Books and Songs

To help encourage good behavior at home I had to come up with something a little different for Mariska. Very few things phase her. Timeouts do not work and taking toys away doesn't seem to work either. One of the only things that really works is to take away books we read and songs we sing during our bedtime routine. She loves to read books and sing songs. So to help track it I made this poster.
The little girl at the top is Riska.
There is a piece of Velcro on each book and on each music note. The red packets at the bottom store the books and notes when they are not being used. I am working on her name to go in the blank spot at the bottom of the poster.
Riska starts with two books and two songs everyday with plenty of opportunities to earn more but when bad decisions are made we also take them away. So far it has been doing wonders for her.
Thank you Gail for letting me use your awesome Cricket. Made this so much easier than it would have been. You are the best.

Outside Fun

Jack had his first time at the park yesterday. The weather was nice and we decided to go out back and play.
Riska always has fun when we go to the park but this was Jacks first time in the swing and on the slide.
We attempted to have the kids go down the slide together but that was not the brightest idea of the day. They rolled over by the time they got to the bottom of the slide, with Riska onto of Jack. I wanted to get a picture because it was so funny but I was worried she was squishing him.
I am not to sure about this mom!
I am so proud of Riska. There is a little cubby area at the top of the jungle gym that she always wants to get up in but has a really hard time getting back down. I cannot tell you how many times I have had to climb up and rescue her. This time she figured out how to do it herself. She spent a long time going up into the cubby just to turn around and get back down. It was really awesome. She is getting so big.
By the end Jack was having a blast in the swings.

Work!!!

I am a firm believer that children should be put to work as young as possible. ;) No I am just kidding. I left the cheese on the table and had moved on to something else. When I turned around my little helper was attempting to grate the cheese. I love that she likes to help me in the kitchen. Not to long ago she tried to help with the dishes. I washed and she rinsed and set them on the towel to dry. I ended up cleaning up a lot of water by the time we were done and the dishes that were drying had to be moved to another towel because Riska had decided to rinse them off after she put them on the towel. I shouldn't complain to much because if I keep nurturing this side of her she may never fight me when we do chores. :) Yeah Right.

Mommy Moment #9 Something Right

I don't know about you but sometimes I wonder if the things I teach Mariska ever sink in. Yesterday I had an aha moment at church. Her primary teacher came up to me and said that she held up a picture of President Monson and asked the kids in her class if they knew who he was. Riska was the only one that could tell her it was the prophet. I may be a little biased but my little girl is so smart. It really made me feel like we have done something right. Silly I know. We have probably done more than one thing right but it sure feels good to see or hear the positive things that a child has done because of something you taught her. My experience has been that you really only hear about the negative things that your child does and if you are like me wonder where in the heck she learned that. :)

Jack's eye part 2

So we went to Children's Hospital in Seattle on Wednesday for a checkup appointment on Jacks eye. I was hoping to go and find out when they would want to do the surgery because Jacks eye has not gotten better and has in fact gotten worse. The droopy eyelid has now started to cover a very small part of his pupil and his pediatrician says we may want to look into doing the surgery sooner than later. It is really neat to watch them do the vision test on Jack. Obviously he cannot respond vocally to them so the test are a bit different than the ones that are done on older children and adults. Dr. Herlihy is great and Jack (being the flirt he is) loves her. She was very honest with us in regards to the surgery. She could tell that we had concerns about his eye but assured us that the droopy eyelid has yet to cause a problem with his vision. He is still not favoring one eye over the other and he has figured out that if he tilts his head back or raises his eyebrows he can see a little better out his right eye. Dr Herlihy told us that we could do the surgery now but the chances of Jack needing to have a secondary surgery is pretty high because of how young he is and how much growing he has to do. She also said that if at any point there is even the slightest question that his eyelid is affecting his vision we will do the surgery. Jack will never have full use of his eyelid because of the muscle being deformed but the two surgeries that Dr. Herlihy told us about would definitely help him.
The first only works 3/4 of the time and rarely does it correct the problem fully. It stretches the deformed muscle, to make it tighter, and they attach it to the brow muscle. The pros of this surgery is it is cosmetically more appealing meaning less scaring and eyes may appear a bit more symetrical. The second surgery is called a sling. They would take donor tissue and sling it around the deformed muscle and again attach it to the brow muscle. There would be three incisions above the eyebrow and three incisions on the eyelid. He would still use his brow to help raise the eyelid all the way with both surgeries but the second surgery would help with the resting state of the eyelid, it wouldn't seem droopy.
We have decided to wait since it is not impairing his vision. We have another appointment in a couple months and will continue to go every couple months to monitor that status of his eyes.
I feel truly blessed to have such healthy kids and I am grateful that Jack is only having to deal with Ptosis (droopy eyelid.) I do however hate Having to make a decision about surgery. I hope when the time comes we make a good decision in regards to what surgery we will have done. At our first appointment Dr Herlihy said that Jack may grow out of it but becasue of how severe his ptosis was not to count on it. This appointment we found out surgery would be imminent. I guess I was still hoping he would grow out of it because I was kinda bummed after the appointment. Just hope eveything goes well when the time comes.

Mommy Moment #8 Forget your fears

I used to be a really big wuss. The thought of touching animals like cows and horses freaked me out. I had bizarre images of these animals biting my hand off. (Don't ask. I am not sure where it comes from.) Well people I am proud to say I am over my fear. Since we have lived in a place that has a county fair every year I made it a point with Mariska to not be scared of animals the way her mother is. She isn't for the most part and loves to pet any animal that will let her (except chickens she just likes to chase those.) We have been to the fair every year and she loves to see the cows and the horses. She has ridden a horse before at a friends birthday party and loved it. A good friend of ours has horses and when we were celebrating his birthday a few weeks ago we got to ride the horses. Riska is a pro. I on the other hand had to have someone guide the horse for the first little bit I was on it. Eventually I took the reigns and although I was a little intimidated at first I had a blast and cannot wait to do it again. I can see why people do this for fun.
I was a little nervous. Held on really tight to the saddle horn.

18 Things

Somethings you might not know about me. Then again you might.

Ten things I love...
1. Clean sheets on the bed
2. Stepping out of the shower on to freshly washed bathmats (John's not allowed to take the first shower after the mats have been washed.)
3. A babies laughter
4. The smell of rain
5. The look of the clouds at sunset
6. Hugs and kisses from my hubby and children
7. The stars
8. An ice cold glass of water
9. Orchids and Tulips
10. Reading a good book in a day or two (hasn't happened in a long time.)

Five things that make me mad
1. People who don't stop for pedestrians
2. When a fuse blows as I am blow drying Mariska's hair before bed.
3. Whenever I don't need a pacifier for Jack I find them everywhere. When I need one they are nowhere to be found.
4. Being late when I got up earlier and tried so hard to make it early or just on time
5. Overeating because it just tasted to good to waste. (I have been really bad at this lately.)

Three things I wish for
1. John getting a job before he graduates.
2. Living a little closer to my family.
3. That laundry did itself.

Can you see any differences?

I had jack a little over 6 months ago and Johns sister Anna had Zack about 6 weeks ago. I know there is about five months between the two but I can't help but laugh when I see my "little" guy next to hers.

I had to put a picture of my little mommy. She loves anything that resembles a baby.

Acting Out

My poor little baby has his two bottom front teeth and is now getting his two top front teeth. Not just poor him but poor me also. He has bitten me more than a few times while nursing and twice now has made me bleed. I am torn between stopping and just pumping or suffering through it. I have gotten pretty good at telling when he is about to bite and can pull him off before he does but I really have to pay attention. My hope is that once these two teeth break through things will be better. I might be kidding myself because once those teeth are there he will have four instead of two. Even the thought of it makes me fold my arms.
Two nights ago I was singing with Riska at bedtime. She was sitting with her baby in her lap and I was laying on her bed looking at the ceiling. When I looked over at her she had pulled her PJ shirt up and was holding her doll to her chest. I asked her what she was doing and she told me she was "nursing her baby." I asked if she wanted to feed her baby a bottle and she said, "No. I need to feed her with my boob." Not really sure what I was supposed to do at this point I continued the song and suddenly I hear Riska pushes her doll away from her and says, "Ouch! That's it your done!" I about fell off her bed I was laughing so hard. I guess she has heard me say that more than once. :)

Walk to the park

I have been walking with my good friend Pearl and not long ago our walk took us to the park. I had Riska in the stroller and Jack on my back. It was hard, but a good work out. Jack was comfortable he fell right asleep.
Riska enjoyed the park the best.
This was the first time I took Jack in the pack. My next door neighbor has let me use her double stroller a couple times. Most the time I only take one child and John stays home with the other. It has been nice because he has had some really great daddy daughter time with Riska. Thanks Pearl we love you!