Happy New Year and all that Jazz

Well, I fully realize that I've passed right over the Christmas holiday without blogging one bit. I was busy, I'll put it that way.


Every Sunday night we "celebrate" family night. We usually do something as simple as watch a movie with popcorn and hot chocolate, but occasionally we go somewhere as a family. Last night was such a night. This entire holiday season, I had been wanting to go down to the Portland race track with the kids to see the Christmas light display that they have every year. With everything being so busy, we weren't able to go before Christmas, so we tried to go last night. We waited until after the girls had their second nap and then we got everyone ready and loaded up the car.


As we were gathering up everything I saw my purse sitting on the dryer and made the conscious decision to leave it at home. Why would I need my purse after all when all I was doing was sitting in the car. This proved to be probably the dumbest decision I could have made.

Before we left we had decided to get something for dinner while we were out as opposed to eating before we left. Josh had thought that we would get something on our way home, but as we were getting off the exit, I said something about dinner. Josh was a little frustrated that I hadn't said anything until that moment about dinner before hand, but we decided to go look for somewhere to drive through. We ended up finding a Burger King..really our only choice, even though Jayden had his heart set on McDonalds and getting chicken nuggets and apple dippers. Well, Jayden wasn't happy about Burger King. At all. So he decided that he wasn't going to get anything and he was going to wait until we got home to eat dinner. Now let me explain something to you. I have read the books on Love and Logic, Parenting with Love and Logic, etc. If you're not familiar with the theory it's basically to offer your kids choices and let them learn how to make the right decision and deal with the consequences of a bad decision. Anyway, I do this when I can. But I don't know if there's a wire crossed in Jayden's head or if the whole choice/consequence theory just doesn't work for him. But every time he makes a choice it goes something like what happened this night:

Me: Jayden, you can either choose to get something here at Burger King or you can wait until we get home to eat.
Josh: If it was me, Jayden, I would eat here, because it's going to be a long time before we get home and you're going to be hungry.
Jayden: I don't want to eat here. I will just wait until we get home.
Me: (Offering choices of food items to entice him)
Jayden: No...no...no...no...
Me: Are you sure you don't want to get something to eat, Jayden? You're going to be hungry.
Jayden: I"m sure.

Okay, so this is a typical conversation. We did end up getting him an applesauce.

So after about 40 minutes of driving and a stop over at Burger King, we've finally arrived at the racetrack. As we're pulling in, two things happen. Kynden starts crying and fussing. Josh asks at that moment, "did we bring bottles for them?" No, we hadn't. Oops. We both recognize the fact that that may have been the worst mistake of the night. Nobody wants to sit in the car looking at Christmas lights with 3 screaming babies. At almost that same moment Josh wonders aloud if the place is going to take Visa. We hardly ever carry cash with us and that night was no exception.

We go through the line and get up to the front. Sure enough, they do not take Visa. But, there is an ATM for our convenience located around the corner. Great. So we get out of line and drive around to where the ATM is. Now let me give you a little background into what is going to happen next. Josh and I have 2 checking accounts. (Well, three if you count his photography one.) Anyway, we have two..the first account that we use all the time, Josh left his debit card in the machine a couple weeks ago. It had been turned in to the bank, but he hasn't replaced it yet. So Josh is without his main debit card, but still has his secondary debit card. He quickly realizes though that he does not know the pin number for the second debit card. So we have no way to get any money out at the ATM. Because remember, why would I need my purse just to drive around in the car, after all?

So as we're trying to figure out an option, Kynden is in the backseat, really getting upset about the no bottle situation. So we decide to find a grocery store and buy some milk and some new bottles and then get cash back. Brilliant. So we get back on the freeway and soon we spot a Safeway. Fabulous. Oh, I have forgotten to mention that Jayden is also suffering the consequences of his decision and "reminding" us every 5 minutes or so that he's hungry and hasn't eaten dinner yet. So with Kynden screaming in the backseat and Jayden complaining about being hungry we pull into the parking lot and Josh runs in to get the supplies, because of course, why would I need my purse to drive around in the car?

While Josh is in Safeway, I do moves that would make a contortionist proud to get Kynden out of the backseat so I don't have to listen to the screaming. Josh comes out of the store with his loot and reminds me of the fact that you are not able to get cash back from anywhere when you have to run your debit card as a credit card because you do not know the pin number. Fantastic. However the checker that he talked to, recognized him from Rescue so there's a whoop-dee-do.

So, completely out of options at this point, we head home. On our way though we do decide to drive through Peacock Lane. A bit of history for you..the night Josh and I got engaged, we walked through Peacock Lane. I don't think we've been there since. At the end of the street, both Bryce and I were like, "was that it?" I remember the street being longer. Oh well. So we made our way home. What a night.

Yes!

Yesterday Bryce brought home a progress report from school that I found and read this morning. His teacher outlined each subject and explained some of the things that they had been working on and how Bryce was doing, etc. He is doing fantastic in all the subjects which of course, I'm very proud of. But the very best part of the whole progress report was this small sentence at the bottom of the paper:

"I appreciate how respectful he is to me, and the other students."

Now that is something to be proud of! I don't care if he was failing every subject, if the bottom of the report said that, I would be proud! I know for a fact that respect is not something that just comes naturally. It is something that is learned, it is something that is taught-and it is a long and grueling teaching process. I'm not saying we're done..quite the opposite in fact. I think we still have a long way to go in the respect department. But at least I know we're headed in the right direction!

Yes, it's true

I've decided to blog about something really strange.

This is a picture of what I sweep out from under our dining room table each and every day. Actually this is less than 24 hours worth of stuff..maybe two meals worth. Some days are more, some days are less..this is about average. One year olds are messy eaters.