You Are Going To Miss This....Cuddles

You are going to miss this when theyre older, right now its easy to think about the 101 things that you have to do. All the things youre too busy to do... I am not too busy to cuddle my children. Carter loves to cuddle before his naps. Sure i could get another 5-10 minutes of chores in but then I would miss his sweet giggles. Everytime he climbs into my bed for a nap he is grinning ear to ear and giggling. Its pretty obvious that he enjoys this time too. I want my children to remember all the things we did together (even the little things) not that i was too busy keeping a clean house. Our house is pretty clean but what i am getting at is there arent that many things that cant wait. Childhood is not going to get put on hold because we are busy, enjoy this time because you will soon miss this stage. Carter is a very cuddly boy and this time means alot to him and me. My kids are well adjusted kids and can go to sleep with out me, but when we can we are enjoying this ear to ear grin followed by giggles and lots of cuddles. it only takes a few minutes and hes sound asleep :)

Positive Behavior Update

so its been a month or so since we have started the reward system for positive behavior. At first it took a while for them to really get it. brooke thought she could pick out a card any time she wanted. Now that they realize i am the one who chooses when they get the reward and that they get which ever one that they pull out, i have to say its going pretty well. We dont do it all of the time. I need to be more consistent with this. The children do really love these special things that they get to do when positive behavior is recognized. Theyre such simple every day things that dont cost money or involve buying them something. I think that this can really work well for our family. What child doesnt enjoy doing something with their family that is fun and done together? I know my kids sure do! Benefits of this reward system are: 1. more quality time as a family 2. My children have been more eager to "behave" or "do the right thing" 3. A happier household :)

Trying something new... a new way to encourage positive behavior

So anyone that has a little girl will agree that they can be pretty stubborn. Its pretty easy to focus on the negative and reacct to that so we are going to focus on the positive. unacceptable behavior wont be allowed but we will give their positive behavior more attention. We will be doing this with both brooke and carter. When a positive behavior is noticed especially the ones that we want to see more of we will be drawing a card. on that card will have something fun and free to do on it. These things are things that we should be doing anyway with our kids and things that they enjoy. We all know how easy it is to get busy with life and sometimes could really be doing more. So i have made a list of rewards taken index cards cut them in half and written these rewards down.

1. make a book together
2. for a walk
3. play a game
4. do a puzzle together
5. have a pillow fight
6.feed Rusty (the dog)
7. wii kids dance
8. talking tom (my kids love this on my phone and ask to do it all the time)
9.make pudding or jello
10. make an obstacle course
11.playdough
12. cuddle time
13. finger paint
14. bake a treat
15 help make a meal
16 give a horsie ride
17.sleep out in the living room
18.pick out the next meal
19.piggy back ride
20 star gazing at night
21chew gum
22.have a tea party
23. talk on the phone with friend or family memeber
24. color a picture together
25.stay up ten minutes later
26.do the dishes-i know who would think this is a reward, but to young kids this often is who doesnt like playing in the water and i can just stick the dishes in the dish washer when theyre done anyway
27.pancakes for supper
28. star fall
29. make a craft
30.feed the fish
31.Read books together
32. picnic in the house
33.turn on kids music and dance
34.make a macaroni necklace
35. hide and seek

Ok so one thing that i want to say is that all of these rewards will be given to both kids no matter who earned the reward and it will be done together with either mommy or daddy or the both of us. My kids are a blast, really what child isnt but this will be a great behavior reinforcement and it guarantees that we spend a little more qaulity time with our children, how can we go wrong?! I am not using anything that costs money either because i dont want to buy their good behavior some might say a positive reward system is but in the way that we are doing it i dont necessarily agree, yes its motivation, but its good quality time with my children. them wanting to earn these rewards will hopefully lead to more positive behavior and you know what they say you do something long enough and it becomes a habbit. the great thing about this is that the rewards can be easily changed as their interests change. Feel free to use any of our ideas or offer ideas for rewards.