Life Lately...

Wow!!  Well, things have been a little crazy in the Brammer household the last few weeks.  We hit a breaking point and discovered that our lackadaisical parenting style may work for some kids but it is obviously not working for ours.   We decided that we have had ENOUGH of name calling, hitting, throwing tantrums, meltdowns, and negative attitudes.  We are in the process of fixing this and things are going much better at home and at school.  How are we fixing this?  We had a family night and laid out all the rules.  Everyone knows what they are.  We focused specifically on 4 important rules that now reside on a list hanging on our refrigerator:  Rule # 1 Mommy & Daddy are IN CHARGE.  Rule #2 No hurting someone in any way (hitting, kicking, pushing, etc) Rule # 3 No naughty talk, or rude comments.  Rule # 4 Show appreciation.  I explained that it's mommy & daddies job to make sure they have food to eat, clothes to wear, a place to sleep, and love.  All the extra stuff like treats, toys, and privileges are just that - EXTRA so if they don't show appreciation, they don't get it.  If they break a rule they get a warning.  If they break that rule again then they go sit in the green timeout chair in the living room.  If they are noisy in the time out chair then they have to go to their room to finish their time out.  I give a minute for each year of their age.  We talk things out after time out and then they are responsible for giving a sincere apology to anyone they hurt.  I'm also trying to get to the root of each incident.  I'm trying to teach them to express their feelings because sometimes they don't have the words and that results in frustration and then a meltdown.  When meltdowns do happen we try to talk about how things could have been handled differently.  I try to stay calm and keep my cool when things feel like they are getting out of control.    I try to give more praise and make sure that my kids feel loved at all times.  We are being consistent about the family rules (instead of threatening time out and not following through or surprising them with punishments they didn't know were coming - like taking a toy away) ... and guess what!?!  It's working.

We have also started chore charts.  They like checking off all the things they accomplish.  Really they just have to get dressed, brush their teeth, take their gummy vitamins, comb their hair, clean up all of their belongings in the house, and do their homework.  Once a week they are in charge of dinner and kitchen clean up with mommy.  They love picking out their menu at the beginning of the week and helping prepare it on their night.  This week Brooke made chicken Alfredo, creamed spinach, blueberries, and cherry pie w/ ice cream.  Jace made cheese pizza, salad w/ ranch, grapes, and cupcakes.  The one rule about the menu is that they have to have a fruit or a vegetable.  Then they have to help with cleanup.  I'm hoping that if I start early it might stick and then when they are older I might get a few nights off of kitchen duty.  Wishful thinking on my part probably - we're having fun with it for right now.

UPDATES ON THE KIDS:

The kids found a caterpillar in the back yard the other day.  They watched it together for about a whole 15min. -  that's a long time in kid attention span time.  They kept getting it leaves to eat to make sure it was comfortable.  Then we put it in the tree so he wouldn't get squished.

Jace & Brooke LOVE having special time with Ty in the morning before they go to school.  We get up between 6:00- 6:30am so they have time to get ready by themselves and also play with baby before school.  Ty is our morning boy.  It's his favorite time of the day and when he is the happiest.  Although he's really pretty happy most of the time.

TY:
Ty is the most kissable, squeezable, lovable little ball of chubs around.  He smiles all the time now.  He loves his hands and has them in his mouth 75% of the time.  He loves mornings, his family, being outside, music, eating, baths, and his jumper.  He's not jumping in it yet but really likes being where he can see what's going on around him.

BROOKE:
My princess has turned into a messy, messy, messy little stinker.  I'm having a hard time keeping up with her dirty laundry.  I send her to school looking like a sweet angel and by the afternoon she is running around in a filthy shirt, peed in pants, and only has one pigtail left in her hair.  She LOVES life though and lives it to the fullest!  I just wish she did it a little bit quieter.  She has a booming voice and a screechy loud scream.  Her preschool teachers joke with me about how they can hear her at recess from inside the classroom. lol  She loves riding Jace's bike in  the back yard while he's at school and gets really excited when she gets to ride it all the way to the elementary school to pick up Jace so he can ride it back.  She also likes swinging on the tree branches in the backyard.  A regular old Tarzan of the jungle I'd say.  She loves playing with Ty and 'mothering' him.  The other day she changed a dirty diaper all by herself.  I cringe whenever I see her carrying him around the house though.  One of these days I know she is going to trip on something and crash.  She is trying very hard to work on her pee pee 'accidents' so she can be ready for Kindergarten next year.  Honestly I don't know what happened.  She's done so well for a really long time and all of the sudden she started having accidents again.  She's still my princess though - even with that stained shirt and messy hair. We love her to bits.

JACE:
Jace recently lost his first tooth!  We were all really excited.  He ate lots of soft foods while it was loose and then it ended up coming out while he was at school.  His teacher gave him a little tooth treasure box to keep it safe until he got home.  The tooth fairy came that night and he left him 2 whole dollars.  I told him that the tooth fairy gives more money for clean shiny teeth hoping it would motivate him to brush his teeth more often.  Instead he used a half tube of toothpaste the night he put it under his pillow and scrubbed that tooth for a good 10 minutes ... if only he would brush that good while they were still in his mouth. lol  Jace likes to have private time in the back yard after school where he can fly his planes around uninterrupted.  He also really likes to ride his bike, watch Wild Kratts, and play games on the computer.  Most of all he likes to play his new Battleship game he got last Saturday with anyone that will play with him.  Jace has gotten smiley faces on his school calendar every day this month ... so far.  We are extremely proud of him.  He has really shaped up lately.  We love him so much!