Who's been eating my candy?

As most parents--or anyone that's had to deal with children for an extended period--know, you sometimes have to be creative and a little bit sneaky to get children to do what you want. A couple months ago my husband came up with a brilliant strategy to get our kids, Mikhael in particular right now, to turn off lights, water, shut the doors, etc. around the house. He told Mikhael that if he let these things go, that it would eat up his candy. So now, for example, whenever he's in there washing his hands and just playing in the water, all we have to do is say "Mikhael, the water is eating your candy." And the water gets turned off faster than you can imagine!

I guess I'm just posting about this now, because it was finally tonight that it struck me how creative this was on my husband's part. We all remember our parents' saying things like "Do you live in a barn?" or "I'm not paying to air condition the outdoors" if a door got left open. Funny sayings to us now, but really as children what did we care? But this little phrase that he devised obviously hits home and is a very effective tool around our house right now.

Kathryn's Day

We have unfortunately followed the trend of the second child having fewer pictures and other documentation of their milestones. So if only for one day, it's all about Kathryn and how much she is growing up!

Earlier today we went to my mother-in-law's company picnic out at Shady Springs. The kids had a great time. But the most memorable thing was that for the first time Kathryn went on a pony ride. She did so well holding onto the saddle horn as the pony trotted around in a circle. I barely had to hold onto her. (Yes, she apparently has her mother's bad habit of closing her eyes during pictures. Because of the line, we had limited time to take pictures and this was the best one...)

Then later this evening, as Mikhael and I were playing the Wii, Kathryn was entertaining herself with the toys around the house. She got a baby doll over Christmas, but hadn't played with it much before. (She's been all about trains, balls and trucks since that's what she sees her big brother playing with.) Tonight, she ran across the little doll and picked it up. After cradling it in her arms, she held the doll's hand up and gave it a high five. Then she carried it around for the rest of the evening.

The last thing is that before going to bed we had a snack in the living room. I'd finished eating everything in the little bowl and Kathryn saw that it was empty. So without me saying anything to her, she took the bowl into the kitchen and dropped it in the sink. We've been teaching her to put dishes in the sink when she's done with them. But it was a surprise to see her do it for someone else and without any prompting.

Now if only we could get her to stay at the table while she is eating! Hopefully when we hit that milestone I'll be diligent enough to recognize and document that one too.