Train Up A Child

Church Training

2011-10-09T12:49:00.000-07:00

At our church, there is no "sunday school hour", so the children just have "children's church" while the adults are in the service. While I appreciate this in some ways, I also feel like Eliana is missing out on some important training during the service. Sure, the sermon would be over her head at 5 years old, but I feel like she ought to be learning how to sit still, sing, and worship with us. So... for the past couple months I have been keeping Eliana in the service with me through the singing, announcements, offering, and prayer times, and then dismissing her to children's church for the sermon.

Sometimes she knows the songs and stands and sings with us. Other times she just wants to sit quietly while we sing, etc. I'm okay with that. I want her to see others worshiping God, and to know what it's like during "big people" church.

That being said, I also recognize that she is 5 and is not interested in the announcements, etc. I want her to learn how to sit quietly during a service, and that also means keeping her occupied. So with her Bible I also pack some sort of activity booklet for her to color while she's listening. Today she wanted to listen to the singing, not sing with us, so this is what she looked like:

From Instant Upload

She was quiet. She was still. She was engaged, and she occasionally stopped coloring, looked up, and focused on the words we were singing. I talked with her about some of the songs and what they meant.

Then, she got some money to put in the offering plate as it went by. She put away her book and crayons, and we practiced closing our eyes and sitting still and quiet during prayer. Then she got to go back to children's church and join in with them.

That's kind of how our Sundays at church go. What do you do with your kids during the church service? Does your church have a separate sunday school hour or do they combine sunday school with children's church?

Cooking when you have a dairy free kid...

2011-10-08T10:07:00.000-07:00

Eliana can't have any dairy (specifically casein) products, so sometimes that means that she has something different than we do for dinner. Or breakfast. Or lunch. Generally I like her to eat the same things we do, but a lot of what we eat has milk or cheese in it.

This morning Eliana and I made frittatas together, using this recipe as our baseline. We used our extra-large muffin pan (think Otis Spunkmeyer size muffins) and doubled the recipe. We made 3 frittatas for us and 3 frittatas for her. She enjoyed participating in the process, putting the mix-ins for hers herself. We added in chicken and cheese today.

Here's what was great about it...

She got to help and be a part of the process.
One dish, one baking time, one meal.
We didn't have to sacrifice taste and she didn't have to sacrifice allergic reaction.
We loved it!
She loved it!

Cooking when you have a dairy free kid can be tricky, but there's no reason you can't figure out ways around it without cooking 2 meals each night.

If you want to see what I do for Eliana for dairy-free lunches, check out my Bento*riffic blog!

Fun Sandra Boynton resource...

2011-09-18T14:20:00.000-07:00

As Eliana gets older, we are just about out of the Sandra Boynton phase. Every once in a while, though, Eliana brings me one to read to her. They are fun, whimsical, and I still love them. I'm glad she does, too! Today she brought me "Personal Penguin"

I vaguely remembered there being a personal penguin song, so I followed the link inside the cover to this website. I did find the great song that goes with the book (sung by Davy Jones of the Monkees!). You can listen to it here. It's fun!

If you're a Sandra Boynton fan, I definitely recommend checking out the site.

Caterpillars

2011-05-24T22:15:00.001-07:00

Last year for her birthday, Eliana got a butterfly garden kit. It came with everything but the caterpillars. We finally sent off for the caterpillars and they arrived in the mail about a week ago. Very soon they should be turning into chrysalis and then becoming butterflies! In the meantime, they are eating, getting fat, and wiggling around like so...

Easter Basket

2011-04-24T18:59:00.001-07:00

data, originally uploaded by elizabethwickland.

This year I decided that Eliana didn't need an Easter basket full of candy or cheap toys. So... this year she got a small basket with a cute pinwheel and a jewelry set. Eliana has been more and more interested in "real" jewelry, so I decided she was probably ready for some. She got a Stella and Dot pearl bracelet with pink enamel flower and a necklace with 3 charms, including a matching pink enamel flower. She was absolutely delighted to wear her new jewelry today, which made up for the lack of a new Easter dress. ;)

Operation Christmas Child

2010-11-01T10:39:00.001-07:00

One of the things we have done for the past couple years is fill shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child. This year, again, we are, only this year Eliana has much more of a say in the matter. She has suggestions for what to put in the box, as well as an opinion on the gender of the child. (girl, ages 5-9) She wants to give it to someone she knows, but we have been talking about the kids around the world who do not get gifts every year like she and her friends do, and how they would really appreciate someone caring enough to send them something.

I keep a stash of gifts on hand so that I am not stressed when a birthday party comes up, so the first thing we did was raid the stash for things the little girl might like. So far she has...

* a hello kitty tote bag

* 2 washcloths

* a bouncy ball

* a squiggly straw

* Elmo "Go Fish" game

* Sunglasses

* Small kite

* Pink and purple rubber ducky

* Stencils

* Dental Floss

* Toothbrush (I keep those on hand for guests)

* Notepads

* Princess stickers

* Mints

Then Eliana and I went through and made a shopping list of things she thought the girl would like to have in her box. So far the list includes:

* Pencils

* Sharpener

* Crayons

* Stamps and Ink Pad

* Coloring book

* Picture book

* Dolls

* Stuffed animals

* Slinky

* Toothpaste

* Soap

* Comb / brush

* Play jewelry

* Hair clips

* Shirt

* Skirt

* Socks

I am not sure that we'll be able to get all those things, or fit all those things in the box, but it is nice to get Eliana to start thinking about what other people would like. Sometime later this week (probably Wednesday after gymnastics) we will head to Target and see what we can find to finish filling the shoebox.

Eliana also wants to make a Christmas card for the little girl, and I think that's a great idea! Perhaps we'll include a picture of Eliana so the little girl knows who it came from.

We are also going to take advantage of the EZGive online donation this year, including the shoebox tracker! So this year we actually get to know where our shoebox is going and can track it online. I am excited about that!

Online Stories

2010-10-16T16:23:00.000-07:00

When I was in Barnes and Noble the other day, I noticed a sign that said they had an online storytime and this month's book was Where The Wild Things Are, one of Eliana's favorites. We like to read this book in October, because it is sort of Halloweeny, without being too focused on the scary, spooky things. It's read aloud by the author, which is kind of cool!

They also have Olivia, Alexander and The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day (one of my favorite poems from elementary school!), and a few others. How fun!

Schedule...

2010-09-07T13:49:00.000-07:00

It looks like we are settling into a schedule here. I'm hoping that will continue, and be a good thing. It's not exactly down to a science yet, but here's approximately what we have going on...

Monday - Home Day

On days that we're home, it means Eliana gets up, dressed, breakfast, then has some sort of activity to keep her busy. Sometimes the activity is with me. Sometimes it's by herself. Sometimes she has wild imaginative play, and others she runs like crazy outside. No matter what the activity, it gets her energy out and she plays long and hard. She usually has a snack somewhere during her play, then it continues until lunch time.

After lunch, Eliana has quiet time. It might be nap time, if she is having a rough day. It might just be time to read on her bed. Today she was allowed to listen to an audio book. Other days she just has to stay in her room for an hour. She seems to need the down time, so I think this is good for her.

After quiet time we have some quality time. Maybe reading books together, or playing a game, or going to a park... Whatever we do, she has my full attention and she knows it.

Tuesday - Josie Here

On Tuesdays, Ellie's friend Josie comes over from 9-3. We follow more or less the same schedule as a home day, with play, snack, play, lunch, quiet time (usually a movie), and then quality time once Josie goes home.

Wednesday - Fun Day

Wednesdays are going to be Eliana's busy day this year, but I've hopefully planned it in such a way that she can maintain her basic schedule without becoming overwhelmed.

10:30-11:15 - We have signed Eliana up for gymnastics in Bozeman. She has been asking ALL summer if she can be a "gymnastics girl" in the fall, so we're going to give it a try.

After gymnastics, we'll have lunch (maybe at a park with a picnic lunch, maybe stop for lunch someplace fun, maybe just head home for lunch) and head home for quiet time in the afternoon.

3:30-5:15 - We are going to have Eliana in AWANA this year. I think she is going to love it! I know I really enjoyed AWANA in my growing up years, so we're going to give it a try. We don't have a strong sunday school program at our church, so I feel like she needs some additional structured Bible time, and AWANA can provide that.

5:30-8:30 - Every other week this is date night for us, and on the off weeks it is date night for Josie's parents. So Eliana will get to spend this time with Josie. I'm thinking it will be largely play, dinner, then quiet down with a movie or story time before bed.

Thursday - Josie's House

Thursdays are my Ellie free day and she spends from 9-3 at Josie's house. I have no idea what they do there, I just know that Ellie loves it and she comes home worn out and ready for some quiet time. =D

Friday - Home / Gym Day?

Eliana likes being at home. I, however, am not a homebody. I like to go and do. I also have a Mary Kay business, and need some regular hours for meeting with clients and making deliveries. That's what I do on Thursday. I need a separate time for running errands for our household, since I can only seem to do one or the other on Thursdays. There is a program that Ellie can go to at Lone Mountain from 12-4 on Fridays (or Mondays or Wednesdays, but I really see this as a Friday thing...). They have lunch (from home), quiet time, and activities. I have been impressed by Lone Mountain when we were there for swim lessons, so I think this will be a good program. Again, we're going to give it a try.

I'm not sure how the whole schedule is going to work, but we're going to try it. This week got messed up because of Labor Day and Josie being here on Friday instead of today, but I think we'll get the hang of it eventually. =D

While the basement floor was torn up...

2010-06-17T14:02:00.000-07:00

... we took advantage of the bare concrete and did some fun painting!!

I just rolled out the paper, squirted some paint, and let Ellie paint with her hands and feet to her heart's content! She had a lot of fun!

A New Park

2010-06-15T13:35:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we were driving about town, headed to the Dinosaur Park, when we passed this little park. It's one we'd never come across before, so we took the opportunity to stop and play!

Ellie liked it because she could pretend it was a castle and because there were "rings that are just my size!!!"

I liked it because there was a covered pavilion with tables right next to the play area where I could rest in the shade and still interact with Ellie!

I wish I could tell you where this park was, because it's a little gem! I anticipate that we will stop and play at it again, especially if we ever go driving down that road again! I guess it will be like a treasure hunt for us!

The Family Altar

2010-05-24T08:14:00.000-07:00

In my Friday morning Bible Study we are reading a book called "The Secrets of the Secret Place" by Bob Sorge. The most recent chapter I read talked about the "Family Altar" or a time for parents to sit down with their children daily and teach them about God's word. While I think the term "Family Altar" is cheesy, I think he makes a good point that we as parents ought to be teaching even our very young children how to spend time with God daily, through the Bible and prayer.

So this morning Eliana and I picked up Egermeier's Bible Story Book (which was a baby gift from some friends of ours from Iowa) and started reading. I am sure that, as in my own daily time with the Lord, consistency is going to be my biggest struggle. But what better way to teach her how to work through inconsistency and failure, than to demonstrate it myself? To pick myself up each time I fall and show her how to brush herself off and keep going?

Our time this morning wasn't long, it wasn't "deep", and it wasn't over her head. It consisted of reading a short story from the book (2 pages?) and then talking about it. I started at the beginning, so we talked about creation. There are questions in the back of the book for discussion, but she didn't have the attention span or patience for it this morning, so I didn't push it. When she started giving me silly answers to things I know she knows (Who created the earth? Um... Goliath the rabbit!!) I decided we were done. Perhaps we'll talk about it throughout the day. I don't know. But I do know that I got to spend time with my daughter this morning, snuggling and reading, and sharing with her about the God that I love. And that is pretty much priceless.

Flower Crayons

2010-05-04T09:07:00.000-07:00

Ellie's best friend Josie is having a birthday today. In anticipation, we decided to make her a gift. Ellie needed a project to do, and I needed to come up with something quickly. So here's what we came up with... Flower Crayons!

Here's how it works... Take the pile of broken crayons you've accumulated and peel off the wrappers. Then cut the crayons into smaller pieces that will fit into the pan you've chosen. This part should be done by an adult, though kids could break the thinner crayons into smaller pieces.

We chose a Wilton silicone pan (I love those things!) with flower shapes for this one. We also have these pans with gingerbread men and hearts, so I think this would be fun to repeat for various holiday gifts. Here's what our pan looks like:

Have your kiddo put the crayons into the pan. Colors can be combined for solid color crayons, or varied for a designed look. Ellie had a lot of fun with this part!

Here's what they looked like before we popped them in the oven:

Put them in the oven at 275 degrees.

Then wait 7-8 minutes, or until they're melted.

Have your kids back up from the oven, then take out the melted crayons, very carefully! I recommend using a cookie sheet under your pan, especially if you use a flexible silicone pan like I did. When you pull them out, they'll look something like this:

As they cool, you might notice them looking cloudy and muted. The vibrant colors seemed to sink to the bottom, while the waxy layer floated to the top. It may have just been the crayons I used (though I used a mixture of them, so who knows), but here's what they looked like as they cooled:

When they are COMPLETELY cool (putting them in the fridge seemed to help little minds forget that they were waiting for the crayons to be cooled, and helped the process go faster - out of sight, out of mind?), pop them out of the mold and you've got something like this:

Because we were giving some of these as a gift, I discovered that they fit perfectly in the long skinny bags Wilton makes for wrapping large pretzel sticks. We could easily fit 5 of these crayons in one sleeve, with room to tie the top or put a topper on it.

It was a fun project, and it didn't take long from start to finish, or make a big mess in the process. That's my kind of project to do with Eliana!!

This last year we have been working on the idea of gift giving with Eliana. I generally purchase kids' gifts ahead of time and store them in the "gift bucket" in our gift wrapping closet. I find that I can stock up on kid appropriate gifts when I see them at a good price, and then I don't have to rush around to find a gift right before the party. Because of this, Eliana is not usually part of the gift buying experience, though, so I've been trying to work on teaching her about gifts without changing the way I approach them. So... for every party we go to, she also gets to pick out or make a gift for the child. Sometimes (in the fall, when several of her friends have birthdays clustered together) it means we take a trip to the dollar store and she gets to pick out a special gift for each of her friends just from her. I more or less give her free reign here, because 1) it's a buck, and 2) she needs to feel like the gift is actually from her. The rules are that she has to pick something appropriate for the child (a princess wand wouldn't be appropriate for a boy who is into trucks, for example) and she has to have the understanding that this gift is for THEM, not her. She doesn't get to keep it. I do, however, let her pick one thing for herself when we are buying a group of gifts at the same time. I probably don't need to, but it helps her not get distracted by all the things she wants when she has to pick several things for other kids, and also rewards her for being thoughtful to her friends.

If we just have one party to go to, or haven't bought Ellie's gift, I like to have her make a gift for her friend, like the one above. We spend the time talking about why giving gifts is kind, choosing the nicest ones for her friend and keeping the flawed ones for herself, etc.

I also have Eliana make a batch of birthday cards a couple times a year. I thought I posted the batch of cards she made this fall, but I can't find them, so I guess I didn't. It's about time for us to make more, though, since she is out of them. Perhaps we'll do that today. I like having her make the cards for her friends, and then practice writing their name and her name inside. It's not always legible, but I want her to get it into her head that it's from her. =D It's also good writing practice for her, since I am not nearly as consistent with writing practice as I'd like to be.

So there you have it. A tutorial on how to make flower crayons, and my theories on gift giving, all in one! =D Almost makes up for no posts in April, eh? Okay, maybe not. Still, I hope you enjoyed it!! Thanks for reading!!

Bible Character ABC's

2010-03-15T14:08:00.000-07:00

I think these will be the Bible stories we will focus on through the next few months as we go through the alphabet...

A - Adam
B - Benjamin
C - Cain
D - Daniel
E - Elijah
F - Flood and Noah
G - Gideon
H - Hannah
I - Isaac
J - Joshua
K - King David
L - Lazarus
M - Moses
N - Namaan
O - Onesimus and Paul
P - Peter
Q - Queen of Sheba and Solomon
R - Ruth
S - Samson
T - Tabitha / Dorcas
U - Uzzah and the Ark of the Covenant
V - Virgin Mary
W - Woman at the Well
X - Xerxes and Esther
Y - Yahweh
Z - Zaccheus

Week 1: A

2010-03-07T20:20:00.001-08:00

So... Ellie's been in a learning spurt lately and I'm finding myself needing to have more activities for her that encourage her discovery and learning. SO... I think we're going to try a letter a week for a while. This week we learned A. Here's kind of how it went...

- Ellie learned how to write the letter A, both capital and lower case.
- Ellie learned the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden.
- Ellie reviewed the verse for A - "All we like sheep have gone astray..."
- Ellie learned about Apples, including their parts, how they grow, and how the apple can serve as an illustration of the trinity.

She did some worksheets, she did some coloring pages, she made some art, read some books with me, and played a lot, with our focus being on the letter A, the story of Adam, and Apples.

This week in particular I liked how well our verse (about going astray) fit with the story of Adam and the fall, as well as our discussion on Apples. It all worked very well together!

Next week we are doing the letter B, so we'll see how well that goes!

Lent

2010-02-21T12:35:00.000-08:00

I have never before observed Lent, but this year I feel convicted. Not because it's Lent and I ought to sacrifice something, but because God is showing me some areas where I can improve by denying myself some of my habitual passtimes for some better ones.

SO.... I am actually observing Lent to some degree this year, and giving up my personal TV time (or Netflix / Hulu time, as the case really is) and Eliana is doing the same, though she has much less choice in the matter. =D I realized that we've fallen into a bad pattern where she watches TV and I feel free, so I hole up in another room, doing something else, in front of another computer watching TV. The TV isn't necessarily bad, but the pattern we've fallen into is.

I have so many opportunities during the day to spend time with Eliana, teaching her through activities and play, talking with her as we rise in the morning and walk throughout our day, as it were. So that's what we're doing instead of watching TV for a few weeks. And so far, it's been a really nice change. Yes, I want to know what's going on with "my" shows. But they will be there after Easter, and if they're not, well, will it really make a difference in the end? No. It is also a good chance for me to evaluate what I watch and whether those are shows I really want to spend my time following. Are they beneficial? Why do I watch them? I am looking forward to cutting out some of what I watch in the future and having more time to read. I'm also looking forward to doing things like listening to music or radio shows (like 'Says You') while I'm scrapbooking instead of watching shows while I do. So... I'm looking forward to a season of self control, of growing in my relationship with Eliana and of learning to use my time better. I die to self so very little these days, and it's something I want to practice, for my own sake, and for His glory.

Snowshoeing with kiddos

2010-02-16T08:19:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we took Eliana snowshoeing for the first time as a family. At 3 and a half, she did a great job! She wasn't so sure about the deep snow and had a hard time keeping up, but we let her walk on a packed down trail and she did much better, and had much more fun! I'd love to find more places around here to snowshoe with her!

Happy Valentine's Day!

2010-02-12T06:43:00.001-08:00

Huh... where did January go? I think I missed it. Oops! Well, at least we're back for February. =D

These are the Valentines Eliana made for her friends. She put the heart stickers on wherever she wanted, then I added the glittery border and stamped the sentiment wherever it would fit. I think they're kind of fun, and it was a nice little project for an afternoon!

From Scrapbook Pages

Daily December... Almost There!

2009-12-23T22:05:00.000-08:00

Let's see....

December 19 - Took Eliana's Christmas picture in her pretty new Christmas dress.

December 20 - Eliana got to wear her new Christmas dress to church!

December 21 - Ellie and Daddy built snowmen!! We had the Turners and Werners over for dinner.

December 22 - Mary Kay Christmas Party!

December 23 - Daddy and Eliana went sledding at Peet's Hill. We went to the Richters' for dinner with the Gravings.

December 24 - Roundup and Christmas Eve!

December 25 - Merry Christmas and flying to Texas!

All that's left is to take pictures tomorrow and Christmas day and then finish the album I've been working on. Woohoo!

I can't believe we actually made it through Daily December this year. It has been so much fun!

Getting toward the end of December!

2009-12-18T09:52:00.000-08:00

We're getting to the end of December - crazy! I have been having so much fun with Eliana doing holiday things each day, though. Next year I'd really like to do an advent calendar / book or advent tree. I didn't grow up with advent, but I have a few friends who are doing it with their kids this year and I really like the idea. I have a few ideas for making an advent book, but it will take me a while to put it all together, so hopefully I'll get to work on it throughout the year and have it done by next December! We'll see. =D In the meantime, it looks like I'm going to have to start planning our activities out so we get them all in!

December 14 - we sang Christmas carols. I played the piano and sang, and then Ellie and I just sang together. We also listened to carols as we drove around on our errands!

December 15 - Peppernut Day!!

December 16 - Our 9th anniversary - we are going to go out to dinner tonight. Ellie and I are also baking gingerbread snowflakes to use as tags on our gifts this year. =D

December 17 - We read "The Gingerbread Baby" complete with a gingerbread hand puppet that added to the fun!

December 18 - We baked sugar cookies with Erika and Zoe!

December 19 - We might go see Santa at the Children's Museum and have Ellie's picture taken. She knows Santa isn't real, but it might still be fun! We should also take our family Christmas picture this weekend!

December 20 - Sunday before Christmas - Ellie will get to wear her pretty Christmas dress!

December 21 - Leif is home from work this week, so I hope he will take Ellie out to make a snow man!

December 22 - More Ellie and Leif time, I hope they make snow angels or go sledding!

December 23 - Hmmm... Salt Dough Ornaments? Ice ornaments?

December 24 - Leif's Family Christmas in Roundup, Christmas eve dinner of crackers and cheese

December 25 - Christmas!! Christmas morning gifts followed by a plane ride to Texas to see my family!

Daily December...

2009-12-14T11:47:00.000-08:00

December 10 - I got to do some holiday crafting while Ellie got to play with a friend and a sitter. I had worship team practice at church and played some Christmas carols! =D (Okay, so today is a bit of a holiday stretch!) I also wrapped gifts today!!

December 11 - Right Now Christmas Party!!

December 12 - Holiday Cookie Exchange with the church ladies! Also, Ellie started opening her 12 days of Christmas gifts... (Flower slap bracelet)

December 13 - MK Holiday Open House (and Day 2 gift - stick on earrings!)

December 14 - today we are either going to make Peppernuts or salt dough ornaments or sing Christmas carols. =D

December Daily Continued...

2009-12-10T10:20:00.000-08:00

Let's see...

December 6 - We drove around and looked at Christmas lights in the neighborhood.

December 7 - We went over to the Taylor's house for dinner and a GRINCHfest! Our first viewing of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" this year! We also read the book at home in preparation. =D

December 8 - Josie came over for a few hours and we made paper snowflakes! They're hanging in the window of the kitchen door right now.

December 9 - We watched the Charlie Brown Christmas Special and Ellie got to make Christmas Tree Spritz cookies with Daddy!!

Parties R Us

2009-12-09T09:27:00.001-08:00

FlickrDroid Upload, originally uploaded by elizabethwickland.

On Monday Ellie and I met up with friends at a place in Bozeman called Parties R Us. It's basically two large rooms with several of those inflatable slides / obstacle courses / bouncy houses in each room. We went on a day that it was too cold to play outside, so it was perfect! It's a great place to take your kids to get their energy out, someplace you don't have to walk around picking up after them. =D I think the entry is a smidgen steep at $7 (but, then again, I'm a cheapskate!) but from now until the 24th they have "stocking stuffer passes" that are $5 each, valid after the 26th with no expiration date. I bought a few of them for Ellie's stocking and we will be going back!

If you live in the area, I suggest you stop in sometime this winter. It's worth checking out!

Here's a little video of Ellie running through one of the obstacle courses (and me following behind - the inflatables are sturdy enough for adults, too! Makes it fun for playing with your kids!)

Daily December

2009-12-06T14:00:00.000-08:00

This year Eliana and I are doing holiday activities daily in December. I tried to do this last year, but we didn't do a very good job of recording everything! This year we are doing more activities and I am trying to document them as we go. So far here's where we are, with plenty of photo documentation to prove it...

December 1 - Ellie and Josie made their first batch of holiday cookies! We tried to make cookies with a cookie press using Martha Stewart's recipe, but it wouldn't go through the press. Instead the girls rolled the cookies into little balls and pressed their thumbs in for thumbprint cookies. They ended up tasting pretty good, and the girls had fun making them! We used the rest of the dough to make large circle cookies, and dipped them half in chocolate. Yum!

December 2 - We started devouring the gingerbread house!

We also donated to the Salvation Army and talked about giving to others on this day.

December 3 - I wrapped the first Christmas gifts!

Then Eliana and I made little heart candies for the holidays.

December 4 - Amber and I took Ellie and Josie to Arts on Fire to paint some Christmas gifts.

December 5 - We went to the Christmas Stroll in downtown Bozeman!

And today? Well, we'll see what today holds. There are still plenty of holiday things to do!

Baby Jesus

2009-12-05T19:55:00.000-08:00

Tonight we were driving home from the Christmas Stroll and listening to Christmas music. Ellie heard one of the songs about baby Jesus and said, "Baby Jesus is my favorite baby in the whole wide world!" I asked her if she knew who Jesus' mommy was. "Um, Elizabeth!" was her excited answer. I reminded her that Mary was Jesus' mother and asked if she knew who Jesus' father was. Without hesitation she answered, "God!"

It's so fun to watch her learn and grow!

Beading

2009-12-03T19:44:00.001-08:00

FlickrDroid Upload, originally uploaded by elizabethwickland.

At a friend's house yesterday I noticed that Ellie liked beading and making necklaces with her little friend. So while we at Joanns on the way home we bought a bag of beads and some plastic floss. Tonight after dinner we sat down and decided to string beads together. She made a necklace and I made a little bead man for her to play with. I figure she'll get a lot of use out of this bag of beads and floss. And it will help with her hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills as well.

The Play Room

2009-11-30T09:26:00.001-08:00

I don't know that I've ever posted pictures of our downstairs play room, but I cleaned it yesterday, so I took a few pictures. Half the room is our family room, with a couch, chairs, the TV and Wii and the fireplace. The other half the room is Ellie's play area. The corner is set up for Little People and Trains right now. Here's what it looks like:

The Little People table is actually a train table I got off freecycle. It's perfect for keeping all her Little People up off the ground, though, and is nice for her to be able to stand up and play instead of stooping over onto the ground. I usually have it set up differently than this, but I just picked up the pieces instead of rearranging them on the table. Usually the road in the middle has little driveways that lead to each of the other Little People play stations.

The train table is also one I got off freecycle. It's not as pretty, for sure, but that just means I didn't feel bad about gluing the train set to the table. =D After months of other kids coming over and pulling the set apart (even after we SCREWED it to the table!) and ripping the pieces off the table, I decided I was over it and just glued it down. I don't even know if it will fit back up the stairs with the track glued down, but I don't care. Ellie can actually play with her train set now and other kids don't destroy it every time they come over. I used a LOT of glue. So the table was free, and the set itself we got for Ellie last Christmas for $30. Not a bad deal if you ask me! It's got a lot of trees and houses and animals and people and more cars and train pieces that go with the set, too, but they are in the basket underneath the table. Again, I was cleaning, not playing. =D

I also have a little table and chair in the middle section. Ellie colors here, or plays with playdough. She doesn't use it very often, but it is nice for her to have a little place to create that is not back in her usual art area in my craft room. Sometimes I just like to keep her out of there. =D

Matching

2009-11-29T12:44:00.001-08:00

sunday school paper, originally uploaded by elizabethwickland.

Today I took a look at Eliana's sunday school paper and was very impressed that she was able to correctly draw lines to match the shapes to their shadows. This is the first sunday school paper I remember her bringing home that wasn't just a coloring sheet. The flip side had stickers to place, but I'll do another post about that side later. =D

Can you guess what we did today?

2009-11-28T21:22:00.001-08:00

Gingerbread House, originally uploaded by elizabethwickland.

I guess one of the best ways to kick off the holiday season is to put up your Christmas decorations, and then make a gingerbread house!

Our house isn't anything fancy, it's just a $10 kit from Costco. But it came complete with the gingerbread, icing, candy, and piping tip and bag... and loads of fun! Ellie had a GREAT time decorating this year and did all that you can see on the house by herself! (I did the other side.) I put the frosting on, Ellie added whatever candy she wanted, and Leif took pictures. It was a very fun family activity to kick off the holidays!

Angelina and Henry: A Book Review

2009-11-28T10:26:00.000-08:00

Eliana LOVES ballet, ballerinas, and Angelina Ballerina. She pretends she is "balleting" around the living room, dressed in tutus, twirling around. She loves to dance. We watch Angelina Ballerina on Netflix, and she has a couple of the books. This morning she wanted me to read Angelina and Henry to her, and I realized I don't think I'd ever read it all the way through. So as we sat and read together, I thought I should share my thoughts on the book.

In general, the Angelina Ballerina books and movies are cute. They tend to deal with emotions and how to respond properly to situations, which I think is good to learn. They also provide opportunities to talk with your child about Angelina's behavior and whether she is making good choices or not. I personally find it easier to interject such discussions while reading the books than watching the movies, though, so I recommend the books for that reason. =D The videos are more for entertainment. =D

So... Angelina and Henry. They go backpacking with their uncle, and along the way wander off and get scared. Some of the things this book gives the opportunity to discuss are...

* paying attention and not wandering off the trail while hiking with others.
* persevering even when you're hot and tired.
* working together to set up camp and get a task done.
* not getting distracted when you have a job to do.
* dangerous things that might happen when you don't obey.
* being courageous, even when you're afraid.
* protecting those younger and weaker.
* spending time together as a family.

It's a cute book. I like it. And I think I'm going to put it in the list of books to read during the summer months. It's good any time of year, but particularly applicable when we're hiking and backpacking in the summer.

Thanksgiving Book Review

2009-11-26T17:17:00.000-08:00

I have been reading Eliana some Thanksgiving books this month, so I thought I'd share the ones I've chosen and what I do or don't like about them. =D We have 3 that are specifically Thanksgiving related...

Over the River and Through the Woods by Lydia Maria Child. Illustrated by Christopher Manson.

I like this Thanksgiving poem. Until recently, I always thought that this was a Christmas song. Ha ha! I guess I'd never really paid attention to the words, though, because it is definitely a Thanksgiving poem! There are several books containing this poem, but I am a fan of the wood engraving style images instead of the cartoony images. I also really like that the music for the song is included at the end of the book. That makes it easier to teach the song to your kids, I think!

P is for Pilgrim by Carol Crane. Illustrated by Helle Urban.

I originally bought this book because it seemed similar to S is for Star, which I like so much for Christmas. I like how this book starts out, with the Mayflower (Across the Atlantic Sea...), the Bill of Rights, Corn... It all seems to be going well until J, when you suddenly get a picture of midwestern women in sweatshirts over turtlenecks, hair pulled back in pony tails, trading jars of jam. It's a sudden jolt of modernity before returning to the 1600s with K on the next page. There are a few pages like that where it seems like they couldn't come up with a good "pilgrim" word to go with the letter, so they just picked something random and autumn related instead. Even for P - unlike the title, the letter P in the actual book is for "pumpkin pudding, pumpkin bread, and pumpkin spicy pies." Other letters that seem out of place (not necessarily bad, just out of place for a Thanksgiving book) are R ("all races in our republic respect each other's rights and responsibility"), U ("a universal umbrella of nations..." about the United Nations), and V ("viva, volunteers! A very special day, the soup kitchen is ready to serve.") Like I said, not necessarily bad things, just strange to include in a Thanksgiving book, or a stretch for that particular letter. I can see the soup kitchen serving Thanksgiving meal included, but "Viva, Volunteers!"? It seems odd to me. The same is true with Z, which is about the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. "Zippy bands zigzagging down the street. Zebras trotting, zeppelin-like balloons afloat." There's a picture of a pilgrim kid in a parade riding a zebra. It just seems like kind of a stretch.

It also bothers me that some of the pages rhyme well, and others just seem a jumble of alliteration, with no concern for rhyme or meter.

Overall, this book is fine. There are some good tidbits throughout that are fun for kids. Most of the illustrations are pretty good. I don't feel like it's a very fluid book, though, with the jolts from past to present and the inconsistencies between alliteration and rhyme scheme from page to page. Like I said, it's fine. But when I read it, I'm always tempted to skip a few letters because they bother me.

Thanksgiving: A Time to Remember by Barbara Rainey

This is probably my favorite book for Thanksgiving this year. I first saw it last year at Thanksgiving with Leif's family, so I ordered a copy for our family this year. I like a LOT of things about this book. The illustrations are beautiful. A large portion of the book is dedicated to the story of the pilgrims and the first Thanksgiving. As far as I can tell, it's fairly historically accurate. The story is written in such a way that there is large text and small text. They both flow together, or, for younger kids, you can read just the large text for a shorter version of the story. I like that you can read it to younger kids in segments and the story hold their attention. It doesn't, however, sugar coat the details like most children's books do, and it doesn't use child like language. I actually like that about the book, but some people may not. It is written from a distinctly Christian perspective. I like that once Eliana is old enough for the full story, we can still use this book with the large and small text together.

Toward the end of the book there are quite a few pages for us to record our own stories of thankfulness God's blessings. We started today by writing down the things that each of us are thankful for (even Eliana, who, at 3, says she is thankful for "my slide, and my swings, and my rings, and and my beautiful princess kitty!") which also jump started our conversation at the meal and gave us an opportunity to explain to Eliana why we celebrate Thanksgiving.

The final thing that I like about this book is the CD that is included. It contains instrumental hymns of Thanksgiving that are great to listen to during the season!

Game Time

2009-11-21T18:57:00.001-08:00

Game Time, originally uploaded by elizabethwickland.

Something we don't do with Eliana nearly as often as we should is have game time. She loves to play games, especially Candy Land and Chutes and Ladders. I would like to make more of a point to play games with her.

Silly Popcorn!

2009-11-20T06:49:00.000-08:00

This is obviously a warmer weather activity and not something we're doing outside now, as we have a foot of snow on the ground. But it was really fun for Eliana this summer, so I thought it would be worth mentioning!

The Set Up:

A big sheet or blanket, spread out
An air popper in the middle of the blanket, with the shield off
A little girl sitting on the sidelines, waiting expectantly

The Result:

It's way more fun than microwaving a bag of popcorn. =D

Halloween Leftovers

2009-11-16T21:11:00.001-08:00

Face Paint
Originally uploaded by elizabethwickland

We went shopping shortly after Halloween to peruse the leftover sale items. One of our treasures from the day was a set of face paints. They don't come out every day, but when the weather keeps us inside, they make for a fun activity... This day Eliana wanted to be a butterfly, so I painted her like one, or my crude rendition of one. A little bit of paint, though, and her imagination took off, letting her flit about the house in butterfly land for hours.

What do you do on a snowy day?

2009-11-12T14:00:00.001-08:00

snowcones
Originally uploaded by elizabethwickland

Why, you make snowcones! We woke up to a foot of snow after a week in the 60's. It was a shock, I tell ya! But we are making the best of it, and eating snowcones. THAT'S why I stocked up on snow cone syrup when it was on sale this summer! ;)

This is a cute idea!

2009-10-11T11:11:00.000-07:00

I want to make one of these. I'll probably never get around to it, but I want one! I have and idea where it would go in the basement, if I ever get it made... in the meantime, I'll just share it and dream!

Cute, huh?

Audio Books

2009-10-11T10:26:00.001-07:00

I've recently discovered that both Borders and Barnes and Noble carry children's audio books for $10. They're the kind with a CD and corresponding book, often for the same price, or less, than the book itself would be. I've been thinking these would be great for road trips, but the road trip Ellie and I had planned for this weekend got canceled due to weather.

Since we don't actually have a working CD player in the house (MP3s are our preferred audio format), we haven't listened to them much. I did discover, however, that (note the light bulb going off above my head) I can just stick them in the laptop and we can listen to them that way. It works great, so long as the audio player isn't set to shuffle. =D

So far Ellie has two favorites, of the 3 audio books we've purchased...

1. Tiki Tiki Tembo, read by Marcia Gay Harden. Actually, I'm not sure that Ellie's even heard the CD to this one, though I've listened to it. I read her the book a couple times, and it was an instant favorite. She calls it, "Tiki Tiki Tembo, about the boy who fell into the well!" In fact, as I am sitting here writing this, I let Ellie choose an audio book to listen to and she chose that. She's sitting and "reading" along right now! Every time the gong sounds, she turns the page. It's great!

2. Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, read by Ray Charles. We listened to this on our drive up the Beartooth a couple weeks ago. It was fun to have in the car! Ellie loves saying the "BOOM BOOM" part, ha ha! There are a few songs on there, plus a few song versions of the book.

The third book we have is actually the first we got. It's Peter Pan, read by Dawn French. Eliana hasn't been that much into this one, but the woman reading has a British accent that makes it a little harder to listen to. Still, I think it will be a good one when Ellie is a little older, or if we're in a car for a longer drive.

We also have a book that accompanies Sandra Boynton's Rhinoceros Tap, which is a lot of fun. It doesn't really count as an audio book, but I figured I might as well mention it. =D

Jelly Telly

2009-09-30T17:10:00.000-07:00

So... the people who originally made Veggie Tales have a new-ish website called JellyTelly. They put up a new 20 minute movie every day on the website. It's sort of cute!

Mommy and Ellie Day

2009-08-31T17:15:00.001-07:00

Today I needed to run into town to pick up some pictures at Costco. It was the only thing from town that I needed, so when Eliana asked if we could go to the Museum of the Rockies (or the Dinosaur Museum, as she calls it) I sarid yes.

We had a great day. We went through the exhibits and she rode in the stroller when I asked her to or held my hand when I asked her to, and asked to get out and see things close up (or play with the interactive ones) and didn't whine. She did a great job. We made our way through the TREASURE exhibit first, and then through the rest of the museum. When we were done with the Dinosaur exhibit (which we always do last, because she loves it and would spend the whole time in there if she could!) we went upstairs to the children's play room. We were the only ones in there for about half an hour, then as we were getting ready to leave another family came in. This is where the only problem of the day was, because she didn't want to leave once her "friends" were there. Still, she didn't throw a fit, didn't scream, or cry, she just tried to ignore me a couple times and then got into her stroller like I'd asked and told her friends goodbye. When we got out to the car she asked if she had obeyed me. I told her that overall she had a wonderful day and I was very pleased with how well she obeyed, but that when she didn't get into her stroller like I asked, that was disobedient. I am really pleased that she wants to obey.

After MOR we were driving down the road and I asked if Eliana wanted to go to the dollar store. She usually doesn't, but this time she said she did. So we went. She has several friends with birthdays this fall, and I am usually running way behind on gifts, just getting something the day of. It's sort of stressful. So this year I'm trying to get them taken care of early. =D I already have one or two gifts, but really want Eliana to learn about gift giving herself. So she was allowed to pick out two girl presents and one boy present for the first round of birthdays. She chose a fairy wand for one girl (which is perfect for that girl, I must say!), and a set of 3 squishy balls for the other girl (which she insisted the other girl would want, even when I suggested other things I think she might like better. This gift really is from Ellie, and I love that she tried to get things FOR that person!), and she decided that the boy would like some dinosaurs. They are nice-sized sturdy dinosaurs, so we actually got 4 of them and that will be his gift, picked out by Eliana all by herself! I was proud of her. I also let her get one gift herself, but she had to choose between two things she really wanted: a fairy wand (that makes sounds) or a set of heart barrettes. It was a tough choice and she wavered back and forth, but eventually chose the wand and stuck with it. She didn't even complain when we had to put the barrettes back.

I am excited about Ellie getting to give gifts she chose herself. It means a lot more this year than it did last year, when she seemingly randomly picked out things that she wanted herself and had a hard time giving up. This year she chose them FOR those people and she knows who they go to. She also made birthday cards by herself, which will be another post. 3 is an exciting age, I think!

All in all our Mommy-Ellie day was great. She fell asleep in the car on the way home and is sleeping now. It's not ideal, but I'm glad for a little peace and quiet, even if it means a later night tonight. We have been trying gluten-free this week, and the days we go GF (like today) are great! Her attitude is better, we have fewer fights.... It might just be worth the switch.

The Box House

2009-07-26T15:12:00.001-07:00

While we were in Texas, Poppy made Eliana a box house. It was wonderful. It was made from a long, narrow box, like a giant hallway. It had a door, several windows, and an A-line roof. Mommom and Poppy even put doorknobs on the inside and outside of the door. Eliana loved it. She thought it was perfect.

Then, Poppy got an idea. While Ellie was playing in her box house, Poppy built another box house just like it, minus the door. Then, when Ellie was outside of her box house, Poppy began cutting a door in the the other side of it, so he could match the two houses together and make an even bigger play area for her. She watched him cut into her box house with horror in her eyes and cried, "Poppy! Please don't cut my box house! You're ruining it!!"

Poppy's answer was simple, "Eliana, you're just going to have to trust me that I am making it even better."

Isn't that what we do to God? We cling to the life we have, no matter how small, how battered it may be, and we cry out to God, sobbing in the darkness for Him to stop cutting it, because couldn't He see that He is runing it? In His infinite wisdom He tells us to trust Him, that He is making it better. He is preparing a palace for us, one beyond any of our wildest dreams, and we are clinging to a cardboard house as if it were a treasure.

Poppy did attach the second room to Ellie's cardboard house, and she did like it, even better than at first. But those moments between her trust and sight were painful for her, just as they are for us. We may not see the greater plan while we are here on earth, but we can trust in the knowledge that He IS making us better, if not for now then for eternity.

C is for Children... and more...

2009-07-04T17:10:00.001-07:00

Looks like I've gotten a little lax about posting Ellie's verses over the past few weeks. Really, the last couple weeks I've even gotten lax about doing them! We go over the ones she's learned so far, but haven't introduced any new ones lately. Summer makes me lazy. =D (Okay, so really I'm pretty lazy in general, and I just like to use Summer as an excuse...) So here's where we are so far:

C is for Children:
"Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right." Ephesians 6:1 (She goes around saying this one a lot!)

D is for Draw:
"Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you." James 4:8 (She can say this one, but I'm pretty sure she doesn't quite know what it means. When she messes up she tends to say it, "Draw near to God and he will draw your neighbors." I think she thinks that "near to God" is an object you can draw. So we're still working on that. =D)

E is for Even:
"Even a child is known by his deeds, by whether what he does is pure and right." Proverbs 20:11 (This is by far Ellie's favorite verse so far. She spouts it to random people and then asks if they know that verse, too. It's cute to see her enthusiasm.)

F is for For:
"For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." Romans 6:23

And that's where we stopped. We will keep going with them. I really like them, and I think she does, too. I took the CD out of the car so we could copy the songs to mp3 (I will be taking an mp3 player to Texas with us), so we haven't had the regular reminder in the car to go over verses. We also haven't ripped the songs yet, so that's not helpful. Really we've been off schedule completely for a few weeks, since thing got so busy in June! It won't slow down until next week, though, when we head to Texas! So... it may be Fall before we move on to G, but I've heard her singing the song in her room so I know she already knows it. ;)

Book Review: America The Beautiful

2009-07-04T16:07:00.000-07:00

Happy Fourth of July!!

As part of our 4th of July celebrations today, Ellie and I read "America The Beautiful" by Katharine Lee Bates (the original poet) and Susan Winget (illustrator).

It contains the original poem by Katharine Lee Bates, as well as a short bio about the author and the story behind the poem. The illustrations are very Americana, but done beautifully, providing some conversation topics to discuss along with the poem. I appreciate that the illustrations are not merely pictures of what the words are conveying, but representations of history. Covered wagons, ships, soldiers on horseback, farms, bald eagle, Abraham Lincoln, flags, George Washington... all of these open the way for further discussion, even with small children.

The poem is long, but the pages go by quickly and the illustrations held Eliana's attention. She did not appreciate me singing the words, though, after about the third page. Still, she was happy to listen to the whole book and ask questions about the pictures. It was an enjoyable read and one that I'm glad we have in our library. I give it 4 out of 5 stars.

********************************* end of review ****************************

Next year I'm hoping we can read Robert Sabuda's version of the poem. I am loving his pop-ups and hope to add this one to our collection, too. Maybe it will go on sale after the holiday! ;) I got a couple Christmas ones just a few weeks ago at Borders for $5 each (!!) and can't wait to read those with Ellie this winter. How fun!

WOW, It's been a long time since I've posted...

2009-06-26T11:52:00.000-07:00

Huh. Must be busy. Because there's certainly not a lack of posts for lack of things to write about! We are just bursting at the seams with exciting stuff going on, and that leaves little time to blog, especially with the long days and exhausted mommy at the end of them!

I'll post about some of the things that are going on, but here's what I really got on to post about...

Ellie's food log.

Exciting, eh? ;)

6/26 -

Breakfast: the top half of a sprinkle doughnut

Lunch: 2 servings of spaghetti, a bowl of applesauce, and 3 large bites of corn.

Dinner: Well, we'll see what dinner is. Ellie will be with a sitter, so I'll have to come up with something easy. Maybe some cheese melted onto the spaghetti noodles to create a mac and cheese of sorts. And peas. And some ham? That might work and be a one dish wonder. =D

A couple thoughts on obedience

2009-05-14T08:48:00.001-07:00

Last night in our Shepherding a Child's Heart study we were talking about obedience and I had a couple thoughts. I have always just defined obedience as "doing what you're told to do." Tedd Tripp, however, defines it this way:

"Obedience is submission to God's authority that causes a child to do what he is told to do, without arguing, without stalling, and without challenging."

I really like his definition. We've been working to teach Eliana to obey right away, without delay, with a good attitude every day. In doing this, I have realized a couple things. First, it is a good time to train Eliana that obedience is an attitude of the heart. It is not just what she does, but the attitude with which she does it, too. We can use this as a time to talk about what is going on in her heart when she doesn't want to obey. We can also use it as a time to teach her about submission and authority. We want her to obey not because we are the parents and she needs to submit to our will, but because we all need to submit to God's will. We are all under God's authority, and in His infinite wisdom He has set up a hierarchy of authority here on earth to maintain order in His creation. Ellie's obedience isn't to us, it is to God and who He has put as the authority in her life. The same is true of us. We honor and respect and submit to our bosses and pastors and husbands and president not because they are worthy of it, but because HE is and He is the one who put them in authority over us. It is not obedience to them, it is obedience to Him. So that was one thought that I had about how this idea of obedience as more than a set of actions fulfilling a specific request will benefit our children.

The second thing I realized about teaching Eliana to obey without arguing, stalling, or challenging is that it maintains peace in our home more than I thought it would. I really thought it would cause more problems because I would have to discipline her CONSTANTLY for stalling as she "obeyed" or argued with me. We already felt like we were disciplining her a lot, and to add tighter boundaries to that seemed like it would make the discipline never ending, heightening tension in our home. As it turns out, the opposite is true, and not because she now obeys all the time right away without complaint. The change comes when we discipline her immediately. Before, I would ask Eliana to do something, and she would say, "Just a minute" and I would let her have a minute or a few. Then I would ask her again and tell her to do it right away, not in a minute. So she would get up and start to obey, but go very slowly. I would get frustrated and try to motivate her to do what I asked, sometimes trying to build her excitement about cleaning her room ("Let's play a clean-up game!") or bribing her ("When you clean up your room we can do something fun together!") or dangling consequences in front of her to remind her what she wanted to avoid ("Remember that if you don't obey I will have to spank you."). In the process of all of that, her attitude didn't change at all, but mine did. I got frustrated and irritated, and then I would have to take a time out for myself before disciplining her, which just put more distance between the offence and the consequence. Then the next time I didn't want to get frustrated, so I was tempted just to let the offence slide and ignore her stalling or arguing. What I have found in the past couple weeks of requiring immediate obedience is that she gets more spankings, but they are given in love because I want her to learn to obey for the right reasons, with the right attitude, because her submission is to God, not to me. She doesn't understand it all right now, but she is starting to form a clearer picture of how the hierarchy of authority works. I am not frustrated when I discipline her, because my desire is that she learn to love and obey God, and it's not about me or my power. She knows the consequences and does not fight them as much because they are more consistenly administered. It does not mean that there is never tension over disobedience, but it does mean that the tension is much less because we approach the discipline differently.

There is a lot more that I could say on the subject, and a lot more that I want to go into. But I still need to get ready for today and head into town, so I'll leave it at that for now. If you've never read it (or if you've read Shepherding a Child's Heart and want more), I STRONGLY recommend reading Instructing a Child's Heart by Tedd and Margy Tripp. Perhaps you won't agree with everything they have to say, but it is good food for thought.

The Potty Chair

2009-05-11T08:51:00.000-07:00

When we first started potty training Ellie, we got her one of those little training potty chairs so she could sit on her own. Well, now she is able to get up onto the big potty by herself and doesn't need to use the little potty. So we've taken it out of the bathroom.

I stored it downstairs for a while and then realized that it might still come in handy from time to time, especially since Ellie is in panties full time during the day now. So.... here's a new trick we've found very helpful...

Keep the training potty in the car!

Yesterday we made the 2 hour drive to Billings for Mother's Day. We had the potty in the back of the car and 3 times on the way home Ellie needed to use the bathroom when we weren't ANYWHERE near a restaurant, gas station, rest stop, or even house. (That happens in Montana when you're driving...). So we pulled off the next exit or pull out and she went in the little potty (which we promptly dumped in the weeds on the side of the road - I don't want pee sloshing around my car!) and we went on our way! She didn't have to hold it for another 30 minutes until we found an exit with a bathroom, and we didn't have to try to strip her bare on the side of the road so could go without hitting her clothing.

It's pretty good for emergencies when you're potty training, and worth a try if you're finding yourself putting your kid in pull-ups for long road trips since you might not be able to find a bathroom in time.

Snow Cones

2009-05-11T07:57:00.000-07:00

When your yard looks like this on April 24:

I am pretty sure this is the best response:

Snowcones! Made with real snow... It's a pretty good way to make a little girl happy!

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. But when Spring gives you snow, make snowcones!

Dinosaur Playground

2009-05-10T06:41:00.000-07:00

Remember when I raved about the community park in Livingston? Well, it looks like we'll be getting one of our own in a month! And, much to Ellie's delight I am sure, it will be a dinosaur themed park, called the Dinosaur Playground.

I can't tell very well from the picture exactly what the play areas will be like, but I'm excited to find out when the park is built!

B is for But...

2009-05-07T11:40:00.000-07:00

"But He was wounded for our transgressions." Isaiah 53:5

That was last week's verse. I asked Eliana what "transgressions" were, since that is definitely not a word we use regularly with her. You know what she answered? She told me that a transgression is "when we don't obey God." That's pretty much the sum of it!

So far Ellie's getting the verses in about a week. We start a new verse every Monday and by the next Monday she's got the previous one down. I'm not emphasizing the references too much, though I do review them with her and they are in the songs. So as of now she knows both A and B, Isaiah 53:5 and 6.

It's exciting to see her learning God's word!

Melissa and Doug Magnetic Responsibility Chart

2009-05-07T09:03:00.000-07:00

We recently purchased the Melissa and Doug Magnetic Responsibility Chart for Eliana. We are not so much using it as a reward chart as we are a way to keep track of the things she is supposed to be doing every day. And so far, she is very excited about it. I am excited about it because I tend to forget to keep her on a "routine", which means I often forget things in her schedule like brushing her teeth. They are routine for me, but not for her yet, so I'm trying to get to that place. And for her, she gets to put a smiley face down when she does it, so it's exciting and she remembers to do it! =D

There are lots of "responsibilities" included with this chart. They range from things like dishes and homework to no teasing and stop whining. Because there are things we expect Eliana to do all the time ("say please and thank you", "aplogize to someone", "share") I doubt we will ever use those magnets. At least not as part of this chart. They need to be done more than once a day, so I don't know how you would use the smiley faces in conjunction with them. There are plenty of others that we will use, though, as part of her schedule, such as making her bed (which we don't have her do right now) or taking care of a pet (when we someday have one).

Right now our schedule reads:
*Get Dressed
*Brush Teeth
*Empty Dishwasher
*Clean Up Room
*Put Clothes in Wash
*Take a Bath
*Get Ready for Bed

Generally, the first 3 are done in the morning (getting dressed, brushing teeth, and emptying the dishwasher). It is her job to put away the silverware when I empty the dishwasher. Just to explain that we don't expect our 2 year old to empty the whole dishwasher. =D The last 4 are part of her bedtime routine. Cleaning up her room, putting her clothes in the wash (really, putting them in the hamper in the closet when she takes them off for her bath), taking a bath, and getting ready for bed.

If nothing else, I hope this chart will help me be a little more regular about her routine, and help her learn that routines are important and good for helping us make sure the things that need to be done get done.

As for the set itself, I think the wood and magnet quality seem to be good. I have yet to be disappointed by a Melissa and Doug product as far as quality is concerned, and this isn't any different. As mentioned above, I think some of the "responsibilities" are a little odd given that they shouldn't be a once a day thing, but then maybe everyone doesn't expect their children to be polite all the time and once a day will suffice. Who knows. I do sort of wish that they had put the chart on the bottom panel and the storage panel on the top so that I could stand the chart up like an easel instead of hanging it. It's too heavy to hang on a fridge (I can't find any magnetic hooks that are strong enough to hold it), and I don't really know of another good place to hang it. So I do wish that were different in the design, just for versatility. Overall, though, I'm pleased with it so far.

Pictures from Pizza Night!

2009-04-25T12:44:00.000-07:00

These two little people made pizza yesterday! =D We had a blast. Ellie helped me dump in the ingredients for the dough, and then I divided the dough into 3 balls to make individual crusts for each of us. Ellie got to roll out her own.

Getting ready to roll!

Putting the pizza crust in the oven! Mmmm!

3 little pizzas, one for each of us! Ellie made hers a heart. =D She was very excited about her heart pizza.

Made with LOVE! Mwaaa!

Pizza Night

2009-04-24T07:51:00.001-07:00

Ellie requested pizza for dinner tonight, so I guess that's what we're doing. Today is a stay at home day (which was planned anyway, but especially with all the snow and icy roads!) so we'll be making the pizza together. It should be fun! Maybe we'll make the crusts together during the day and bake them, then let everyone put their own toppings on for dinner. That sounds good!

Now I guess the question is... what do we have for toppings? I haven't done a survey of the pantry/fridge since I got home from TX, so...

Toppings:
* Spinach
* Feta
* Greek Olives
(Those sound like they'd make a good pizza for Leif!)
* Frozen peppers
* Canadian Bacon
* Onions

I really wish we had some pineapple! But alas, the pantry has none. I guess it goes on the grocery list!

So maybe Ellie and I will have Canadian Bacon pizza and Leif can have a yummy Greek pizza. I'm not big on spinach on my pizza or I'd have it too. I will puree some spinach and "hide" it in the sauce, though! =D

A is for All (Isaiah 53:6)

2009-04-24T04:49:00.001-07:00

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way. Isaiah 53:6

This is the verse we are working on. I finally ordered and started using the ABC scripture memory book and CD from Scripture Memory Fellowship. I really like it! And this is the first verse. We started it on Wednesday. As of yesterday, Thursday, Ellie could say the first half of the verse (All we like sheep have gone astray) when I started her with the word "All."

I am convinced that the Word of God is alive and active and powerful, and that it is worth storing up in my daughter's heart. I cannot change her heart. Only the Holy Spirit can do that. I cannot save her. Only God can do that. But I can plant seeds in her heart and teach her scripture, so the Holy Spirit has another tool to use in her life, planted deep in her heart where the change must be effected.

And as I teach her that ALL we like sheep have gone astray, I can in turn confess when I go astray, and pray in her presence, asking forgiveness from God for sinning against Him, and then asking forgiveness from her. Teaching her this verse has already opened up avenues of conversation that were not there before, and given me opportunities to pray with my daughter. I expect to see a change in her heart with time as the Word of God becomes active in her heart. But I am also seeing a change in me, and a change in our relationship dynamic, after just a couple days of study. The Word of God is alive and active indeed!

Panties!

2009-04-23T14:19:00.001-07:00

I think we are officially in panties. We may have accidents here and there, and we'll still do pull ups at night, but we have had 2 pull up free days out and about without accidents! So... I think we're just going to take the plunge and start wearing panties fulltime during the day. Even for naps, since she hasn't been having naptime accidents for a long time now. I should add that she's been dry at home during the day for a couple months. But until yesterday, when we put her in panties, she thought they were diapers and treated them as such. Something clicked, though, and yesterday she wanted to wear panties and KNEW they were panties, so we didn't have any problems.

So... today we took a little trip into Target and bought some cute "little girl" panties. (I can't call them "big girl" panties because she insists that she's not a big girl, just a little girl.) We already had 2 pairs of training panties and 3 pairs of regular panties, but this will give us a few more, so we can make it from laundry day to laundry day without problems. =D And I was glad to find cute little girl panties that weren't Dora, Disney Princess, or Barbie themed! Just pink, purple, and teal with designs. Whew!

So that's today's potty training update. I'll let you know how it goes from here!

Confiscated!

2009-04-23T07:45:00.001-07:00

I have confiscated Eliana's markers. I don't know when she's getting them back, but for right now they are on top of the refrigerator. She's been fairly good with them lately, but this morning she colored on the carpet. It came out, but she's lost the privilege of using markers. That's just the way of things.

Dear Jesus...

2009-04-19T21:58:00.001-07:00

Tonight Ellie was having trouble obeying and staying in bed after she was supposed to be going to sleep. So, after she got in trouble for getting out of bed, I asked her if she wanted to pray and ask Jesus to help her obey next time she was tempted to get out of bed. She said she did. So we rehearsed the prayer she should pray the next time she felt like getting out of bed instead of going to sleep:

"Dear Jesus, please help me to stay in bed and obey Mommy. Amen."

When we had finished, Ellie said to me, "No, Mommy, we should pray...

'Dear Jesus, please help Mommy's cooking.'"

Now... how is a mother supposed to take that?! I made her cheesy eggs for lunch today and they were just fine... she ate all of them! Well, it looks like I know what I should be working on when we get home from Texas...

Testing... Testing...

2009-04-19T21:50:00.001-07:00

... is this mic on?

I am testing out Blogger's new email post feature. If it works, hopefully that means you'll see a few more posts from me! We really have been quite busy lately, so my blogs have fallen by the wayside. I am pretty much always on email, though, so if I can post to my blogs from email... that would be great!

So here we are...

Testing... 1... 2... 3...

--
Elizabeth Wickland

The end.

2009-04-11T10:32:00.000-07:00

Yesterday when Ellie and I prayed together over lunch, she finished her prayer by saying, "The End." instead of Amen like she/we normally do.

Right now, this is approximately the prayer we pray with Ellie:

"Dear Jesus, thank you for today, thank you for the food, please help me to obey Mommy and Daddy. Amen."

I don't know what sort of prayer you're supposed to start a child out on. It's not something I've ever really researched, so I just chose something simple enough that she could understand it. I wanted her to grasp the idea that all we have is from God, both tangible (the food) and intangible (the day) and that we give Him thanks for it. I also wanted her to begin understanding the idea that when we do what is right (obey), it is by the grace of God, that He helps us follow His commands. So that is basically where the prayer came from. But, like I said, I've never researched praying with small children.

I'd be curious to hear other thoughts on praying with small children. What do you do? Do you have memorized prayers, or do you say a free form prayer that reflects what when on during the day? Do you have your children repeat after you, or do you let them say their own prayers, and starting at what age?

Ellie's Room

2009-04-10T09:20:00.000-07:00

I've added a few more little decorative things to Ellie's room in the past couple months, so I thought I'd share. Nothing too big or fancy, but a few wall hangings I've been meaning to make for a long time and some little "lanterns" (that don't actually have lamps in them) and butterflies. I think my favorite part about the new decorations is that she now points to the wall hanging and reads out the letters of her name and then proudly declares, "That spells Eliana!" So who knows... maybe she'll learn to spell her name all because I finally put something on her walls, ha ha!

Shepherding A Child's Heart

2009-03-19T07:29:00.000-07:00

Last night we joined a small group at our church doing a study on the book "Shepherding A Child's Heart" by Tedd Tripp. Actually, the group is doing the video series, but it covers the same information in the book. =D

A few years ago Leif and I started doing this study in a Sunday School class at E-Free, so we have the book and the workbook. At that time, though, we didn't actually have kids (nor were we even expecting), we were just trying to prepare ourselves in the event that we did someday have children. After about 3 weeks of the class, though, we realized that it was weird to be the only couple in a class of about 30 who didn't have kids, and our answers to the questions were all hypothetical instead of based on actual situations in our home. So... we quit the class and decided to wait until we did have kids to resume the study.

And here we are several years later, with a 2 1/2 year old whose parents could use a little more perspective and guidance in making sure we are raising her right!

Last night we talked about shaping influences and Godward orientation. One of the first things that struck me was just how STABLE an environment I grew up in. I lived in exactly one place before I moved into the dorm at college. And that dorm was 7 miles from the house I grew up in. My dad has always had the same job, from the time I was born to the present. My mom pretty much always taught at the school I attended, from the time my brother went to school until I graduated from high school. Security, stability. I'm pretty thankful they provided that for me.

We talked about how our priorities come across to our children and how they know what our priorities are. Leif and I started thinking about the things Eliana hears most out of our mouths. We are constantly instructing her in a few areas, and I'm guessing that those instructions are a pretty good representation of the things that are important to us...

Cleanliness
Education
Politeness
Stewardship
Thankfulness
Forgiveness

We have made a point to try to teach her to clean up after herself, to know that everything has a place and should return to its place when you are finished with it. This is a lesson that I personally struggle with. I tend to get distracted and leave projects unfinished and, therefore, not returned to their home. But Leif has been working with Ellie on it, as have I, and hopefully she will have a better time of it as an adult than I do. =D When we come into the house, she knows where to put her boots and coat. When she changes clothes, she knows to put the dirty clothes in the laundry basket. When she makes a mess at the table, she knows to get a towel and clean it up (even if she doesn't do a perfect job), and we are working on teaching her to put her plate and cup in the sink when she is done eating.

Education is pretty important to both of us, and I think that gets passed on to Eliana. Add to that the fact that she picks things up quickly even when we are not working with her and we end up spending time working on education even when we aren't purposing to do so. It's just part of our interaction with her. She LOVES letters and numbers and words, so a lot of what we talk to her about includes letters and numbers. Leif actually sits down and plays educational games like Starfall with her, where my instruction comes mostly in the form of art. We do a lot of things with colors and shapes and different art projects. She is content to sit and color for 45 minutes, and then move to painting for 45 minutes, etc. She could do art for half a day if I kept the projects flowing! And, of course, I get to do art when she is doing art, so it's a win-win! I set up a little corner of the craft room just for her and we go down there and play for hours on end sometimes. =D

We have always wanted to have a polite child. I don't know why it is so important to both of us, but it is. So from the time she was very young we have worked on politeness with Eliana. It is not just about the words that are said, but the attitude with which they are said. Ellie is two, and that means we are getting a LOT of whining and fit-throwing. So we have been trying very hard to make sure that when she whines or throws a fit she does NOT get whatever it is that she wanted. And we ask her how she would like to ask for ___________ (whatever it is she wanted). Typically now, when we ask how she'd like to ask, her entire demeanor changes and she goes from irritating, whiny girl to a girl with a sweet little voice that says, "I would like ___________ please, Mommy." It's actually kind of funny to watch, but I hope she keeps up her understanding that polite is not just the words, it is the attitude as well.

Stewardship is pretty important to me. I'd say it's pretty important to Leif, too. We try to impart to Ellie the value of taking care of her things. We try to teach her not to make a mess of her clothes (being careful when she eats and drinks, for example) and to play nicely with her toys. This is a work in progress and probably always will be, especially as she learns to be a good steward of her time and her body. It's a lesson I am constantly trying to learn myself. But one area that she probably sees more than others right now is being a good steward of our energy (and ultimately, of our money, though she doesn't understand that part yet). She is learning to turn off the lights when she leaves the room, and to make sure the TV is turned off when she's finished watching it. Often, when we're getting ready to leave, she will say, "I need to go turn off the lights!" and will run downstairs to turn off the TV and lights if we have forgotten. I am hoping that if she learns to be a good steward of the little things, she will also learn to be a good steward of the big things.

I remember when Ellie was very little Leif said that he wanted our children to have attitudes of thankfulness. Thankfulness is more important, I think, even than politeness. Those with thankful hearts understand that what they have is a gift, and they have a right perspective towards it. If they are thankful for what they have, they will be better stewards of it. They will take better care of it, and their thankfulness towards the givers will result in politeness. I think a thankful heart is probably one of the most important things we can model for our daughter, and yet I tend to take things for granted. We are trying to teach Eliana how to accept compliments gracefully. When someone says they like her shirt, we are trying to teach her that the appropriate response is to say, "Thank you!" When someone shares a toy with her, the approprate response is to say, "Thank you!" and then demonstrate that thankfulness by playing nicely with the toy and, in turn, sharing it with others or giving it back after her turn is complete.

I often think that imparting these ideas to a toddler is difficult. I think, though, that it is more difficult to grasp them myself and put them into action. I want to be a perfect example for my daughter, and yet I know that I cannot be. I am a sinful human, and that means that I will mess up. Thankfully, though, there IS a perfect example I can point her to. And I can demonstrate for her the appropriate response when I do mess up. And I can demonstrate the appropriate response when she messes up. And that brings us to forgiveness.

Forgiveness is something we worked a lot on last year. I think we've slacked off in this area lately and I need to get back on track with it. I have not slacked off in forgiving Eliana, but I have slacked off in explaining the process of forgiveness and reconciliation. We used to have a routine... She would disobey and then be sent to timeout. Once her timeout was over, we would come together and talk. She would explain why she was sent to timeout; what it was she had done to deserve the punishment. Then she would look me in the eyes (this part often took a while, but was important because she was content to give me a flippant, "Sorry" without meaning unless she was looking in my eyes) and tell me she was sorry. I would tell her that I forgive her and that I love her, and we would share a hug. I would explain that the hug was part of the reconciliation (and yes, I did use the word reconciliation with my toddler!) and that we were okay now and she could go and play, but not to ________ (whatever the offense was) any more. I have become lax in the follow up after discipline lately, and I think that has caused her to lose some of the understanding of the whole process. But I think forgiveness is one of the most important things to impart, because she needs to understand it. She needs to understand forgiveness in order to really understand a relationship with God. She needs to understand forgiveness in order to have healthy relationships with people. And she needs to understand forgiveness in order to grow as a person, to forgive herself for the mistakes she has made after she has confessed them and been forgiven by God. Forgiveness, like politeness and thankfulness, is not about the words, but the attitude behind them.

So... over the next 13 weeks, we will be working on learning how to shepherd our daughter's heart. I have a feeling, though, that it means we will be being shepherded ourselves, as we examine our own hearts, and how they are impacting the way we raise our daughter. The series is a video series, and there is no weekly homework (for which I am thankful! I am good at mulling over lessons during the week, but not so good at sitting down and filling out workbooks!) but I might do some reading and question answering in the book and workbook on my own.

New Hat!

2009-03-10T20:55:00.000-07:00

I got this uber cute hat tonight for Eliana at a craft/home business show I was participating in. Isn't it the cutest?!! The best part is that not only is it adorable on her, but it fits ME, too! I'm excited to share it with her, even if Leif says it isn't my color. =D

The designer/maker I bought it from was fun to get to know, and she has an etsy shop, too. She has the cutest hats (and some adorable, but discontinued, onesies I bought for a friend who is having a baby shower this week). I love them! Oh, cute, cute headbands, too!

Please Pray

2009-03-04T14:51:00.000-08:00

I cannot imagine anything worse than losing a child. Not under any circumstances, or for any reason. I know that God is sovereign and that He will bring glory to Himself through any situation, and yet that knowledge doesn't make a child's death any less heartbreaking.

Yesterday my friends Zach and Lindsey lost their youngest son when he drowned in the bathtub. I don't know any details or specifics as to what happened, but I know that they are grieving and devastated at this loss. I can't even begin to imagine what they are going through as they grieve themselves and try to explain what has happened to their other son, who is 3. My heart just breaks for them right now.

And so, I am asking everyone to pray for them. Pray that the will find comfort in their God, and that He will be their source of strength. Pray for Lindsey that she would just be overwhelmed by His love for her and the comfort that He has for her. Pray for peace as they face all of the "what if"s that Satan will throw at them. Pray for the direction this family takes as they step forward, and pray for how they respond to this tragedy, because it will shape who they will become.

We know that God is sovereign and that He uses all things for His ultimate glory and to the good of those who love Him. But it can be so hard in the midst of a tragedy like this to see His hand at work. So pray for protection around their hearts, and pray that they will clearly see His hand at work amidst the sorrow and pain, that they might take comfort in His plan for little Jamie's life, because He does have a plan.

My heart breaks for them and I cannot be there to physically support or help them in any way. So I am praying for them, and I know they would appreciate if you lifted them up in prayer, too. Thank you.

Don't worry, it's clean...

2009-03-02T15:37:00.000-08:00

Scenes like this are what greet me on an average day. Eliana finds something to repurpose for her own imagination. A (brand new, never used) plunger becomes a hat. A comb becomes a camera. A necklace becomes a super hero cape. I love it.

I especially love that when said super hero cape (aka - Mommy's necklace she probably shouldn't be playing with) is turned back around to the front, she turns into Mommy and has the powers to administer time outs to imaginary children.

These are the things that I love. These little moments are what make necklaces strewn across the living room worth picking up for another day. These moments are the reason I allowed her to wear a clean plunger on her head as a hat before explaining to her that plungers do NOT go on heads because they go in toilets. These little moments are what make all of the not so great moments bearable. Because no matter what moment you are stuck in, you can always look back to moments like these and know that there are more to come.

Cleaning her room...

2009-03-01T22:33:00.000-08:00

Today we asked Eliana to clean up her room by herself. We checked in on her every so often and reminded her to keep cleaning, but once she got it into her head that she was cleaning her room she did it pretty quickly and effectively. She cleaned her room by herself! Oh, what a beautiful day!

When Eliana does something, especially if it's something you've asked her to do and she's done, she responds EXTREMELY well to praise. She loves to be told what a good job she has done. And when you ask her to do something, like putting all the blankets on her bed instead of all over the floor, she will run back and report to you that she has done it. She's very excited about obeying once she's in the right mindset.

I think Leif is much better at praising her for her accomplishments than I am. And I find that weird, because I am the type who needs that affirmation myself, and he is not. So you'd think I'd think to give it to her right away, but I don't. Perhaps it's all the practice Leif has had praising me for the things I've done that makes him so good at it. Whatever it is, you should just see Ellie's face BEAM when he tells her what a good job she's done.

I need to remember to praise her more often for her obedience. I consider obedience a really big deal, so I should treat it like a really big deal!

Bento Blog...

2009-02-27T19:20:00.001-08:00

Since the Bentos were sort of taking over this blog, I found a new home for them over at Bento-riffic. You can feel free to follow Ellie's lunch adventures over there, and I'll get back to what I was supposed to be doing over here. =D

Cleaning up after oneself...

2009-02-25T15:38:00.000-08:00

It's hard to instill in a child the ability and desire to clean up after oneself, especially if you don't possess that yourself.

*sigh*

And right now there are duplos all over my living room, a mess of papers in my bedroom, playdough toys (that she's not allowed to play with until the duplos are picked up) on the floor, and dress up clothes ALL OVER her room.

And I have people coming over in an hour and a half.

I want her to learn to clean up after herself, but I am lousy at doing it myself. I am NOT a good model in this area. And I tend not to see the mess until it's all over the place.

*sigh*

So I think I'm going to take Ellie by the hand and we are going to go clean up the house together right now. I didn't do such a good job at instilling the "play with one thing at a time and put it away before you get another toy out" rule today, but I can at least help her see that we need to clean up our toys when we're done playing with them. Right?

Just because we didn't nip it in the bud doesn't mean we can't still prune the tree... (or sproutling as the case may be, because she's not yet full grown tree yet... she's still only two and I have a lot more modeling to learn to do!)

I buy bento! =D

2009-02-20T19:37:00.000-08:00

A while back I discovered this website from another bento blog. Cheap, cute bento things. When I went to the website, it looked like perhaps they had some cute cheap bento things, but they were sold out of everything I wanted. Sigh. Well, today Jaime emailed me and said she found this website. So I clicked through and drooled and fell in love and then realized that this is the new and improved website I'd checked out before. So guess what?

I bought bento!!!

I'm so excited. It'll take about 10 days for my order to get here, and when it does I'm going to play! Bento boxes for me and Ellie, rice molds, egg molds, sauce containers, food separaters, food picks.... ah, it will be glorious!

Let the cute food continue!

2009-02-12T01:15:00.000-08:00

We've been in full on Valentine's mode for about a month now, thanks to letting Ellie watch an episode of Caillou in which they celebrated Valentine's day. I guess I should be happy they weren't celebrating the 4th of July or we'd be in red, white, and blue for months!

So because of the recent heart obsession and Ellie's daily desire to "make heart cookies for my friends, Mommy!" we made other heart shaped food instead. Like toast and eggs!

It took longer to make, perhaps, than regular eggs and toast, but again with my firm belief in cute food. ;D And really, it isn't difficult to do and has a kind of cool effect once it is finished. Ideally, the eggs would be cooked sunny side up so you could dip your toast cut out into the yolk, but I only used white for mine and Ellie's yolk got scrambled, so it didn't really work out that way for us. So here's what you do...

1. Toast a slice of bread. Really, though, you could just butter both sides of the bread and flop it into a pan. When the first side is toasted, flip the bread over and proceed to step two...

2. Spray a metal cookie cutter with oil and cut a shape out of the center of your toast. Remove the bread cut out and let the undone side finish toasting in the pan.

3. Replace the metal cookie cutter in the shaped hole in the toast and crack your egg into the cookie cutter. This will keep the egg contained as it cooks. Because you sprayed the cutter with oil, the egg shouldn't stick to it.

4. When the egg is thoroughly cooked, remove the cookie cutter from the toast, carefully separating it from the egg. The egg should be cooked into the toast at the bottom, so the egg will stay put. If you want to, you can flip the toast and egg over at this point to brown the egg slightly in the pan. Because they're cooked together, the egg won't fall out of the bread.

5. If you want more butter, now is a good time to re-butter the bread, let it melt, and enjoy!!

Crack Down Mode

2009-02-10T07:00:00.000-08:00

It never fails... Every time Eliana starts acting up and being disobedient I look back at my own parenting for the last couple weeks and find that I've been slacking. Do you think I'll ever learn??

So starting a couple days ago, we are back in crack down mode. Every offense has a consequence, which is administered calmly and consistently. Every time. No "don't do that again or you'll go to time out" warnings or empty threats. She knows the rules and she knows the consequences, and if I don't dole them out when they're due all I'm doing is teaching her that I approve of her bad behavior.

I think the key to discipline being effective for Eliana is being calm. She would much rather stand in timeout than have you "yell" at her. And her definition of "yelling" is reprimanding her with a stern voice. That seems to cut her deeply and she will start crying as though she has been deeply wounded and say, "Don't yell at me, Mommy!" Which, in turn, breaks my heart, because I didn't yell at her, I just corrected her sternly. But there was probably an exasperated tone in my voice which she picked up on, too, which makes me feel awful. And yes, she chose to whine, she chose to refuse what I asked her to do, she chose to disobey, but I am in control of my own response. And, sadly, sometimes my own response is laziness. I don't send her to timeout for infractions which consequent a time out because I just don't want to fight that battle. And *bam!* I have just taught her that sometimes it is okay to behave inappropriately. *sigh*

So we're back to crack down mode. Crack down usually consists of two days of tantrums and struggles and lots of discipline to counteract the lots of disobedience that has become a recent partern. And then something magic happens on the third day where she doesn't fight the consequences as much and she not nearly so disobedient. It is beautiful! That was yesterday. It's not that she didn't need any discipline, but that she only needed time out twice and a spanking once as opposed to some form of discipline a dozen or more times a day. And this is where the discipline becomes REALLY important. I need to stick with it, and not lessen up just because she's being so good overall. Children with a sweet disposition can still be disobedient and need to be disciplined. And yes, it might mean that the sweet disposition disappears for a while as the child whines and complains and kicks and screams in the face of that discipline. But how you react and respond when she doesn't give you the response you want to see teaches her how to respond when she doesn't get what she wants. If I get frustrated and raise my voice, she learns that yelling is the way to get what you want. If I whine and say, "Ellie, will you please go to timeout? Why do you insist on making this so hard? The sooner you go to timeout, the sooner you can get back to playing." I am teaching her her that whining is how you get what you want. If I get frustrated and give her an undeserved swat on the bottom as I carry her to timeout and force her to stand there, she learns that physical assertion is the way to get what you want. But if I am calm, and discuss with her why she is going to timeout, what she has done, what the consequence is for that action, and I keep a calm disposition while disciplining her, she is less likely to get distracted by my response and have a better chance of learning that the consequence/discpiline is a result of her action, not a result of the mood I'm in. Consistency is key because she needs to see that her actions have consequences every time. Calmness is key because she needs to see that those consequences are not determined by my mood.

I should add, as an end note, that I've just been talking about the negative consequences of actions. There is a positive side of discipline, too, and it's important to praise kids for what they are doing well, especially if they respond to praise. And we do praise Eliana often, especially when she obeys right away or chooses not to throw a fit when she has been struggling with fits. I don't want you to think that I'm suggesting keeping your kid in timeout all day long! But this is the stage we're at right now, and what's on my mind this week, so I figured I'd record some thoughts on it.

My BENTO Wishlist....

2009-02-09T15:43:00.001-08:00

At the very top of my bento wishlist is...

... I want a Daiso Japan store in Bozeman, MT!! I don't really think that will happen since the only two states that have them are Washington and California, but it's still at the top of my wishlist. ;D On the plus side, I learned that there's a Daiso in Bellingham, WA and that's right near my friend Tam, so maybe it is time for a trip out that way again after all! =D She hasn't met Ellie yet and we haven't met her kids, so it would be fun to go and hang out with them again! And if I get my bento fix in the same trip... that would be even better!

... but on to what I would want if we had a Daiso locally...

Bento boxes! (A couple "real" bento boxes would be nice =D)

Food dividers! (both the traditional AND the cute. =D)

Rice molds!

Rice boxes! (though rice molds would suffice if I could only have one of the two...)

Food picks! (the cuter the better!)

and last but not least.... sauce containers!!! (aren't these the cutest things you've ever seen???)

Sigh... I really wish we had a Daiso nearby.... This could SO be my new craft.

My first foray into Charaben!

2009-02-09T11:59:00.000-08:00

I am a firm believer in food presentation. I believe that food should be cute. =D And so, I love bento. I follow two bento blogs, and have been inspired by them both. Wendolonia makes preschool bentos for her son, which is where I first got the idea for making bentos for Eliana. Healthy variety, cute color... What's not to love for a wee one, right? The other bento blog I've been following is Anna the Red. I've posted one of her bentos here before. She makes beautiful, amazing bentos, and really does charaben quite well. Charaben is the art of making the food in your bento look like characters.

Well, this morning I was reading Anna the Red and Ellie came over to the computer and said, "Oooh! Bento!" when she saw the picture. This particular one was a Calvin and Hobbes charaben and it just warmed my heart to know that Ellie responded so warmly to bento. Strange, I know. But it did, so I decided that we would make a Little Einsteins charaben this morning, just for her.

Now, most of the charaben I have seen is made with traditional rice and seaweed. But one thing I have learned from Wendy of Wendolonia is that you neeed to fill kids' bentos with foods they will eat. Not necessarily unhealthy foods, but foods that they like. Otherwise your bento, no matter how cute, will not get eaten. So today's bento base is macaroni and cheese (with hot dog chunks, chopped up from what was leftover after I made June's body). There is a celery and broccoli tree, and Rocket is made from an apple, with a soy cheese headlight. June's body is cut from a hot dog, and her face is made of ham. Her hair, shoes, and dress are cut from fruit leather, as are her pupils and earings. Her mouth is ketchup, and the whites of her eyes are mayonnaise. I realized after Ellie had already started eating it that I'd forgotten June's headband, and I think that would have made her look a little more like, well, June. But it's too late now, I guess, and I'm not altogether unhappy with how it turned out. After all, it IS only my first foray into charaben!

Food Log: January 29

2009-01-29T14:20:00.000-08:00

Breakfast: 3-4 graham crackers
Snack: Fruit Nuggets
Lunch: 2 bowls mac and cheese (Annie's organic macaroni and Tofutti "cheese")
Snack: Fruit Nuggets (I know, twice in one day! But she loves them and it made her happy...)
Chocolate (She found some and ate 2 pieces before I realized what was going on...)
Dinner: Yogurt and homemade pizza

BPA Free... and cute to boot!

2009-01-28T12:49:00.000-08:00

Lately Eliana has been hooked on her sippy cups. It doesn't matter what's in them, she just wants a sippy cup. For comfort. And she doesn't want to drink out of a real cup for dinner.

Ack!

So I bought Ellie some new cups yesterday at Costco, just like her friend Zoe has. These Contigo cups are great! They're leakproof when sealed (though Ellie did discover right away that she can push down the button and pour out of her cup - which she promptly got in trouble for), but the spout opens up for drinking when you push the button. That means no more sucking to get the liquid out! These are big girl cups! And actually, they are recommended for ages 4+, but it seems to me that they are fine so long as the kiddo can coordinate pushing the button, tipping, and drinking all at the same time.

I didn't get the cups BECAUSE they were BPA free, but it is a nice feature. They're also dishwasher safe and don't have extra little valves to pull out, which is nice. Just two peices, the cup and the lid. And Costco's got a 4 pack of them for $12 less than Amazon. I love Costco. =D

Now I'm going to go freecycle MOST of Eliana's sippy cups. Not all of them, I will keep the 4 Gerber ones, but I will freecycle the rest. I really want to break this sippy cup habit!

Food Log: January 27

2009-01-27T11:31:00.000-08:00

Apparently, I only do a food log (and an incomplete one at that) once a month, on the 27th. Who knew?

I don't know what Eliana had for breakfast this morning, because Leif got her something while I was still being lazy in bed.

But for lunch she's eating soy yogurt (strawberry) and macaroni (organic Annie's macaroni noodles) and cheese (tofutti melted over top and stirred into the noodles) with hot dogs (turkey hot dogs, the Jennie-O brand).

I realized that I don't really need to keep buying Easy Mac just for the macaroni. I have been buying it, microwaving the (completely processed, un-nutritious) pasta and freecycling the cheese packets. You know, if I'd just take the time to precook some whole wheat macaroni and keep it in the fridge, it would be just as quick to make mac and cheese for her. So I think that's what I'm going to do.

Anyway, food today was....

Breakfast: (I asked Leif what she had)

Banana
Raisins

Lunch:

Soy Yogurt
Organic Macaroni with Tofutti Cheese

Dinner:

? (I have a meeting, so it's up to Leif tonight, I think)

potty training...

2009-01-23T22:49:00.000-08:00

Since I never blogged about the potty training progress, let me just do that quickly right now...

I haven't changed a dirty diaper in over a week.

That is serious news!! Wet diapers, yes, but dirty diapers? Not in over a week! Here's sort of how it went:

One day a week or two ago Eliana was being especially pesky when it came to getting dressed in the morning. I finally got frustrated with her running away every time I tried to put a pull up on her that I said, "If you don't want to wear a pull-up, Eliana, that's fine. But if you pee on my carpet, you're cleaning it up." I left it at that, fully expecting her to pee on the carpet, have to clean it up, (because, yes, I would have made her clean it up. At least to the best of her ability, with some good work put in) and learn her lesson. Instead, do you know what happened to my little bare-bottomed girl? After a while she stopped playing, looked at me, said, "I need to go peepee!" and ran into the bathroom to pee on her little potty. She continued the pattern most of the morning, without accident! Around noon we had this little conversation:

"Mommy, I need a pull-up."
"Do you need to go potty, Eliana?"
"No, I just need a pull-up."
"Do you need to go poopoo in the potty?"
"Nope!" (and she ran off to retrieve a pull-up, which I then helped her put on.)

After 2 minutes, if that, she says,
"Mommy, I need a diaper change."
"Eliana, did you go poopoo in your pull-up?"
and she ran away shreiking, "Don't check! Don't check!"

Yes, that was day one of our potty training, quite by accident. In that day I learned that she knew EXACTLY when she needed to go and was quite capable of going by herself, if she didn't have any restrictive clothing in her way.

As a side note, she poo'ed in the potty that afternoon, and not in a pull-up. It was a grand day indeed!

So for the rest of the week Eliana got to run around rather "free" from the waist down. Then we learned that she was just fine if she wore a dress with nothing underneath, so we moved to that so we could have our living room windows open again without flashing the neighbors with a 2 year old tush!

This week we have learned that if Eliana wears pants (with nothing underneath) she does just fine then, too. We have graduated to pants!! It is a very exciting thing for this mama. I'm hoping one of these days we can graduate to panties, but so far she has just treated them like a pull-up, which is less than stellar. BUT we are making progress! It all seems connected to her independence. She does NOT like it when we ask her if she needs to go potty. Nor does she like it if we try to help her when she has not asked for help. Only once has she missed the potty by sitting too close to the edge, and we have had NO accidents at all the entire time. Obviously, when she's at someone else's house or we're out running errands, she has a pull-up on. Which she uses like a diaper sometimes. *sigh* But she has on several occasions asked to go in the potty while we're out running errands, so I've been very proud of her for that!

Like I said, she's been making progress in the potty training arena over the last couple weeks. It is very exciting and I can't even tell you how many phone calls I've made to my parents to celebrate random potty victories. It's great.

I love this idea!

2009-01-23T22:45:00.000-08:00

Okay, so Ellie isn't yet old enough to be able to use these, but they will be helpful for me to use when I pick out her clothes for the next day or next week. I'm also planning to use them for myself. =D I printed out and laminated two sets tonight, so they're ready to go for next week's clothes. Yippee!

I'm a sucker for stuff like this.

so little time!

2009-01-13T00:00:00.001-08:00

I have so many things to blog about. This week Eliana has been maturing by leaps and bounds in a few different ways! I haven't blogged them because I want to give them a proper blog post, but I'm having trouble finding the time! So, until there are decent blog posts, let me just say that in the last 2 days Eliana has made significant improvements in:

- potty training
- obedience
- creativity and imagination
- independence

It's wonderful! But... it's also a little exhausting, and I really ought to head to bed as it's after 1 and Ellie will be up in 5-6 hours. So the posts will have to wait, but I have really enjoyed being a mommy the last 2 days. That's a good note to end the day on.

Cracker Sandwiches

2009-01-09T10:50:00.001-08:00

Today's lunch is cracker sandwiches... and Ellie is delighted by them! She wanted cheese (MY cheese, real cheddar cheese, the kind she can't have cheese) for lunch and wasn't pleased at my insistence that she eat her own soy cheese. Nor was she excited at eating cheese and crackers, if it mean that she had to eat her cheese instead of the forbidden. BUT offer her a "cracker sandwich" and she was excited. Even though it was a cracker sandwich with her soy cheese.

So we had cracker sandwiches for lunch.

Bento gone WILD!

2009-01-03T21:47:00.000-08:00

This is NOT my bento. But it is too awesome not to share! Seriously... is this the cutest food or what?!

I can only aspire to make lunches this cute for Eliana someday. (Really, in a perfect world, we would read together every afternoon and focus on one book a week and I would make her a cute bento like this to celebrate whatever book we were reading. It would be great! I love the perfect world in my head...)

Holiday Ornament Making

2008-12-27T08:14:00.001-08:00

This year Eliana made a few Christmas presents in the form of salt dough ornaments. I would like to see her take a more active role in our gift giving, and this was a first step. We went over to Erika and Zoe's house and the girls made ornaments while we did other holiday baking. It was a lot of fun and I'd love to do it again next year!

Ellie and J flattening out the salt dough.

Baking the ornaments...

Singing Christmas carols!

Painting the ornaments at home the next day... Eliana painted them all by herself!

I think they turned out very nicely for ornaments made and hand painted by a 2 year old! I think they were appreciated by the grandparents. I kept a couple for her to have as keepsakes, too.

Food Log: December 27

2008-12-27T07:18:00.000-08:00

Eliana's food log for the today:

Breakfast:
3 small whole wheat pancakes (casein free) from the freezer.
Fiber One banana muffin - she licked the frosting off the top and nibbled just a little of the muffin.

Lunch:
A half grilled cheese (soy cheese) sandwich.
5 or so green olives (and she even ate the pimento!)

Dinner:
Bread with margarine and jam. She ate the whole slice.
Half a banana
A couple slices pepperoni

I don't know that I'll record Eliana's food every day, but every so often it seems like a good idea so I can gather some information on her eating habits. Right now we've got family in town and our schedule's a little wonky from the holiday vacation, but Eliana seems to eat much better when she's just drinking water or rice milk instead of drinking juice. I'm not surprised. =D

The Single Life

2008-12-14T08:41:00.000-08:00

My anniversary is Tuesday. That means for the past 8 years, I have not been a single woman. I never had to be a single woman living on my own, as my husband and I got married in college. I went from living with my family to living in a dorm to being married. I really have never been alone and I often find it hard to relate to those who are single adults. Most of my single adult friends do not live locally, so I read their blogs or catch up on facebook and that is the extent of our conversation unless we happen to get together for dinner or an afternoon during an out of town trip. If I think about it, though, I am sure I can come up with more than one single friend here in town, some of whom I avoid talking to because I just don't know what to say. And so, as I was blog reading this morning, I came across an article one of my single friends posted and I gained some new insight. It's a little lengthy, but worth it.

What I'd like you to know: A Single Adult

The year I turned 30, my birthday happened to fall on Father’s Day. A few days before the combined event, I phoned my dad to tell him I wouldn’t make the three hour drive home to visit. I had just recently moved back to the city of my youthful stomping grounds after 3 years away, and I was the first of my friends to hit the big 3-0.

Dad graciously understood, and asked “So, how old are you this year?”

“Thirty.” I replied.

“Oh.” He sighed, and paused. “I never thought you would be an old maid.”

I know what you’re thinking. But coming from my dad, I wasn’t offended. I knew that in his generation, that was the plain truth. Moreover, I knew that he was really saying, “I can’t believe some man hasn’t snapped up my charming, smart and attractive daughter.”

Eight years later, I’m still not married, and still have no children. I am sure that many people I encounter see an old maid. Of course they don’t say it in as many words as my dad. They show it instead.

They show it when they say, “Not married? Oh, you must be picky.”

I hear it when others, incredulous, refuse to take it as fact. “Just kidding.” I want to say in such cases, “ I am married. Don’t worry. I’m normal.”

I think the inability to categorize me makes some people uncomfortable. If I were divorced, they could make sense of it. Were I a single mom, I’d find sympathy and compassion. But by admitting my single, never married, no-child status is akin to announcing there is something wrong with me. I’m reasonably attractive, funny and pass for intelligent, so people are only left to ponder my fatal flaws. Some people actually ask, “So what’s wrong with you?”

Our society sort of views marriage as a given. A rite of passage. When I read news accounts of a young woman or even a child who died tragically, her parents inevitably say “I’ll never walk her down the aisle on her wedding day. I’ll never hold her children.” It is assumed that everyone who was born will marry and have children. I assumed I would too. When it just doesn’t happen, knowing that it is expected of us only deepens the pain.

That is why it is so hurtful when it is suggested to a single person that they “must be picky.” As if we can just pick a guy and get married. After all, did you settle? Now you’re suggesting that you could have married just anyone. Would you have had as successful a marriage if you had ended up with one of your exes? As much as I long for marriage, I sure am glad I didn’t marry any of the men in my life so far.

That’s the trick about marriage as a goal. It’s not like learning to dance, or committing to losing weight. It doesn’t take will power to find a mate. It takes a mate. It takes a miracle. Oh, that I could just go to the store and pick one up!

True, single for some people is a choice. For those of us who truly desire marriage and children and family, it is not. Marriage is a vocation that two people agree to take on together. I can’t do it by myself. I learned, in just the last two months that I can’t make someone love me. No matter how much I love him, or how strong in faith he might be. Not even that our shared faith made us both stronger. No matter how happy we are together until all the Ifs and Buts step in.

And the simple fact of the matter is, I’ve never been asked.

That alone makes me question my womanhood and my desirability. It’s a very uncomfortable place. I am a woman who desperately desires motherhood. My clock is tocking not ticking. I am very aware that my best reproductive years are over.

What not to say

Please don’t remind a single woman that her chances for a healthy baby are diminishing every year she is over 30. But also, please do not try to encourage us with stories of women who successfully bore children well into their 50s. All of this is completely irrelevant to a woman without a husband or serious boyfriend.

While we’re on the topic, yes, I know adoption is an option. I am adopted myself and believe that adopted babies are indeed the best kind. If I were blessed with marriage, adoption would defiantly be a consideration. But adoption is as far out there as infertility treatments when there is no man in your life.

You’ll find him when you’re not looking

I’m never not looking. Yes, my life is full and happy. But I am a mother without a child. I am a wife without a husband. I want my other half. Think of the loss you would feel if your husband or child suddenly were not there. I feel, not daily, but often, that an important part of my life is missing.

And by the way… dating after age 30 is not fun. It is a chore, like scrubbing the bathtub but less rewarding. It’s hard to look forward to dinner and disappointment. I want to anticipate a nice evening, but this much experience has taught me what to look for in a man – and more often than not, it’s not there.

In the meantime, sometimes I just want to dote my pent-up motherhood on your kids. It’s probably terribly inappropriate, but I will snuggle your baby and sniff its’ head to soak up that sweet smell. I’ve been guilty of tickling and twirling a smiling baby until it spits up. Sorry. I will nosh on your toddlers’ chubby legs and lift his shirt to plant a raspberry, just so I can hear that throaty, from-the-gut baby giggle that makes my heart sing. If it’s no trouble, please just indulge me. (I promise not to do that to your husband.)

Seeing women my age or younger with kids in tow – can stir a pang of deep pain. I once called my church office to ask when Baptisms were scheduled, as I needed to avoid them. Second Sunday of the month, I would attend a different church just so I didn’t have to see the happy couples with their beautiful babies.

That’s another point. Church is no place for a single woman. Church is all about family. That’s why you see so few single adults there. It’s not that they no longer believe, the fact is they don’t feel welcome. When your pastor asks you reach out to share a blessing, do you turn to your family first? I stand there waiting for a hand to embrace.

I worry this writing might sound all bitter and lonely and sad. I am happy. I am blessed with an incredible network of friends. My family is amazing. I enjoy my single life to the best of my ability. People remind me that marriage is not easy. I remind them; neither is being single.

Oddly, Barb in last week’s post on Empty Nesting provided me a point to expound upon. She wrote:

“Life is a circle. You flow from one stage to the next. And with a little time, you become comfortable with the newest stage.” --Barb, A Chelsea Morning

For a perpetually single person, that’s not so. My life is a wandering squiggly line – darting in and out of other people’s circles. Everyone else is buzzing along on a predictable cycle but there is no circle of life in my world. There are no ‘stages’ for me to move through, save the aging process.

I am not Less Than

I realize I may sound contradictory – as I have already pointed out here that I feel a part of me is missing. But I am a whole person. Perhaps I have not yet realized that God intends for me to be alone, and that to Him I am complete and not in need of a husband. I’m still working on trusting God’s divine providence.

What I mean to emphasize is that you need not view me as pathetic and alone. I am not waiting for my life to begin. Marriage is not going to make my life worth living. My life is worthy now. I’m just a little lonely.

Invite me over to play with your kids while you tackle the laundry. Seriously.

Think about introducing me to someone. Don’t wait until you find the ‘perfect guy’ for me. It’s just nice to meet people. You never know who they might lead you to!

If you do make an introduction, don’t make a big fuss. Don’t tell either of us you’re setting it up. Just put us in the same room. If we’re interested, we’ll figure it out. But feel free to point out after the fact, that you introduced me to so-and-so if sparks did not fly.

Pray for single adults. There are ministries for single moms, working moms, elderly widows/widowers, and petitions for the sick. But when does society reach out to the single? Pray that your single friends might daily, feel the love of God and of their friends and neighbors in a tangible way.

Invite your single friends for a meal. We’ll help prepare. I attend my church’s weekly fish fry during Lent – even though I’m allergic to fish. My priest teased me until I explained at home, I have to eat alone.

Keep in touch with your single friends. They’re not out tearing it up and having orgies. We’re not out to steal your husband. Sometimes we just want to experience the hum of a household with a family. Look for things in common with single adults. We might not share your challenges, but we can still relate.

TRAINS!

2008-12-11T01:29:00.000-08:00

Remember when I said we ordered a train set for Eliana because it was a really good deal?? Well, it arrived yesterday. I opened the outer box so I could wrap up the box with the train set in it and I discovered two boxes inside. Confused, I asked Leif about it. It turns out, that in addition to the 100 piece train set we ordered for $30 with free shipping, we also received this train station set:
for FREE! So that will tack onto this:

and we will have made out like bandits! I'm still reeling from the shock of it and SO GLAD I didn't pick up the simple 8 track design for $30 that I was about to buy the day before we saw this deal.

Santa Clause....

2008-12-10T10:58:00.000-08:00

I didn't grow up believing in Santa. And I don't feel deprived. We really have no intention of teaching Eliana about Santa, either, though I would have liked to get a picture of her sitting on Santa's lap this year. But we missed that opportunity (by mere minutes) at Murdoch's the other day for a free photo, so we probably won't do it. It's not THAT big a deal, I just thought it would make for a cute picture. I have never heard a really convincing argument against teaching your kids about Santa Clause, because I have seen people do it without taking away from the focus of Christ. But today my friend Jaime posted an excellent reason behind their family's decision not to celebrate Santa Clause. It's not because Santa is evil, nor because Santa secularizes Christmas. It's because if you use your power as a parent to convince your children to believe a lie (that Santa is real, that he lives at the North Pole and brings kids gifts, etc.) then the time may come when they question the truth of other stories you have told them are true (that Christ is God's son and that he came to earth in the form of a baby, born of a virgin, and that his death has provided a way for us to be reconciled to God and be saved). Because if you lied about one, how will they know you didn't lie about the other? We need to be honest with our children and make sure that we act in a manner that is worthy of their trust.

Anyway, I am not nearly as eloquent as Jaime on the subject, so please read her post instead of just taking my summary of it. =D I appreciate friends who think through their parenting in light of Scripture and who are willing to post their thoughts online to spur the rest of us to deeper thought and more deliberate parenting. Thank you, Jaime!

Putting a little Holiday in the Everyday...

2008-12-07T07:29:00.000-08:00

As I'm doing the Daily December this year, it occurs to me that I'm making an effort to make the every day things just a little more special this holiday season. It doesn't take a lot of effort or energy, but I think it makes the everyday a little more fun and turns our focus from the mundane to the season. It's the simple moments in life that are great. Yes, Christmas day is wonderful and beautiful and magical, but I'm not convinced it would be if we didn't take the time and effort to build the excitement throughout the season. Simple memories. We bake cookies. We take pictures. We send cards. We decorate the house. It's all the little things that add up to make this season so spectacular. So I thought I'd share a little of how I'm putting the holiday in our everyday this year, just to make things a little more special.

Reading Christmas stories instead of our regular stories.
Watching Christmas movies instead of our regular Word World, etc.
Baking muffins (or cornbread, like we did tonight) into gingerbread men shapes (using a Wilton silicone pan).
Playing Christmas music and dancing to it.
Singing Christmas carols
Making snow angels outside
Making some Christmas cards (or Thank You cards) for grandparents and other family members.
Talking about the Christmas story as you decorate the tree (the star or angel on top, why we give gifts, advent candles, etc.)
Pointing out Christmas lights as you drive around town.
Playing with holiday specific toys (stuffed snowmen, etc.)
Making and decorating cookies together.
Making baked goods together to give as gifts.

Those are a few of the things we're doing this holiday season. What are you doing to put some Holiday in your Everyday?

How's it going?

2008-12-05T00:14:00.000-08:00

Well, it's been a few days since I took 2/3 of Eliana's toys away from her and put them up until later. Wanna know how it's going?

GREAT.

Her room looks empty, if you ask me. It made me realize that I really do need to finish the decorations I have half done to put on her wall. That would make the room look better. I moved the easel to the craft room. It has a place in there and she actually got to paint on it -- and LOVED it! I'm so excited for the crafts she's going to get to do down there now that I have a place I don't have to be so concerned about getting all dirtied up by toddler creativity!

Now that Eliana doesn't have as much clutter in her room it's amazing the creativity she has. She's been playing "Birthday Cake" a lot and has been playing with her activity bags sorting things by color and threading beads on pipe cleaner. She never played with those before! Plus, it takes just a couple minutes to clean up her room now instead of taking half an hour or more. Hooray!

The basement is tidier, too, now that I've moved out some of that stuff. I still need to clean up the rest of the family room and get her puppets arranged in a way that she can easily play with them, but it's good. She's playing with her Mega Blocks all the time down there!

So it's good. I'm really glad I took the time to separate out her toys. When she gets her Christmas gifts I'll put some of them aside so she can play with them later, too. Then there will be newness all through the year instead of just on one day!

S is for Star

2008-12-04T08:58:00.000-08:00

The other day I was at Barnes and Noble looking for some Christmas / Winter books to read with Eliana. She was happily playing with the train set when I stumbled upon this little gem of a book:

I assumed that S is for Star would be just like all the other secular "____ is for _____" alphabet books published by this company. We have the "B is for Big Sky" book and it's cute, but it isn't anything spectacular. I figured the Christmas book would be the same way. You know, C is for Candy Cane, P is for Presents, F is for Frosty the Snowman.... It turns out, though, that this is a surprisingly good book for the Christmas season. It is pretty much an alphabet book centered on Christ's birth, which is awesome! Each page, in addition to the "_____ is for ________" statement includes scripture verses and tidbits of history that pertain to the focus for that letter. I was pleasantly surprised at the number of scripture verses throughout the book. The side information also makes the book more interesting for older children, making this a book that can be read as a family for years.

Like I said, pleasantly surprised. Not only that, but the book retails for under $7. It really makes me wish I had nieces and nephews - I'd buy a copy for each of them for Christmas this year. Instead, though, I'll just settle for the copy I bought for our household. =D

If you click here you can see some of the pages inside (I'm a big fan of the "surprise me!" button on the side bar for seeing what a book is like inside). But just to give you an idea of the way the letters are incorporated to give a picture of why we really celebrate Christmas, here is a sample...

A is for angels and archangels
B is for Baby Jesus
E is for Epiphany
I stands for Inn in Isreal
Joseph begins with the letter J
K stands for King
L is for Love
M is for the straw-filled Manger
S stands for Shepherds
W is for Wise Men
Zion starts with the letter Z

I love that the books draws in not only the nativity story, and cultural Christmas traditions, but also starts to give the big picture of Christmas, mentioning Christ as the King of Kings, born into King David's line and Christ returning again. It really is a good book and I can't recommend it enough if you're trying to find a good book to read with your kids this season.

Daily December

2008-12-03T12:00:00.000-08:00

This year I am going to do Daily December activities with Eliana. We're going to spend time doing something for the holidays every day, and I'm going to do my best to take pictures and record what we're doing. I made a little Daily December album last month in which to record these memories so that we can look back on the things we did to celebrate Christmas this year.

And wouldn't you know it, but today is December 3 and I haven't yet recorded what we did on the 1st or the 2nd. The good news is that we DID something those days, though! Here's what we did:

December 1 - Drove around the subdivision looking at Christmas lights. It turns out that Eliana is a big fan of decorated houses and calls the houses with lights on them "castles". As in, "WOW! Look at that big castle over there!" It's cute.

December 2 - Eliana and I bought some Christmas books to read this season (including How the Grinch Stole Christmas and S is for Star) and we put up a new little Christmas tree in her room. It doesn't have any ornaments or a star on it yet, but it does have some red garland on it, which she picked out. I hope to use the Christmas tree this year to talk about the symbolism of the different decorations.

And today? Well, we'll have to see what we do today. She has friends coming over this afternoon, so we might bake cookies (in the shape of ginger bread men!) or we might make salt dough ornaments, or we might make cinnamon hard candy (in the shape of ginger bread men!) or we might play in the snow and learn to make snow angels or we might do something entirely different. We'll just have to see how the day goes. =D

Trains....

2008-12-03T10:45:00.000-08:00

Ha ha! This is going to be funny post coming right after the last one, but I promise I'm not crazy. =D This morning we ordered this train set:

for Eliana to play with on her train table. It's the third part of her Little People / Cars / Trains rotation. Want to know the best part about this particular train set?? It was $29.99 with free shipping!! I have been looking at other train sets and for $30 all you get is a little 8 track with 2 train cars. So this set is a great deal! I'm pretty excited about it, especially since Eliana LOVES playing with the train sets at the Children's Museum, Barnes and Noble, and Giggles toy store. The set can connect into other brands of wooden train sets, too, which is nice. The reviews are pretty good on this particular train set from this particular website (there were 66 reviews) so I'm excited to see the set when it actually arrives. I assume we'll give it to Eliana for Christmas and then put it away until the middle of January or sometime in February when it's time to switch out the toys in the basement again. I know she is getting a Little People house from Mommom and Poppy, so I want her to play with that on the table first. Plus, her Christmas toys get to be new and fresh then when she doesn't get to play with them all at once.

Too many toys!

2008-11-30T09:35:00.000-08:00

I have decided that Eliana has TOO MANY toys in her room. It is always a mess in there and there are just so many little pieces that get scattered around! In addition to the toys she has in her room she has toys in the family room downstairs and when both are messy it just feels like my whole house is in chaos! Some of the toys we really don't need and I'm going to freecycle them so that someone who might not have as much as we do can benefit from them. A lot of the toys really are good for her to play with developmentally, it's just that she doesn't need to play with them all at once. So.... I think I'm going to divvy up her toys into three sets and only have one set in her room at a time. Then when she gets tired of playing with those toys or it's just time for a change I can pull out a new set of toys and put the first set away. By divvying things into thirds it will give me three sets of toys to rotate between. I might do something similar with the toys in the basement, too. I think I probably ought to put a little more thought into which toys go in the basement (more group imaginative play) and what goes in her room (more of the individual developmental play) so there's actually a distinction. Some of the toys right now are just too young for her, too, and I need to put them with the other baby stuff so they are not cluttering things up.

I have tried a couple times to sort things out, but I am a piler. Then thinking about the sorting takes place as I'm sorting and it just sort of creates a giant mess that I don't get finished with during the time I've allotted for that project. So perhaps before I get into sorting again I should think out what I want to do first. =D

Currently we have two (actually three, but one needs to move) tables in the basement for Eliana to play on. One contains cardboard blocks and another has Little People on it right now. The third has a car track painted on it and I'm debating what to do with it. I also have an open space that's sort of fenced in by the two tables in the basement. I would love use this space for imaginative play. She has puppets down there already, but not set up in a good way to play with. So for the basement, here's what I'm thinking...

Building station (big table): 1. cardboard blocks 2. mega blocks 3. alphabet blocks (?)
Imagination station (open area): 1. puppets 2. dress up 3. dolls
Play station (smaller table): 1. little people 2. cars 3. trains (which we don't have yet)

Art station: I like the idea of an art station, but I think I'll set that up in my craft room to minimize the damage she can cause with a mess. =D Plus she can do art while I craft and that can be our "craft together" time. Now I just have to figure out where to put her easel in my craft room...

So given what I've planned for the basement and the craft room, that takes out the easel, mega blocks, alphabet blocks, dress up, and dolls from her room. That leaves in her room... stuffed animals, musical instruments, books, puzzles, and activity bags. I'm sure there are other things in there that I'm not remembering at the moment too, but, well, I'm not remembering those at the moment. So for her room I would like to see these areas....

Reading station: I'd like to divide her books into thirds so there are fewer of them to get scattered around. I would also like to take the glider out of her room and put her little rocking chair in there. Maybe I will (I can see a project coming here and I'm not sure I'll ever get to it, so don't hold me to it!!) make a cushion for the seat and back of the rocking chair so it's cute for her room and a little softer to sit in, too. I don't know if I can split her books into three "themes" or if it will just be a random selection of books, but there can be some Sandra Boynton and some Dr. Seuss in each set for sure.

Learning station: I have lots of little activity bags that I haven't had a place for so far. They include matching, bead threading, counting, etc. I don't know just how I want to do these yet since I don't want all the pieces to get mixed up, but I think it would be good to incorporate these. I also have some puzzles and some other things that could go in this station and get rotated through.

Music station: For this I have different kinds of instruments that I can cycle through. Ellie seems to have her favorites and I think if I switch them around then she will maybe play with some of the lesser favorites, too.

Suffed animals: This is less of a station and more of an area in which to reduce clutter. I'd like to split her stuffed animals into thirds so she has fewer to scatter around at a time. Some animals will stay out all the time (namely Kitty, Little Kitty, Star Bear, and Duck) but the others can be cycled through.

Miscellany: I just took a peek in Ellie's room and realized that the other toys in there are a lot of miscellaneous stuff. There are some bendy bunnies from Easter (which she still plays with and loves) and some stuffed peeps from the Easter before, a Barbie (from Barbie, which Ellie loves!), some slinkies, and some other miscellaneous toys. I don't know what I want to do about all these yet, since they really don't have a good home. If she didn't love them so much I could freecycle them, but she does love them and she does play with them. And really, some of them are good little toys for her to take out and about with us to keep her occupied at the grocery store. =D Now if only I could find a home for them...

So.... I think that's at least a good start on figuring out how to minimize the clutter. I'm sure I'll tweak it as I go, but hopefully once I decide to tackle this project I will actually get it done this time because I've taken the time to think it through.

I can hope, right?

Ellie's Handiwork

2008-11-29T00:27:00.000-08:00

We did some hand art last week for Thanksgiving. The turkey card is obviously holiday specific, but I really like the thank you cards for any occasion! Plus, Eliana had a great time stamping with her hand! I just gave her a blank sheet of white cardstock and let her go crazy with the stamp pad and her hand, and after she was done I cut the sheet in half, then folded those in half to form two cards and stamped thank you across the front. I think they turned out really cute!

Starfall...

2008-11-12T09:43:00.000-08:00

Leif has moved Ellie up to the next level of Starfall and she is doing great with it! She does levels 1-4 in the "play" column and she hunts around on the keyboard to find the correct letter. It's really fun to watch her putting sounds together, knowing that these are the skills that will eventually help her to read!

P is for Pumpkin

2008-11-10T09:38:00.001-08:00

I bought this book at Barnes and Noble last week. Today is a rainy, dreary day, so I pulled it out and read it with Eliana for the first time. It is a great book! It's one of the few Christian children's books I have found that does a good job of showing God's handiwork in His creation and gives examples of how we can be reminded of His presence in everyday objects and events. A lot of "Christian" children's books I have found are really just secular books with "Jesus" put in for good measure, and to me that seems like a pretty vain way to use Jesus' name, so I was so happy to find this book about fall that is so good! Ellie and I sat down and read it today... she read the letter on each page and I read the words that went with it. It held her attention through the entire book, an then she wanted to "read" it on her own when we were finished.

I'm hoping this book can be one we read over and over each fall, especially as we do some of the activities listed in the book, like corn mazes an pumpkin carving and apple picking.... I can see this book becoming part of our family fall traditions!

Soy yogurt....

2008-11-05T07:14:00.001-08:00

... is a hit!!! My homemade cottage cheese alternative? Not so much. But hooray for soy yogurt!

On the behavior front, yesterday we went to kindermusik. This is one of the places where Ellie is usually crazy. And yesterday? She actually sat on the blanket and listened to the story and interacted with the teacher. That's the first time she's done that since we started going to kindermusik in September. Really! She didn't try to sit ON the other children. She didn't HAVE to climb over everyone to sit right in the front. She didn't try to turn the pages while Christa was reading the story. She didn't stand up and block the view for the other kids. What a change!!

Just to be clear, she wasn't perfect. I still took her out in the hall twice because she was following another little boy when he was running around the room instead of paying attention and following directions. But her distraction and following was normal 2 year old behavior, not crazy girl! Previously she didn't follow the other kids when they were off topic because she was too busy doing her own thing to even focus on being distracted by them!

So I have something new to work on with Ellie: obeying the teacher even when other kids are not. But that is a good thing to work on, and something we actually CAN work on now that she isn't just crazy all the time. So much for "Milk, it does a body good." eh?

Some dairy free "cheese" recipes...

2008-11-02T10:10:00.000-08:00

Because cheese is such a staple in our household and I don't want Ellie not to be able to eat it while we're eating it, I'm looking at cheese alternatives that I can make for her so she can have the same meals we're eating, or some of the same meals she's used to. Here are some recipes I intend to try...

Ricotta - I'm hoping this will be a good cottage cheese substitute for her...
Mac and Cheese sauce - for, um, mac and cheese, obviously...
Cheese sauce - for grilled cheese sandwiches

Dairy Free....

2008-11-01T09:38:00.000-07:00

For about a year my mom has suggested that Ellie might be allergic to milk. She has been consistently congested for about that long (though not bad enough to cause concern or warrant doctor visits), which coincides with the timeframe we've had her on cow's milk. She is also extremely active (even for 2 year old standards - she's almost always the most active kid in a group of toddlers, whether the nursery at church or kindermusik or playgroup) and there are studies linking hyperactivity to milk consumption (specifically the protein casein, which is what cheese is made from). MOST of what Ellie consumes is in some way dairy related, from the milk she drinks (A LOT - over the past year there have been many weeks that she has consumed about 2 gallons a week) to the yogurt or cottage cheese she has for breakfast, mac and cheese or quesadillas for lunch, string cheese or sliced cheddar for snacks, feta with dinner... She loves milk and cheese. And perhaps it's this overconsumption that is making her so overly active.

So, at my mother's suggestion, we took her off milk on Tuesday. I didn't plan to start taking her off milk until Thursday, but we got halfway through the day and I'd realized I hadn't given her milk or cheese yet, so I just decided to go with it. She doesn't seem to have missed the milk. She asked for it once, but was happy with juice (well, 1/4 juice, 3/4 water) instead. I bought her some rice milk (both original and vanilla) and she doesn't seem to care for that at all, but she doesn't seem to mind not drinking milk, so it hasn't been a problem.

Cheese, however, she misses. She asked for cheese several times on Thursday, so yesterday I bought her some soy based fake cheese. Ouch! That stuff is expensive!! But she had a slice of "cheddar" and she seemed really happy about that. Didn't mind the taste difference at all. So, it's expensive, but at least it satisfies her need for cheese. We got some shredded "mozzarella" too, but she hasn't tried that yet.

So... We'll take her off milk products for a week or two and see if it makes a big difference in her behavior. I have a feeling, though, that it will. We took her off milk on Tuesday, and by yesterday (Friday) mom and I could already see a big change. She was mellower. Sitting at the table eating lunch without distraction in a busy mall food court, right next to the ride on machines in the play area. It was bizarre. Things that normally woud have been a meltdown because I told her "no" about something were not. She is still independent, stubborn, and two, but yesterday she acted like a "normal" two year old instead of a crazy one. Today Leif is seeing a difference in her, too. She is running with purpose, to a specific destination, instead of running circles just because. She walks places now, too, and is only full speed ahead when she chooses to instead of all the time. So I have a feeling we will be seeing this change from here on out as we keep her off the milk. We are supplementing her diet with calcium and she is taking vitamins, and we are trying to make sure she gets protein rich foods, to make sure that she isn't nutrient deficient now that she's not consuming mass quantities of milk.

So... it looks like we're going dairy free for Ellie. I'm not sure this is a road I really want to go down (dairy is in a lot of the foods we eat regularly!) but it looks like it's the road I'm on and if it helps Ellie, then it's the road I'll take!

Purees....

2008-10-28T09:43:00.000-07:00

A while back I said we were trying out the recipes in "Deceptively Delicious". One step in that process is to make up some vegetable purees so we have them on hand when we need them. I am not very good at consistently creating balanced meals with the food groups, especially vegetables. So I'm hoping this will help. Of course, it means I need to be better about meal planning, too, but I need to do that anyway. I made carrot and spinach purees a while back (as you can see by the date on the bag!) and we have used up most of these. Right now I have pumpkins and squash that need to be processed (but are making lovely fall decorations by our front door until I get to it!) and I'm hoping to get to that (at least some of it) this week. After all, the pumpkins should have a couple days with fun halloween faces before I cook them! =D

(and now you see my theory on pumpkins... they ought to serve as many purposes as possible with the least amount of effort... pumpkin patch family activity, fall decoration, jack-o-lantern carving family activity, Halloween decoration, toasted pumpkin seeds (keeping some out for planting in the spring), roasting and pureeing the flesh for use in pies and scones and cookies and soup all holiday season!)

Symphony

2008-10-27T12:04:00.001-07:00

One of the silent auction items at the Children's Museum fundraiser was a family pass to the Bozeman Symphony family concerts. The family concerts are actually during the dress rehearsals so the kids get to hear the same great performance, without the awful distraction of a child interrupting or being freaked out by a large crowd. If your child gets noisy, you can leave the auditorium (guests are seated in the balcony only, making this easier to do without distracting the musicians during the practice/performance) and then re-enter when your child is ready to sit quietly again.

We attended our first concert (and Ellie's first ever symphonic performance) last Friday night. It was very good and I'm really glad we went, but Ellie was very busy. For the first while she was quiet, just up and down (on the floor, not on the chair) and up and down and dancing to the music. Then she started talking about the things she was seeing ("Violins! Look at the violins!") and we had to take her out into the hall. We talked to her about being quiet when we watch the symphony and how she needed to whisper. Then we went back in. She was good for a while until she started talking and wiggling again and we had to take her out again.

After a while I quit going back to my seat. I just held her inside the door and we listened and as soon as she said anything in a non-whisper voice we went back out in the hall to talk about not talking during the concert. In and out. In and out. The good news is that the doors were propped open, so we didn't make any noise actually going through the door, which is good. And part of the reason that we wanted to do these concerts is to teach her how to act appropriately during them. Sitting still and being quiet are things she doesn't do well. She talks non stop. She moves non stop. So we're working on it. I think she really liked the concert, and Leif and I took turns taking her out into the hall so we each got to enjoy part of it, too. It's a good program and I'm really glad our symphony does that for families. And hopefully by the end of the season we'll be able to sit and enjoy the concert quietly, as a family, and not out in the hall. =D

Bentos!!

2008-10-26T09:18:00.000-07:00

I have been taking pictures of bentos when I make them, but I just realized I haven't posted them here. I'm having a lot of fun with them, even though I'm only making one every other week or so. I'm finding that bentos are good not only for going on picnics and such when a packed lunch is sort of requisite, but also a great idea when I'm not sure what we'll be doing for lunch, or where, such as on days I'm running errands. They're really easy to pack up and take with us so that Ellie can eat them in the car as we're driving around or take into the store and munch on while I'm shopping. It keeps her content and keeps us from feeding her a lot of fast food. Granted, the fast food I would buy is from Costco or Target in the form of a soft pretzel or hot dog, but it's still healthier and cheaper to have her filled up on a bento full of turkey hot dogs, apples, craisins, and cheese. Plus, I just like hearing her little excited voice tell me, "Look, Mommy! There are little bears in my bento!" (She did that this week and I decided that it was definitely worth the extra minute it took to cut her cheese tortilla into little bear shapes.) So... here are some bentos from the past couple months...

Sometimes I make bentos for the both of us and package them together in a napkin for easy transportation. Here are the individual bentos...

This is mine. It has Greek salad with dressing, a fruit leather barrier, and mac and cheese with feta.

This is Ellie's. It's has mac and cheese, hot dogs, cucumbers with ranch dip, fruit leather, and something across the bottom (and in the little cup under the fruit leather) that I can't remember.

And like the rest, I tie them up in a napkin and tie in my silverware. I just tucked Ellie's fork into her bento since it fit.

This is mine. Can you tell that I like using individually wrapped fruit leathers as barriers between the food?

This is Ellie's from the same day. These were back in August. When I cut out the little heart shapes from the cheese I used the leftover cheese bits and rolled them into the turkey rolls. That way the "ugly" part of the food was still used and my bento stayed cute! After all, bentos are about both form AND function....

I'm sure I have more bento pictures somewhere, but I suppose I'll share them at a later date. I don't do it every day, and I'm not the most proficient at bento packing, but I am really enjoying it! I'm hoping to prepare bentos at least once a week in the coming months, on days that we have playgroup at the museum. That way I have lunch ready for her to eat at the museum (if she's hungry then) or while I am running errands after playgroup. It made errand running SO MUCH SMOOTHER this week, so I hope I continue to do it!

New Bento Box!

2008-10-11T12:13:00.000-07:00

Well, relatively new. Within the last month. Which is newer than my last post on this blog. Sorry about that.... life has been pretty busy since we started everything up again this fall.

But Ellie has a new bento box! Or bento carrier, really, but I love it! Here it is in all its glory....

Tiny. Compact. and PINK!

And it has a place for utensils in the lid! How great is that?? It's not really a bento box, but rather a craft tote from Joanns, but it works perfectly for us. And I got it on sale, for 50% off. Can't beat that, really.

And because no bento post is complete without a picture of, well, actual bentos....

There you go.

Fun with socks...

2008-09-02T07:27:00.001-07:00

What do you do when you've lost the mate to a pair of socks? You put it on your hand a play with it! I had great ambitions of decorating the socks with eyes and hair and roll-out felt tongues, but the truth is that Ellie is just as happy with a plain old sock for a puppet as she would be with a decorated one! Easier for me, too! So instead of throwing away the spare socks immediately, why not have a little fun with them first?

This week in review...

2008-08-30T23:03:00.000-07:00

Musical Monday - Not too much in the way of music today... Just some time spent seeing what different bags of rocks sound like when shaken. Big rocks, little rocks, shaking, dropping... We played with sound. She played her recorder some, too. Mostly we just spent the morning at the park playing with Caedmon, though.

Tactile Tuesday - Puzzles. Lots of puzzles and shape matching today.

Wordy Wednesday - Played Starfall and did a really good job with it! She's learning to push the correct letters when asked and has now learned to hit the right arrow key to advance to the next page. It's great!

Theatrical Thursday - Dress up. Lots of dress up. Hats, sunglasses, and purses. A toddler girl's dream! Oh, and we spent a good chunk of the morning at the park playing with Zach and Kat. There was quite a bit of imaginative play going on with Ellie in the afternoon, too. She climbed up on the furniture and told me she was climbing on rocks, and she'd "look" for birds and then tell me when she "saw" one - all imaginary, of course!

Fun Friday - Finger paints outside and water colors inside. It was a painting day!