Berry Picking

Last Friday I went berry picking with my friend Anna and her daughter. We drove down to Mapleton to the McBride Patch. This is the best place to go...the owners are super nice and the berries are wonderful. They have both blackberries and raspberries. Bennett had a great time picking the blackberries (they are thornless) with my Dad. I didn't get a picture of my Dad, sorry.

At first Bennett ate everything that ended up in his basket....gotta love the evidence on his face.


Oh boy, look at those hands!!!!!

This must be a "before the mess" picture. I just realized I have no pictures of Warren but he was there sitting nicely in the stroller.

Okay, this was my newest craft. I whipped this up the night before because we went to a friends house that had one and there were tears when we got home. Bennett kept asking me where his dino tail was. LOL So we went to the store the next day and $1.50 later we had a dino tail that he is in LOVE with. It is covered in dirt and berry juice, but Bennett doesn't mind. He still wears it everyday. The other day we caught him leaning on the chair and "shakin" his tail for about 15 minutes....Davis and I laughed and laughed.

Oh after the berry patch we hit up cafe rio...perfect lunch!!!!

On a side note, Ady had dental surgery yesterday. We finally took her to the dentist (I know bad parents, she is 6, but we didn't have insurance for a while and trying to find some one to take her medicaid is a nightmare.) ANYWAY, we took her to the dentist to find out she had 10 cavities and an absessed tooth. :( They sent us to a pediatric dentist that told us we needed to schedule surgery since it would take at least an hour to do her stuff and they wanted her to not have a bad dental experience. yikes! So yesterday she had it done and she is doing great. She is so happy to have silver teeth...oh man. The dentist said that most likely the rest of her baby teeth will have problems, they show "signs" but the new permanent teeth that have come in look great. He said most likely the damage to her baby teeth was due to the "problems" in utero. So sad, but we are happy to have that behind us for now.

Last but not least, I need to write this before I forget. Matthew is my "lazy child". Davis and I have had many talks about this kid. For instance, when we do our quick clean up in the evening everyone hurries and cleans up 10 things (even benno.) Matt on the other hand you have to ask him over and over to help and when he finally gets off the floor he has to pee....we say that his bladder is affected by work....seriously anytime you ask this kid to do anything he has to pee. grrrr! FINALLY you get him to pick something up and the whining begins. Now he's whining less and finds something that has to go up to the toyroom and then he doesn't appear again until he thinks all the work is done. Little does he know but he gets to clean up everything when this happens. He is starting to catch on and do better. Emptying the dishwasher has been a nightmare. It takes hours, lots of tears and lots of whining. We used to take turns having the kids empty it but since Matt whined we told him, everytime you whine, or if it takes longer than 30 minutes you get to do it the next time. Ady and Tanner LOVED this arrangement. It took about 2 weeks for him to figure it out. :) I also had an issue because Ady and Tanner are in school all day, if I needed the dishwasher done and it was their turn....loved the weeks Matt had it. So I made a deal with Matt (when he was good at it) that if he emptied the dishwasher every day for a week he could get a happy meal on Friday before school (he really wanted the toy they were offering.) He did a great job and even got Bennett to help him, it was awesome. Then this week I needed it emptied again so I tried the same approach, he told me, "No I all ready did that." So we negotiated and I ended up telling him he could take a dollar to the dollar store, which he was thrilled with and I was happy since it's a lot cheaper than mcdonalds. LOL I love how different my kids are Ady is super helpful and will do most anything you ask with a smile. Tanner is pretty good at doing what you ask, but will be sour on occasion and is getting into the lying stage by saying he did it when he didn't. That's getting much better since we started doubling the work when he lied, since he's not a good liar and eventually would cave. That and we told him that we don't trust him so unless we see him do it he gets to redo it :) Bummer for lying.

Spirited

So I have a new book I am reading and I am pretty excited about it. It's called "Raising a spirited child" by Mary Sheedy Kurcinka. It starts off by talking about how you view and "label" your children. Difficult is the most common way to describe this child.....my most difficult child will not be named here but I am sure you ALL know who she is. This type of child can be frustrating, irritating, loud, disobedient, demanding, nosy, and never stops. All very appealing "labels", huh?!?! Makes you want a child just liek her right? This child is also a source of contention in your life, it's embarrassing to have a child like this. It's embarrassing and frustrating to get a call from said child's teacher telling you how disruptive they are in class (multiple calls I should say.) It's embarrassing to have a friend whose child is in your child's class call and tell you that their child says your child is naughty in class, to go to a family party and have your nephew inform you how naughty your child is in class (since they are in the same class.) LIke I said, you all want this child in your family right?!?!!? So this book I am reading says the first step with spirited children is to realize you aren't a bad parent (despite the little and not so little comments people make to you)....that the child is born this way and there are ways to improve this child's self esteem and behaviors. She also says that you first need to recognize the characteristics that this child has that drive you crazy or in other words how you "label" this child and how others "label" this child. You are then supposed to take those not so mice labels and give them a more positive spin. So my loud child is actually enthusiastic and zestful...... demanding.....holds high standards, energetic, perceptive and creative....all words that describe this child and you are more likely to like this child now. Just learning this small thing makes me happier to be around this child. I've also learned that this child is not difficult, she is spirited which means she is more intense, perceptive, energetic and persistent. All great qualities, just in large doses. I also took a "test" to see where her temperment lies in different areas so I can focus on the areas that need focusing. What I concluded is she scores HIGH is areas such as intensity, sensitivity, perceptiveness and energy. She is mild to high in persistence and generally in a good mood. I also got to take a test that told me that some of the areas she scored high in are areas that drive me crazy since I score lower in those areas and higher in others. So in other words we clash in certain areas. Let's just say it's been nice to recognize some of these things. I am only on chapter 5 so I don't have a ton of answers yet, but it's been a good read so far. Now for answers and implementing. The other thing I have enjoyed about this book is...even though my other children aren't neccessarily spirited, they have "labels", temperaments and ways of getting and draining energy (that's for another post)....so this book should help with the other kids too and to teach them how to get along a little better....or I can hope.