I took a picture of Soulie as she was playing outside, and after she said, “I wanna see!” Then, she wanted me to take another, which was followed with another, “I wanna see!” And then it kept going and going, and going…
I’ve been noticing lately that her usually, “No!” along with a grunt, have slowly been turning into, “Okay, mommy.” And she’s been going to bed without a diaper now (she’s been doing undies during the day for awhile). Three girls out of diapers and one more to go…
Thank you for your little tips on the f-bombing post. Reading your suggestions and encouragements are really helpful. We do give the kids jobs and they get paid to do them, but we aren’t always consistent about it, so maybe consistency will motivate them to clean their rooms more often. Also, though they do clean it (on occasion), it just isn’t clean clean, if you know what I mean. It’s kid clean, but not mommy clean! Still working on relaxing the control freak in me. Our rule here is, “Everything has a place, and if it isn’t in its place that probably means you don’t care about it and it will go in the trash.” I’m pretty ruthless about throwing stuff away. They cry about it, I feel bad a little bit, but it helps eliminate the junk, though we still have tons. What other tips do you have in your house to help manage the mess? I love hearing about what you do to keep sane.
she is just a doll!
Cute!!
She’s so cute!
She is so pretty! All of your sweet girls are.
About the f-bombs: my grandma used to say that kids need to come across about a kilo a year of dust, to make sure their immune-system knows how to work. I don’t have kids yet, but I’ll never forget her tule. 😉
yeah, im a BIG thrower outer! I hate hate hate clutter, and kids (if they are in charge) will keep everything! McDonald’s toys go in the trash after one day of play and anything that they havent played with in a month gets donated. I keep their toys in one toy box and when it starts to overflow and I can no longer close it easily, I look through it and donate donate donate. I either do it when they are at school, or I tell them that we are giving them to children that have no toys. They seem to understand that. My girls are 5 and 6.
As far as managing the mess, I copied something my sister was doing: she offered her kids 5 cents a toy if they would put it in the Goodwill bag, so they had motivation to go threw their rooms and find stuff they didn’t really play with anymore and gave them an opportunity to earn a little. I’ve also gotten very picky about what we bring home, and telling mine that if they can’t manage the stuff they have now, they certainly don’t need any more stuff. I still have to go in to their rooms with them maybe monthly and we clean them together, so they know where everything is supposed to go, it is getting a little easier as they get older. 🙂
She is just very adorable and pretty.. You can check out more cute baby photos on http://www.psocial.in/category/kids
Soulie looks really sweet in the third picture 🙂
What a cute moment between you and Soulie! She makes the cutest faces!
What a sweetie!
I do not have any helpful tips about cleaning. My 2yo is still in that “helpful” phase where I have to redo everything anyway. But I like reading everyone else’s tips. Paying for the toys that go in the giveaway box seems an idea to flag for later.
We have 3 girls ages 7 1/2, 5, and 2 1/2. They all have age appropriate chore charts they are responsible for doing and checking off each week (with guided reminding from mom and dad). One of the chores on all their charts is too keep their rooms picked up through the week. On Sunday afternoons I go through their rooms with my “Abandoned Property” box and what ever is out of place or on the floors goes in my box. I can then trash it, donate it, or if it doesn’t leave the box they can do extra chores to earn it back or pay (reasonable) money for it. We also have a rule for everyone in the house, mom and dad included, that when you bring something new into the house you must remove something from the house. If you bring home a new toy you must get ride of an old toy. If mom brings home a new shirt I must get rid of an old shirt, and so on. It helps give them the choice of what they want to get rid of, teaches them not to hoard, but enjoy things while they have it, and the load isn’t on you to de-clutter everything. Hope you find some rhythm for your home and family. And it always helps me to remember that God is not the author of confusion, but of PEACE. Even when my house is cluttered and crazy!
I only have one child, my nine year old and in the last couple of years she has gotten pretty good at keeping her room clean. It’s been really encouraging because for years we made her pick up her room every evening before bed and it was often a struggle. We were consistent though and it’s finally paid off! When she was really young, like preschool age, I always had her (and helped her) clean up toys before lunch since story time/nap was right after lunch and then we picked up again after dinner. I found that it helped to keep the mess from getting too big so it wouldn’t be overwhelming for her or me at clean up times. Of course, with four instead of one, you certianly have much more to contain as far as toys and messes go, but consistency really does work!
I throw things out too if they disobey me. One of my friends thought that was a little harsh. I never use profanity (not even slips. . I have not swore since 5th grade when I thought it was a cool thing to try to do, it just never really interested me since, but I KNOW how frustrating motherhood is so I sometimes get easily angered and remember that love is NOT easily angered and then I feel TERRIBLE for being too loud with my kids, so I am sure that is how you felt with the f-bombs. . I just read that post before this by the way but didn’t comment, but you brought it up here so I am bringing it up in this comment). It is nice to know that I am not the only mom who isn’t very sentimental or caring for toys. I tell my kids often, “If you care for your toys, you’ll care to put them away or they’ll be thrown out by me.” They know that they need to obey or they’ll lose toys (and they’ve lost a bunch. . .most of what they have are hand-me-downs so I don’t feel too badly doing it as it is). They used to cry a lot over it but now they just say, “We did wrong. Okay.” Which blows me away!!! Sometimes if they have a good attitude like that I won’t throw it away (which actually we recycle them, not trash them).
These photos are adorable!!!
I tend to feel like Soul doesn’t get as many photos taken of her as her sisters, so this post was great (plus I am a third born child and my heart goes out to thirdborns haha). She’s a funny one! It is great to see her personality in this!!
She is such a cutie!
My f.i.l does that too! Throws it away. Basically if it didn’t have a place it was gone!!
Soul she is so adorable with that smile! If she loves pictures maybe she should have a little camera of her own! 🙂
Love Soul’s different faces!
I totally feel your f-bomb post 🙁 We all just need a chill pill huh? Rock asked me yesterday why when I ask them to clean up, I’m mad? Ouch. I did explain we have a little house and we need to keep organize, and if we don’t it looks even smaller and they can’t play as freely bc of all the clutter. He said it doesn’t seem like we have a little house lol 🙂