Playroom

When we moved into our house I was so excited because we had a den that could be turned into a playroom for Braydon. This excitement quickly went away when I learned how a child views "clean" and how an adult views "clean". I organized the room and even gave him bins with pictures to put things away himself. He thought the bins were supposed to be used to dumb stuff out and carry around whatever he wanted in them. The lucky little boy also has a nice train table in his room, but he is more interested in taking the tracks off and creating his own layout throughout the house. I have cleaned up many of the messes in the room and even thrown toys away because he doesn't clean up. Today however, I don't know if its because of the pregnancy hormones or what, but I decided that the room needs to go away!

What drew me to this conclusion? Well he took a step stool out to reach a tall shelf and take something down. All I could see was the bookcase falling over and him getting hurt. Plus he hasn't cleaned the room in a week, and his version of cleaning is throwing everything in the toybox. He then cries when he can't find what he wants, because it's not in the labeled bins! He also has two bags of toys which he "lost" because he didn't clean up. These bags have been out of the room for almost a month and he doesn't seem to care. This makes me think he has way too many toys!

Our home owners association is hosting a garage sale in a few weeks. This seems like the perfect time to sell these toys that he doesn't seem to even notice are gone. Plus with his birthday in a few weeks, and the baby due to arrive soon I think a good purge is necessary. I'm also vowing not to buy him a single toy for his birthday!

Parent/Teacher Conference

On Monday, we had Braydon's first preschool Parent/Teacher conference. I went into the meeting a little nervous because Braydon has some behavior issues in class that I already knew about.  I came out of the meeting very pleased with my little guy! He has developed quite a bit since he started preschool this past fall.

Some things that he couldn't do when he started school, but is able to now:
* hop on one foot
* catch large ball using only his hands
* cut a straight line
* copy simple directional strokes (triangle, square, circle)
* efficient pencil grasp
* print first name

Also when he started he could only identify 2/6 shapes, now he knows all of them. In the fall he only knew 3 of his uppercase letters, now he knows 10. He knew 2 lowercase in the fall and know 6. Phonics show the most improvement with 1 in the fall and 14 now!

The only behavior issues he still has is that he takes toys or books from other kids. We are working on the sharing issue with him, so hopefully he will fully understand sharing by the time kindergarten starts.

Accident Prone

Braydon has visited the ER 8 times in his lifetime. Here is a list if you want to keep track.

1. Ear infection - 6 months old
2. Head wound - needed staples
3. Eye wound - cut his eye and the lid got infected and swollen
4. Ear infection - leakage because of tubes in ear
5. Cut on eye brow - needed stitches
6. Head wound #2 - needed stitches
7. Had bumps under arms - contact dermatitis
8. Cut near eye brow #2 - no stitches :) 

So when something happens to him I don't jump to take him to the hospital. I try to assess the situation to see if he really needs to go. He was jumping around yesterday and tripped over the dogs bed. He ended up hitting the corner of his little card table. Blood started rushing and so I called his Dr. and they told me to come in. Luckily he didn't need any stitches or anything. The cut isn't too deep and should heal on its own. This kid just needs to be put in bubble wrap so he doesn't get injured anymore!

Reality

Everyone always tells us how sweet Braydon is and that we are so lucky. But what they don't see is the struggle we fight with each and every day. Since Braydon started preschool he has had a few incidents with not being good in class. After much discussion with the teacher we decided to begin using behavior charts to show how he does every day. Since he started these charts around Thanksgiving he has only had a few with all smiley faces. Most of the problems stem from him not using his inside voice, or keeping his hands to himself. Today however we received the worst chart so far and it makes me not want to send him back to school. These charts reflect how we parent and just looking at it makes me not want to show my face at the school.

Today was a tough day to begin. Braydon was being a bully to me and knocked me over in front of the other parents, and wouldn't listen to me. So I was scared to see how his chart would look when I picked him up.

Usually on the car ride home we discuss his behavior, but today all he kept telling me was that he wanted a snack. I'm at my wits end with his behavior and worried it may get worse when the baby comes! Really wish they had a manual for how to deal with 4 1/2 year olds, because I'm at a loss!

Mother/Son Date Knight

This past Monday the Chic-Fil-A by my house was having their Mother/Son Date Knight. I figured this would be a good event to take Braydon to because Chris had just left on a work trip. We made our reservations and when we arrived were seated at a table near their play area. They even gave me a carnation, heart shaped cookie, and a mini stuffed Chic-Fil-A cow who was dressed as a Knight.

Braydon and Mini Moo

My heart shaped cookie

We ate our food and then Braydon got to play in the play area. Afterwards they had a free sundae bar for us. I applaud them for this idea and think I will definitely take Braydon again.

We are having a .................

I'm currently 19 weeks along in my pregnancy and today we had our ultra-sound. We found out a few weeks ago what gender the baby is because of a new blood test they do. However, we wanted to wait until we had our ultra-sound to announce it to everyone.

Girl or Boy?

Braydon's hands are painted

Placing on hands with paint on Mommy's belly

It's a boy!

In case you couldn't figure it out from the photos we are having a BOY!!!!

Here is his first picture!

Baby boy profile!

Santa

We have been slacking this winter and kept putting off seeing Santa. So today we decided to head to the mall and pay the old guy a visit. Since it is December 22nd it was packed!! We got in line at 10:30am and were told that we may not make it to the front of the line by 12:30pm, which is when Santa goes to lunch. So we waited since we really don't have another day to go. After waiting in line 1 1/2 hours we are told the line has been stopped, so Santa can have lunch. We now have to wait 1 hour and 15 min until the line will move again. To make it worse we were five people away from Santa!

So we wait and take turns standing in line. Braydon and I head to Panda Express and grab some food. Then Chris goes for a walk when we return. Braydon passes the time by playing games on my phone. Finally the line starts to move again and we get to see Santa!

Braydon was so happy and told Santa he was good, even though he told us he would tell Santa he wasn't good! He also asked for a Monsters University toy (Santa got him the move instead of a toy!) Then when I went up to pay for the photo and I was told someone bought it early! After all that it made me feel better and know there are good people out there!