Stoplights and marbles

There's a new sheriff in town:

Our refrigerator chart

Here's how it works: Every morning, the kids all start out on green (happy face). Throughout the day, bad behavior such as talking back or not listening can get you moved to yellow (worried face). You have two chances to make a better choice before you land on yellow, but some infractions (such as hitting) will land you directly on red (sad face). You can get back on green by being obedient, kind, helpful, or otherwise having a better attitude.

If you are on green at the end of the day, you get to put a marble in a jar; landing on red at any time, however, means that you must take a marble out of the jar. When the jar is filled, you get a big prize! Right now the kids are working toward a trip to a cafe (something that they've been begging to do after seeing one on TV) and they are almost there:

Our marble jar 
(full for the purpose of demonstration)

Lucy, Jude, and Dahlia are highly motivated by this system because it's what their teacher used in preschool last semester and they understand what the stakes are. Since Isaac was in a different classroom, however, he is still learning just what this green/yellow/red business means. He does get a kick out of putting a marble in the jar, though—so much so that, even though we have not yet formally tried to potty train him, he now goes #2 exclusively in the potty just for the chance to "putta narble inna jar":

So proud of himself!

And I think that, alone, makes our stoplight system a resounding success!

We're swingers

While on a walk with the kids yesterday, I was thrilled to discover that our neighborhood now has a swing set! Since the kids had never been in a real swing before (we don't have our own, and my one attempt at taking them to the park last year was a huge failure), I was itching to put them in the swings and see how they liked them. There was just one problem: This particular swing set has only two toddler swings. Clearly the neighborhood association didn't take our family into account when deciding how many of those to order!

Undeterred, I considered my options: I could turn around and go home (no way, Jose); put two kids in each swing, back to back (nope, the kids are already too big for that); or put two in the swings while the other two waited in the choo choo (possibly tricky, but probably doable). I knew what I had to do.

The girls got to go first, while the boys looked on:

Then, when it was time to put the boys in the swings, I beeped (yes, you read that right) and switched everyone out:

Another mom who was there with her older kids remarked on how patient my kids were while they waited in the choo choo, so I explained my beeping to her: At home, we have a timer that we use to manage turns on our indoor trampoline, and I've discovered that—any other time I want someone's turn to end—all I have to do is make a "beep beep beep" sound, and they go along with it, as if I had used a real timer. I don't know how long they'll be cool with this charade, but so far it's been a lifesaver!

Oh, and by the way, all four kids LOVED the swings and can't stop talking about them. I have no doubt that we will be making good use of the neighborhood playground this year!

Handle with care

When Lucy is tired, her feelings become extremely fragile. If you scold her (or even scold someone in her vicinity), this is the face you're sure to see just before she bursts into devastated tears:


That pitiful expression breaks my heart every time—and makes it impossible for me to stay upset with her!

The boy who cried wolf

There once was a boy named Jude. His favorite things to do were to be chased, to hide from Mommy and Daddy, and to giggle his head off when tickled in just the right spot. Oh, and he also loved to WHINE.

Mommy and Daddy didn't like for Jude to whine. They tried all sorts of things to get him to stop. The only approach that seemed to work was Abuelita Joanna's trick of asking Jude, "Are you whining?" Upon hearing this question, Jude would invariably shake his head vigorously and stop whining—at least for a little bit.

One day, Mommy was working in the kitchen when she heard Jude whining. Although she was used to hearing this sound, she still looked up to make sure that he was all right. He was standing in the corner by the gate, against the wall so that he could see her. This was his favorite spot in which to whine at Mommy for being in the kitchen.

Mommy called out to Jude for him to stop whining and went on working. After a little while, she noticed that he was still whining. Although it wasn't even close to nap time, he was sucking on a pacifier and gripping his night-night. Mommy figured that his teeth must hurt, so she gave him a dose of Motrin and went back to the kitchen to work.

A few minutes later, Daddy passed by the gate and noticed that Jude was still whining! "Jude," said Daddy. "Are you whining?" Daddy was ready to whine at Jude so that Jude could hear how ugly it sounded, when Daddy suddenly noticed that something was wrong with Jude's leg. It was stuffed between the wall and the gate, all the way past the knee, and Jude couldn't get it out! No wonder he was whining!

Lucy investigates the scene

Daddy quickly began to disassemble the gate to free Jude's leg, while Mommy ran over to see what was the matter. Jude began to cry, but only because of the commotion; he wasn't hurt.

After Daddy saved him, he reminded Jude about the story of the boy who cried wolf, and he explained how this situation was the perfect illustration of that story: Because Jude whined all the time, Mommy and Daddy looked right at him and didn't even realize that he was in trouble!

Did little Jude learn his lesson? Only time will tell ...

Sad Jude after his release

He's got the beat

A long time ago, when the Fab Four were still in the womb and nameless, I assigned to Isaac (then known as Baby B) the temporary name of Paul (as in John, Paul, George, and Ringo). If I'd known then how much Isaac would love to bang on his alphabet drums, I probably would have nicknamed him Ringo instead. When he's not pounding the drums, he's standing in front of them and bouncing to their music. So cute!

(Better to slap the drums than my face, I say. Anyone know of a good way to curb the gratuitous hitting that's starting to rear its ugly head?)