Oh, poor Joshua. Today he hit Isaac, and it was over a really dumb thing. Again, not hard, but it's something we need to stop.
Last time we told him there would be big consequences, like losing screen time. And so, he lost screen time today. To make it even worse, we had planned that today the kids would do their chores in the afternoon so that in the evening Ben could play Dragon Quest Builders with them and he lost the chance to do that. (Especially since he hit Isaac after they had both already done their chores.)
He was sad, very sad, but also handled it a lot better than I was expecting. He had lots of questions about how exactly this would play out but seemed to understand why it was happening.
Now the question is...will it help him stop?
Tuesday, July 16, 2019
Monday, July 15, 2019
Monday: firsts
While we don't have many 'firsts' anymore, they still happen.
First of all, the story starts last night around midnight. I was reading an article about the NYC blackout and how we're not really prepared for a massive power grid problem. It may have kept me up a little bit last night after watching Jericho years ago.
Fast forward to 2:15am when Joshua woke me up because it was too dark. There was a power outage. I thought a bit about how ironic it would be if this was a massive power outage. My phone still worked so I could easily find out that the blackout was localized to around our lake. Anyway, after a few more calls from Joshua I put him in our room for the night.
The boys got their first tool bags.
Isaac took his first drink from a metal can. I feel like this is something that he should have done by now, but I guess it's not bad that he hasn't. He thought the can felt really weird.
We played Isaac's new games. Isaac did a great job with both of them, but Joshua played Ingenious too and did a good job. He has basic strategy down (group colors, play the color that's the lowest) so it was fun to play with everyone.
The boys also used their tools. We were very careful when Ben came home to make sure he didn't trip over it. The cats enjoyed it too.
First of all, the story starts last night around midnight. I was reading an article about the NYC blackout and how we're not really prepared for a massive power grid problem. It may have kept me up a little bit last night after watching Jericho years ago.
Fast forward to 2:15am when Joshua woke me up because it was too dark. There was a power outage. I thought a bit about how ironic it would be if this was a massive power outage. My phone still worked so I could easily find out that the blackout was localized to around our lake. Anyway, after a few more calls from Joshua I put him in our room for the night.
The boys got their first tool bags.
Isaac took his first drink from a metal can. I feel like this is something that he should have done by now, but I guess it's not bad that he hasn't. He thought the can felt really weird.
We played Isaac's new games. Isaac did a great job with both of them, but Joshua played Ingenious too and did a good job. He has basic strategy down (group colors, play the color that's the lowest) so it was fun to play with everyone.
The boys also used their tools. We were very careful when Ben came home to make sure he didn't trip over it. The cats enjoyed it too.
Sunday, July 14, 2019
Sunday: 7 1/2 years
Today we had Isaac's birthday party. Cousins came over first and they played in the lake a little bit.
Isaac opened some presents.
We had cake. (It took Isaac a lot of breaths to blow out all eight candles. They weren't even trick candles.)
And a good time being together.
Isaac opened some presents.
We had cake. (It took Isaac a lot of breaths to blow out all eight candles. They weren't even trick candles.)
And a good time being together.
Saturday, July 13, 2019
Saturday: grinch
This morning we got a text from Evelyn and JJ, showing us their cool Lego creations and wanting to know what we were working on. Joshua didn't want to show what he was working on that minute, but instead showed the robot that he and Ben have been working on. Joshua did the head, hands, feet, and wings (all by himself) and Ben connected everything together. (Isaac made a long video, detailing every aspect of the things he was making. I stopped it after 45 sec, but Isaac wasn't done. So I just held up the phone like I was videoing.)
In the afternoon Ben took the boys to Barnes and Noble to make a Snitch. (Or as Joshua calls it, a Grinch.) It was an easy build for them and they had no problems, but it was a fun little surprise.
Isaac played Dominion for the first time on vacation and loved it. He wanted to play again tonight. Luckily the table had been cleaned up today in our "clean the house" effort. Joshua was on my team and did a good job getting the new cards every hand and saying, "We have a moat!" to the six or so spies that Isaac accumulated.
In the afternoon Ben took the boys to Barnes and Noble to make a Snitch. (Or as Joshua calls it, a Grinch.) It was an easy build for them and they had no problems, but it was a fun little surprise.
Isaac played Dominion for the first time on vacation and loved it. He wanted to play again tonight. Luckily the table had been cleaned up today in our "clean the house" effort. Joshua was on my team and did a good job getting the new cards every hand and saying, "We have a moat!" to the six or so spies that Isaac accumulated.
Vacation Monday: kids in order
Every two years we get the kids in order from oldest to youngest. The parents then snap a whole bunch of pictures, hoping to get a good one.
2013 (we didn't have our act together, so they weren't yet in age order):
2015:
Try 1:
2017:
And that brings us to this year. I'll admit, I cracked up at these photos. Mainly at Joshua, who is just standing there in the middle. We had a lot of these pictures since every parent was taking them, and for a whole bunch of them Joshua just stands there. The other kids move around, and we finally get a smile from Joshua at the end.
(This one might be my "official" photo if I had to choose one. You can see all the faces and no one looks too weird.)
We tried again inside, but I'm not sure the results were much better:
(This has most kids smiling, so is a pretty good runner up.)
Maybe they'll eventually be old enough to organize themselves and take this picture on the first day of vacation so they can tell the parents that it's done and already in our photo stream.
2013 (we didn't have our act together, so they weren't yet in age order):
2015:
Try 1:
Try 2, with happier kids:
2017:
And that brings us to this year. I'll admit, I cracked up at these photos. Mainly at Joshua, who is just standing there in the middle. We had a lot of these pictures since every parent was taking them, and for a whole bunch of them Joshua just stands there. The other kids move around, and we finally get a smile from Joshua at the end.
(This one might be my "official" photo if I had to choose one. You can see all the faces and no one looks too weird.)
We tried again inside, but I'm not sure the results were much better:
(This has most kids smiling, so is a pretty good runner up.)
Maybe they'll eventually be old enough to organize themselves and take this picture on the first day of vacation so they can tell the parents that it's done and already in our photo stream.
Vacation Sunday: pool day
Since we had all gotten to the house semi-late after having driven a long time, no one wanted to figure out what we were doing on Sunday. So we made it a pool day.
First Doug got us donuts and we semi-relaxed as people woke up.
It was a nice pool, although the shade was lacking. They had two nice big shade umbrellas...that were broken. However, they did have a nice splash pad that my kids loved. It was kind of sprinklers and had no big amounts of water that would dump on your head.
In the afternoon we took some naps. The kids were pretending to play pool until Ben and Dusty changed it to air hockey, which felt significantly less dangerous.
We started figuring out groceries for the week. This was more of an ordeal than I expected. Not because anyone was fussy, but because we needed to feed fifteen people for a week and since everyone has different backgrounds, every food item needed to be talked about. For example, bagels. What flavor? Refrigerator or not? Is cream cheese on the list? Then it needed to be put into the computer for pick-up the next day. It was probably my most annoying time of the trip, but that's a good thing since it wasn't that annoying and was important to do. You can tell how thrilled we were below.
Laura had made some delicious chicken for dinner, but the kids weren't eating. However, they were there was going to be delicious pie too. One kid put all her green beans under her chair, and two kids, including Joshua, got feed by parents. Well, I guess three kids got fed by parents if you include the baby. :D The pie was wonderful.
Some games were played before dinner too. Isaac and Heather played tons of games throughout the week, with other people periodically joining in.
First Doug got us donuts and we semi-relaxed as people woke up.
It was a nice pool, although the shade was lacking. They had two nice big shade umbrellas...that were broken. However, they did have a nice splash pad that my kids loved. It was kind of sprinklers and had no big amounts of water that would dump on your head.
In the afternoon we took some naps. The kids were pretending to play pool until Ben and Dusty changed it to air hockey, which felt significantly less dangerous.
We started figuring out groceries for the week. This was more of an ordeal than I expected. Not because anyone was fussy, but because we needed to feed fifteen people for a week and since everyone has different backgrounds, every food item needed to be talked about. For example, bagels. What flavor? Refrigerator or not? Is cream cheese on the list? Then it needed to be put into the computer for pick-up the next day. It was probably my most annoying time of the trip, but that's a good thing since it wasn't that annoying and was important to do. You can tell how thrilled we were below.
Laura had made some delicious chicken for dinner, but the kids weren't eating. However, they were there was going to be delicious pie too. One kid put all her green beans under her chair, and two kids, including Joshua, got feed by parents. Well, I guess three kids got fed by parents if you include the baby. :D The pie was wonderful.
Some games were played before dinner too. Isaac and Heather played tons of games throughout the week, with other people periodically joining in.
Friday, July 12, 2019
Friday: galaxy bottles and target pad training
This morning we went to the library and made galaxy bottles. We also got way too many books. :)
This evening Isaac and I went to special karate thing that included target pads. It was a nice thing to do together. (I know we go to class together, but we're often separated due to size and age.) Anyway, it was quite a bit of fun...especially with having some knowledge of what we doing.
This evening Isaac and I went to special karate thing that included target pads. It was a nice thing to do together. (I know we go to class together, but we're often separated due to size and age.) Anyway, it was quite a bit of fun...especially with having some knowledge of what we doing.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)