The Baby Whisperer!

I'm reading this book called "Secrets of the Baby Whisperer for Toddlers."  It is awesome.  It has this cool test where you answer 20 questions about your toddlers (ages 1-3) and the results help you determine what temperament your child has.  Then the book is filled with how to parent your child's temperament.  There are 5 temperaments: angel, textbook, touchy, spirited, and grumpy.  Kailee is an angel baby with a touch of "by the textbook" in her!!  Soooooo easy.  And Allie is a Spirited baby, but kinda easy b/c she is a textbook baby!  I coulda told ya that.  What the book described a spirited baby as really described Allie to a tee.  She has lots of energy, gets into everything, and has a mind of her own, often crying loudly when she wants things her way.  The key: ignore the tantrums and give her energy outlets.  Hard to do in the winter time. She just needs to get outside and run around. If you don't have a good routine and nap/sleep schedule for spirited babies, b/c they have will power and a set of lungs, they will cry for long periods of time.  Tantrums are their specialty if not given structure.  I'm so glad I have Allie on a good routine.  She sleeps 14 hrs. at night and takes a 1-3 hour nap every day.  She is a pretty good baby, she just has lots of energy and can cock the attitude when she doesn't get what she wants.   The book also has a chapter on tantrums, which I'm so excited to read b/c Allie is starting to throw them.  I really never had to deal with Kailee throwing tantrums.  It's easy for me to re-direct Allie, but I have to remember that sometimes I just need to completely ignore her b/c cajoling her and responding to her fits teaches her that that's what she has to do to get my attention.  I skimmed the 3 D's of dealing with a tantrum: distract, detach, and/or disarm.  If you can easily distract, do so.  If the fit continues, detach, especially if you are getting mad at your child.  Detach means ignore and walk away calmly saying "it is not okay for you to throw fits" or whatever they are doing.  Disarm is helping your child calm down by hugging him/her, but for some babies this makes them more angry, so you need to remove them from the setting that is upsetting him/her and if you can't calmly calm them down quickly, you give them a time-out until they are cooled off.  But the kicker is that disarming can NEVER be done with anger.  Sometimes it's hard not to feel upset when Kailee is throwing a huge fit over something so dumb like her suddenly wanting a different color plate.  I just have to remember to always CALMLY  react or ignore.

It reminds all parents to never raise your voice or degrade your children.  I have a pretty calm demeanor and don't catch myself yelling at my kids, but I have tried to make Kailee feel bad about peeing on the floor or in her panties which the book says is degrading. :(  She hasn't done that in a while, but when I knew she knew better, it was frustrating.

It supports my "no spanking" beliefs.  I really feel that love, patience, positive reinforcement, and time outs can cure behavioral problems.  This book is also cool b/c it reminds you that your toddlers are human and have likes and dislikes and it's okay for them to express their dislikes for things.  We can't expect them to like everything we cook or every game or sport we'd like them to play.

This book says time outs aren't meant for punishing and to never send a child to be locked in their room.  Time outs are meant to have a couple of minutes to cool down and should be done with the parent first holding them or getting at their level and explaining their behavior and what is not allowed.  After they understand why they can't do whatever it is they are throwing a fit about, then you can let them sit there til they calm down or you can sit with them.  I normally talk to Kailee and then sit her on my bed and tell her when she is ready to be nice and talk like a big girl, she can come out.  She normally cries for about 1 minute and then comes out ready to be nice!!

Sorry this is so long. As you can tell, I totally recommend this book!! It teaches Moms how to teach children to control their emotions! If we don't, their teenage years will be really difficult for everyone!

Valentine's Day, Brainwashing, and Growing Girls!!

Jared stayed up very late "preparing" my Valentine's present. When I opened up the fridge to start cooking breakfast Sunday morning, this is what I found. I thought for sure he had bought it. I saw the cut up cantaloupe and pineapple scraps in the trash can he had left out. I was smitten. I am so very impressed, aren't you? And it certainly tastes as good as it looks! We're almost done eating it all. The girls loved it too! He is going to make this a Valentine's tradition, wahoo!! The card sitting in front of it said "To my cutie-patootie fresh-n-fruity:" lol My card was full of coupons! I'll be using my massage and breakfast in bed very soon! I'll wait til a week when he's not teaching early-morning seminary. :)

My present to him certainly wasn't as cool as an edible fruit bouquet of flowers, but who doesn't love chocolate?

I made cheesy pigs in a blanket for the first time ever actually. They are delicious! Jared looks like a vampire in this picture... too bad Edward doesn't look this sexy!

Jared insisted on making me dinner for Valentine's. I was ecstatic b/c he has made dinner 3 times in our almost 5 years of marriage!! lol I love to cook, so I'm not complaining. I was just excited to see him cook and was very curious about what he was going to make me. I've wondered at times if Jared has the ability to follow a recipe??? Mac n cheese was not an option I told him. :) Can you tell what it is? It's Lasagna, one of my favorites! Thanks Stouffer's!! :) I should've known it's not in my husband's nature to spend 2 hrs. slaving in the kitchen. lol Who cares if he took the easy way out and bought the lasagna, I didn't have to cook!! He buttered and garliced the french bread and made a caesar salad too! It was a very delicious and thoughtful dinner! This should become a tradition! Thanks honey!

Kailee has always turned up her nose at salads and lettuce. So I started telling her "that's fine, you can't have salad anyways until you're 3 because you're not big enough yet." My reverse psychology kindof worked. She started saying "I can't have that until I'm 3" or "When I'm 3, I get to have salad!!" So, now that she's 3, we gave her salad and she didn't really want it, but we bribed her with chocolate to eat some. We had to dip it in lasagna though to give it some more flavor, lol. Enjoy the video below in which you see the proof that we have brainwashed Kailee into liking salad! lol

We continued a tradition that Jared's family had when he was growing up of having the Valentine's Man come ring our door bell and leave the girls treats. Kailee got very excited each time the doorbell rang and said "he is soooo fast" because we could never catch him. He brought a little bit of candy and a couple coins for Kailee to put in her piggy bank! The last time he came he brought Mommy something... rocky mountain fudge, a rose, and another card. My honey is just too good to me. Thanks babes for a wonderful Valentine's Day!!

Jared was gone for 3.5 days at a choir convention in San Antonio! Us girls missed him so, but had some fun times while he was gone.

We played in the snow a lot while Daddy was gone. The pics. are in the next post.

I walked into our kitchen looking for the suddenly quiet Allie and found this. She crawled up in the chair, which is new for her and was downing the rest of Kailee's apple juice. Kailee has lunch with some of her friends after preschool MWF and likes to have her lunch made just like her friends :) It's pretty cute to see our little girl sitting in a big chair. I think I'm in denial that she's not a baby anymore. This morning I was looking at pictures of Kailee at the age Allie is now. I was saddened to see how much Kailee has grown. I love watching them grow, but they are growing up too fast.

We got some puppets from Nana! They sing songs in animal sounds and are so cute. My preschoolers love them too!

Allie sitting in the big girl chair. She was too excited.

Kailee's 3rd birthday and tons of SNOW!!!

We started off the day with Kailee's breaktfast choice: chocolate chip pancakes!  She wanted chocolate syrup too, but I used my veto powers on that idea!

One of Jared's students had a birthday the same day as Kailee's, so we went to his school and had a quick party with cookies and brownies!!

For lunch, Daddy came with us to Chick-Fillet: Kailee's favorite place to eat!!

Birthday girl with all of her presents from us, Nana & Papa, and Grandma & Grandaddy!!  She loved everything!!  We had her favorite for dinner: macaroni & cheese!!

We borrowed the Tinkerbell movie from a friend and Kailee LOVED it, so that's what we got her for her birthday!

A few days later, it snowed.  These pictures were taken in the morning.  It continued to snow the rest of the day, into the next morning.  We got 7 inches!!!  Crazy huh!  While Allie napped, Kailee & I ventured into the snow w/ 4 layers of clothes on!  Luckily, Kailee had some boots that her Aunt Shellie gave to her 2 years ago that finally fit her!!

Not too shabby, eh!  When we were leaving to go inside, I thought Kailee was kissing the snowman... um NO.... she waas trying to eat its eye..an oreo.  Crazy girl.  She had already eaten 1 oreo, as you can tell from her face.

I was so excited to make snow cream b/c it's been a long time since I had any.  Kailee loved it!  Girls are both crying at my legs right now, so I must go.  This is why Mommy doesn't like it when Kailee plays in her bed, rather than taking a nap... she is CRANKY!  Wish me luck!

It's Party Time!

This weekend, we had a first at the Critchfields: Kailee had a birthday party!! I don't know who was more excited, Kailee or Shannon. Shannon has been wanting to throw her a party for a year now, and as you'll see, she had a ball doing it. Shannon loves taking care of the girls and helping them enjoy life. This night was one of much enjoyment, giggles, laughs, and all things princess.

Shan decked out her pre-school room and the kitchen into a Pink Princess Palace. A good friend of hers let her borrow all of her princess decor! Kailee invited Jaclynn, Lily, Kinsey, and her sister Allie to the party, all who dressed up as royal fairies and princesses. If you look closely you can see Cinderelly and Snow White. The girls absolutely loved the decor and they loved being treated like royalty.

While the girls waited for me to get home with pizza, they got to decorate their own castles with lots of pretty stickers. When I finally arrived home, all of the girls rushed from castle decorating to me, screaming, "It's Kailee's Birthday!" Kailee was the loudest with, "It's my party, Daddy! But I'm not three until Tuesday night." I'm glad she cleared that up for me, I was confused :)

Dinner time! My greeting from the girls lasted about 3 seconds until they saw that I had the pizza! They beat me to the table and all sat down to fill their little tummies. The master mind of the evening took a quick moment to pose with the girls. Shannon is really in her element with these young kiddos. At pre-school, church, and at home with our girls, she is happiest when she is serving them, and she does such a great job at it--and looks so cute doing it!

Play time was the name of the game after dinner. The party noise makers were a hit and there's nothing like a game of Ring-Around-the-Rosies to help the pizza digest. Allie loved hanging out with the big girls. She did her best to be a part of everything.

The highlight of the night was when the doorbell rang and a special guest arrived....Princess Belle! Shannon's friend had this dress that we borrowed and Belle came and sang and danced with the Princess Fairies, Snow White, and Cinderelly. The little ones loved it, but no one loved it as much as Shannon. My favorite part of the night was when I came downstairs from putting Allie to bed and Belle was holding and caressing each of the girls' heads and cheeks, while singing Disney songs to them. It was exactly as if Snow White was singing to the little birdies or Cinderella was singing to her little mice friends. Everyone got a kick out of Shannon's commitment to the role that she assumed for the night.

Princess Belle also danced with the girls to a Disney mix that we have. Everyone could have done this for hours. As you can see, Belle was not camera shy. She even dashed into pictures that were not aimed at her. LOL!

To wrap-up the evening, the royal household sat down at the table for birthday cake and ice-cream. Kailee tried and tried to blow out her candle and finally succeeded with a little help from Mommy. Look at the excitement on her face as she braces for a sugar rush. I think she has her Daddy's sweet tooth.

At the end of the night, each of the Princesses (including Belle, of course!), were ornamented with sparkling crowns and goody bags as they each departed for their homes. Everyone had a such great time. Shannon really did a great job at making Kailee's first birthday party a memorable one.

The next day Allie and Kailee were playing her toys that her friends gave her. Out of the blue she got up and went over to Shannon and said, "Mommy, thank you for my fun birthday party!" It was neat to see Kailee feel real gratitude for Shannon's hard work. We're lucky to have such good girls, but they are luckier to have such a great Mom!