Aunt Denise gave us some of Matthey’s old hand me down jammies. There were two pair of Thomas the Tank Engine jammies in the bag and Jacob was absolutely in Heaven.
We’ve been watching Sprout lately and they are always showing episodes of Thomas. When he saw this pair, he ripped his clothes off in record time and wanted the jammies on.
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Grace isn’t zero anymore.
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Ryan:
“You know back in old times they didn’t use money, they used leaves. Back in, you know, 1986.”
Categories: kids
Jacob just turned 2 on Feb 22nd.
1. Intensity
I gave Jacob a 4. He’s a loud crier and reacts powerfully whether it’s happy or sad.
2. Persistence
I gave him a 4. When he wants something, he wants it and will sneak to get it, but he can be redirected pretty easily. He can open baby gates or climb over them. He can climb in and out of his crib, he can take his clothes off easily, including diaper.
3. Sensitivity
I gave him a 4 on this too. He will take wet diapers off, he won’t fall asleep if there’s anyone around him, he hates clothes, etc. He doesn’t like strange noises, like the fire whistle. He doesn’t seem to be bothered by lights or smells.
4. Perceptiveness
I gave him a 4 on this. He notices things that we don’t. He’ll look ouside and spot a plane in the sky that’s just a tiny dot. A car ride with him is constant noise because he’s always pointing things out.
5. Adaptability
I gave him a 4. We tried to go to gymnastics for the first time earlier this week. It was a disaster. He wanted to do his own thing and run and jump. I wanted him to participate with his class. When I’d try to get him to do it, he’d scream “no way” and his body would go limp. If he wants to go upstairs and we put him in his room, he’ll freak out because he wanted to go in my room. If we explain before he goes upstairs that he has to go to Jacob’s room and not mom’s room, he’s usually fine and will go to his room without a problem.
6. Regularity
Hahaha. 5.
No schedule, whatsoever.
7. Energy
Again a 5. I’d give him a 10 if I could. He’s non stop all day long, running, jumping, climbing, etc. He makes me tired just thinking about it.
8. First Reaction
I gave him a 2 on this. He will usually jump right in and he’s not shy at all. The only thing is, he wants to jump right in and do what HE wants to do.
9. Mood
I gave him a 2 on this also. He’s a happy kid for the most part.
That gives Jacob a final score of 34.
The book gives nine personality traits that help define spirited. Each is rated on a scale of 1 to 5.
1. Intensity
How strong are your child’s emotional reactions?
I rated Ryan a 5 on this one. He’s very, very dramatic. He has meltdowns, he’s happy one minute and ticked off the next, his reactions are intense. He is easily frustrated with simple things.
A good example of this was when we got Guitar Hero III for the Wii. He watched us play and then wanted to try. He didn’t do well the first time he tried it and that sent him into a major meltdown. He cried and said he hated the game. The next day he got the hang of it and forgot all about the day before.
2. Persistance
If your child is involved in an activity and you tell her to stop, does she stop easily or fight to continue?
I gave Ryan a 3 on this one. He’s middle of the road when it comes to persistance.
3. Sensitivity
How aware is your child of slight noises, emotions, and differences in temperature, taste, and texture?
I gave Ryan a 4 on this one. His clothes must match. Today I gave him camo pants to wear and a red shirt. The camo pants had red zippers on them and I thought they looked fine together. He had a fit and went and found a camo shirt to wear with it. He also prefers “swishy” pants over jeans. He’s a very selective eater and he definitely acts out on our stress. He doesn’t care much about light and noise.
4. Perceptiveness
Does your child notice people, colors, noises, and objects around her?
I gave Ryan a 3 on this. He’s middle of the road.
5. Adaptability
How quickly does your child adapt to changes in his schedule or routine?
Again a 3. Middle of the road.
6. Regularity
Is your child quite regular about eating times, sleeping times, amount of sleep needed, and other bodily functions?
I gave him a definite 5 on this. If I could have given him a 10, I would have.
He’s never been on a schedule for anything. He will go all day without eating because he just gets busy doing other things and doesn’t notice that he’s hungry. The first thing he had to eat today was lunch and I had to make him something special to get him to eat. I know that’s bad, but I had to have something appealing to get his senses going. He falls asleep at various times. On weekends, they don’t really have a bed time. Sometimes he’ll fall asleep on my bed watching tv around 9 or 10, sometimes on the couch at 8, sometimes in his bed at 11, sometimes he’ll still be up when I go to bed.
7. Energy
Is your child always on the move and vusy or quiet and quiescent?
I gave him a 5 on this one also. He’s even moving in his sleep.
8. First reaction
What is your child’s first reaction when she is asked to meet people, try a new activity or idea, or go someplace new?
I gave Ryan a 4 on this. If it’s something he’s done before and/or it’s with people he’s familiar with, he’s fine. If it’s new, he’s not.
The first day of school came to mind for this one. He was so excited to go but when we got to his classroom, he clung to me. He had a classroom full of kids, and he was friends with most of them. He just kind of hid in the shadows and tried to make himself invisible.
He definitely learns by watching and gets stressed out at first. But he’s adapts well and is soon feeling confident and fine.
9. Mood
How much of the time does your child feel happy and contend compared with serious, analytical, or solemn?
I’m convinced that Ryan is the moodiest kid on the planet and gave him a 5 in this category. He’s been like that since he was 5 weeks old when he became colicky. I always say he was a colicky baby and 6 years later, he still hasn’t grown out of it.
If you add that up, his score is 37. The book says spirited kids will score between 29-45.
Yep, I said children, not child. I have 2 spirited children, Ryan and Jacob. Both are spirited in different ways and both rate pretty high on the scale. I’ll explain each in a separate post.
I’m reading the book Raising Your Spirited Child by Mary Sheedy Kurcinka in order to help Jason and I understand what makes our kids tick and how to parent them more effectively.
Oh, and while I’m posting, I might as well post a pic of our new Honda Pilot!
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This is what I did today.
I wish I would have taken a before shot but if you’ve ever seen the closet on Zaboomafoo, the one where when you open the door everything falls out, then you have an idea of what it looked like.
I emptied everything out and threw away all of the old shoes, diapers that were too small, old diaper bags that had broken zippers, etc. I also took a bag of old coats and donated them to charity.
I added the shelf that holds the footballs. It has a little lip on it so the balls can’t roll off. It also has a hanger bar to hang coats on it.
I bought a new box for the mittens, scarves, hats, etc. It replaces a cardboard box.
There is also a hanging shoe rack, but you can’t see it very good because it’s behind the door.
This is in addition to our new pantry and the coat rack that I hung up the other day. Pictures will be posted soon!
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I’m still here and am now relatively healthy! No more pneumonia!
I’ve closed my eBay store and my website for now. I am trying to get rid of some of my inventory for the leg warmers before summer. They just aren’t selling as well as they were now that people see spring and summer on the horizon. Sales are still steady, but I’ve really had to drop my prices. I still have my Etsy shop and will continue to sell through there for the summer.
Right now, I’m focusing more on baby and toddler clothing and hats. I’ve purchased a couple of patterns to make skirts, hats, kimono booties, etc that all allow you to make the product to sell. I also bought a couple of different “feet” for my sewing machine that will allow me to do ruffles and gathering a lot easier.
Jacob had his 2nd birthday on February 22nd. He is obsessed with being naked lately and we’ve had to resort to putting his footie pajamas on backwards to keep him from taking his clothes off. He had his check up last week and is 25 pounds 9 ounces and 36 inches tall.
Grace will be 1 on the 20th of this month. She took her first steps today! I have a feeling she’ll be walking all over the place in no time.
Austin’s indoor soccer season is almost over. He has a game next Sunday during the halftime of the Detroit Ignition game. That will be very exciting for him.
Ryan is still enjoying kindergarden and is learning to read. He really is a smart kid. I was afraid of how he’d be in school because he is so stubborn at home, but his teacher says he’s a great student and really well behaved.
We traded in our piece of crap mini van a couple of weeks ago. It started making a clunking noise that came from the front driver’s side tire area. I took it to the Chrysler dealer to have it checked out and they couldn’t find what was wrong with it. While I was there I decided to see about trading it in for a new van. With me not working, a lease would be a great deal for us and would keep our payments low.
They showed me a pimped out Chrysler Town & Country and a plain Jane van similar to the one I had. I knew I’d have some negative equity in my van, but I told them I wanted to keep my payment around $460 a month. So they come back and say the best they can do is $532 a month for the loaded van and $503 a month for the plain one. You’ve got to be kidding me. They also wouldn’t tell me how much they were giving me for my van, only that it had negative equity. Whatever, apparently O’Hara Chrysler didn’t want my business.
I got home and Jason said he saw that Honda had good lease deals on their mini vans. I called Fisher Honda and asked and he said that I could do a sign and drive on a Odyssey for about $330 a month, not including my negative equity. I took my van in there and we ran some numbers and he came back with $447 a month for an Odyssey. Awesome.
Then, he says “but, we have a better deal on the Pilot. You can get a loaded, 4wd, DVD player, XM Radio, Pilot for $435 a month.” Wow! Now seriously. I told him that I wanted something under $460 a month. I expected them to come back and say that I could get something for $459 a month, but $435, yay!
So we are the proud owners of a 2008 Honda Pilot. It seats 8 comfortably which is a bonus if the boys have friends with us. It’s very nice to let the kids watch a DVD while Jason and I listen to XMU on the satelite radio.
We’ll it’s getting late and I can hardly keep my eyes open. Toodles…
Categories: kids and family
