Thank you Supernanny Jo xoxoxoxoxo

We created the "bead jar" a couple months ago. There are 3 lines on the jar, and "beads" (I say beads loosely because they are actually x-mas bells) to fill the jar when she has done something "bead worthy". She normally gets one bead at a time, and on special, special occasions/when mommy is in a really good mood, she gets two at a time.

Here are the rules:

The first line- she gets something that has been taken away back...please DON'T open my linen closet upstairs!!!!

The second line- One toy at the dollar store. Love love love that place....for toys only. A little lead never hurt. Just kidding. I think.

The third line- 4 toys at the dollar store (because that is how old she is), or a big toy at Target or something. We rarely hit the 3rd line...

A typical "bead getting" day consists of these things:

*Gets herself dressed


*Brushes her teeth (yes that is a Spiderman electric toothbrush)


*Brushes her own hair...normally resulting in a mullet type do. Mommy does it over, usually. Sometimes I'm too tired to care.



*Finishes her breakfast or at least eats till she is full.



On special, special, occasions, she cleans up her room or the downstairs mess. These are my favorite "bead worthy" chores and have been known to be worth two beads! When she does clean up, I begin to wonder if she is too young to vacuum? It's a light weight vacuum. Obviously, I would carry it upstairs for her when she was done with the downstairs.

Again, thank you Supernanny! When I do implement the "bead" jar, life with a drama mama preschooler is a little easier!!

Not making it easy...

It's hard to follow my #10, #9, and #8, 2009 resolutions when stuff like this keeps happening:

2009

I realize New Years Resolutions are supposed to take effect January 1st, but I couldn't decide on NYE what I wanted to work on this year... until today. Yes, there are 10 things, because chances are I will only follow through with 1 or 2. I'm OK with that though. It means that I've changed a little from 2008. Here they are in order of importance, #10, clearly being the least important:

10.Play fetch with the dog.

9.Take the dog to the dog park.

8.Take the dog for a walk.

7.Stop buying Isabella a toy EVERY TIME we go to the store.

6.Donate 80% of the toys filling ALL the closets and storage cabinets in garage.

5.Save money.

4.Stop being selfish with the laundry. Devin needs clean underwear too.

3.Make dinner for everyone, once a week.

2.Play with Isabella instead of finding chores to do while she plays.

1.Stop laying w/Isabella till she falls asleep. And STOP moving myself and my blankets, pillows, and snoogle into her room @ all hours of the night when she wakes up. She is four. She can sleep alone.

Stalling techniques at bedtime.

Isabella is the queen of stalling when it comes to bed-time. She is either thirsty, too cold, too hot, wants socks, doesn't want socks, needs new sippy, needs black teddy, brown teddy, curious George, or the pink hippo, needs the lite-brite on, close the closet door. My favorite of all time: take the scary Raggedy Ann, life size doll, out of the closet w/her "baby", Madeline.

But the winner of the most frequently used stalling technique: I need to go potty!!! This is by far the worst one and the most time consuming, especially in the winter when she is in feety pajamas.




Lately,she has been stalling with really sweet questions. I thought I'd share a few of the ones that melted my heart:

Isabella "Mommy, what color are butterflies eyes?"
Me "Um, black." Right?


Isabella "I wish I was a baby again."
Me "I'm sorry but Mommy can't do that for you."
Isabella, "Can you ask the police officer then? Or God?"
Me "I'll see what I can do."




Isabella has finally learned how to say her prayers at night. I used to say them for her and she would say Amen at the end. Now she can do the whole thing. However, at the end when we say "God Bless Mommy and Daddy, etc." she'll always add a few extra special people. Soemtimes it's Mickey Mouse, or her teacher, or the neighbor kid, but this time she added her Great Papa. We usually do just immediate family and then end with, "and everybody that I love" kind of summing it all up, but this time she said Great Papa and this is what followed:

Isabella "I miss my Great Papa" (he passed away in June '07).
Me "I know but Papa takes you to see him right?" (meaning his grave in SF)
Isabella "No silly, Great Papa moved to Heaven."

I could eat her sometimes.

Where do I start???

I haven't blogged in a record breaking 3 weeks! I usually blog every Monday but with the holiday's and being sick, it didn't get done. I am gonna make this short with lots of pictures to sum up the last 3 weeks. So much to report:

First we picked our tree, and made cookies:




Devin and I went to his super fancy Christmas party for work:


We then had a birthday party for Devin's dad:


Christmas Eve was spent at Devin's parents house, delicious!



Santa came and the kids had WAY too many presents. Maybe I'll put some away and take them out slowly? Isabella would never know. I still have presents hidden away from her b-day.



New Years Eve was low-key and exactly how we wanted it to be. I was with Isabella at midnight. I think she may have stayed up later than I did.



New Years day was spent at the duck club. It was my first time going and I didn't really know what to expect. We tried to go fishing, but the guys were shooting clay pigeons and Isabella hated the noise. So we watched a little TV and ate some Craisin's and then went home.




Isabella had a lot of fun with her friends over the break. We went to Story Grow in Concord (really fun for ages 0-6). We played outside in the freezing cold with the neighbors, brrrr! And we went to Marine World, also very cold but fun!





Happy and healthy 2009 to all of our friends and family!!