I have my fourth batch of zucchini bread in the oven so I have a few minutes to write a post while I wait for it to finish baking. The kids and I brought a batch of zucchini muffins to our elderly neighbor, Joe. He is a very nice widower and I thought he might like some baked goods. Then we headed to the park. Sawyer met a little boy at the park who was two weeks older than he. The boys had a fun time playing together while the little boy’s mother and I visited. Maybe the boys will end up in the same four year old kindergarten class next fall.
Just a side note on kindergarten, I just heard on the news that gov’t is trying to make kindergarten mandatory for children. Children will not be allowed to enter first grade until they have completed kindergarten. I guess the problem now is that kindergarten is not mandatory so attendance cannot be enforced.
Both kids had back to back doctor appointments on Monday. Sawyer was pretty awful. I’m not sure what got into him but he was at his worst. I suppose it happens to all parents at one time or another. He was getting into everything and not obeying. As a parent, you don’t want to do too much scolding in public but then it looks as if you have a very unruly child that receives very little discipline. When we got home, Sawyer spent a very long time in ‘time-out’. On the plus side, both kids appear to be very healthy.
Tuesday night was our first night of Awanas. Sawyer had a great time in Puggles (the 2-3 year old class). At one point, I walked past his classroom and saw all the kids (about 20 children) sitting at the little tables with their hands folded and heads bowed in prayer. It was really cute and it lifted my spirits to know that all of these children are learning about God at such a young age. All of the kids in the class received a Puggles t-shirt and will get some kind of kit (or box) for the year’s activities.
Peter and I have volunteered to work at Awanas. I love babies so I requested to be put in the youngest class which is basically just a nursery. Including Peter and I, there were four adults and seven babies. There should be two more babies next week. I enjoyed taking care of the babies and I think Peter did, too. On the drive home, Peter told me that he had been nervous but it wasn’t as hard as he thought it would be. I’m sure some nights will be easier than others.
Sawyer is finally day time potty trained. He has done a great job the last two weeks and has had only one accident. I think the deal breaker was telling him that he couldn’t go to the Eve of Destruction (a race/demo derby type event) unless he did all his business in the toilet. He will only pooh in the little potty chair but I’m okay with that. Now we need to start working on night time training.
Here are some recent pictures of the kids.
Awww… I love the 2nd picture of both your kids. They are soooooo adorable!!!!
I’m glad you are having an enjoyable summer. That is very sweet of you to share your baked goodies with your neighbor.
Also, I am proud of Sawyer too for being day potty-trained! We have been working on Jordan’s night-time potty training and so far, this week he has had no accidents, and goes to the toilet himself. For a week or two I have been waking them up twice at night to take both him and Aubrey to use the toilet. Aubrey would wake up and go to our room to wake me up and ask me to help her do her in the toilet. Jordan’s rewards are more Thomas & Friends trains, and a Thomas the Train bedding.
Laurie – Sawyer’s rewards were Thomas and Friends trains, too. However, they are very expensive so we only did six and then I started buying some cheaper rewards (coloring books, stamps, etc.). I ran out of rewards yesterday so I gave Sawyer two pieces of candy and he seemed completely satisfied with that so maybe we will continue with the candy reward.
That is a good idea about waking the kids up at night. Maybe I will give that a try with Sawyer.
Your kids are so cute! I can’t say it enough! It sounds like your church lessons turned out great. It is so nice that Sawyer has something like that to go to.
It also sounds like Sawyers doing great potty training! I’ve heard that the second child sometimes learns more quickly because they watch the older one. I hope that is the case for my kids.
I hope the gov’t doesn’t make kindergarten mandatory. I think it’s nice that the parents have a choice about certain things regarding their children.
Amy – I know… the T & F trains are quite expensive. We didn’t give him the trains every single time he did good. The trains were the bigger rewards, like a week or two of being successful w/ his night potty-training (or at least he shows us he is trying his best). We also have puzzles for bigger rewards for him. He is big enough that he can understand and appreciate the trait of “patience.”
When he was younger though, we did the M&M treats (in addition, we can teach him his colors by giving him an extra M&M if he can correctly identify the color of the M&M candy) and stickers for him for when we started potty training him. That worked really well for us!