Kayli and Aidan both had soccer games today. Aidan’s game was first at 9 am. He played great and scored his first goal every in a game. He was so excited about it! He is so bosy, he kept telling the other players what to do. Kayli’s game was at 10:30. Her team won their first game of the season. This comes after loosing the first game and tying the next two games. She was so thrilled that they finally won a game. Kayli did a great job of following the ball and keeping herself in the game. I noticed that not all the girls were doing that. Some were not paying any attention at all to where the ball was and got surprised when it headed in their direction.
A Tale of the Bob the Builder Hat
I was uploading old photos today, I archive old digital photos at the end of each month to flickr, when I came across this set of pictures. They show the story of what happened when Aidan shared his hat with Jared. I think it is hilarous. You can see it here.
Kayli’s First Cotillion
Kayli went to her first Cotillion today. I wasn’t able to go with her due to Aidan having soccer practice and Talia attending a Catholic High School information night. She went with her friend Dana and Dana’s mom. She said that she had a great time and can’t wait for the next one. They learned how to do the cha-cha and she demonstrated it to me when she got home. Hopefully I will be able to attend the next one.
New Twin Designs for Halloween!
Today I added two new designs to the store, just in time for Halloween!
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This cute design is to mark your twins’ first Halloween. |
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This is a special Halloween version of four popular “You can’t scare me I’ve got twins” design. |
Calmer, Easier, Happier Parenting Seminar
On Tuesday night I went to a parenting seminar given by Noël Janis-Norton. (Her website is located here.) The seminar was hosted by my twins club and was very well attending. I found it very interesting and think the skills I learned there will certainly lead to me being a clamer and hapier parent. One of the main ideas she gave us was to use “Descriptive Praise”. This means that when you see your child doing what you want, you tell him what it is that he is doing. It’s not “good job” or “way to go”. It’s “I notice you are not screaming”, “Jared, you are dressed”, “Riley, you are not screaming”. The other concept she talked about was “Prepare for Success”. That means that you set up your enviroment to make it easier for your kids to do the right thing. You talk to them about what the rules are and you have them tell you back the rules. You “talk through” what is going to happen before it happens so they can tell you what they need to do. The main idea I took away from this was to tell them what TO DO, instead of telling them what NOT to do. It puts a positive spin on everything and really does make me a lot calmer. Instead of having to tell them not to do something over and over again, we talk about what they should be doing and what to do instead of the bad behavior (like screaming). This is only the second day of doing this and it has been working it wonderfully! Riley, who is a big time screamer, has not screamed at all today. He did scream some yesterday, but it was much less than normal. There are several other skills that Noël talks about in her longer seminars, but did not have enough time to cover in our 1 1/2 seminar. To help me learn more about them, I bought a book Tuesday night by the mom of five kids that took her class. She is a journalist in England and after using the skils Noël taught in that class and seeing how well the worked, she decided to write a book about them. The book is titled “How to Be a Better Parent” by Cassandra Jardine. Now if I can just find the time to read the book! It does look like the book is filled with techniques that will make me a better parent.
Falyn got into a sitting position by herself
Falyn reached another milestone last night. She was playing on the floor, doing her “army crawl” and pushing up onto her knees and feet with her hands, when she pushed herself all the way back up into a sitting position. You could tell she was very proud of herself when she did it. She got this huge grin on her face.
Big Spiders
There have been lots of big spiders around lately. Today one of them built a huge web in the backyard play equipment. It spans from the top of the fort down to the slide. I was going to go wash it off, but now my neighborhood has no water. I sure hope that gets turned back on soon!
The Kid’s School Named A Blue Ribbon School
On Friday the school that Talia, Kayli and Aidan go to was named a Blue Ribbon School. Everyone at the school was very excited about it. Today they had blue ribbons and blue ballons all over the school and all the kids got a blue ribbon sticker.
Aidan Cut the Twins Hair
Yesterday afternoon while I was helping Kayli with her homework downstairs, Aidan was upstairs cutting the twins hair. He did a chop job on all the hair in the front of Riley’s head. I must have caught him right when he started on Jared’s since he only cut a bit out of the front of Jared’s head. I can comb Jared’s hair so that it is barely noticeable, but Riley’s is a mess! I don’t know what to do with it. Aidan now has no toys in his room and won’t be getting any back till the twins’ hair grows back. I have no idea where he got the scissors, probably out of the girls room. They have been confiscated and are now out of reach. Hopefully not having his beloved bionicles for a while will drive the point home with Aidan that he better not ever cut anyone’s hair again.
Falyn is 7 Months Old
Falyn turned seven months old today. She is such a delightful baby, always smiling at everyone. She is very easy going and so sweet. She finally started eating solids this month. She will now eat a bowl full of rice, oatmeal or barley with fruit or veggies mixed in. She is on the verge of being able to crawl all over the house. She can crawl a little bit now, but hasn’t become an expert at it yet though and only does about one crawl at a time.
I did a photoshoot for Falyn’s 7 Month Portaits. You can see them all here.
Here’s some of my favorites:
