Have a New Kid by Friday

I started reading a book called Have a New Kid by Friday by Dr. Kevin Lehman. It seems to be a good book about discipline and teaching your kids to listen to you. I read it and have been trying to put some of the priniciples into practice. The basics of the book is 2 fold. 1) you same something once, turn your back, and walk away and then 2) B doesn't happen until A gets done. So this is my night the other night.

We go and visit the neighbor with the double jogging stroller. Eli always gets to ride and normally Luke and Graham take turns riding. We are leaving the house and Luke says he wants to ride first. Not a big deal, I tell Graham he will walk and then ride in a little bit. Well he starts screaming and crying saying he wants to ride. Again I tell him that he needs to wait his turn, and again more screaming. So I just leave him in the road and walk away with Luke and Eli in the stroller. (For those of you who don't know we live on a culdesac road with maybe 1 car per hour on the road and they are always people who live there. So I wasn't fearing that he was in danger or going to get hit or anything.) So I get to our driveway and you can still hear Graham screaming, and Luke starts to say, Mom you can't leave Graham. You need to stop and go back and get him. The other priniciple, is once you walk away don't look back. THey tell you in the book the reason a kid throws fits is that he wants attention, and if you walk away and don't give him the attention he wants he will stop throwing the fit and follow you, because his whole point is to get your attention. I am just think Graham can ride. I said well why don't you go and tell him. So I stop about 100 ft into the driveway and turn and Graham has made it to the grass in the center of the culdesac, but is on the other side of the circle. So Luke runs after him and tries to tell him that he can ride and grabs his hand and tries to pull him. Graham refuses to be led by Luke and falls to the ground, still screaming. So I continue to stand there as Luke comes running back and says, don't leave Graham Mom. He is my brother, you can't leave him. I try to reassure Luke I won't leave him. No where in the book did it talk about the older sibling being so caring and worries about the younger sibling who gets left behind.

So we continue to stand there, for about 15 minutes waiting for Graham to join us. Luke is still trying to get me to go and get him, but I won't. He even tells me that he will watch Eli, while I go back and get Graham. So I finally walk the 100 ft to the end of the driveway and hold out my hand for Graham to come, and he does. So we continue to walk up the driveway, Graham is continuing to yell, "I want to ride". I try to tell Graham that he needs to stop crying and then he can ride. So we get about half way down the driveway and again he stops walking, and I just keep on going. Luke is again screaming, "Don't leave Graham" He eventually walks and catches up to us.

We get about 50 ft from the part of our driveway where there is a bend. Graham once again stops, but this times sits on the ground screaming he wants to ride. I walk the remaining 50 ft so that he can't see him, again waiting for my child to stop throwing his tantrum when he can't see me and doesn't get any attention. Once again Graham proves the book wrong, and sits there screaming for at least 15 mins. I told Luke he could run to the house and go in, however he said "no I want to wait for my brother Graham."

After 15 mins, I walked to where he could see me and again held out my hand and he walked to me. So I learned many things on this walk. First, always budget 45 minutes for the walk up the driveway. Second, Dr. Lehman has never met Graham Nash. Third, leaving Graham in a crowded place when throwing a tantrum would not be good as he will just stay and throw a fit. Fourth, Luke cares a lot about his brother.

Eli's birthday party

Our little Monster turned "1" today. So I made him a monster cake which he loved and became a blue smurf with. The boys enjoyed it as well








We had Eli's birthday party today. Grandma and Grandpa Meier came. We had a lot of fun with the water table from Mimi. All the boys were soaked, after only a few minutes, but loved every minute of it.

When the people are away. . .

Today I had to take the boys to the babysitters house. I was only going to be gone half the day so I decided to leave Peanut outside. She likes to be outside and soaking up the suns rays. Shadow however like to be inside and she is typically on our bed sleeping the day away. I came home today and heard a weird noise outside. I finally got around to looking outside and I see a squirrel on the screen door outside our bedroom window and Peanut is barking up a storm. I open the door and our runs Shadow. This is too much for the squirrel and she falls off the screen and there is a mad dash. The squirrel almost makes it to the fence line, but unfortunately Shadow had other ideas and started to toss her around. Peanut joined in the fun and they are playing tug of war with the poor squirrel. I am screaming for them to let the squirrel go and running oafter them, asI realize I left the screen door outside and eli may be going off the steps, so I run back inside and close the screen. I then proceed outside again and get Shadow to let go, but Peanut grabs the squirrel and is chewing and tossing it around not letting go. The poor squirrel is making some noises but not a lot. Peanut gets up by the house, squirrel in the mouth still, and I finally get her to drop it and get the dogs inside. The poor squirrel is just laying there for the boys to watch.
Luke-why is the squirrel taking funny breaths
Me-it is dying
L-why is it dying
Me-because Peanut and shadow bit it, they thought it was a toy
L-is it going to heaven to be with Jesus
Me-Yep
L-will it be alive after it walks across the bridge to Jesus (yes we were talking about Jesus being the bridge between Man and God)
Me-yes it will
L-will we see it again
Me-yes one day in heaven
L-it stopped moving now
Me-yes I think it is dead

So I tell the boys I am going to change, as I am still in my dress from work, and then get a shovel and throw it over the fence. I go into the bedroom and I see a disaster on the floor and the window. This is what I pictured:

Peanut sleeping on the step. Nice gray squirrel comes into the fence and starts looking for food. Peanut notices nice squirrel and starts going after it. Nice squirrel runs away from Peanut and ends up on the screen. Shadow decides to get in on the fun, however she is inside, and the blinds are drawn, so she has to bite and claw to get the blinds down so she can see the squirrel and scare it. The squirrel is saying i am safe from this little brown dog, we are the same size, then it sees this big black monster from inside the house and doesn't realize it can't reach it, but decides to empty its bodily functions on our screen anyway as it is scared to death. The whole process of destroying the blinds and keeping the poor squirrel pinned up on the screen must take a good amount of time, as when I got home Peanut wasn't barking at the squirrel anymore but calmly sitting below it on the step looking at it.

So needless to say the blinds are destroyed and are beyond repair. The ones left on the holder have claw and teeth marks in them, most of the blinds were in half, all beyond repair!!! So next time you want to leave the house, leave a sign for no squirrels in the yard!!

Sidewalk

After 2 years of being in our house we decided it was time to make a way from the driveway to the front door. So this is what we have come up with, after a lot of help from our friend Daly. The boys enjoyed all the work including the bobcat day, playing in the dirt, playing in the gravel, playing in the sand. Their dumptrucks and bulldozers were a permanent fixation out in the driveway area. We had a small problem when the bobcat struck the drainage pipe from the downspout, but after 2 trips to the hardware store to get the proper size pvc pipe, we fixed the problem!!! So now it is complete and ready for food traffic.

1 year old

Eli turns 1 today. He is standing and starting to do things to make his brothers made, when he plays with their toys. He likes to wave and push buttons on the speakers. He enjoys his food and should be walking anyday now.

Happy birthday!!

tball

Tball ended last night.

It has been fun for everyone, but we are glad to see it end. Luke had a great stop playing 3rd base last night and threw it to first. The younger 2 enjoyed the playground, and the other kids around!!

Standing

Eli standing up has been heard a lot recently in our house. From the bathroom to all around the house. He started pulling himself up, and now after only 5 days is done with that and will just stand at will. No steps yet, but we know that is coming next!! So the other morning he stood up and the boys stood up next to him.

Grandpa and Grandma Nash

We had visitors for Memorial Day Weekend.
Grandma and Grandpa Nash come for the weekend. We had a great time at the zoo, which was very busy, and then hanging out at home and going swinging and playing in the pool. We had a cookout and made smores and everything. We were sad to see them go, but hope to see them soon.

Tubes

This cute little boy has been affectionately named Monstersaurus Rex after all his crying and fit throwing, mostly when he had ear infections. Which since Christmas has been about every 3 weeks. So we visited the ENT doctor, and opted to get tubes placed in his ears to help with the infections. He was the hit at the surgery center, as he wore his scrubs and loved to play with everyone who came into say hi. Dr. Jones was wonderful and even prayed with Eli before surgery, I barely had time to sit down in the waiting room before I got told he was done. He was a trooper through it all and we hope we can change his nickname soon!!!

Gettysburg

We traveled to Gettysburg, last Monday night for a day trip. We had friends from Texas who were taking a group of kids to Gettysburg and other places up in the East. So we joined their tour bus and went and learned all about Robert E. Lee and those Union men including Joshua Chamberlin. Luke loves to ask lots of questions and enjoyed playing with the rocks and sticks. Graham also was a huge fan of the sticks and the gun he made with one. Eli was quite content to snooze or hang out. We enjoyed the trip.