on my Dad's side has always played cards. My Nana, the Matriarch at almost 90, is the family teacher and has passed her love onto her four boys, her ten grandchildren and now onto the next generation. She always says, "I teach them the games and then they beat me at them!"

We know a variety of games, and some are much more skilled than others. But whenever we get together with a bit of spare time (which is almost never!), the cards invariably come out.

When I was playing Gin Rummy with Nana a few weeks ago, the kids wanted to join in. At four and almost three years of age, pretty much everything in my small repertoirre was beyond them.

So we taught them SNAP! It was a very slow, deliberately leading game, but the kids loved the competition of it and Alex's attention was captured for at least 8 or 9 minutes!!!

From my point of view, the games were always for fun, although getting loads of draw fours in Uno can start to increase my blood pressure! And if things ever got too intense, Nana would always come out with her trade mark line of "We're not playing for sheep stations". It's become a family joke now!

I'm hoping that the kids' interest will stick around long enough to teach them a few more basic games, along with teaching them the important lesson of losing gracefully!