Task Master!

Teaching a toddler to follow directions is not the easiest thing. At least for Thaddeus, doing what he is told is NOT his natural inclination. He is the worst with simple things like “come here”. He often runs away when told we need to change his diaper (a sign that he is NOT ready for potty training yet), or put shoes on, or get dressed, etc. Not really a big deal, but obviously it’s important for him to learn to do as he is told. I am trying to get him to think more along those lines by including him in tasks around the house. So, there are a few little things that he has recently been put in charge of:

1. PUTTING DIRTY CLOTHES IN THE HAMPER

2. FEEDING THE CATS

3. PUTTING AWAY THE SILVERWARE

 

Putting laundry away is no problem, he is excited to do it every time. He also likes feeding the cats, although if he is involved in some other activity when I ask him to do it, might as well give up. The silverware will take more practice. Last time we did it, he was doing the reverse, putting the silverware from the drawer into the dishwasher basket. He also doesn’t differentiate between big and small silverware. But, details aren’t important to me at this point, I just want him to get used to helping.

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday to my wonderful mom, who turns 60 today. All of my family, with the exception of Seth and Aja (in California, and about to have my nephew Ezra) was able to come to our house last weekend to celebrate Mom’s birthday. Her actual birthday is today, and I want to wish her a happy one. She is a fantastic mom, the older I get, the more I appreciate her. She is an awesome grandma. There is not a day (or an hour?) that goes by that Thad doesn’t mention “grandma and grandpa”.

Happy Birthday Mom!

Another Before and After

This was one of Justin’s before-the-baby tasks. A super exciting one. For me anyway. Being a fan of functionality, the bedroom closets in this house always drove me crazy. One high shelf for hanging clothes, then a huge amount of space below with no shelving. In Thad’s room, it would mean his baby-sized clothes got hung up, and things inevitably got stacked on the floor of the closet in a big mess. We don’t have a dresser in Thad’s big boy room, so we really needed some sort of clothes storage. Justin drew up a plan for some shelves using a sheet of plywood, along with two clothes hangers. SO MUCH better than the original one-shelf closet!

THAD’S ROOM:

Nice! Clothes hung, jammies in a basket that he can get to, shoes and socks on a shelf. Lots of extra room for toy storage. We may get a dresser at some point, but in the mean time this works great! If and when we DO get a dresser, it will just mean more toy storage, which seems to be an endless problem around here. Thatcher’s room was a little simpler (well, for Justin, a LOT simpler). Thatcher has a dresser/changing table with lots of space for foldable stuff, so Justin decided to just make use of the shelf that he took out of Thad’s closet, and double up on the shelves in Thatcher’s closet. It gives me twice the shelf space, and keeps all of the stuff on the lower shelf at a nice and accessible height.

THATCHER’S ROOM:

Seriously?

Justin and I were comparing my current belly size to when I was pregnant with Thaddeus. We looked back through the pictures of this pregnancy, and came across this one, which was at 5 weeks.

Look at that! I am a normal person! I could sleep on my stomach! And put on my shoes! I wasn’t peeing every 5 minutes! I was wearing normal clothes! Shocking. And awesome that I might be that person again some day. Instead of this…..

Yikes. 37 weeks and 1 day. And counting.