I really love holidays. I don't know how many times have written that on here but I do. They make me happy. I love how they can change up routines just to add a little extra fun. Valentines is an especially fun one with young kids. Having Jared and Lydia has also brought in the new fun of holiday themed learning activities. I was excited to do them with them this Valentines season and sadly they were just not that interested. We did most of the ones I planned but I thought we would do them a lot more. We had fun heart shaped meals and made our favorite cookies. each day of the week I had a little gift an valentine for them and they loved coming downstairs and seeing what was in their mailboxes. It was fun to have Jared be able to read what I wrote on the Valentines as well. We also heart attacked Mark's car at school and then Mark and I decorated Jared and Lydia's door and placed some heart shaped balloons in their bedroom. I found them at Hobby Lobby a few weeks ago when I went out with some friends which I don't know if I ever blogged about. (We drove over to Short Pump by Richmond and went to the new Cafe Rio, Hobby Lobby and Costco. It was sort of a West Coast girls shopping day. We also stopped for cheesecake at the cheesecake Factory. It was a lot of fun. I have never really done the girls day outings and it is fun to be in a place in life to have friends to go with and have children at an age where it worked well. I am thankful to Mark for encouraging me to have a girls day out and for the really great people I have met since we have moved here)
Valentine Highlights:
Heart shaped french toast.
Yummy Sugar cookies. We made them for Mark to take to a YM's activity.
Morning Mailboxes
Each morning Lydia would ask me, " Did you get us chocolates today Mama?" They each got a little chocolate box on Valentines morning. *Side note she has ben calling me Mama pretty regularly the last 2 months or so. It's fun. I do wonder where she got it from though.
We also made my favorite cookies, peanut butter blossoms with Dove milk chocolate kisses. We went over to Mark's school to heart attack his car and drop some off to him but the secretary would not let us take them up to him! She said they did not like to interrupt classes unnecessarily. I was really bummed and (irritated if I am being 100% honest). There was about 20 minutes left in class, they were not testing and it was the day before Valentines. So much for trying to surprise your spouse and let your kids see their dad. The 2 other schools Mark has worked for didn't care at all if we came in. It was sad and annoying. We dropped some off to some friends here as well.
I really loved these balloons.
Pink heart shaped sprinkled pancakes with a pink smoothie for Valentines breakfast.
We did get some fun activities in. We did most of the ones I planned I just wish they would have wanted to do them more often. Not just once.
These hearts had actions on them so I played music and when it stopped we picked a heart and did what it said. This was act like a cat.
Finding hidden hearts
Matching letters.
Filing in letter S and one to one correspondence
Beginning sounds Conversation Hearts.
Counting (one day I know she will figure out number recognition it is not today)
Graphing conversation hearts
Color sorting and counting
M & M hearts
We also did an activity for FHE where we wrote out one thing we love about each other and handed them out.
Jared:
Lydia: he shared his workers with me
April: Listened well and said "yes Mommy"
Mark: Asked me to play with him
Lydia:
Jared: Plays pirates with me
April: Give me nice culled
Mark: Gives me big bear hugs
April:
Jared: Takes me to preschool
Lydia: Plays with me
Mark: Buys me 2 of the same things on Amazon for Valentines
Mark:
Jared: Takes me fun places
Lydia:Keeps us healthy with yummy green smoothies
April: Made us dinner
We ate dinner by candlelight and had our Valentine floats. I could not find strawberry soda in a 2 liter bottle but I found some raspberry soda so we use that with vanilla ice cream. It ended up tasting like an Italian cream soda and was so good. I made chicken tetrazini which is actually a pretty romantic meal for us as Mark made it for me the first night he kissed me. I think we have maybe had it one other time since that dinner 11 years ago. It was well received so it will be making more appearances. We finished the night with some valentine stories.
Jared and Lydia are really good at independent play. I have always wanted my kids to be able to entertain themselves. Not that I wouldn't play with them but I wanted them to know how to have fun without an adult. So they have learned this really well and since they do play well together and independently I have a hard time interrupting them. I read most of this parenting book awhile ago (the title is totally escaping me I like some of the ideas but is was definitely more of a "shock" kind of book the whole I don't make my kids share or make them say sorry approach) and it talked a lot about how "bad" it is to interrupt kids from playing and how important it is to let them have free play to use their imagination more. I do agree with this but I also feel like since we have lived here Jared and Lydia have had too much free time. I am sure it doesn't look like it from these pictures but these activities rarely take more than 5 - 7 minutes. They play a lot! I just feel like they have too much free independent time and now they are not listening as well. I wish I was better at just sitting and playing with them. It is an area I truly struggle with as a Mom. I like to be doing things (see above for evidence) so to just sit and play is so hard to me. Ever since Lydia's birthday I have felt like she especially does not listen or care what I want her to do. Lunch was a perfect example today. She had yogurt and some chicken nuggets on her plate. I was in the kitchen cleaning up some stuff and when I looked over she had decided to "paint" with her yogurt instead of eat it. She was using a divided tray and just smeared it all around her tray and her arms and hands were covered in it. She wasn't the least bit sorry. She has known since she was like 18 months old that this was not okay. She has been taught the correct way to eat. It was what she wanted for lunch. It was not like I was forcing something she didn't like on her. I really struggle with things like that. Just blatant disobedience really. She totally knows better. I feel like we are in a constant battle and it makes me angry and then I feel guilty for getting so mad. Much as I love Lydia, three has not been fun at all with her. I am so tired of her ignoring me and purposefully doing things she shouldn't and then feeling horrible all the time because I get so frustrated. I really hope that if I spend more time with them (less time playing alone) and show them I care and can be a good listener then they will get back in the right groove. I need to somehow find the right balance and be less selfish with time to myself something I have always struggled with. Looks like I am also going to be spending the next few night reading up on how to not let your kids control how you feel and how to encourage listening.
1 comment:
If nothing works, don't sweat it. Three years old is much worse than two years old—every single child of mine so far, and for many, many of my friends, too.
She'll likely grow out of it.
I had a monster of a child once. And I was never sure if we'd get along or if she'd ever behave appropriately. Now that she's seven she's AWESOME (and really, the awesomeness started around age 5). She's just so sweet and wonderful.
Those are NOT things I would have said to her at age three. Oh, boy.
Some ages you just have to get through. Try your hardest to help her and to help yourself, but it's also okay to sometimes feel like you're just not getting along with your children. You'll get through it. :)
I think you should try for more together time if that's what you feel you need to do (because moms should always do what they feel they need to do for their children), but try not to feel guilty about independent play, either. That's important for child development as well.
I'm sure you know all that. And I know you weren't looking for advice so I hope this doesn't come off sounding like I'm just passing it out anyway. It's really intended to be a solidarity fist-bump of motherhood. You've got this! You're a great mom with happy, wonderful children (who might push boundaries and your buttons...but that's part of childhood). :)
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