Quotable: Lucius

Lucius has been saying some pretty random stuff. So I have been writing it all down.

"I'm very clever and my ears are squeaky, and I can hear everything"

"In England, in that big book, it shows the castles people could build with all that hard work. It's true"

"I'm looking for stuff I can't see. I'm looking for bouncy balls."

Freckles...

Look Oliver's got a few freckles...

Feelings...

Oliver has been having some frustrations lately. I think we really started to pay attention to it after his melt down at his last fencing class when he didn't win. We've have been trying to figure out the best way to handle these outbursts. Jerimy's been reading the "love and logic" book and I'm reading "how to talk so your kids will listen and listen so your kids will talk". Both have been helpful but it's still tough. 

With these newer skills in mind, it's been slowly getting better. He's learning that his nasty words can't be used to get his way. BUT he's been saying some pretty hurtful things. Example:

"I hate you... I-h-a-t-e y-o-u" (cause saying it wasn't hurtful enough he felt he needed to spell it out loud for me) Also "I don't care if you had your head off!" And "you're being so mean to me- you owe me ten dollars!"

When he says these things we're trying to listen without reacting too much- ignoring the hurtful words as best as we could to not feed into his anger and become angry ourselves. I think he just wants to vent his feelings and I can't really blame him- I think if more people listened to me I'd vent all of mine in a heartbeat. He's been writting his feeling down as well- mostly to try to hurt us, but I think it might be healthy for him to know he can vent and that we still love him anyway.

"Daddy you ruined my day"

 Lets just hope we can continue to be loving and listen. It's so much nicer than to always be stressed and angry because of his attitude.

First fire of the year...

Saturday after a day of yard work and playing, the boys had the awesome idea of making a fire and eating smore's. I thought it a fantastic idea and Mormor did too. She and Morfar gathered the ingredients while I started the fire.

 

It was the perfect evening, a light, cool breeze and a good time. Thanks boys for the good idea!

Tinkering table...

The Little Misters and I love being outside. I started thinking of all the fun things we'll be able to do this summer and then what kinds of new things to add to that list. One thing I've been meaning to do is gather supplies and tools for the boys to build random stuff. So one afternoon last week I gathered up a bunch of my tools that weren't being used and wouldn't be missed to put in a tinkering toolbox. Then we went on a hunt to find scraps of material that could be made into whatever their imaginations can think of.

We found screws, nuts, hooks, nails and washers...

A saw, wood pieces, plastic canvas scraps, egg crates, screw driver, hammers, scissors, paint and brushes...

PVC pipe connections and pieces, zips ties of various lengths and LOTS of duct tape.

After more than an hour of hard work, here's the first tinkering toys that were created. This one does "everything" as Oliver told me. 

I'm super excited to see what they come up with and their super happy to be able to make their own "toys"!

chalk outlines...

Oliver was drawing with chalk one evening and I heard him ask Lucius if he could trace him. Lucius said yeah, laid down on the driveway and I looked up to see this:

Later, Daddy was asked to lay down to be traced and he did.

checkers...

We've been playing a lot of Checkers lately. I feel like it's been a good tool to help with bad attitudes. We're learning that there will always be "winners" and "losers" but we can try to have fun playing anyways. Using encouraging words throughout the game and shaking hands afterwards. It's been fun seeing them learn the rules of the game, helping them slow down to take in the whole board before moving their pieces and all in all just play with them.