Reward Charts

We have entered the era of reward charts with Katelynn. Eventually, I plan to use them for chores. That should be coming pretty soon. However, KK's first reward chart was born out of desperation - we were so tired of her showing up at our bedside at 5:30 or 6:00 am!

Every day that KK sleeps "until it is light outside" she gets a sticker. When she does this five times, she gets to pick out a new toy. As you can see from the chart, it is working quite well. The investment in the toys is soooo worth the extra sleep that mommy and daddy are getting. (Not to mention - Katelynn can use the sleep too!)

And now for a pictorial documentation of the toys that KK picked out:

1. Handy Manny - has many loose screws to be "fixed" with "Turner" the screwdriver - KK walked straight to the Handy Manny section and immediately demanded this toy. Mommy is tired of hearing it incessantly repeat "Let's get the tools and get to work!"

2. Little Einsteins bath toy

3. Color Wonder finger paints - $7 product lasted roughly 30 minutes as she proceeded to paint one huge monet painting. It is a lovely painting worthy of going in the "save" file however!

WHY

It has happened - the stage has arrived where Katelynn follows nearly every single statement I make with the response: "WHY?"

At first it was fun - an awareness that she has hit an important new stage of development. Then it becomes, quite frankly, a bit maddening. Sometimes I simply don't have an answer, or asking "Why?" doesn't even make sense in the situation. I haven't done it yet, but I feel a phrase coming soon; a phrase that is representative of an important new stage of mommy development: "Because I said so!"

Rocks for TV

Katelynn's incessant begging for television has gotten out of hand lately, and I must admit that it is all too easy to use the TV as a babysitter, particularly on days when I am trying to get a lot of chores done around the house.

I read some tips in a family magazine about the topic and modified their ideas in order to help us both with discipline. This morning, I gave Katelynn a little wooden box and put 5 black rocks inside. I told her that she could decide when she wanted to watch TV, but she had to give mommy a rock each time she watched a show. I spent quite awhile attempting to explain that once the rocks were gone, there would be no more TV that entire day and she would not get more rocks until the next morning.

Katelynn chose to use all her rocks up before 11:30 am... I guess that should not be a surprise with a 3-year old. By late afternoon, she was begging for "more rocks" and there were a couple of tearful mini-meltdowns. However, I held firm and she did not have any TV once the rocks were gone. We had a very pleasant evening of reading books and playing games together. In the future I may need to help her "ration" her rocks a bit....after all she is only 3 years old. But this looks like a good long-term solution to the TV problem!

KK's Cutting Skills

The other day, news came home from Katelynn's pre-school that she was the only child that could do the cutting project in her class. Basically they were given sheets of paper with lines and told to cut along the lines. I guess letting her go to town with the safety scissors has paid off. :-)

Anyway, it was just one of those fun little parent moments that I thought I would record for the Kim Family history books.

Making the Aggie Parents Proud

KK's Sunday School teacher, Mr. Michael, just informed me this past Sunday that he now shares a story about Katelynn every chance he gets.

He asked all the children what their favorite songs were. He said usually KK is pretty quiet in Sunday School, but she became animated and exclaimed "The Aggie Song!" Mr. Michael said he didn't know that song and asked her to sing it. She proceeded to regale the class with a full rendition of the song, not missing a single word.

“The Spirit of Aggieland” (Words by Marvn H. Mimms)

Some may boast of prowess bold

Of the schools they think so grand

But there’s a spirit can ne’er be told

It’s the Spirit of Aggieland.

We are the Aggies – the Aggies are we

True to each other as Aggies can be

We’ve got to FIGHT boys

We’ve got to fight!

We’ve got to fight for Maroon and White

After they’ve boosted all the rest

They will come and join the best

For we are the Aggies – the Aggies are we

We’re from Texas AMC

Doctors and Dentists and Haircuts - OH MY!

KK seemed to hit a milestone around her 3rd birthday. She decided she loved the doctor's office and did fabulous at her 3 year well check. So I got a little brave.

A couple of weeks ago, I took her to a regular haircut place without all the coddling, kids' tv shows, etc. KK expects things to be the same every time and has the memory of an elephant, so I was a little nervous. I explained to her that this haircut place was different and that there wouldn't be TV or candy, but that mommy would bring a lollipop for her to eat afterward. Her stylist was....well, pretty severe, pushing KK's head this way and that and constantly reminding her to "Hold Still!" Perhaps this was better, however; Katelynn listened to everything that lady said without so much as a tear or fuss!

So I got braver. I made the first dentist appointment at a regular dentist. We don't have dental insurance right now so I sure wasn't going to drop a bunch of money on a pediatric dentist only to have her refuse to open her mouth. We went with the economy dentist. Once again, Katelynn did amazing. She wanted to lay down on mommy, so I laid in the chair and KK laid right on top of me. She let them do a full cleaning and followed every command. She was thrilled about her bag of dental goodies and carried it around all afternoon.

I guess she is growing up... it's a mix of sadness and happiness all at once.

A 3 Year Old's Perspective

We spent New Year's weekend 2010 at the Ranch with our friends the Clarks and their two little ones Bobby and Lindsay. We had a wonderful time and did all sorts of fun things with the kids - decorating rocks with floam (which - sidebar - is weird, weird stuff), throwing leaves, digging in the mud, climbing in the treehouse, taking walks, getting tossed around on the bed by the daddies, and much more.

Nanna asked KK what she did at the Ranch. KK's reply? In a very deliberate, breathy voice: "Nanna, we ate OREOS. Do you know what those are?!"

Mommy didn't take one picture of the oreo consumption, but that was apparently what won the heart of our 3-year old!