Oh my sweet boys.  Now that Drew is 2 and can verbalize himself a bit more, Aiden isn’t as quick to lose his temper and get annoyed at his little brother.

But it happens, and boys will be boys.

Drew pushes Aiden’s buttons because Aiden knows he can’t be nasty back to his baby brother.  And Aiden wants desperately to be independent and do things himself but Drew is his little copy-cat shadow…Which drives him (Aiden) nuts.

But Aiden does have a quick temper and pouts with his whole body when Drew steals a toy out from underneath his nose.  And by, “with his whole body”, I mean (picture this, moms, I know you know what I’m talking about) a simultaneous foot stomp, arms across his chest, lower lip stuck out, a pout-y sob and a bum or whole body on the floor all within 1.2 seconds.

We’ve talked about calming down with 3 deep breathes, as they teach the kids in his Dina-school preschool class.  This works for Aiden if he’s dealing with adults or kids his own age.  Drew clearly falls outside that box.  We’ve talked about how timeouts aren’t always a bad thing, but that he can use the time on his step to calm down away from the situation and take his deep breaths away from Drew and just chill out.

But sometimes he just can’t calm down.  He’s fit to be tied and stomping in timeout while Drew is around the corner also in a timeout of his own.

My mom used to tell me that I would get so mad that I didn’t know how to let the “fire” settle down with myself to think straight.  And what was the fire all about anyway?  My dad would then tell me I wouldn’t know this if I was just mad to be mad.  My sweet boys are truly their mother’s sons.

So there I was looking for a calmer, quieter timeout experience. For their sakes, and for our sakes.

Enter another super cool Pinterest inspiration for a timeout timer/relax bottle!  The method here is for your frustrated child to take his anger out on the water bottle by shaking it into a hurricane of glitter swirls then calm down while they watch (mesmerized) as the glitter settles.

This time I grabbed my 40% off coupon to Hobby Lobby to get my supplies (except the water bottles I used were Ethos from Starbucks, only because I had a coffee date there with Joel this morning).

• Water bottles (Ethos from Starbucks)
• Glitter glue
• Clear glue
• Superfine glitter
• 1 super cute 4 year old to help make his very own timeout timer

Fill up the water bottle with super hot water from the tap, about 3/4 full.  The heat from the water made the glue on the labels soft enough to remove the label, but all of the goo didn’t go with it.  I did not have Goo Gone, but I did have rubbing alcohol swabs.  I used these to remove the sticky residue from the bottles.

Add glitter glue ~ I used 3 small tubes from the standard 12 packs of assorted colors for each bottle.  Aiden chose 2 green & 1 blue, Drew chose blue, red & silver and silver.  It will stream in like a ribbon, but the hot water will help dissolve it when you start shaking.

Add clear glue ~ this is to help with the consistency of the glitter versus water.  How long do you want your timeout timer to last?

Then, add a small tube of superfine glitter.  Again, Aiden chose green (his favorite color) and Drew chose blue.

Close the lid and shake, swirl and roll.  Every which way you can, move that water and glitter glue around to help break up the solids and make a hurricane of a mess in the bottle.  Set your timer.  If it settles too fast, add more clear glue or another tube of glitter glue.

Here, it’s partially settled, but too fast.  I added more clear glue.

When you get the consistency/time you want, seal the lid with gorilla glue.

The white bubbles at the top will go away, don’t fret.

Even Joel was caught staring at these colorful bottles in awe.  I really hope these timeout timers will help Aiden focus on not freaking out and finding a better way to calm down.

Thank you fellow Mom’s for sharing your secrets, and thank you Pinterest-ers for helping a sister out!

I’ll update on our (hopefully peacefully quieter timeout) progress!

Peace be with you…and also with you.

~pw

Truth be told, I’ve been having a little trouble corralling the kiddos lately. Partly because they are 4.5 and 2 years old, and partly because I’ve need to search for my own patience and maybe look at the way I’m communicating (or not) with them. And mostly because I seem to always be in a hurry…

Yes, I admit, I’m not a “perfect” parent, but I’m a good mom! I just needed to find ways to overcome some of my recent challenges. Such as…

Parenting tip #1: Kids don’t care that you’re running late, nor is it usually their faults initially.

As in, not Aiden’s fault that he can’t brush his teeth faster than I can blow dry my hair since MOM is the one who slept late).

Parenting tip #2: Even siblings don’t always get along and sing in harmony while they play.

My bad! I thought brothers and sisters loved each other to pieces all of the time…

Which leads to Parenting tip #3: An abandoned toy isn’t cool enough until another kiddo plays with it.

Then suddenly everything is “mine” and all heck breaks loose.

So how do I solve for these?

Now, judge me if you must, but I saw this on Pinterest (which isn’t something I thought I would ever say) and thought I would give it a shot. A teacher blogged about a visual tool for positive reinforcement using a fishbowl (find her post here) and it clicked with me that I can totally use this idea tailored to our own situation.

I ran to Target on my lunch break to see what supplies I could find (I’m sure a craft store would have been a better deal, but Hobby Lobby doesn’t sell laundry detergent and we were in desperate need, so Target would have to do!).

I found a medium sized glass jar with a lid ($5.49), a pack of puffy stickers ($2.99) and two sheets of clear-type scrapbooking stickers ($.99/ea) and a pack of fuzzy pom-poms in different shapes and sizes ($3.99). For a grand total of $14.45, we now have a visual positive reinforcement tool that the boys are already having so much fun with.

All together at the table, we put the boys’ names on opposite sides of the jar and the words, “Be Good” and “Kind” on the other sides with the alphabet stickers. Then, we let them decorate the rest of the jar with the scrapbook stickers. GREAT teamwork exercise for the boys, by the way!

Aiden saw the pom-poms and immediately asked me if he could have one. I told him that he could earn one by being kind and helpful to his brother, to me and Joel, or a friend, Miss. Sally (his teacher) and even Nana/Papa & Grandma/Grandpa. He chewed on that for a little bit, then immediately went to help Drew find his pacifier ~ without being asked!

Then, I told him that every time he is kind, good, patient, he uses his “listening ears” (so he didn’t have to be asked something twice), if he didn’t talk back or pout (this list goes on, but we focus on a few each day) he could earn a fuzzy that he could put in his jar, like a piggy bank. When it’s full we can “cash-in” the pom-poms for a prize!

At this age, a $1 Hot Wheel from the grocery store is a big deal, so he knows he can earn a Hot Wheel, a small bag of Skittles, a page of stickers, a yo-yo, an eraser, a pencil, a folder, etc…pretty much anything from the $1 bin at Target.

Easy-peasy, right? Sure this could be construed as bribing, but it works!

So now, Aiden tries to get his morning routine done before I do, he’s putting more thought into a game for two so he and Drew can play together rather than a game for 1, and he doesn’t panic when Drew takes interest in a toy Aiden saw first (prevents the snatching and the freak outs and pouts) because he knows no-fuss events earn him a pom-pom for his jar.

And we get to focus on the good stuff rather than the bad stuff.  And wrestling with each other is fun again, not ferocious.

He’s really proud when he gets to put a new pom-pom in his jar. He had a sleepover at Papa & Nana’s this weekend and I sent him with one for his pocket with the instructions that if Nana didn’t have to take it away (if he was naughty) he could put it in his jar when he got home. At the end of the weekend, he still had it and was so proud of himself when he got to add it to his jar.

Being a parent is one big adventure without a real instruction manual and no kid is wired the same. I wasn’t even sure this would work for Aiden and Drew, but it does work for them and it does work in our house. If you decide try this, or a variation of this, with your munchkins, let me know how it goes!

Keep the faith, keep encouraging goodness and keep the focus on the positive. Amen.

~pw

Happy St. Patty’s Day Eve!  I think every holiday, event or day worth celebrating should have an ‘Eve’.  For example, Christmas Eve, New Year’s Eve, Friday Eve (Thursday) and now St. Patrick’s Day Eve!

I have to stop myself from doing everything in shades of green for St. Patty’s and overdoing it.  Good thing I have boys; I already have TONS of green stuff.

And good thing I married an Irishman; I have plenty of excuses to have cute little shamrocks decorating my house.

And my wonderful mother-in-law gets me something new and clover-ish every year (thanks, Denise!).

I actually love the color green.  It’s bright, vibrant and gorgeously warm, happy and springy.

With St. Pat’s day around the corner, I’d been thinking about making a leprechaun trap with Aiden, but didn’t know how much he “knew” about them.  He’s only just turned 4 and his memory bank doesn’t recall anything from last year’s St. Pat’s day…but this year, when I went to pick him up from school, he had just made fool’s gold out of some rocks and giggled and jumped when I asked him if he thought a leprechaun would like it.

Now, keep in mind too that I’m not a very crafty-type of mom.  When I say “leprechaun trap”,  in my head I can picture a shoe box propped up by a ruler, his newly made fool’s gold, some green skittles, and anything else green or shiny.  So naturally, that’s pretty much what we did.

Oh yeah, this baby is catching a sneaky little leprechaun for sure!

Aiden is so sure of it, he went right to bed when I told him the leprechauns won’t come until they know he’s sleeping.  Joel helped him set up multiple traps to give us better odds of catching a sneaky little lad or two.

I told him leprechauns love all things green.  That made him laugh because he loves all things green too.  I’m tempted to make green eggs tomorrow…except he definitely doesn’t like eggs.  So we’ll skip the green eggs, but I probably will serve up as much green as I can on St. Patrick’s Day.  I’ve got green cabbage ready to go with my corned beef…I’ve got lime green Otter Pops and O’Brien green limeade slushies (good thing it will be warm and sunny! … and good thing my boys love sour limes!) and a bag of fresh sugar snap peas and green grapes.  I spent a part of my evening looking for green marshmallows, but honestly, I’ll probably food color the heck out of plain old white ones just to make green rice crispy treats.

Ahhhhhh!  I’m a dork.  I love green.  I love St. Patrick’s Day & I love the luck of the Irish.  I even love Notre Dame (sorry, Joe).  And I’m catching us a leprechaun, Aiden!  Wait and see…

~May your blessings outnumber the Shamrocks that grow.  And may trouble avoid you wherever you go~

Yours Greenly,

~pw