Operation Quit Thumb Sucking: Mission Accomplished!!!

Evie is celebrating 1 month thumb-free tonight!  She decided on Sunday night, March 5th, that she was done sucking her thumb at night.  We made her this sticker chart to earn prizes at 1 week, 2 weeks, and a biggie at 1 month.  We are so proud of our little lady for kicking this habit before the summer deadline given by her dentist.

We came from early Easter dinner at the Hettinger's to find the Amazon box containing her big prize waiting on the porch, a double baby stroller.  The baby on the left is her week 1 prize, another baby doll.  (SOOO glad we didn't spend the big bucks on a real American Girl Doll since her "American Girl Doll" quickly got replaced by this baby...) .  Evie picked out a Barbie for her 2nd week prize.  We are hoping the money we spent on prizes will be a small portion of the money we are saving on orthodontic work in the future.  Braces are coming no matter what, in my opinion, but at least our 6 year old will not be sucking her thumb in Kindergarten this fall!

Her next chart is some kind of attitude chart... 

Little Kickers

The kids selected soccer as their winter sport.  This was Braylen's second experience with Soccer Shots, Evie's first.  We put them in the same class expecting the worst, hoping for the best.  There were only 4 kids at their time slot (after some begging of mama on facebook to get more friends).  

Orange shirts, a dream come true for Bray

Braylen improved his soccer skills as well as his emotions regarding scoring goals and being told time was up.  I'm not sure why parents push their children to do sport earlier than 5 or 6.  I'm realizing we all THINK we have to get our kids into sports to socialize them, teach them about teamwork, or get them started early so they can be on the traveling allstar, Olympic team at 12.  They can't handle an organized sports at 3 or 4!  I am realizing this with my children as I see the tears and frustrations on mom and dad's part get less and less as they get older.  This session was better for Braylen, but I think it was still a tad early for him.  Backyard soccer is still best at 4.

 Evie had a difficult time focusing with her brother and best buddy, Tyler, from preschool there.  Since every kids has to do soccer, check, she did it.  This mama is NOT a soccer fan.  I would be happy to have them doing something other than soccer.  Sorry all the soccer fans in my life; it's just not my thing.

Hollencamp vs Hollencamp

Cheers to the end of soccer (hopefully for good... hehe)

Operation Quit Thumb Sucking: Her Decision

Similar to when Evie told Daddio she didn't want the training wheels on her bike, then was riding without them completely one day later, she told Daddio last night that she didn't want him to take the "thumb stuff" off for bed that night.  Seeing her determination to master the two-wheel bike, we are hopeful this is the end of the thumb forever.

I was in complete shock when Jason told me that Evie fell asleep last night without her thumb (I was at a meeting for bedtime).  AND there were no tears!  This is the day I wanted to come; the day when SHE wanted to stop, not US forcing her to stop.

Tonight was night two of falling asleep without her thumb.  This is huge people; this girl has been sucking her thumb to soothe herself at bed for five years.  Cold turkey is hard.  Last night it meant that she needed some middle of the night snuggles from mama to help her get back to sleep.

Is this the end????

Two Less Wheels for Evie

Today Evie reached a big milestone, riding her bike without training wheels!

Evie recently moved to a bigger bike since the baby bike seat she received for Christmas didn't fit on her little, white bike.  She's been riding the bigger bike for a few weeks now.  Evie has been a comfortable bike rider for years; I'm actually surprised she didn't take to riding without training wheels sooner.

On Friday, a few families from our street gathered on "the lane" for happy hour.  Evie suddenly wanted to ride the little bike with one training wheel up.  Daddio worked with her for about 30 minutes, helping her to balance without the training wheel.  She asked to practice again on Saturday.  We only got in about 10 minutes before the spring-like storms rolled in.  Then today, we encouraged her to try without her training wheels...

This is her ride back from her first trip down the lane sans training wheels

We are so proud of our little girl!  And though she be little, she is a fierce bike rider!  :)

Even more thankful the County paved "the lane" across the street from us this fall; it is the perfect spot to learn to ride a bike: flat, very smooth, not too long, not too short.

Unofficial Take Your Child to Work Day

Braylen had a barf episode yesterday in the van nevertheless.   For various reasons, Daddio took Evie to work with him for a good part of the day.

Bus ride from the parking lot to the
office building

Doing her version of "work"
on the computer

Lunch out at Jimmy Johns

Evie thought her day at Daddio's work was the best day ever.  Afterall, she got to be on the iPad for 90% of her day, go out for lunch, and have people be friendly to her all day.  Darn you technology for making jobs all on the computer these days.  What happened to the piles of papers that need to be filed?  I, too, enjoyed my days at work with Mom and Dad.  I am serious, I loved filing :)

My Childhood Revisited

At many times throughout my days with my four and five-year-olds, I get a glimpse of myself as a kid.  Two memories in particular have been revisited recently.

1. Evie's singing "shows"

We are discovering that Evie really enjoys singing and performing for an audience of 1, herself.  The Frozen karaoke machine resurfaced from the basement, which gave the kids their own CD player to destroy control the music choice and volume.  I gave them a few CDs to scratch use.  Yes, we still use CDs in this old school house.  The kids really like to jam out to Fresh Beat Band, the Now and Then Soundtrack, and a mixed-CD of Disney tunes.  And when I say "jam" I mean have the volume at a ridiculously high level, hit the pause button 16 times during a song, and change songs constantly.  A "show" always involves removing the area rug and turning off all the lights.

While it is tempting to turn down the volume and demand them to lower their loud singing through the mic, I try to remember how much fun I had doing similar things as a little girl (and remember my mom turning down the volume to my dismay).   I would put on a show to my imaginary audience in our basement.  The cassette tape player was upstairs (speakers downstairs), so I think there was a lot of up and down to get the right song on.  I'm pretty sure it was pre- and post-dinner event like it is turning into at our house.

Let's see how much longer it is until Evie invites over the neighbors and puts on a "concert" from the top of the picnic table like her mother did....

2. Puzzles

This right here is mama's boy.  My four-year-old will sit with me for 30 minutes and tackle a 550 piece jigsaw puzzle.  With our kitchen table leaf permanently in, we have lots of extra room to leave out a puzzle for days.  When mama starts feeling overwhelmed or the kids ask for more screen time, mama suggests a puzzle.  It is my stress-reliever and I am overjoyed that Braylen has my puzzle-wizard gene.  I love watching him pick up a piece and logically think about where it could go.  That border section in the picture he did all by himself in no time at all.  It's becoming our special time to hang out and talk without the distractions of screens.  I know Nana is smiling down from Heaven when she sees me doing puzzles; this was always a special time with her, in particular at Ocean City on vacation.  

These are some fun and wonder filled preschool years.  I need to be less distracted by the crud on Facebook and more invested in enjoying these innocent, playful times in their lives.  It's a scary, Godless world out there; can I just keep them preschoolers forever?  

Boy 2 Man

Braylen got his first shaving kit for Christmas.  Just about everything is worthless except the plastic mock razor (it's 5 Below... what did we expect?)  

Daddio's shaving cream made the experience much more fun

 He must be watching Daddio shave because he was a pro

He was so focused and careful

Now Evie wants a razor too.  I'm scared to see what she decides to shave ;)