The invention of lying

Carter has developed a new "talent". Lying. Not the cute-little-kid-lying-with-a-grin kind, either. The I'm-honestly-trying-to-deceive-you-so-I-won't-get-in-trouble kind.

We've been having some discipline issues at home and at school. For months, he has been disobeying his parents. But it was a delight he saved for us until recently. This school year has been a different story. He disobeys his teacher (who also taught him last year, so we know it's not her) and gets sent to time-out a couple days a week. A few weeks ago, we actually got a behavior note from the teacher. One that had to be signed and returned. And this week, he graduated from time-out to classroom banishment: he was sent to another classroom as punishment.

So this week, we upped the ante. He must obey his teacher on Wednesday if he wants money for the Thursday bake sale. And now, if he goes to time-out at school, toys get boxed up. Tuesday afternoon I had to box up all his trains and train tracks. Wednesday afternoon, I boxed up all his Cars toys - Legos and die-cast cars.

The thing is, until this week, when we asked him if he went to time-out, he would give us 100% honesty. He's onto us now, though. He told us some deliberate lies about his behavior at school.

I personally believe that our children will fit the molds we make for them. A little boy who is treated like he's bad, will act bad. So we make a point to tell Carter that we know how nice and sweet he is.

We have no idea what to do! We've tried rewarding good behavior, and now punishing bad behavior. I've tried showering him with extra attention, and I've tried ignoring him. I'm embarrassed as his mother, especially when he acts up for his teacher or other adults. We're grasping at any possible solution.

Wordless Wednesday

Seven Months

On Saturday, we hosted a bridal shower for one of my sisters. All day, I was answering the question "how old is she?" without batting my eyes: "six months". And then, Sunday morning, I was running on the treadmill and watching the morning news, when I saw the date light up across the TV. September 25. **Gulp** I nearly fell off the treadmill. As in, one day before September 26 . . . meaning Ellyson was about to be seven months old, not six. That one kinda snuck up on me.

She's adorable no less. In fact, she has become more personable in the last month. She's still little - wearing a mix of six-month and nine-month clothes. I just introduced her 6-9M and 9M clothes to her wardrobe, but many of them are still too big. (Quite a contrast from Mammoth Brother, who fit comfortably in 9M clothes at 4-1/2 months.)

She's still wearing a size 2 diaper, nursing great and eating lots of fruit and vegetable purees, and yogurt. She sometimes eats oatmeat (the grownup version). I actually picked up some gDiapers (cloth) last week, and intend to start using them interspersed with the disposables. We'll see how that goes. I'm able to buy disposables so cheap, and I successfully got Carter out of diapers so young, that the financial investment never made sense. But recently I've read a little about the chemicals in diapers (before Ellyson was born, I never even thought about the fact that chemicals are in diapers), and have been trying to buy chorine-free disposables. These are much more expensive and hard to come by (thank you, Amazon!). So dabbling in cloth isn't about money, or about the environment . . . it's more about health. So I will dabble and report back. Jack, for the record, is not thrilled about cloth. But since he changes only a few diapers a week, and never (I say "never" and I think that's accurate - I apologize if it's not) has washed Ellyson's laundry, so he won't even see a difference. :)

But I digress.

Ellyson sits very well. She doesn't yet try to crawl, or pull herself up. But she will sit and play with toys. Which is fun. She laughs from her belly every once in a while, but blows raspberries and jabbers all day long.

She is still very attached to me. She sleeps roughly from 8 p.m. until 7 a.m. or so (waking once or twice to take full feedings). If given the opportunity to lay in bed (because she doesn't nap well anywhere else), she will take two long naps and maybe even a short one. If she doesn't have that chance, she'll take multiple shorter naps during the day.

Oh, and she looks like a doll when she wears a headband. Even Jack thinks they're cute.

So, until next month . . .

Word of the Week: Captain Aaaaamericaaaaaa

And it truly must be said with that inflection. Seriously, Captain America is one of Carter's recent favorites. Last month, Jack bought Carter his first (and second) action figures: Iron Man and Captain America. Carter will watch a couple clips of Iron Man on Netflix, but I'm not sure if Jack has ever actually showed him any Captain America. But he loves to "be" Captain America. And I love that when he picks up the little plastic gun that attaches to Iron Man, he calls it a "bat" and thinks it's for playing baseball. (Can we keep his innocence forever??)

Anyway, ignore the Spiderman socks. Spiderman still ranks among Carter's favorites. But he's no Captain America.

"More"

Carter has been helping feed Ellyson her snacks (especially puffs) lately. And the best part is that he has been teaching her how to sign for "more". Even when she isn't looking.

Wordless Wednesday

Happy Birthday, Grandpa

We celebrated my dad's birthday last weekend. It was actually two weeks ago, but he's had a lot of family stuff going on, so we delayed celebrating it. Carter was really excited about the cupcakes, and insisted on a tractor candle for him. Of course, he thoughts the cupcakes were a prelude to cake. But he was content with the cupcake once he had it in hand.

Both kids got some quality Grandpa time. Thankfully, Ellyson was happy enough to actually let me take some pictures of her with him.

Crafty Daddy

Crafty Daddy is at it again. When we were expecting Carter, Jack made a stool for him . . .

And over the summer he finished a stool for Ellyson . . .

And then he took on the task of building Carter a twin-size bed. We went ahead and got Carter a twin mattress (and moved the toddler bed into our room). Jack drew up the plan for Carter's new bed, and built it. Carter even helped a little.

And on Sunday, the finished product made its way into Carter's room! Hooray! Unfortunately, so far, it has done nothing to help a certain three-year-old stay in his room all night.

Jack even added an extra little personal touch. Written on the underside of the bed, is a poem dear to his heart (and Carter's Nana's heart, too).

Sleep?

Last night, in an effort to get Carter to spend the whole night in his own room, I bribed him with Chick-Fil-A. I've bribed him with "special breakfast" before and it hasn't worked. And last night he did come to our room, but went back to his bed right away and without argument. Best $2 I've ever spent. That was the first night in nine months, that he didn't sleep in our room at all.

$20 says he's back in our room by 3 a.m. tomorrow morning . . .

Self-captioned Photo

Wordless Wednesday

Chick-A-Flay

Carter and his BFF/girlfriend, Ashlyn. She makes no secret about their relationship. She proclaims in chapel (at school) that Carter is her boyfriend.

Cousins

So, Carter and Ellyson don't have any (first) cousins yet. But they do have second-cousins on both sides. And this weekend, Ellyson finally met most of her (second) cousins from my family. We took her with us to my hometown in Pennsylvania, for my grandfather's funeral. (Carter stayed home with Jack's parents - that was easier on us and him!)

"Baby" Levi just turned one. This was actually my first time to meet him, too. His mom actually blogs about their own parenthood adventures over here. And both our blogs now are short one faithful follower. Not-so-baby-anymore Levi definitely was fascinated by Ellyson.

And then there were Ellie (four years old, pictured) and Cora (almost three years old). Cora's a little timid (yes, even more than Ellyson), but Ellie was so sweet and gentle with the babies.

It turns out that, in the absence of her brother, Ellyson is a complete chatterbox. She was talking away, to anyone who would listen! And we got so many comments about how sweet and mild-mannered she is. Thank goodness these folks didn't meet her two months ago!  :)

Teeth

In the list of everything else I had to report last week, I completely forgot to mention that Ellyson cut her first tooth while we were in Miami! No bother, though. She cut her second this weekend, so now I'm caught up. :)

The York Fair

For 15 years (okay, only 14 . . .), I have been telling Jack about the legenday York Fair. The Gwinnett County Fair here has got nothing on the York Fair. Once, we went to the state fair in Perry, Georgia, and it was good. It certainly would compete head-to-head with York. But in all the trips we've made to York through the years, we've never gone during the fair. We've even gone to a wedding reception at the fairgrounds, but the fair has never been open while we visited. Until now.

My cousins who hosted us last weekend, only live about a mile from the fairgrounds. And my grandfather looked forward to that fair year after year after year. So after celebrating his life last Saturday, a group of us spent the evening at the fair. I'm not sure it has the same mystic aura that seemed to emenate from those neon lights when I was a child. But doesn't growing up change that perception of almost everything? But at least now Jack can say he's been. And he enjoyed a cheesesteak, a pumpkin funnel cake and some whoopie pies.

 

Doesn't Jack look great carrying that pink bag?? He was such a trooper to carry it.

We got to see some day-old baby animals: a lamb and cow. There also was a pig in labor.

Grandpa

And, last but not least on my list of things I needed to catch up on, we unfortunately lost my grandpa last weekend, to a heart attack. Last fall we all went to Pennsylvania to celebrate the 75th birthdays of him and my grandmother (though they divorced long ago). He came to visit in April . . . met Ellyson, and saw Jack while he was in the hospital. The picture below was from his birthday celebration last year. He's on the left, probably checking out a new app on my cousin's (who works for Google) phone.

I think my dad has issued a moratorium on my travel to South Florida. A year and a half ago, Jack, Carter and I traveled to Marco Island (basically, as far south as Miami, but on the Gulf side of Florida), for a conference for Jack's work. On our way there, my dad's stepmom lost her battle with cancer. We went to Orlando last year without incident . . . but now we go to Miami, and his dad passes away. I think I'm forbidden from traveling that far south again, so long as his mother is still alive.

Word of the week: All aboard!

Now that Ellyson can, well, sit up . . . I love seeing her play with Carter. He's already dragging her into his play time. Like when he set up a train (no, I'm sorry - the train is on the stairs; this was a boat) in the kitchen.

The funny really started when he let go of her! :)

More Miami Pictures

Mostly of our cute kids. :)

Carter enjoyed swimming in the giant bath tub. It's a little bigger than our master tub at home, but we've never let him bathe in ours anyway. And when Jack turned on the jets . . . well, he thought that was just the coolest.

Mostly content with her mashed sweet potatoes at dinner.

Miami Zoo

The Miami zoo is fabulous. Unbelievable, really. Regular admission was less than the Atlanta zoo, and it was so much better. I think it rivals Animal Kingdom (but without the rides).

Ellyson was representing for game day . . .

The lions here were actually Disney's inspiration for the portrayal of Simba and Mufasa in The Lion King.

Carter's favorite animal, the elephant.

I used the nursing wrap not only to shield Ellyson while I was nursing her (and she rode in the front/infant carrier), but also to shield her from the sun while she napped. I've done this at our zoo, Stone Mountain, traveling . . . works great.

He was so worn out when we left!