Indoor Playground

Good bye winter blues, hello sunshine and play. Brianna, Auntie Em, the little misters and I meet up at an indoor playground to enjoy a little sun and to burn off our cabin fever. Oliver was all about climbing and sliding. Lucius was as independent as ever, loves the ball pit, crawling around and climbing on stuff. Brianna took awhile to warm up to the ball pit, but then she was having a ton of fun.

It was super fun to enjoy some playtime together, and the wonderful sunshine was just an awesome bonus.

quotable

A conversation between Gammlemor and Oliver on the topic of flying to Hawaii:

G: "Someday I would love to fly with you to Hawaii to see Danya"

O (after a long pause): "But I don't have any wings"

chances are...

Every night I check on the boys, I've done it since the first night we brought them home. But there's a 75% chance Lucius will wake up on our nightly bed checks.

Chances are Oliver will say something funny while he's still sleeping when we are re-covering him up.

While playing together, there's fifty percent chance one of the boys will throw something at the other. Crying is 100% likely after such an occurrence.

There's an 80% chance Oliver will attempt to negotiate to get his way in any situation.

There's a very strong chance that Lucius has figured out he can fuss to get just about anything he wants.

Responsiblities

Gammlemor made Oliver this calendar for Christmas. We hung it in a spot Oliver could see it because it was his after all. A couple of weeks ago Jerimy mentioned that Oliver was having a tough time lately and that Oliver really wanted things to keep him busy. He's been acting out a lot lately with crying and fussing.

After talking about it with Jerimy, I thought I'd write out our list of brainstormed activities and put it up where Oliver could see it. He can't necessarily read it but we explained that when he's bored he could ask to do one of those special activities with us. Which also got us thinking about chores and teaching family responsibility. Oliver loves helping so much, we really want to continue to encourage that. At the same time look for other things he can do and let him help us.

I found the chore chart on a modecokids.com (unfortunately the website is down and I can't link to it). I loved that it said "Ways I contribute to my family..."  The list includes things like unloading the dishwasher (with help of course), getting dressed, brushing the animals, brushing his teeth, cleaning up his toys, and even washing the table.

Some days are still a bit more difficult than others, but we have seen him SHINE with the extra "jobs" and responsibility we've entrusted to him. I even catch him doing unexpected little things, like get a washcloth to wipe his brothers hands and face after meals.

Make a Mess Monday

We had wet and wild water fun in the bath tub today. Oliver was going to "wash dishes" in the kitchen sink but I thought Lucius might like to join in the activity. Afterward, Lucius took a very brief rest while Oliver and I dug into the play dough. 

Serenade

Everyone deserves a little serenade once in a while. So here's to you! It's okay, nothing too romantic or anything, just Oliver and I singing "Rudolf the red nosed reindeer", with a few extra harmonies thrown in for good measure.

A visit from Brianna

 Auntie Em and Brianna stopped by Wednesday afternoon for a visit. Brianna and Lucius are both pretty good climbers and they crawled up on this trunk to look out the window. It's fun to have company, and when they had to go we made sure to refill their "traveling toy box" to overflowing.

I invented a way to share all the wonderful toys we have with the cousins, using a system called the traveling toy box. I gave my local niece and nephew a rubber maid container full of extra toys we had. I rotate toys at our house. When the boys tire of something I try to wash it and put it aside. The toys spend a little time with the boys' cousins, getting extra loving and come back to us. Most of the time we forget what we sent away, so we're pleasantly surprised to find "new" toys again. It's win, win for everyone.

 

 Thanks for stopping by Brianna, hope you're enjoying the new toys!