Juggling Our Way Through Life

Cale is to a age where he is fully capable of dressing himself, putting his socks on and putting his shoes on.  In the past few weeks though it's a huge battle-we are talking 30 minutes temper tantrums!  It's been exhausting.  We created a sticker chart a while back for behavior and listening so I decided to create another sticker chart for putting on clothes.  If he puts on his clothes, shoes and socks in the morning by himself with no whining or crying he gets a sticker.  Then if he puts on his underwear and PJs he gets a sticker.  If he gets 7 stickers he gets a prize.  Well the first few days went great.  Now it's like he doesn't even care.  Tonight he told Jeff he doesn't even want a sticker.  His prize right now is $2 to spend at the Dollar store on anything that he wants.  He was so excited when I first told him about his prize when we started this and now it's like he could care less.  So we go back to the drawing board-maybe a different type of prize-he does like food or candy-maybe he would do better with that.  It stinks sometimes being the parent when you think you have something figured out and then you realize that you really don't.  We will keep trying.  This is not the last battle we will have with him I am sure.  We will keep trying to come up with positive rewards for positive behaviors!  This parenting stuff is awesome, but so hard sometimes-wish you could just figure your kids out, have all the answers, and know the best way to handle your kiddos in every situation.  Then we would be in a perfect world, and to be honest, I wouldn't want that.  Parenting has grown me a lot in the past 4 years and while I am sure it will cause me some gray hairs as the boys continue to get older, I wouldn't trade it for the world.  I adore and love them so very much and the smiles, hugs, kisses, laughter far outweigh the battles!

Aiden's vocabulary is starting to really pick up!  he is not saying baby, duck, moo, baa, neigh, fish, belly button.  He is totally into books-he will sit for 20-30 minutes and just let you read book after book to him. He is really into anything with animals and pictures of babies.  I just love when he brings one of us a book with this looks of just excitement and joy-huge smile, ready for us to read to him.  The only problem is that we better not be in the middle or cooking or doing something around the house because if we don't read to him right when he brings us a book-then he gets pretty upset!  He is also into pointing to his nose, ears, eyes, mouth, belly button, fingers and toes.  You can ask him about each of those parts and he points right to them.  He absolutely loves when you tickle his belly button!  He loves to wrestle with daddy and Cale.  You better watch out if you are playing on the floor-he will just come over and lay on top of you!  He has a little blanket that he is totally into.  He sleeps with it for naps and at night and has started to carry it all over the house.  We only have one of them so I asked my friend Erin to make us a few more and she did and they turned out adorable.

Cale is totally into playing games right now.  He likes Hi Ho Cherrio, Hungry Hungry Hippos, Candyland, Let's Go Fishin, Memory, and Life (ok so for this game he really just rolls the dice and moves the cars).  It's neat to see him actually understand and grasp a game.  He gets it. For instance with Candyland, he quickly got that you look at the cards and move your piece to the color it shows and if it has 2 colors on it then you move twice.  It is just neat to see him think about and understand things.  He is growing up way too fast!  I look forward to the nights when both are kiddos are old enough and we can have family game nights together. 

 We went pumpkin picking with the Salvatierra's on the 7th this month.  We went to Rombach's and I think this is our 7th or 8th year in a row that we have done this and I truly look forward to many more years of it! 

 We have had quite a few busy months here at the Koziatek household!  Here are some pics from what we have been up to.
 First it was the Greentree Festival Parade in Kirkwood on September 15th.  We watched from the Denkhoff's house and that was lots of fun!

Cale was very into collecting candy this year!

Apple Picking on 9/29/12
Jeff had to work this Saturday so I took the kiddos to pick apples at Braeutigam's Orchards.  We had a great time and I even made 2 apple pies from all the delicious apple. 

Aiden would rather climb the slide at the Magic House than go down it!

 

Cale had a blast at the City Museum.  Jeff took him everywhere, they went on the roof and rode the Ferris Wheel and climbed in the crazy bus and went down lots of fun slides.

Our conductor Cale

Go little caboose go!