She Said...

Today Alexandra told me I was beautiful.  I think she's the beautiful one!

Martha Speaks

Our local historical theatre holds monthly children's productions and this month was Marta Speaks.  I didn't tell the girls ahead of time that we were going, so they were super excited when they woke up and found out our plans for the morning.  Anna and Aubrey went to a few last year, but I thought Alexandra was too young and wouldn't sit through the musicals, so this was her first one.  She did great, but Martha Speaks was also aimed more to the preschool age, whereas most are not.

It always helps to keep the girl's attention when we are sitting on the front row, too!

It was one of the better productions that we have seen and we're looking forward to going back in December to see the Night Before Christmas!

Alexandra and Anna reading books before the play started!

Aubrey reading her book!

Aubrey's First "Restriction"

Not the typical milestone a mom would want to record, but a "first" nonetheless!  Yep, Aubrey had her first restriction.  She was not allowed to watch any television for two days.  I think we are a middle-of-the-road kind of family when it comes to television.  I don't think the girls watch too much of it (most days), but we certainly allow our children to watch television.  How else am I going to get any house work done if not for an occasional Disney movie...and it's also helpful to put a LeapFrog movie on for the younger girls when I really need to concentrate on school with Aubrey.  I don't feel quite so bad about it since they are learning their ABC's and numbers.  The other day Anna was singing, "punc-punc-punc-punctuation" as they sing in one of the Leap Frog movies!

Anyway, back to Aubrey's restriction.  Aubrey was put on restriction for talking, being disruptive and disrespectful during our small group time.  I stayed home with Anna since she had a cough and I didn't want her spreading any of her wonderful germs with the other little kiddos.  Danny was leading the small group.  Before they left (and many times since the last small group) we talked to Aubrey about her behavior during the small group.  She is not to talk because she is there to listen and learn.  When she talks, she is being disruptive and disrespectful to the adult that is talking and she is being distracting to the people trying to listen to the discussion about the word of God.  She has her notebooks that she can write in and she has her bible that she can look through and "read."

Since Danny was leading the group, I knew it would be hard for him to really focus on Aubrey and her behavior.  He had her sit right next to him, but she whispered throughout the discussion and was even passing notes back and forth with her friend.

Once they returned home, Danny and I sat down with Aubrey to discuss how she thought she behaved at the small group.  She agreed that she was talking and being disrespectful to Daddy while he was trying to lead the discussion.  We decided that she should lose a privilege for her disobedience and we decided she would not be able to watch TV for two days.  Of course, she cried and cried, but that really was the reaction I wanted.  I want to take away something from her that she cares about so maybe the next time she's in this situation she may think twice.  Truth be told, I think she cares more about the fact that her sisters will get to do something that she won't, whether it be TV, playing their LeapFrog games, etc. I don't think taking away from her this one time will correct her behavior.  We will have to be consistent and she will have many more things taken away from her before she realizes that her disobedience has consequences.

Danny and I (as I'm sure most parents do) struggle with disciplining our children.  First, Danny and I were raised very differently so that comes into play a lot.  I'm just naturally more of a disciplinarian than Danny is. My prayer is if I stay consistent with my discipline now, her older years may be slightly easier because she (and her sisters) will be able to fall back onto the instruction they received and were taught in their earlier years.  It's also a struggle to focus on their heart change and not just a behavioral change.  I've read a couple of books that discuss this and it makes total sense in my head, but implementing it is much more difficult.

When I focus on the behavioral change, the girls will learn if they behave a certain way, they will receive a reward of some type so that's really the only reason for their behavior change.  With a heart change, they fully recognize their sins when doing something wrong and understand that they are sinning against God.  They also realize when they do something right, it is pleasing and glorifying to God.  There are entire books written on this subject, so this is my extremely abbreviated explanation of the difference between the two.

As I said, disciplining according to the word of God is difficult for me (as I'm sure it is for all parents).  I absolutely want to make sure I do it correctly, but I also realize I'm human and I'm not going to do it perfectly.  Through continued prayer, I know God will show me the way! 

These are a few of the books I've read on behavior vs. heart change.

Close Encounters at the Zoo

After Aubrey, Alexandra and I picked up Anna from her first spend the night with YaYa and Tom, I surprised the girls with an afternoon trip to the zoo.  We have to drive right past the exit on the way to YaYa's so I thought it would be the perfect pitstop for the afternoon.  Needless to say, the girls were shocked and delighted that we were there!

It was still a little warmer that I would have liked (90 degrees in Oct.), but there was hardly anyone there and the animals were out and about.  We got to see many of them up close and we could stay and visit as long as we wanted with each animal because there weren't a ton of other people waiting to see them, too!

 The White Rhinoceros was grazing so closely to us that we could hear him eating the grass!

 The elephants were active as well.

 We were able to watch how this elephant drinks water through his/her trunk.

 Lucky for us, he/she was really thirsty!

 I could barely get Alexandra to take her eyes off the elephant long enough to snap a picture!

 The cobra was crawling all over the place!  

The girls are always excited to go into the reptile houses...they are my least favorite!

 We needed to get a little map lesson into our afternoon as well!

Alexandra did not want to be left out of the map lesson.  

She asked me to take this picture of her with the map!

We always LOVE when we have close encounters with the apes!  

These two were definitely marking their territory, but luckily they were just eyeing each other down 

and no physical contact between the two was made! 

The apes were so close to us we could have touched them (if not for the very thick glass between us)! 

After this picture, one of them came and sat down with his back leaning up against the wall and glass!

Anna's Spends the Night Off!

We had another milestone this week!  Last Friday as we are riding in the car running errands, out of the blue, Anna asked when she was going to spend the night at YaYa's by herself.  We all had a long discussion about it because Aubrey, of course, piped in that she wanted to go spend the night at YaYa's too.  I told Anna that we would call YaYa when we got home to talk to her about it.

Naturally, when we got home it slipped my mind to call YaYa.  After about an hour or so, Anna came up to me and very accusingly told me that I had not called YaYa like I said I would!  I stopped what I was doing and immediately called YaYa!  We made arrangements to meet her after church on Sunday for Anna to go back to Shellman Bluff with her for the night.

Anna was beyond excited that she was such a big girl that she could go spend the night off all by herself!  Anna has spent the night without Danny and me many times, but she's really never spent the night away from her sisters and she's never spent the night at YaYa's without any of us!

So Anna got all packed up and we met YaYa and Tom at Cracker Barrel in Kingsland for lunch after church.  Once done with lunch, there was no hesitation from Anna to go by herself with YaYa!  Like a big girl, she hugged me, told me she would miss me and then gave me a goodbye kiss!

She had a wonderful time.  In the short 24 hours that YaYa had Anna, I know she spoiled her beyond belief!   

Anna with YaYa and Tom before leaving us!

Treasure Box!

So we have a treasure box.  It's full of little dollar-store toys and trinkets, but you would think it had a million bucks in it!  Below is the criteria for getting to choose something from the treasure box

• Be helpful without being asked by mom or dad (does not include regular chores)
• Go out of the way to be loving or kind to each other
• Can not ask for something from the treasure box

On this particular day (a couple of weeks ago because I'm trying to get up-to-date), Anna was especially helpful to me.  Without me asking she helped me put up laundry, put sheets on our bed, and she moved the clothes from the washing machine to the dryer (with the aid of a step-stool!).  After all this, she then asked me if there was anything else she could do to help me.  Why, yes!  I then gave her some wet paper towels and she wiped down the table on the back porch and the school table and chairs. Then she asked, "Anything else, mom?" I almost fainted! After a quick recovery, I gave her more wet paper towels and set her to wiping down the walls and base boards around the school table!

She definitely deserved something from the treasure box after all this!

 Anna is very proud of her new sequined crown!

Anna dressed herself this day and she chose this dress.  When I told her that it was a church dress, not a play dress she said, "I know, mom.  It will be ok."  I can hear her saying it write now in a way that only Anna can say it!

Puzzles, Puzzles, Puzzles!

Aubrey and Anna have always loved putting puzzles together, but not until recently has Alexandra showed an interest in puzzles...and now it's all she wants to do.  It's amazing how a child's confidence boosts when they realize they can do something all by themselves.  Once she realized she could put one of the easier puzzles together by herself, she was determined to do the bigger puzzles by herself.  It may take her a while, but she stays with it!  She will sit there for 30 minutes or more sometimes working on a puzzle.  That doesn't seem like a long time, but in three-year old time, that is no small feat!  Here she is with some of her puzzle accomplishments!

 Then she decided this puzzle was big enough to lay on!

 Well, if she can lay on it, she might as well go ahead and get her pillow and blankie and take a pretend nap!