An Ode to Sticker Charts and Temporary Tattoos

I'm always a little leery at the end of the summer, when Scottie heads back to school. We all love our summers, and Eli gets used to getting a lot of attention. The first few days this school year were rough as I expected, but then I made an important rediscovery -- sticker charts! We've used sticker charts off and on for at least a year. We were giving Eli stickers for falling asleep by himself and taking naps, with a few thrown in for good behavior. I decided to shower him with stickers and see how it worked. It's magical! I'm now giving him stickers for following directions the first time, not complaining, being helpful, cleaning up, sharing with his sister, playing by himself, not coming out of his room during quiet time, not making noise or interrupting me when I'm putting Keira down, and generally good behavior. It's working like a charm. We've had generally wonderful days and it helps to keep me focused on the positive. I find that I'm fussing at him a lot less and we are both in much better moods. For complete sticker charts he can choose what to earn. In the past he's earned water tower drives now we've expanded his repertoire to temporary tattoos, balloons and some extra video time. Here are a few pictures of him with his temporary tattoos. He was never interested in them before, he told me he thought they hurt. Now that he's discovered they don't they are another favorite incentive.



After I took these pictures and looked at them to make sure they came out, I couldn't believe how big he looks! I almost didn't recognize him, crazy...

The Clearing of Lot #2

I'm slowly, but surely catching up...

They began clearing our lot a few weeks ago and finished up late last week. They cleared it first with only 20 feet of flat soddable yard behind our back foundation. That seemed a little shallow to me. So, upon my insistence, they cleared about 13 more feet into the trees and even made the little hill going up to our trees more shallow. Of course, being a hippy at heart, I hate to see more trees cleared... But, the big, less buggy yards were part of the appeal, so I went with a few less trees and more area to run around on the grass. I'm really excited about the way that it turned out, and they are supposedly starting laying the foundation today. Very exciting!

July at Home, Part III -- Out to Dinner and Ice Cream

One night, we went out to dinner and ice cream with Dendi and Bapa. Keira had a particularly enjoyable time with Dendi. I love her expression in the first picture. She's hysterical when you really get her laughing. And, as you can see, even though Keira's still not a fan of food in general, she has no problem with ice cream!

July at Home, Part II -- Time at Dendi and Bapa's

We spent a lot of time at Dendi and Bapa's house in July. Between trying to buy a house in their subdivision and Scott building shelves and using Bapa's tools we needed to be in Senoia a lot. Fortunately, Dendi and Bapa were gracious hosts and hopefully we weren't too annoying. Here are some of my favorite pictures from their house in July...

Keira smiling and showing off her troll face that Scott says she inherits from me.


She helped herself to Wheat Thins out of the pantry and within seconds had a happy pile.


Nothing better than nudie babies in the pool. It's been HOT!



Keira getting some Dendi love and showing off her first Giants shirt, courtesy of Dendi, of course.



Keira and Eli playing with Keira's toys in the Family Room.


She got into the markers, can you tell?


Bapa indulged Keira with a Cozy Coupe ride all around the yard and back into the house.



Eli playing Tee Ball for the first time -- in his Giants shirt, of course.

July at Home, Part I -- Blue Smoke Park (and Keira talks)

We spent many July days just like this...

We'd wake up, have breakfast and try to get out of the house before the heat of the day hit. We realized after a few tries that we needed to get out of the house and play hard at a park to ensure a smooth remainder of the day. Eli thinks he wants to stay home all day long: doing puzzles, crafts and having an "at home day." But, his behavior says otherwise. We discovered after trying a few parks, that in the summertime, there were only two parks that were bearable, even in the morning -- Blue Smoke and the Dendi's New Park in Downtown Senoia. Eli usually chose Blue Smoke. Keira loves going to the park, too. Park is one of her new words.

Speaking of Keira's new words, I'm going to digress a little and jot down some of her words -- she is talking a lot. She starting talking early, and then seemed to plateau a bit, even seemingly losing some of her first words. Now, her vocabulary has exploded once again. Many of her words represent entire categories. She says "bow wow" which does mean dog, but frequently means other animals, too. She says "ba-bu" or "va-vu" for vaccuum, which does mean the vaccuum, which neither she nor her brother are fans of. But, babu also means motorcycle, blender, garbage disposal, lawn mower, leaf blower, blender, coffee grinder or any other noise making device. She says "apple" VERY clearly (I think it's her clearest word), it means apple and most other food, too, which by the way she still isn't eating a whole lot of... She says "eye" which means eye as well as other body parts, buttons or small round things. She says "bottle" which sounds a bit like "bah-woo" it means bottle, water, container, cup, glass or mug. She says "guitar" which sounds like tar, which means guitar mostly, but she pointed at Dendi's piano the other day and said it, too.

She also says words that mean just one thing and have a predictable and understood meaning. For the family she says "Momma" or "Mommy", "Dadda" or "Daddy", "E-I" "Kee-Cat" (Kitty Cat) or "Kodi", Babo and Bapa (which refers to the grandfathers or grandmothers). She also says "ball", "baa-oo" for balloon, "hot", "booo" for book, "ow" which she says when she hurts herself or hits someone -- something we're struggling with... She says "boom" when she falls or when she bumps into something, usually gleefully. She says "car" which sounds a little like tar -- she loves her little red Cozy Coupe car which she can open, climb in and push backward. She says "bike" which sounds a little like buy -- another ride on toy she's getting fairly adept with. She says "spoon" which sounds a little like poo. She says "bath" which sounds a bit like bah and remains one of her very favorite things. I know I've missed some, but you get the idea.

And now, back to Blue Smoke Park, one of her beloved "park"s or parr...

Here are the pictures. First, Keira standing on and playing in the wood chips.





A few pictures of Eli on the slides



Now for my favorite of the bunch, the swings -- I love Keira's expression while Eli pushes her, it's worth the blurriness.





And, finally, one of me and my girl -- she's definitely still a Mama's girl.


After the park we'd often go to Starbucks or Senoia Coffee Company. The boys would work on puzzles while I walked around with Keira. Sometimes she'd doze in the sling and sometimes I'd follow her around. Then, we'd go home for lunch and nap. In the afternoon we'd go to Kedron Fieldhouse Pool to practice Eli's swimming and veg by the pool. What a charmed life we lead!!!

Fourth of July at the Lake House, Part III -- Day Trips

We went on a few day trips from the lake house. Next summer, we plan on taking even more. We're thinking about taking the kids tubing on the Chattahoochee near Helen, on a few hikes and into Clayton. This time our most successful day trip was into Clayton. Clayton has one of our favorite book stores with an awesome, cozy kids section. We went to the bookstore, hung out at a peaceful public garden and found our new favorite haunt -- a great coffee shop. The coffee shop has a train table that kept Eli and Keira happy while Scott and I relaxed and had a chance to chat. Here's a picture of me and the kids at the tranquil public garden.


Besides Clayton, we took a few other drives this trip. We took one drive to our favorite river spot on the South Carolina border. Another day we took a drive around looking for some poorly marked waterfall hikes and ended up having dinner and delicious fudge in Helen instead. Finally Scott, Keira and I drove to Clarkesville one day. We went to Clarkesville for a few groceries and stopped to let Keira play at the local playground for a few minutes.

Fourth of July at the Lake House, Part II -- In and Around the House

Yesterday, I got the message that our contract has been approved. Yay! We're under contract and we are officially set to close in the middle of December. Very exciting. :)

***

I wrote the prior sentences on August 3rd, now it's a week later... They cleared the lot last week. Today, on my insistence, they are going back in and clearing ten more feet into the trees to make a bigger back yard for us. I'm realizing that building a house is a very exciting, yet time consuming task. I think I'm going to have a part-time job making sure everything is done correctly until December.

Now back to playing catch up...

The four of us spent most of our time in and around the Lake House. First, for indoor fun... Keira was in love with walking and enjoyed cruising around and exploring all the new space. She plays quite nicely by herself for long stretches of time and has a habit of walking around with whatever's in her hands when she stops playing. Then, she finds interesting places to put her rogue toy. At home, we find things in all the hampers, in the shoe basket and in cupboards. The Lake House was no different. Up there, she tended to stick to cupboards -- especially one in the kitchen and one in the bathroom. When walking around she seemed to always have at least one thing in her hand.



Another trend that extended to the lake house was Eli and Keira's blossoming playtime relationship. They are spending time and playing together more and more. Their dynamic is one of my favorite things to watch.


Their favorite game to play together up at the Lake House was elevator. After Grammie and Babo headed home early in the week, Eli and Keira loved to play in their empty closet. Eli pretended to be the elevator man, opening the door, "pressing buttons" for the appropriate floors and then announcing the floor and letting Keira out once again. They both loved the game and played for hours.



Besides playing in the house and on the screen porch, the most exciting attraction is of course the water. Keira enjoyed playing in the sand, pulling out the wind mill decorations and swimming a little in the water. This trip she was thankfully less adventurous in the water and easier to hold on to. I think she'd had enough mouthfuls of water to realize that she can't swim solo yet. Truthfully, Keira's favorite water attraction was the hose. After spending time at the waterfront, we hose our feet off so that we don't track sand into the house. For Keira, it was better than the sink.





Eli also spent some time at the waterfront. Although, he was not impressed with the big waves from all the motor boats zooming around. His happiest time in the water was one afternoon with Daddy. Scott and Eli spent time talking and playing with a neighbor.