Paper Money and Hard Lessons

Kaylin has been begging me lately for paper money. I'm not exactly sure what brought this on but after some thought I decided to roll with it. I decided to put together a chore chart for her. It's never too early to have a to-do list, right? Well - right now the chart consists of only three things. The list will grow with her. She is responsible for feeding her fish, making her bed, and picking up all toys, clothes, clutter she gets out in a day's time. After she marks off her chores I give her a dime. If she successfully gets 7 dimes in a row, she can trade them in for paper money ($1). Yes, I realize she gets a profit of 30 cents but breaking down a dollar into seven days would have been more of a headache for me. Besides it gives her extra incentive to complete all seven days. The reality is I'm not sure whom the chart benefits more - her or me. It helps me to be more disciplined in reminding/teaching her to help around the house.

Well - Sunday I gave her her first paper money. I explained her options. We needed to share with God first. Then she could either spend or save. She wanted to spend. I told her we could go to the dollar store and find something. But first we made a trip to Target. And this is where she learned a hard lesson - you can't buy much for a dollar. Now Target does have it's small little dollar section at the front of the store but she didn't find anything that tripped her fancy. Then she wanted to go back to the toy section. Poor girl! Everytime she found something she might like I had to break it to her. She couldn't afford it. Sure there were a couple of items that were around the $2.50-$3.50 range. I technically could have made up the difference but what kind of lesson would I have been teaching her? So I stuck with the dollar price tag. I again explained she could buy something small with a little bit of money or save it and buy something bigger. She was intent on spending this dollar so off we went to the dollar store. How do you teach a child not to buy something just because you can afford it but buy it becuase you actually want it. I felt like she was getting desperate just to buy something. In the end - we went to Target and two dollar stores before she settled on a princess wand. I'm hoping next week I can talk her into saving the dollar.

Kaylinisms 8

The other day Kaylin had this microprone toy and she was conducting a little interview. I told her it was time to eat lunch. She proceeded to close out her interview by saying "I love you." then she looked at me and said "That's french for 'Bye'.

Kaylin doesn't like to be left out. She sees adults having conversations all around her and she wants to have her own. The other day she wanted me to sit down with her and talk. It went a little bit like this: She said "Mommy can you sit here with me? Let's have a conversation." "Okay, what would you like to talk about?" "Um. Let's talk about animals. What animals to you like?" (By the way - this is her favorite topic on conversation.) "I like cats." "Uh huh and what else?" "I like giraffes." "Did I feed the giraffes at the zoo?" "No, I don't think you wanted to at the time." "Oh, but I will next time." "Yes, I'm sure you will." "What animals do you like at SeaWorld?" "I like dolphins." "And Shamus?" "Yes, Shamu's too." She looked at me and said "We're having an animal conversation."

The conversation went on for a bit. We were talking about the animals at the zoo and it reminded me of the time when she was about two and we went to the San Diego Zoo. When we got to the elephants, one in particular decided it was time to --uh--poop. This left quite a lasting impression on her. For at least a year every time she saw a picture of an elephant she would comment. Usually saying "Elephants poop." So when we were having our animal conversation I asked her if she remembered the elephant going poop at the zoo. She did not but it leads me to another Kaylinism - she shook her head and said: "How embarass-ting."

Green Eggs

I think every mom should read "Green Eggs and Ham" to their child. Not necessarily for it's literary content but for it's overall message to kids. The message: try it you might like it. I have on several occasions referred to Green Eggs and Ham to convince Kaylin to try something on her plate. It works (mostly).

The other night I had sliced and roasted some zucchini and placed it on her plate. She began eating around them. I reminded her that she's had them before but that didn't seem to help. And then it hit me - I said "They're green eggs!" (because that's what they kind of looked like). She said "What? They're green eggs?" "Yep" I said. "Eat up." And so she did.

Tonight I was cutting up some more zucchini when she came into the kitchen. She said "Are those green eggs?" "Yep" I said with a grin.

Snow Fun

Kaylinisms VII

It's been a while since I've written any Kaylinisms. I hope that doesn't mean I'm not paying attention to my kiddo. Well - at any rate - here are a few I've recently caught.

1. Kaylin has a marker board that I had scribbled on during one of our play sessions. She wanted to draw on it so she asked me if it was okay if she "re-rased" my stuff.

2. The other day it was stuffed animal day at her preschool. The kids were supposed to take an animal from home. I reminded her a few days in advance. So everyday she kept asking me it this was "stuffed up animal day".

3. Recently I started letting Kaylin play computer games on my computer. (I'm not convinced I should have really opened that can of worms.) The other night after she clicked on a button the computer was taking its time. I walked into the room and she said to me "It says "Please Wait". I looked at the screen and sure enough that's what it said. Surprised at her reading skills, I asked "How did you know that's what it said?" To which she responded "I have a brain."

My Serious Painter

Kaylin loves to get out the paints and do a little creating. The other day I turned around and caught her standing on the bench creating one of her many masterpieces. I got James to quickly take a few pics. Unfortunately he missed her in full excited face mode but these pics are still pretty cute.

Helpful Hints 1

When I come across a helpful hint that's actually helpful I want to share. Life can be so crazy and anything that helps me gain some sanity (or just a few extra minutes in the day) I want to try. I've listed a few below. If any of my friends out there have helpful ideas to share - please do!

1-My mom emailed me the other day with an old newspaper posting from Heloise regarding housework. The theory revolved around the number 5. One idea was to do things for 5 minutes at a time. For example - spend 5 minutes tidying up or give the bathroom a five minute refresher. Another idea was to choose to do 5 things a day. I actually had a friend years ago give me this idea as well. So that is the one I am trying. Today my five included bathroom cleaning, thorough kitchen cleaning, laundry (I counted this as two items because I washed 2 loads and folded 4), and posting in this blog. Since I am doing the last one now - I have completed my tasks. Yeah. I can relax now and enjoy precious time with my family (without worrying about things I didn't do). Other chores will be there tomorrow.

2-When I get out an onion to chop up for some recipe. I tend to go ahead and chop up the whole thing at once. This way I can throw them into any other recipe whenever I need them. For example - sometimes I fry up some frozen hashbrowns for breakfast. I toss in a few chopped onions for extra flavor (with none of the extra work). I could do the same with bell pepper. Sometimes if they're chopped already I'll add a yellow or orange one to my salad. Adds a nice flavor.

3-When I have two small loads of laundry that can't be washed together I'll still combine them in the dryer since there is plenty of room. That way the dryer only has to run once.

4-I like looking through magazine for all sorts of ideas. I used to keep the magazines laying around. Now I just rip out the pages I want (recipes, decor ideas, etc) and get rid of the rest. Saves lots of space. I put the pages in a file or recipe book.

5-For easily adding a paragragh space in your blog type the less than sign, p, than the greater than sign.

I'd love to hear any hints you may have to share.