Memorial Weekend 2008

Another busy weekend and the rain has soaked us for days. Many tornado warnings and watches, scary stuff. The weekend went well, we began with our plan for visiting the graves of relatives. Granny and Grandpa wanted to have 7 flower arrangements for the graves so I went to Hobby Lobby and was very successful in finding wonderful flowers to make arrangements. I spent a couple of hours getting those together then we piled in the van to head to three cemeteries in town.

We have been having blankie issues with Ella lately. Her blankie had become so ragged, I mean just loosely weaved strips of fabric hanging together with thread. The trim has come off the edges. We looked at Wal-Mart the other day for a blankie that might work but she was not really hearing that. But, mysteriously, this weekend, the blankie disappeared. We suggested she try out one of the 5 other choices we had around the house and in the last couple of days, she has not mentioned in the blankie one time. She is still searching for the perfect replacement and I will help keep our eyes open for that...

This summer I have a few goals with these girls. With Maddie, we are going to exercise alot and not concentrate on food. The bad snacks will not be available and since I will be with her I can monitor better what she eats. At school, she would have the freedom to make choices and I was never really sure what kinds of snacks they had around. Sometimes she would come home with chocolate and she was often being rewarded with snacks and candy. That is not cool to me... So she will swim alot, take a gymnastics class, and we will ride bikes as often as we can.
As for Hannah, she has developed an ability to tune out anything and continue to do what she wants to do. This summer, I am going to work with her on her attention and discipline. I am starting by having her stop reacting to situations with crying and whining. Not responding to that and asking her to use a regular tone of voice to explain what is happening. I am also asking her to repeat back to me what I say to ensure she is listening and understanding what is needed. She will have to help more in picking up her messes, even if it takes waiting forever for her to get it done.

For Ella, it's the blankie thing as well as saying goodbye to passies and bottles forever. I know she is too old, but we have allowed her to keep them to make it easier to cart her off to places while we work. Now that I am home, we will set some limits that will help her in school next year. Potty training is done.

Other than that, we are going to work on a few academics. I bought a book for each of their levels and I thought we would spend about 30 minutes a day on each of them. I especially don't want Maddie to lose info over the summer and set her back next year. We're doing a lot of swimming this summer and planning to go to our library that is within walking distance for children's activities, story time, and other goodies.