On the Hamster Wheel

Well, just the usual today!  Girls went to Kami's house where they built a giant fort on the stairs using blankets.  Not sure if they built the fort anywhere else, but I do know that they had a ton of fun.  Kami said all was good.

A friend of mine gave Madi three bags full of clothing - mostly winter clothes and dresses.  Total blessing!!!  She tried on a few dresses and they look great on her.  She was very excited!  As were we!  :)
These are two of the dresses that she was given.  The first one is her favorite!  I think she has grown at least an inch or two taller since she got here.  Beautiful as always!!

We had dinner together and then did our usual night routine - change into pjs, brush teeth, potty break, read Bible, and then break so that each of us took special time with one girl.  Madi and Jeremy are still upstairs reading at the moment.

Tomorrow the plan is to meet Kaki and Tripp at Willow Bend.  Will be really nice to hang out with them and to get the girls out of the house for some play time.

Lost Tooth!

Madi lost her bottom tooth today!  At lunch she was having a hard time chewing and then there was blood on the napkin while she held her tooth.  She said it hurt and I told her to just keep working at it.  Better to have it out than have it uncomfortable for several days while trying to eat.  So later this afternoon it came out!

Today was pretty good.  We've had several late nights with late bed times and lots to juggle during the day so Jeremy and I have been tired.  And this is without working outside the home.  Fall will be interesting for sure...

I took the girls to Target today to return an unused can of formula.  We bought tons of fruits - blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, raspberries and a mango for Madi.  She was very excited to eat mango again.  We had to get Julia more food as well so as we were walking toward her stuff, I noticed a 75% off rack in Madi/Riley's area.  There were leggings of all different colors for only $1.24!  So we picked up several pairs for the girls.  Will be useful for under skirts or by themselves with t-shirts around the house or whatever.  Definitely can't beat that price!

We came home and the girls watched Tangled while Julia slept.  I was working on a blanket for a friend who is having a shower in a few weeks.  Had lunch and then Madi did an assignment that Jeremy gave her.  She had to use Pocket Legends off her iPod and write - in cursive - all the weapons and things from the game.

Being that is was very hot and muggy today, I decided to treat the girls to Paciugo (Italian Gelato) to cool off.  Little did I know the A/C was not working there.  The gelato was still cold, but we were burning hot sitting and eating it inside.  They had the doors open to allow a little breeze to come in.  Madi loved the gelato!!  Her favorite was the mint chocolate chip.  She had "Cookies and Milk" and Waffle Cone something or other - don't really remember the name.

We're still working on the thankfulness and gratitude side of things.  When we went to Target, she didn't say thank you for buying the pants.  But when we got home, pouted that she didn't get a black pair when she asked if she had a black pair and I let her know they didn't have any black pairs in her size.  She didn't say thank you for the gelato and instead said that she wished she had Grande size instead of a Small size.  We had a talk with her about it recently because she will smile or get excited about things, but very, very rarely says "thank you."  This is a big deal as she'll be going to a sleepover on Friday night and to camp next week.  We explained to her that if she hears someone else say "thank you," that she can always tag on and add "Thank you" after hearing it.  It is something she has to consciously think about and work on or it will affect whether she is invited to playdates or sleepovers.

I'm sure it sounds as though we're being hard on her.  Being thankful is a big deal to us and showing it means that she is grateful for what she has and what she is being given - whether material or with friends or opportunities or whatever.  We are being asked for many things from her and when she is given things, she continues to ask for more without every saying or showing that she appreciates what she already has.  So it is hard to not get frustrated with the lack of gratefulness when there is also the abundance of wants.  I hope this doesn't come off wrong.  Just want you to know what we're working on with her and why.

This afternoon for an hour and a half I helped my friend Katy so the girls had a sitter.  Julia cried for a long time because her teeth hurt.  Once I was home, Madi said "thank you for the pants" as the girls were finishing dinner as I told Jeremy about going to Target.  Was glad to hear that she was thankful.  The girls ate their dinner and then we did their night routine.  As the four of us read the Bible together (story of Jericho tonight), the girls had a really tender moment together.  Riley looked at Madi and said "I love you Madi."  And gave her hug.  Madi said "I love you too."  Then Riley said "Your hair is so pretty."  And she stroked her hair over and over.  Then Riley told Jeremy she loved him and they hugged and Jeremy buzzed his lips on her face so she laughed.  So Riley went over to Madi and buzzed her lips on Madi's face and the girls laughed.  Was a very sweet moment to watch the girls like this.

Madi started another new book tonight "My Only May Amelia."  First chapter was cute.

Sunday

Another hot one day here.  We all went to church this morning.  Madi made three new friends which she was excited about.  After church, we gave Madi her iPod back.  Then we had lunch at home.

Jeremy and Madi were able to spend quite a bit of time together playing Pocket Legends on their iPod/iPad together at the same time.  Was cute to hear their conversations about it as they played.  Then we went over my parents house for another swim.  We have a few videos on Madi's iPod of her swimming so we'll try to get them on here for you to see.  Haven't had much time to do that yet and keep forgetting when we do actually have time.

After swimming, we came home and the girls both went on IXL to do some math practice.  We ate dinner together and then the four of us read the Bible together.  All in all, a good day today.

There's a first time for everything

Today began late.  Jeremy was going to mow the lawn and was thoughtful to let me sleep a little past eight a.m. as we'd been up past midnight last night.  He walked in the room around 8:15 to say he was going to mow, but I remembered having a piano student coming in fifteen minutes so I got dressed, headed downstairs and got to the last stair as the doorbell rang.  He watched the girls during the lesson and then I hung out with them while he mowed the lawn in the awful, awful heat.  Thankfully, he wasn't out there longer than an hour and kept only the outside part done.

The girls are all totally stir-crazy.  It's too hot out to go anywhere or do anything outside.  They want to play different things at the same time and Julia is running everywhere in the house so it made for a tough week overall.  Today they all seemed to hit their level of "let me out of here!!!!" at the same time.  So we took them to my parents house to go swimming!

The girls had a really great time in the pool.  Madi stayed out with my dad and Jeremy while my mom, Riley, Jules and I went in.  Riley said her cheeks hurt (sunburned) and Julia had had enough of being held in the pool.  When everyone else came inside, Madi sat at the table to play on her iPod by my dad and Jeremy was standing doing something (probably on his iPad :)   and the rest of us were in the living room.

Now to share the rest of what happened today, you have to have the back story.  Yesterday I let Madi choose when during the day she wanted to do her shower and study time and which order she wanted to do it in.  She chose to do it in the afternoon.  Totally fine by me.  Because Kenzie had spent the night on Thursday night, she only did ten minutes of study time on Thursday so I had told her that she'd do more study time on Friday.  I let her know that she'd be doing an hour and she did 40 minutes of it on www.ixl.com - an awesome math site for kids as well as 20 minutes of cursive.

IXL is a great program.  Madi goes on and logs in to the site and then chooses the math she wants to work on.  She is given different goals to attain.  I am able to log in and view what she has worked on, how many minutes she worked on the different sections, what she got right/wrong (specific problems), what kinds of improvement is being made and an overall view of how things are going.

So getting back to the "back story" - Madi talked with Mason in the late morning for about 30 minutes.  She asked him to call back in an hour as she'd finish her studying and stuff by then.  They exchanged emails so that she could Facetime him and talk that way sometime.  She wanted to call him back later in the day.  Since she had chosen to take her shower and study in the afternoon and she'd already talked to him, I told her that we'd see whether or not she could call based on her attitude with her studies and how focused she was when she did them.  She asked again to call him.  I said we'd see, but that we didn't need to call him now.  She wanted to check his email address to make sure it was right so I let her do that quickly before we went upstairs.  However, I let her know that she would not be able to call him and that she could not Facetime with him right now.  She asked "Not even Facetime" and I said "No" and told her that she'd chosen her shower and studying in the afternoon so she needed to do those things first.  I took the girls into the playroom while she took her iPod into the shower as she always does so she can listen to music.

However I didn't hear any music and I didn't hear any running water.  I was playing with the girls and kept listening for both - didn't hear them.  Mind you, I didn't want to tap on the door and double check on her - wanted to give her time to do whatever she was doing and decided to ask her when she got out.  20 minutes went by and finally I heard the water going.  Her shower ended and she appeared in the playroom about 20 more minutes later.  Over 40 minutes for the entire thing.

I asked "Hey Madi - do you mind me asking what took 20 minutes before the shower?"
She told me she had to go to the bathroom (shared more specific about what she was doing).  I said "Ok."  And left it at that.  Wanting to trust her, I didn't pry.  I figured that if it was something else, I'd find out later.

Now back to all of us sitting in the living room today:

We finish swimming and Madi checks her iPod.  She notices that she missed a few calls from Poppi and somehow it is brought up that Mason was on the list of people called or people who had called.
I ask "Did Mason call you?"
She says "No, I called him."
So I ask "Well, when did you call him?  I don't remember you calling."
She says very softly "I called him in the shower."

The conversation was going on as she is dialing Poppi's number.  He answers right after she gives me the information and I was not pleased.  It meant that she had not shared that she had disobeyed what I asked her not to do and that when asked what took her so long, she shared going to the bathroom, but left out that she was calling Mason.  I immediately had her get off the phone with Poppi so we could talk it out.  I was very stern with her and let her know that I was disappointed that she chose to disobey what was asked of her as well as not telling me when asked what she was doing before taking her shower yesterday.

She was very quiet.  She did say that she was not able to get through to Mason.  But I told her that the point was that she called when told not to and that she was sneaky about going into the bathroom to do it when she thought I wouldn't know.  Madison sat at the table for a few minutes.  I went into the other room to think things through and Jeremy came in a minute or so later.  We talked for a few minutes to decide how to handle it.  We decided to let Madi think about it and that we would talk with her in private once we got home tonight.  We didn't bring it up and we didn't stay mad at her the rest of the evening.  We carried on and all of us played together (hide and seek) and then went to dinner.

When we came home, I put Jules to bed and then the four of us went upstairs and got ready for bed.  The girls brushed their teeth and we all read the Bible together.  Jeremy and I told Madi that she could draw or read or whatever, but that we'd get Riley to sleep and then both of us would come in to read and talk with her.

Riley kept having to go to the bathroom so I told Jeremy that maybe we should let Riley rest for a little while while we had a talk with Madi.  We talked with Riley and she was totally fine.  So we went in to have a talk.

I started the conversation by going back over with her what had happened yesterday - the shower, the Facetime/phone conversation about not calling - and then talked with her about why I was upset with her choice to call.  Jeremy and I explained that she has many things that she is being trusted with - her bike rides, her room, her iPod, her things, camp, her friends, etc - and that she proves she can be trusted with them or she proves that she can not be trusted with them.  We told her that the things she has are blessings and they are incredible things to have, but they are not mandatory and she is lucky to have them.  She doesn't have to have them.  We talked with her about how there were two things that were very frustrating:  1 - that she chose to disobey and 2 - that she chose to lie and cover it up.

Madi then stated that she didn't lie about calling Mason.  She said that she just didn't tell us.  Jeremy shared that if she was doing something she wasn't supposed to and left it out of her story on purpose, it's the same as lying about it because she didn't tell the whole truth.  So I shared a story with her about something I did when I was about her age that fell into the guidelines of "not telling the truth" and told her how my parents reacted.  We had a good talk that had a mix humor and correction.  Of course, she's smart and she understood it.

All in all, it was a really great conversation with Madi.  We let her know that we loved her and that we want to be able to fully trust her with the things she has.  Our choice in disciplining her in this matter and in helping her think through her actions was that she will not be able to use her iPod until tomorrow afternoon after we get home from church.  Mind you, we told her that if you or Poppi call, she will definitely be able to talk with you.  She just can't play games or listen to music or look for apps on it until tomorrow afternoon.  The reason we chose this was because we told her that she is trusted with it and needs to use it wisely and it was the device that she chose to use to call Mason when she was told not to.  She understood why we were keeping it - though she didn't like it.  We ended the night by reading a few chapters of a book and praying together.

So that was our day!

This'll be a short one

Today in a nutshell:

Time with Kenzie this morning - ate pancakes and fruit

Madi had her first piano lesson this morning - new books and all.  Learning how to hold her hands at the piano and learned a few new songs in the "black key" position.  Will learn note names next week.

Madi was able to talk to Mason today so that was good.

The girls built a house out of the table and couch using cushions and blankets and things.  They spent a lot of time just playing in it.

Study time consisted of 40 minutes on www.ixl.com with math skills by grade.  She was able to review what was learned in third grade here and take practice tests.  I am able to view her results in different graphs to see how much time she has spent on the areas (multiplication, division, etc...) and how many minutes she is spending in each area.  As well as which areas take her longer to do, how many problems she is getting correct/wrong in each area and where she has "gold medaled" and met the expectations.  One of the best parts is that it is a thirty day trial so we can do it every day through August 13.

We had tacos for dinner with turkey meat - Madi seemed to like them quite a bit.

I went to the Girl's Night Out at church where we had henna tattoos, did Zumba, got our eyebrows/upper lips done by Just Stringz, and took goofy pictures in a photo booth.  Super fun!  So Jeremy had the girls tonight.  He said that Riley, Madi and he all fell asleep in Riley's bed.

Sleepover #2

Today was soooo hot again!  So hard to do anything with the kids outside except swim!  But it's even too hot to go out to do that in the middle of the day so we waited until right before dinner.

The morning went fine.  Riley and Madi were getting on each other's nerves.  Madi made eggs for breakfast.  Smelly eggs at that.  Riley told her that she smelled.  Madi was offended.  So she told Riley that she smelled.  Ah - the sound of children in the morning :)

It did get better after that.  I took the girls to Walmart as we have a lot of food, but nothing that actually creates a full meal.  Came home and then we did laundry and the girls played some games on the computer.  Then Kenzie came over for the sleepover after lunch!

I needed yarn to start a blanket for a friend who is having her first baby so the girls came with me (of course) to Michaels.  I let Madi and Kenzie roam the store together while I took Riley and Jules to the yarn section.  Made me nervous to let them go, but Kenzie does it often when she has friends and it's a relatively small store and they are mature enough to handle it in small doses.  I gave Madi a coupon for 40% off one item and she purchased two things that she seems to already love:  a loom that includes 100 plus bands and a book that shows her how to draw animals.  She's already drawn two birds and a dog.  They look great!

We went to my parents' house to swim and then the girls worked on their looms.  Wild to think that Kenzie and Madi first swam together two years ago right before you and Madison boarded the plane back to the Philippines when she was eight.

Speaking of two years ago, check out this pic of Riley and Madi from 2009.  They sure have grown!

My brother Jim was going to get pizza and actually purchased pizza for all of us to eat - incredibly thoughtful of him.  The girls enjoyed it.  Jeremy met us there for dinner and then Kenzie and Madi were able to ride in his cool car.  Not that my car is not cool inside - it's just not "cool."  haha

Madi and Kenzie are now watching the movie "Cheaper by the Dozen 2" and we'll do smores as soon as Riley is completely asleep.  It's a Daddy night so Jeremy is up there with her.  I had a few small talks  with Madi today about the playdate - making sure to do things her friends want to do, being a good host, being polite and using manners, thinking of her friend first.  It can sometimes be hard for Madi to think of her guests and instead she wants to be more bossy than thoughtful or will leave the friend by themselves and go do something on her own while the friend is left without someone there.  So it's something we're trying to work on with her.  I figure the more playdates and sleepovers with the right people, the more opportunity to practice!

Thanks for waking Jeremy up this morning!  He said it was a little crazy waking up to an iPod in his face, but that he was very thankful to be woken up so he wasn't even later.

Madi was able to talk with Mason today.  I will let her call him again tomorrow so we can figure out a good day for a playdate.  He mentioned weekends and the next free Saturday she has is not until the first weekend in August.  She has a sleepover for Charidy's birthday one weekend and the next weekend she will have just returned home from Camp KidJam!!

Speaking of which, I just received confirmation that she is definitely going to Camp KidJam!  Very exciting!!!  She'll love it and I think it will be life changing in many ways.  Camp is always so awesome. Wish I were going!  :)  Website is:  http://www.whatisorange.org/campkidjam/  (in case I hadn't already put that in here)

Riley is now asleep so the girls are eating smores.  Simple solution when there is no bonfire:  put one graham cracker with marshmallows and chocolate in microwave.  Heat for 8-10 secs.  Put other graham cracker on top and eat!

108

The heat today probably feels much like the Philippines - just minus the amount of moisture in the air.  My car was reading 108 on the way home today and the forecast is calling for weather of at least 101 for the next ten days.  Needless to say, we won't be going outside much.

Today was very low-key.  The girls all woke up around 7am.  Julia was silent for an hour so I finally went up to find her just lying in her bed quiet as could be.  We had breakfast and then Julia went down for her usual nap around 10am.  Madi went for an early morning bike ride, but came home early because she said it was just too hot out.

During her nap, Riley, Madi and I made homemade bread.  We used the recipe from her Kid's Cooking book.  I let the girls take turn measuring and pouring the ingredients in the bowl.  Madi did a lot of the mixing of the water into the dry ingredients.  She loved it!  Her hands were all slimy and goopy.  Once it was mixed, I split the dough into two equal parts.  This way the girls could each knead their own loaf of bread.  I told them to get angry and start punching (as they were already punching it anyway).  They laughed and loved hitting it hard.  I set a timer for ten minutes and they kneaded the entire time.

Then we put the dough into two bowls, covered them and set them in the windowsill to help them rise faster.  Only took an hour for them to be ready.  The girls each played on their iPods while sitting next to their dough bowls.  They had fun watching it rise.

Madi decided to shape her dough into different things - letters, turtles, etc...  I just put Riley's dough into the bread pan.  Both turned out sooo yummy and good!

Later in the day, I took all the girls to my mom's house to meet her so they could swim.  We were only outside for about 30 minutes.  They had a snack and now we're home for dinner.

Madi has had a really hard time getting to sleep and has been doing a lot of games on her iPod when trying to sleep.  So we're letting her play on it until dinner tonight and then she can't use the iPod for games after dinner.  The stimulation from it and the desire to get to new levels of her game are keeping her from sleeping.  We're hoping this will help!

The girls kept teasing us saying "Riley got a real, live horse today!"  We'd go "Really??!!"  Then Madi would ask Riley to sit on her back and put on her hat (the blanket was her saddle).  Madi would pretend to be a horse and Riley would ride her for a bit.  Was cute.