I've never mentioned it on this blog, but my husband and I are both opposed to punitive punishments. We use gentle discipline methods with our children and have never spanked either of them. Sometimes people ask us if we're sure we can raise responsible, considerate, (fill in the positive adjective here) kids without raising our hands against them. The answer is, we are positive that we can. Two short situations happened independently of each other last night that illustrates this fact.
Both kids really love Annies Homegrown Bunnies. They're little crackers or cookies and come in many flavors. We usually buy cheddar or chocolate. Last night, Ja was crying because she'd spilled her share of bunnies. Without me asking him to share, or even saying a word, Toe wordlessly gave her a bunny. After she ate that one he gave her his entire share, saying "Here you go, Ja!" as he dropped the baggie into her lap.
The second situation happened during dinner. Toe knocked over his cup and spilled his cocoa. Ja pushed away from the table, slid down from her booster seat, ran to the towel drawer and brought Toe a kitchen towel so he could clean his mess. "Heah, Toe!" she said in her little two year old voice. "Thank you, Ja!" Toe replied and wiped up his mess.
Yes, I have no doubts that we're raising fantastic kids without resorting to spankings or time-outs, or other punitive punishments.
Showing posts with label kids. Show all posts
Showing posts with label kids. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Saturday Night's All Right for Cookies!
We're trying out a brand new cookie recipe tonight. There's no chocolate in them at all! *Gasp!* Toe picked out the recipe from my Mrs. Field's Best Ever Cookie Book. He can't actually read yet, so he just decided based on which picture he liked best. After I told him that the flowers around the cookies weren't actually part of the cookies. "Awww man!" he said, and then decided on Mandarin and Marmalade Cookies. If everything goes as planned baking them will be our family project after dinner.
Stay tuned! :-)
Dun Dun Duuuuuuun! And I'm back! 10:30 at night.
We ended up not having a can of mandarin oranges for the other cookies because Someone ate them. Right, sweetie? :-p So, Toe picked out a completely different type of cookie, a crazy sort of chocolate chip called "Kids Bake 'Em!" It was egg free, vanilla free, and instead of the typical 1 1/2 cups of white and brown sugars it called for 1/4 cup sugar and 1/2 cup honey. Interesting. They baked at 300 F for 18 minutes. That's another oddity since I'm used to the Ghirardelli recipe which is 375 F for 9 minutes.
Toe helped by putting the ingredients in the bowl. He mixed the dry ingredients for me and tried to hold the hand mixer but it was too much for him to handle. It is pretty wild. The cookies baked to a lovely golden brown. Toe and M. had some cookie dough while they waited. After the cookies cooled I was the only one who tried one because Ja was asleep, and M. and Toe were full from the dough! I had five cookies--oh don't worry about my figure, they were tiny!--and then drank about a gallon of milk. Boy, were they sweet! In fact, I think I need something else to drink.
If anyone wants the recipe, let me know and I'll post it.
Good night, blogger friends!
Stay tuned! :-)
Dun Dun Duuuuuuun! And I'm back! 10:30 at night.
We ended up not having a can of mandarin oranges for the other cookies because Someone ate them. Right, sweetie? :-p So, Toe picked out a completely different type of cookie, a crazy sort of chocolate chip called "Kids Bake 'Em!" It was egg free, vanilla free, and instead of the typical 1 1/2 cups of white and brown sugars it called for 1/4 cup sugar and 1/2 cup honey. Interesting. They baked at 300 F for 18 minutes. That's another oddity since I'm used to the Ghirardelli recipe which is 375 F for 9 minutes.
Toe helped by putting the ingredients in the bowl. He mixed the dry ingredients for me and tried to hold the hand mixer but it was too much for him to handle. It is pretty wild. The cookies baked to a lovely golden brown. Toe and M. had some cookie dough while they waited. After the cookies cooled I was the only one who tried one because Ja was asleep, and M. and Toe were full from the dough! I had five cookies--oh don't worry about my figure, they were tiny!--and then drank about a gallon of milk. Boy, were they sweet! In fact, I think I need something else to drink.
If anyone wants the recipe, let me know and I'll post it.
Good night, blogger friends!
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Rough Days for My Princess
My little princess Ja is having a rough time this month. Earlier this week I had to take her to the oral surgeon to have her two front teeth extracted. She had fallen and chipped them when they first came in, and we had never realized it. We just thought that, like many new teeth, they just weren't completely even. We don't remember her falling and her mouth never bled. As it turned out the chip was bad enough to let in an infection. By the time her teeth were pulled the backs were half eaten away.
She's only two, so for the surgeon to do her job I had to restrain her myself. The dental assistant gave her some bubble gum scented nitrous oxide (laughing gas) through a tiny pink mask. She was fine with that, just sat in my lap watching cartoons. Luckily, the cartoon character was in a rocket ship wearing an oxygen mask (or whatever they're called) so I told little princess that she was an astronaut, too. After the gas ran for a few minutes, the dental assistant rubbed some numbing gel on her gums. It was basically a super concentrated Oral-gel. Ja hated that so much. She screamed until she threw up several times. I ended up having to strip her to her diaper because she was covered in vomit.
After a few minutes, the surgeon came in. She actually had to give her four numbing shots in the upper gums. That was a horrible few minutes. I had both my arms and my legs wrapped around my little princess to try and keep her still, two dental assistants held her, and she still nearly struggled free. Fortunately, she managed to not throw up again until she'd gotten all four of her shots. The surgeon left for fifteen minutes while the medicine took effect. During that time Ja calmed down quite a bit and even started walking around the room and played with her big brother, Toe.
The dental surgeon and her assistants returned. Once again I had to lay flat on my back with my arms and legs wrapped around my princess. As quickly as she could, the surgeon pulled her teeth. Immediately, Ja's mouth was packed with gauze which she fought with all her might. I was really afraid she was going to choke on it because of the way she was struggling and the fact it wasn't that big. It could have easily gone down her throat if the dental assistant had lost her grip on it. The same assistant was nice enough to gather Ja's clothes in a plastic bag for me. Ja stopped bleeding enough for it to be safe for her to leave, so I put her in her coat, tied her up in the mei tai, grabbed the bag of clothes and Toe's hand and made a mad dash out into the cold and into the car. At least we were done for the moment.
She's only two, so for the surgeon to do her job I had to restrain her myself. The dental assistant gave her some bubble gum scented nitrous oxide (laughing gas) through a tiny pink mask. She was fine with that, just sat in my lap watching cartoons. Luckily, the cartoon character was in a rocket ship wearing an oxygen mask (or whatever they're called) so I told little princess that she was an astronaut, too. After the gas ran for a few minutes, the dental assistant rubbed some numbing gel on her gums. It was basically a super concentrated Oral-gel. Ja hated that so much. She screamed until she threw up several times. I ended up having to strip her to her diaper because she was covered in vomit.
After a few minutes, the surgeon came in. She actually had to give her four numbing shots in the upper gums. That was a horrible few minutes. I had both my arms and my legs wrapped around my little princess to try and keep her still, two dental assistants held her, and she still nearly struggled free. Fortunately, she managed to not throw up again until she'd gotten all four of her shots. The surgeon left for fifteen minutes while the medicine took effect. During that time Ja calmed down quite a bit and even started walking around the room and played with her big brother, Toe.
The dental surgeon and her assistants returned. Once again I had to lay flat on my back with my arms and legs wrapped around my princess. As quickly as she could, the surgeon pulled her teeth. Immediately, Ja's mouth was packed with gauze which she fought with all her might. I was really afraid she was going to choke on it because of the way she was struggling and the fact it wasn't that big. It could have easily gone down her throat if the dental assistant had lost her grip on it. The same assistant was nice enough to gather Ja's clothes in a plastic bag for me. Ja stopped bleeding enough for it to be safe for her to leave, so I put her in her coat, tied her up in the mei tai, grabbed the bag of clothes and Toe's hand and made a mad dash out into the cold and into the car. At least we were done for the moment.
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
New Blog--Same Me!
Happy 2009 everyone! I went out of state on vacation and when I got back I couldn't get into my old "Thoughts From Here to You" blog. I tried every email address and password I could remember (and even a few I simply made up on the spot) but finally gave up and started a new blog.
How were your holidays? My family and I had a great time in the much warmer state of Virginia visting my family. Now that we're all back in the blustery, freezing cold of Illinois I can't wait until the spring thaw. It's icy out here! I've lived in this state for six years now and I still forget that I need to bundle the kids in mittens and scarves before taking them to the car on our trips out. We have to go out every day now since Toe has started Montessori preschool.
It's good to be back! Happy 2009, y'all!
How were your holidays? My family and I had a great time in the much warmer state of Virginia visting my family. Now that we're all back in the blustery, freezing cold of Illinois I can't wait until the spring thaw. It's icy out here! I've lived in this state for six years now and I still forget that I need to bundle the kids in mittens and scarves before taking them to the car on our trips out. We have to go out every day now since Toe has started Montessori preschool.
It's good to be back! Happy 2009, y'all!
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