Clifton Rocks Jar

Updates on Clifton -
So last week I talked a lot about how we have been struggling with Clifton to make good choices and do good things.  Well I have been thinking a lot about it and decided that maybe I need to watch for things he does good.  And let him know he can get attention by doing good things.  So I decided to put together the "Clifton Rocks Jar".  We went on a walk and found some rocks. Then he cleaned and painted them.  I explained to him that every time he does something good, like eat breakfast, lunch, dinner, fold arms during prayer, quiet while I am putting McKay to sleep, etc.. we can put rocks in his jar.  But if he makes bad decisions we will have to take rocks out (only if he needs something more than a time out).  And at the end of the day, if his jar is full of rocks, he gets a treat.

He enjoyed the process of collecting, cleaning, and painting them.  It took him a day to catch onto the idea.  But thus far it seems to be working well and I seem to realize he does a lot of good things and not focus so much on the negative.

Funny things he said this week.:
- we have been talking about the word dangerous lately and so he has started using it in his everyday dialogue.   I was tickling him and he turned to me and said "No Mom.  Tickling dangerous!"
- At lunch he told me "Cracker has ouwy.  Fall down crossing the street."

Updates on McKay -
I am loving the stage she is at.  She is happy, silly, and a joy.  She is getting so big and so much fun every day.  She turned 7 months this week!  She is still not on her hands and knees crawling but she army crawls and is quite fast at it.  I am not sure she will crawl on her hands and knees. I think she might just go to walking.

The boys and I enjoy playing games.  I try to think of fun and new games for them.  These week we sent a lot of time working on our letters and colors.

We played a fishing game where we would fish for magnetic letters.  I would have them tell me the color and  try to see if they could name the letter.  They really like this game.

Then we got another game out.  The boys would spin and tell me what color they landed on.  We would find the candyland guy that matched that color and then match the guy to the color circle. They did pretty well at this game.

A random picture of Clifton rocking out!

 Another random picture of Clifton just being Clifton.  A couple captures of my everyday experience.  Clifton is sure silly!  Nice outfit huh?

My mother came into town this weekend.

She got to come cheer me on with Alex and the kids for the Whaling Days 4 mile race.  I just passed Clifton and he is watching me finish.  He is so cute.  I am so glad I can be a good example to him.

I ran with a couple of friends this race and it was a lot of fun.  My time was not great but that was due to some illness stuff going on.  I will mention later, but still an okay time.  36 minutes for 4 miles.

Clifton wearing my medal after the race!  He was excited to wear it.

We then stayed for the parade!

 We sat at the end of the route for an easy escape.  There were some benefits, one float had huge balloons they were giving away them at the end of the parade.  Clifton was so excited to get one.  Thanks to Grandma for taking him out to grab it.  Sadly it popped in the car:(  But it was fun while it lasted!

 We got fireman hats!  Clifton wanted McKay to have one too.

 

We also walked around the fair a little.  Them being silly!

Later we went on a family bike ride.  Grandma has not been on a bike in a LONG time so we took a short ride over to the next neighborhoods park.

She is seriously too stinking cute!


Well this week I lost 1.5 pounds.  So 3.5 and I will be at MY perfect weight.  I hit a road block on running and losing weight this last month.  I had had boils a couple weeks ago and ended up in the urgent care.  They took a culture but never got back to me.  I figured it was nothing too serious so I took the medication and went on with life.  After I finished the antibiotics I felt horrible.  Well I felt horrible while taking the antibiotics but thought it was due to the antibiotics.  Anyway I felt real bad and really tired.  I just keep trying to ignore it until I got another boil:(  I got into the doctors and they had to drain this one too and put my on new antibiotics.  The doctor then told me that my culture says that it is MRSA!  Well that would have been good to know.  So this week was a long tiring week.  But I started feeling better and getting more energy a few days after taking the new antibiotics.  So I am hoping this is the end of it.  Because it sucks!!!!

My tough 2 year old

Updates on Clifton -
Clifton has started to become very rough.  I know he is a boy but it is a lot different then Clifton was. He spends a lot of time in time out and testing me.  But if I keep him busy and doing fun things he does well.  It is hard to watch him make a wrong choice.  I know no kid is perfect and I do not expect perfection but I do expect kindness.  Well it will be a work in progress.  Now that he finally goes to nursery he is acting out:(  But is does a lot of good things as well.  He is very silly and usually very polite (using sorry, thank you, welcome, excuse me, etc...)  And he is talking so much and using full sentences and telling stories of the day or of things that have happened.  He is a good boy but I am struggling with personal space and sharing.  (which I am sure is normal for a 2 year old)

Updates on McKay -
She is continuing to grow healthy and strong.  And continues to be just as wiggly as ever.  Her silly personality keeps coming out more and more.  Besides that she is same old happy McKay!

Another week means another park with the play group.  The boys like getting out with friends and playing.

Trying to be like the big kids and climb up the structure.  That is as far as they got:)

Wednesday the library had the "Reptile Lady" come out with her snakes, bearded dragon, and chameleon.

Clifton loved when she got the reptiles out.  But when we got in line to touch the snake he did not want to touch it.  Silly!  I did and I hate snakes!

I thought it would be fun to make a little "river" for the boys to have duckies go down.  Our drive way is on a slope so thought that would be perfect.

They loved it!  They would run down with the ducks pick them up and run back up to the top.  Plus they splashed in the water.  A fun activity.

The boys thought it was fun to put on Mr. Potato Heads glasses.  They sure are silly!

 I decided to get McKay in on the action.  I love this girl.  She is a silly one.

Friday Alex had off and cub scout day camp was going on.  They needed a few more helpers and asked if I could help.  I figured I could.  So I spent the whole day with the cub scouts and bows and arrows.

During the boys snack time I was able to mess around with the bows and arrows.  It brought back some good memories.  I used to do this stuff often.  It was a fun and very tiring day.

Saturday we took Clifton to the Bug Museum here in town.  He loves finding bugs outside so I thought this would be perfect.

But they had statues of big bugs and that scared Clifton.  Not McKay however.

He looked around and relaxed a little.  But he needed Alex or I to hold him the whole time because he was scared.  Later Clifton told us (in his words) "1,2,3 bugs Clifton happy.  Bugs everywhere scary."  So I think he was overwhelmed with how many bugs there were.  Which I do not blame him.  I do not enjoy bugs!

 To end the week we spent a nice evening with the Stewart's.  

 We really enjoy them and Clifton sure enjoys that Evan. 

I was released as the primary counselor but called back in as the 1st counselor.  My good friend, Stephanie, got called in as the president and I am so excited to work with her and to still be in the primary. 

Introducing the newest member of our family...

Updates on Clifton -

Clifton is starting to say funny things all the time now.  I really want to keep a record of the things he says that make us laugh or catch us off guard or just plain cute.  So I will start a little place for this each week:

This week Clifton said -

"Mommy make it rain" (he was talking about the sprinkler)

"I love you Kaybers" ( without tell him to do so - Kaybers is what we sometimes call McKay) 

During dinner prayer Clifton turned to me and said  "close your eyes"  he ratted me out for having my eyes open during the prayer.  Silly boy!

Clifton is having a hard time sharing these days and giving people and animals personal space.  It has all of the sudden become a real challenge for him. 

Updates on McKay -

She is babbling so much.  It is super duper cute.  She finally said "Da Da", I think Alex heart melted when her heard her say it.  Also she waves.  I am not sure if she is meaning to wave but if she sees herself in the mirror she will wave her hand back and forth and sometimes to pictures in books.  It is funny.  I will have to get it on camera.  Her personality is starting to show through more and more everyday.

She sits up to take a bath now and loves to splash.

This week we had a lot of sunshine and heat.  So playing in the water was a must.

 The first day Clifton insisted he ran through the sprinkler naked and of course Evan wanted to follow.  So I figured that we now have a fence and no one can see us so why not.  They had a blast!

Splashing in the water.  For some reason bubbles made it ten times more fun:)

Clifton wanted to wash his car.  And then he chased Alex and I with the hose.

We spent a lot of time at different parks too.

These boys make me laugh!

Wednesday the library had Casper BabyPants come perform.  It was a pretty big deal.  He was also the lead singer in a 1990's band called The Presidents of the United States of America.  He was fun.  The boys loved dancing to his music.

Clifton has some good moves!

Later we painted with our hands and feet.  It was messy but the boys loved it. 

Next time though I will do it on fabric or something.  They were slipping all over the place.  I really liked how it turned out.  I think I could sell it to some artist or something for a ton of money:)

This week we also introduced a new member into our family.

 Introducing Walle the cat!  Clifton picked the name:)

 Thus far he fits in perfectly.  He is very timid and calm.  The kids can play around him and with him and he has not hissed or do anything.  Clifton LOVES him!  McKay was a little scared at first but now every time she sees him she gets all stiff with excitement.  The first couple days were a little rough for him to get comfortable but he loves to cuddle and loves to play with Clifton.  I really enjoy having him around.  The best part is the humane society is double their max capacity so they are literally giving away cats.  He cost us nothing.

Clifton helped pick out some new toys for Walle.  I think Clifton might like playing with them more then Walle does:)

I am in the primary presidency for church and this weekend was our big carnival we were throwing for the kids.  We made a huge gumball machine and they would get a gum ball every time they chose the right (get it chews the right?).  Anyway when they filled it up we promised a carnival.  We did a lot of planning and it turned out great.  The kids loved it and I had fun too.

 Gumball cupcakes! (really with m&m's)

We even had a clown show up:)

Great news!  Alex got a promotion.  I am so so proud of him and all his hard work.  He deserves it.  We are really blessed:)

Also about a month ago we took advantage of a YW's photography fundraiser and we got back our pictures this week.  You can view them here -
http://shamalea.zenfolio.com/p380023024


I lost all my baby fat! Yep it is all off!!!!!! And I feel great:)  I would be happy at this weight but would not mind to lose five more pounds.  But I reached my goal and now it is time to go shopping and to get my hair did!  Super excited.  I think I am going to keep my hair long and some bangs cut into it.  I got a date set to go shopping with a friend and life is good!  Now to reach my other goal of running a half marathon in about 2 hours.

4th of July

 Updates on Clifton -
I strongly believe in waiting to potty train until Clifton is ready, but I am not sure he will ever be ready.  He refuses to sit on his toilet or the big toilet or even stand and go potty.  But he hates his diaper.  I have even bribed him with treats or goodies but he would not try to go potty.  I am fine with waiting, but I really think he has no interest in going on the toilet:(  So I don't want to wait forever.
Clifton LOVES making McKay laugh and McKay thinks he is so funny!  It is really cute to watch.  Clifton is definitely one silly boy.  He can get me laughing pretty good sometimes. He is always good at putting a smile on our faces.
Clifton is a true Washington boy.  He hates the sun.  He whines and complains whenever it is on him.  He wont wear a hat or sunglasses.  Silly kiddo.  I love the sun!

Clifton and McKay love sitting and listening to me read a book.  And I quite enjoy it, too.

Updates on McKay -
She is sitting up more these days.  She can do it well but really has no interest.  She would rather be rolling or scooting on the floor.  She is a wigglier!

 She sat in the shopping cart for the first time this week and liked it a whole lot better then here car seat.  Safeway needs to get a bigger cart!  Three kids in this tiny cart leaves me no room for food:(

Mondays at our bowling alley is 1 dollar bowl.  A dollar for shoes and a dollar for games.  So I decided to take the boys.  They had a ton of fun. 

They loved cheering for the ball to go go go!

For an art project I got out cookie cutters (stars for the 4th of July) and they painted with them.

They enjoyed it but it quickly turned to finger/hand painting.

Tuesday we had a really low tide.  People told me that we could probably find some starfish.  So the boys and I went for a walk looking for cool things and hoping to find a star fish.

Sadly we did not find any starfish, but we found a ton of cool shells, touched slimy seaweed, saw a sea snail, and some crabs.

Alex had the 4th off work and decided to take the rest of the week off and build us a fence, which was much needed.  He worked super hard for three days straight and finished our fence.  I must say that my husband is super handy.  He did it in half the cost of paying a professional to do it.  And it looks great.  We had help from friends and really appreciate all the help we got.  I even got out one day while and friend was watching our kids and help (I enjoy dirty work).

 

I was surprised Clifton was not out helping the whole day everyday.   He kept complaining it was hot, but when there was shade out you bet he was out helping his Daddy.

It really turned out nice!

One night Clifton went out to play and found his shadow.  So we played with our shadows together.  He thought it was fun that his shadow followed him and did what he did.

I thought it looked cool so I took a few photos.

Fourth of July!  Well it started out great.  We all got our matching shirts on.  We helped Alex work in the yard a little.

Made cookies (I tried to shape chocolate chip cookies into starts they just turned out like blobs, but still tasted great).

Just having fun being together.  Then I decided to get some little non-boom fireworks to do with Clifton.  I grabbed some snakes, smokers, sparklers, and tanks.  All of which were supposed to not make noise.

Well Clifton loved the smokers and the snakes.  But then I lit the tank and at the end it let off a big bang.  Both Clifton and McKay hated it and were crying.  Later the neighbors started doing fireworks and McKay hated it.  She would fuss every time one would go off.  So we decided to be lame and stay in for the night and not go to the firework show.  If it is just going to scare our kids then there was no point in going.
 
Well I am sad to report I had no weight loss this week.  But no weight gain.  I actually got a staph infection that caused me to get boils on my body.  One of those boils got infected.  The had to cut it open and drain it.  So I was in pain all week.  The bumps were on my upper thigh so it hurt even to walk.  Because of the pain I did not workout or run or anything.  Then it started feeling better, but the antibiotics were making me feel sick:/  Then I think I am invincible and did not listen to the doctors orders, he said the medicine makes you weak to the sun.  I thought whatever so I get a burn.  But I got a rash on my face!!!!!  Learned my lesson.  It kills me that for the next ten days I need to stay out of the sun as much as possible and the next ten days are supposed to be sunny.  I will just have to find shade or put extra sun screen on.  It is hard to stay out of the sun!