3 year old antics

This kid wears me out. It's a daily battle over things as small as cut up pancakes or his hands feeling too sticky. Screaming for help because he can't reach the light switch in the bathroom and he needs to pee. He thought the trunk of the van would be a good place to catch stink bugs was his explanation after my frantic search of the house and yard. He likes to finger paint with toothpaste all over the bathroom mirror and regularly dumps out trash cans to flip over and use as stepping stools. His just-learning-to-walk 15 month old sister is his favorite bowling pin and its not 4:30 on a weekday without a battle with Tyler over which cartoon to watch. Dumping cups full of water out on the kitchen floor to make puddles to jump in always seems like a fun idea at the time and bath time is always better if the water splashes the walls and ceiling too. All in a days work for a 3 year old.

I keep telling myself this stage won't last forever. Some days I tell myself just to make it to bedtime and then I can rest.
I'm always a sucker for the bottom lip and "but I just want you to snuggle with me" line at bedtime (after he just screamed for the dinner he never ate and mooned his sleeping brother).

I have to remember that one day he won't ask me to snuggle with him anymore either. I guess I'll enjoy it while it lasts.

Maybe I'll start blogging again?

Every time I have thought of this blog in the past 6....8 months I have feelings of guilt and neglect. Since this is the only place I record keep with photos of my family the last half of 2012 has gone unrecorded. Since the task of catching up on all of those months has seemed so daunting I will try to do a fast catch up and say ill be better now. I must admit in the fast easy convenience of my smartphone if I don't have an app for that... I don't get around to it as much. But recently I found.... A blogging app! Since most of my pictures are on my phone I'm hoping this will making blogging easier and more frequent for me. So here's the end of 2012 in a snap shot: we went to Utah, Tyler started kindergarten, Bryce started joy school, we went to North Carolina, celebrated Halloween and Christmas!

Cape Cod

  

 Once again, we were lucky enough to spend sometime on Cape Cod up in Massachusetts the first two weeks in July. I spent many summers here as a kid and love being able to bring my family back to enjoy the same things. The boys enjoyed swimming in the water more this year which made beach time a little less relaxing for me since I had to constantly watch them. They also liked digging holes with Andy. He's holding a horseshoe crab here. We found lots of these around.

 On the fourth of July, all the kids, including my sister's daughter, Anya rode in the neighborhood kids parade. They did a great job waving their flags and looked very patriotic. This is us, in front of my aunt's beach cottage that we stayed in.

I like this one of Bryce at the National Seashore. We took a day trip here with my sister's family. Its a beautiful spot. One of the beaches looked very inviting if we had boogie boards, but not so kid friendly. This was a small pond near the visitor center that seemed a little less daring and we didn't need to worry that a big wave was going to come along and sweep one of the kids into the ocean.

 The boys also spent a lot of time at the creek in our neighborhood (more pictures below). Andy and Tyler spent about 4 hours over at Squaw Island one afternoon catching all kinds of stuff. They brought home these buckets full of crabs and sea snails. All of which died the next day and stunk pretty bad....

 My favorite time of day at the creek is the early evening. Here's the boys throwing rocks in the water.

 I like this one. Sitting on the bench at sunset and high tide.

 There are so many pictures of my family members taken on this rock that go back generations - to when my Grandparents were probably my age. I love that the tradition has stayed strong. We all love this place.

 Bryce and Anya were good buddies during their week together. Anya's about 9 months younger than Bryce. They played pretty well together. My mom got them these chairs to sit on at the beach. The other pic was taken on a little hike at the National Seashore.

 Saying goodbye is always hard, especially since we don't see my sister's family very often. I'm glad the cousins could spend a week together. We all miss Anya.

 One night after everyone else had left, my mom took me up to St. Andrews by the Sea. (a Catholic church) There's a gorgeous view of the water here and a plaque with my grandparent's name on it, I never knew was there. Bryce Richard is named after my grandfather, Richard Franklin. His name is listed on the plaque right under my elbow's shadow. Bryce wouldn't cooperate for the picture but I'm sure someday he'll appreciate it.

 We also went down to Hyannis Harbor to look at the big boats. My boys like this one the best cause it reminded them of a pirate ship. (Yes, they're in the pjs in all these shots cause it was after dinner and they'd fall asleep on the way home.)

Case in point. A long day in the sun always wore them out by about 8:00. Falling asleep in the car made bedtime very easy.

Bryce's Birthday

 For Bryce's birthday weekend, we tried going to Greenbrier State Park for the first time. We all really enjoyed it and think we'll go again. There's a nice big beach and swimming area that the kids really enjoyed.

 I asked Bryce about a week before his 3rd birthday what kind of a birthday party and cake he wanted. I expected something like "Cars!, Thomas the Tank, or Kung Fu Panda." Nope - orange. Bryce wanted an orange birthday party. So I tried to go with an orange colored theme. Some of us even wore orange for the party. I asked him what kind of a cake he wanted. Also expecting some kid themed cake. "Green, with a red bird on it." Wasn't really sure how I was going to pull that one off but with a little help from Pintrest this is what I came up with. I was kind of proud of myself that it didn't turn out half bad. I think Bryce was proud of his creative selection too.

 He got some more trains, a Diego Dinosaur castle thing, and a toy woody doll for his birthday.Happy Birthday Bryce! My little boy is getting big.

Gardening

As usual, I attempted a garden again this year with high hopes that it will go better than the year before. So far we're holding off the bugs and bunnies pretty well and have only lost 2 zucchini plants so far.

  I always like to get the boys involved when I can because I think there's a lot that can be learned from gardening. I told Tyler and Bryce they could pick out seeds from the store that we could plant in cups and transplant to the garden when they got big enough. Tyler said corn was his favorite so thats what we planted. He's been taking very good care of his corn and its getting pretty high now. Maybe in another month we'll have some pickings.

  As I was explaining everything we'd need to do to keep our garden healthy, I also told Tyler we might need to set a trap for the groundhog that lives under our shed so he doesn't eat the produce. Tyler likes the groundhog (he's named him Jackson) and strongly objected to finding Jackson a new home. After a lot of explaining to Tyler why this was necessary for us to have a good garden this year, he finally thew up his hands and said "Can't we just buy our food from the store?!"

   Maybe when he gets to eat the corn he planted himself  he'll appreciate the difference.

Memorial Day Weekend

 I'm very late getting caught up on blog posts but here's some pictures from Memorial Day weekend when Andy's mom and two sister's came to visit. Here are the boys anxiously waiting at the window for their cousins and aunts and grandma to arrive.

 Although the weather was hot and humid, we did a lot outside. They even braved the heat for some tennis at Baker park.

 The baby cows at South Mountain creamery is always a stop on our visitor list too.

 Most of Memorial Day, the kids spent outside playing in the water tables, in the pool or squirting each other with water guns. They stayed out there for hours and had a lot of fun. We were sad to see everyone go.

Screen Free Weekend Report

My intention in writing this blog post is not to say "Look at how good my family is for doing this" but rather to take a risk and hang out some of my family's dirty laundry (admitting our imperfections is something I think the blogging world needs more of) and challenge any other family who could benefit from this to try what we did. 

   The screen time in my family (IPad game playing, IPhone reading, t.v. watching, and computer game playing) had gotten a little out of control lately. Not that we don't do anything good and wholesome as a family or spend time together, but it seemed like certain parts of our family routine seemed to revolve around screen time. (i.e. our kids expecting to watch cartoons every morning when they wake up. Tyler expecting to play computer games the second he walked in the door from preschool. Andy and I vegging out in front of the t.v. and/or our IPhones or IPad each night to play mindless games or read news articles or check facebook. Or each time I sat down to feed Miriam, pulling out my phone to check emails or read The Washington Post on my phone.) Although I think there's a time and place for all of these things I realized that my family needed to enforce a little more moderation and pay attention to each other more.

How you could often find my boys at about 4:00 in the afternoon on a week day. Parked in front of pbskids.org.  


So Andy and I decided (or rather I told Andy and he eventually agreed it was a good idea) to have a "No screens" (later titled Screen Free to sound more positive) Weekend. From midnight last Friday night to 8:00 Sunday evening we couldn't use the t.v, computer, ipad, or iphone (except as a phone).

  I admit I had high expectations of what miracles this intervention might work for my family. While it was probably one of the best weekends we've had in a long time, it wasn't in the ways I expected it would be. We didn't finish everything on our "To-Do List" for Saturday afternoon and we were still late to activities about 75% of the time, but I just felt more calm and peaceful about it all. Some of the good things I noticed were:

1. Being on a better schedule - we went to bed early and woke up early and consequently accomplished more.
2. Andy commented that he felt like we were on the same page all weekend and had less arguments. We worked better as a team when weren't distracted by other things.
3. We had less battles with the kids because we were paying attention to them more and spending more quality active time with them. (although I did lose Bryce once when I was working in the garden and found him 5 min later in Miriam's room, talking to her in her crib. I also couldn't find Tyler on Sunday and later found him hiding under the piano with a box of Chocolate cereal).
4. Because the kids had more active time during the day, they were exhausted by bed time and went to bed willingly and quickly.
5. Even Miriam seemed more relaxed during feedings probably because I was more relaxed and not distracted by looking at my phone.

Although Tyler and Bryce still aren't as bought into the idea of cutting back on cartoon and computer game time, Andy and I definitely noticed a difference in the feeling in our house and want to work on ways to bring more moderation into our routine. I realized that there is a time when parking the kids in front of cartoons is necessary for survival. However, when they haven't already spent time in front of a screen that day, you don't feel as guilty about it when it becomes a necessity.

After school today instead of having Tyler play computer games to unwind, we made cupcakes and I let him do the dishes after. Playing in the water in the sink kept him busy for over an hour. 

I asked everyone tonight at Family Night what their favorite part of the weekend was and these were their responses:

Mom: I liked when everyone helped in the yard to get the garden planted

Tyler: I liked when we went to Aunt Terry's house and I played soccer with Ben, and baseball with Greg.

Bryce: I liked playing outside with Tyler

Dad: I liked playing Dominoes out on the porch on Sunday afternoon with Tyler

Miriam (if she could talk) - I liked more cuddle time with Mom when she wasn't looking at her phone. 

 I would highly recommend this experiment to other families. How and in what amounts you apply this is up to your family to decide but I think society in general could benefit from a little less time in front of a screen and more time interacting with the people around us.