Spend the Night

Coe and Frances have always had the opinion that if Mac and Jack can do something then they should be able to do it too. Neither seems to appreciate the fact that they are 3 years younger. There is no way to keep Coe Coe and Frances apart though. They had their first every spend the night right before school started.  They went right to bed when I told them (after a little pillow talk!) and slept until almost 7am without making a peep.  The next morning they played Power Rangers for hours with no interruptions.  It definitely helped that their big brothers were at the Phillips house so F and C (aka Jayden and Mia – their Power Ranger names!) were King and Queen of the Gilmer house!

 

Back to School

(Drafted last week but not posted until today due to both boys getting extremely sick and no time to work on the blog!)

I doubt I will ever be prepared for the start of a school year and the in your face acknowledgement that the boys are a year older. For me this is more prominent when school starts than at birthdays or any other time of the year. Every August I’m forced to accept that my babies are getting older and really aren’t babies anymore :(

Monday we went to Meet the Teacher Day and Tuesday school started. This year Coe is going to Pre K3 at ELC, which is the preschool at EDS. Although Coe went to LEP for about a month last spring before it flooded, I consider this his first real school experience. He has to wear a uniform, go through car line and eat lunch in the cafeteria. He was a little nervous when we went to meet Mrs. Giggey and Mrs. Horn, but he was excited to see all the toys they had to play with. I don’t think Coe every said one word directly to either of his teachers, but just before we left he saw Mrs. Giggey hug another child goodbye. Coe came and whispered in my ear “I want to hug her.” I told him he could and he ran up and gave her a huge hug before we left. I immediately knew he was going to be just fine as a Busy B in K3B!

At the ripe age of 6, Mac thinks he is the big man on campus. He walked right in to his 1^st grade class and immediately made himself at home. Opposite from Coe, Mac talked a lot of Mrs. Leibig and Mrs. Barnett. As we left Meet the Teacher day, he looked at me and said, “can you believe how little all those Kindergarteners are?” Once again it will take me more time to adjust to 1^st grade than Mac!

 

Obligatory 1^st day photos:

  

I made myself do carline on the first day of school so we could all get in the routine. With Mac it was a no brainer but for Coe it was a little more difficult. Although I had told him we were doing this he didn’t seem to get it until we were actually in the line and an ELC worker was opening his door to get him out. He asked for a quick hug and kiss before he was pulled out of the car. He never looked back and I slowly drove away with tears streaming down my face. My baby was looking way to big!

 

After dropping the boys off at school that first morning I anxiously counted down the hours until I could pick them up. I got Coe first, and he was half asleep as Mrs. Giggey walked him to the car. In typical Coe fashion he didn’t have much to say about his day, but Mrs. Giggey said he did great. She commented that Coe and Frances must be vey dear friends. Coe got in the car and immediately started crying b/c he didn’t get to kiss and hug Frances goodbye! I knew he was exhausted. We got Mac from school and decided to go get a Krispy Kreme doughnut as a treat. We were not the only ones with this idea and found half of EDS at Krispy Kreme.  Coe quickly perked up as he ate his doughnut, drank his chocolate milk and listened to Mac share his day with us – best part was recess and math!

I think this is going to be a GREAT, no AMAZING year at EDS and ELC!

LEGOS

Mac has obsessions. He always has. As a very young child he was obsessed with animals.  I bet we have 1000s of dollars in animal figurines at our house not to mention the countless adventures we had with the imaginary pumas who went everywhere with us when he was 2. Around 4 he started showing an interest in Legos and by 5 Star Wars was all the rage. Now the Lego and Star Wars obsessions are combined.  Albi made Mac a Lego table for his 6^th birthday, and almost every morning this summer I have found him at the table. He can and will spend hours there…usually right up until the little blonde headed Lego destroyer show up and wants to play!

   

Summer Work

When Mac’s Kindergarten teacher sent home summer work at the end of the year I knew I had to have a plan to get him to do it before the whining and excuses started.   I also figured (aka mom told me) it was time for Coe to start helping out and learning a little responsibility so out came the chore charts, counting beans, M&Ms, reading chart and most importantly the treasure box!

All summer Coe earned stars on his chore chart.  Each week he met his pre-set goal, he got to pick a toy from the treasure chest or go get a frozen yogurt (and as many toppings as he wanted!) from 32 degrees.  It was a slow start for Coe, but after his first successful week he was hooked.  Over the course of the summer we had several frozen yogurts and he “earned” quite a few Power Ranger keys and new Airplanes from the treasure basket! 

Mac was already used to a “chore chart” and “earning beans”, so transitioning to a new chart with the same concept as before was easy for him.  He gets 1 bean for every magnet on his chart.  At the end of the week he trades his magnets in for beans (white bean = 1 magnet, red bean equals 5 magnets) and whenever he is ready he can trade his beans in for something in the treasure box.  Its a simple system that we have used for a year or two and it helps him take responsibility, counting and learning the value of various treats/toys.  So far it has worked at our house! 

I also tracked Mac’s summer reading with a sticker chart.  We took the Lego sets his cousins sent him for his birthday and put them on display in the playroom.  They had various numbers on them depending on the size of the set and after reading that many books he got that set.  (Yes I made my child “earn” his own birthday presents, but lets be honest it didn’t hurt him, and I needed to spread out the number of open Lego sets on the Lego table!)  Mac ended up reading 60 books this summer!   He is only 15 books away from the last large Lego set! 

I try not to sweat the small stuff and instead focus on the big picture.  Having nice manners and respect for adults/not talking back were two areas of the big picture that we needed to work on, so I came up with the “jar system”.  Both boys have one but they are different b/c Mac and Coe are very different! Coe earns an M&M anytime he uses good manners with no prompting.  At the end of the night he gets to eat all the M&Ms in his jar.  I have NEVER heard so many pleases, thank yous, yes mams and “do I get another M&M?” in my life!  Mac has a coin jar.  If he talks back, isn’t listening, etc then he has to bring me $0.25.  Mac does not like to part with his money so this has also been fairly successful as long as Albi and I are consistent with it!  I rarely have to take more than $0.50 away in a day.   

  

Don’t get the wrong picture here.  My kids are by no means perfect angels who complete all their chores without me asking, always use nice manners and quietly sit around the house reading books.  There was still quite a bit of whining and excuses and a few stand offs between Mac and I on the reading issue, but overall I would say our system works for us.

Bottom line: Its hard to be a good parent and it takes a lot of time (I owe my mom way more thank yous than I can ever give her in one lifetime) but the end result is so worth it (mom, don’t you agree?).  Albi and I refuse to raise rude, bratty, lazy kids, and I’d say we are doing a good job avoiding that so far.  As for the tired grouchy parents…we are still working on that one!       .