Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Another FAS Moment.... or Two


Diego and I typically have tough mornings. He isn't one to rise early and cooperate in getting ready for whatever the schedule holds. My response is to remove privileges from his after school activities.
Monday (what is it about Mondays?) was particularly difficult before school. Diego wouldn't get out of bed which, of course, led to his imminent loss of privileges. No Wii ("Why do you always take the Wii away first, Mom?"), no TV or movies, early bed time. His schedule on the wipe off board was erased except for homework, supper, bath and bed time. Poor kid, right?

After school Monday, Diego began the conversation with, "I did well in school today, Mom so I should get to earn my privileges back." My reply was simple, "What's it going to take for you to realize you can't behave like you do in the mornings?" A lengthy silence broken by, "I don't know why I do that. I still should earn my privileges for being good at school." I know he doesn't know why, but he does know he behaves poorly.

Finally I offered Diego the choice: 20 minutes of Wii, 30 minutes of TV, or his usual bed time. No brainer, he chose the Wii.

So, Tuesday morning arrived and I had no sooner called out his name and Diego appeared in the doorway, completely dressed and smiling. Let's just say, he had gotten up at some point in the night and dressed and went back to bed. It only took one reminder to brush his teeth and wash his face, one request to eat breakfast, one "put your coat on". Who was this child and what had he done with Diego? It was refreshing, to say the least, to arrive at school without grinding my teeth during a discussion about things which have absolutely no bearing on the day, let alone his life.

As I put him to bed Tuesday night, Diego was sure he shouldn't have to go to bed on time since he had done so well in the morning for me and he had done a good job at school. He had looked at the TV guide earlier (he does that constantly) to find a movie he wanted to watch was on late; he really was trying his hardest to win a later bed time. His FAS brain refused to understand the reasoning behind bed time being bed time. Translation: no compromise on a school night + child in defiant, explain it to me again mode = meltdown.

It took a few minutes to calm Diego by doing deep compression massage on his back and legs, he even responded to my, "I love you" with his own, "I love you." As I closed the bedroom door his small voice called out, "I still get to stay up late on Friday!"

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Cool video

My sister sent me this link to a cool video. Check it out. If the link won't work copy and paste www.thephilfiles.com/2008/10/21/is-it-in-you/

Monday, January 12, 2009

It's Definitely Monday... or is it just me?!?!

You know it's Monday when...

* your kid won't get ready for school because he's tired and tells you it's totally your fault.

* several of the items you usually buy at the grocery store are out of stock.

* the customer behind you in the check-out line pushes their cart all the way up to the point where the check writing stand is which forces you to write your check/pay at the bagging station. Maybe I should have asked her to pay for my groceries since she was standing where I needed to be.

* another car pulls up to the gas pump you were pulling into... and won't back up. THEN when you find another pump soon to be vacated (or so you hope), the person inside the vehicle starts and finishes a cell phone conversation before pulling away from the pump.

* thinking you're almost home free, the vehicle in front of you decides against using the left turn lane and stops traffic on a major highway - which ticked off a semi driver who goes around the line of vehicles blowing his air horn.

* when you open the trunk of the car you discover that the grocery bags ALL have holes in them.

* something smells like it died in the refrigerator and you can't find it and one of the items that was out of stock at the store was the baking soda.


Happy Monday!

Saturday, January 3, 2009

Family

Here is Diego on Christmas morning showing off what the "FedEx Guy" gave him. Okay, let me explain... I ran out of people to say gifts were from when I was wrapping Christmas gifts (we don't do Santa so 'Mom & Dad' was getting redundant). I signed this gift from the Fed Ex Guy because it had been delivered via Fed Ex.



We had a great Christmas with family and friends. My sister from Indianapolis surprised everyone by bringing my sister from North Carolina here. It's been almost 4 years since I've seen or talked to my sister in North Carolina. I took some 'sister' pictures since we were all together for this rare occasion. Here we are in all our glory....




And here is a shot of Tyler on his first Christmas...