Behavior Chart

Two of my college friends recently created this behavior chart system they found online here and here.  It was working well for them and we needed something in this house to help with tantrums, whining, and other naughty behavior. 

Basically, they start every day with their clip on "Good Job."   As they do good things (put things away without being asked, are helpful, make good choices, or whatever else it is that specific child needs to work on) they get to move up one.  When they get to "Awesome" they get a pom pom in their jar.  If they're already at Awesome, they get another pom pom if they're told to move up again.  At the end of the day if they're in a good space (the top 3) they get 5 pom poms.  When they're jar is full they get to choose a prize from our list which includes donuts with dad, cupcake with mom, a cookie from Kneaders, playing a game alone with a parent, a dollar, a Redbox movie, something from our dollar store treasure box, or something else agreed upon with Mom. 

If they move down the chart for bad behavior, they have to draw a consequence from the jar.  I took the list from the other blog and modified a few to fit us.  They're all easy chores they can do alone (like washing a window,) something silly (like singing happy birthday while running in place,) or something AWESOME (like give mom a 5 minute massage, tell Dad what you appreciate about him, etc.)  Lose Privilege at the bottom is decided by Mom and includes things like no friends to play, no Kindle movies, no TV, etc.  The only time I hate the consequence jar is when they're being bad at bedtime and need to move down the chart but we're trying to get them to bed quickly so we don't have time to do a consequence.  Instead we decided bad behavior at bedtime moves you down very quickly or can even jump you to Lose Privilege. 

They were all VERY VERY VERY excited to have this chart made, especially Jossy which was great because she's really the one who needed it the most.  The first couple days were great.  They were constantly trying to find little things to do without being asked.  My bed was made 3 days in a row!  That never happens!  They loved serving and making us happy.

An added bonus I hadn't expected was how good this chart is for Matty.  His sisters often get a lot of my energy spent on them for their naughty behavior, but this chart helps recognize Matty for all the many times he helps out and for all the sweet things he does.  It's been so good for him to get that recognition and so good for me to see just how much I appreciate him. 

This system isn't a novelty anymore so they're not constantly trying to find things to do to move up, but it has drastically cut down bad behavior and is still working well.  They love planning out their next prize choice and adding to their jar.  Honestly, this feels like an answer to a lot of prayers in our house.

Daddy's Heart Attack

I'm trying to celebrate holidays a little more for my kids' sakes.  They love every little holiday and want to know what we're doing for it.  ("Mom, how are we going to celebrate President's Day?  Go to Kangaroo Zoo?!")  For Valentine's Day I thought they might have fun heart attacking Dan's office since we've never done that before.  I had cut hearts out and had the kids write messages on them on a day I knew Dan would be out of the office by 3:30 for an appointment.  We drove over to his work just after 4 when he sent me a text saying he was mixed up on his days and his appointment wasn't til next week so he was coming home.  The kids and I tried to be quick to get his office decorated but he still beat us home by a lot, so we just told him we were on a "Valentine's errand" so he wouldn't ask questions.  It was not easy to get hearts on the wall and crape paper hung while Lacey was fighting with Matty over the white boards and Alice was crying her head off in her carseat the whole time. 

But we survived.  I think it was more a heart attack for me than for Dan.  I didn't have the best lens on my camera so I couldn't zoom out more than this, but we took a few pictures to document it.  There were a ton more hearts than what shows here.

 

We all thought Lacey would tell Dan where we had been but to her credit she kept our secret!  The next day as Dan left for work I said, "I think you're going to have a great day."  He looked at me like I was crazy and said, "Uh . . . yeah.  You too."  About 15 minutes later he called from work.  I picked up and said, "Oh, are you calling because you're having a great day?"  He laughed said thanks. 

8 Months

Oh my Alice!  My heart melts for her!  She's a mild-tempered sweetheart, a lot like Matty as a baby.  She's still just itty bitty at around 15 lbs now.  She takes 2 45-minute naps a day, though I can get her back to sleep for that second nap a little longer if I lay down and nurse her for a few minutes.  She gave us several days in a row of only waking up once at night between 4-6 AM, but a cold virus sent her back to 2-4 times a night.  We're back to 1-2 times now.  She's becoming very attached to me and will only let others hold her for a bit after she's fed and happy. 

Her favorite food in the world is Cheerios and she shoves them in her mouth like nothing else.  She had her first tooth pop through on Valentine's Day (so a few days after she turned 8 months.)  She's also just learned to wave.  It's a completely spastic movement of her whole arm and I LOVE it!  Her siblings always want to run and go talk to her the minute they hear she's awake from a nap.  She can army crawl very quickly into trouble, so she's spending a lot of time in a big play gate these days.  She loves to take things out of cans, and everything still goes straight to her mouth.   We had considered Joy for her middle name, and that's exactly what she is!

Three Frilly Cupcakes

I would never have guessed I'd end up with THREE girls.  (The teenage years to come terrify me if I think about it too much.)  I have 3 sisters but just one close to my age, and I absolutely hated it when we dressed alike.  So matching my kids wasn't something I had planned.  I also have been trained (cough cough *DAWN* cough) to hate the color pink since I was little.  I didn't really think about the fact that maybe my girls would LOVE to match eachother and maybe they'd LOVE the color pink the most. 

So now I adore my 3 frilly pink cupcakes and seeing how dressing alike in big puffy clothes makes them happy.  

Being a mom is so so hard, but stinkin' cute matching dresses made this day a little happier. :)

Cock-a-doodle-doo!

When Mom doesn't comb your hair back down after having it in little poneytail, you may end up looking like a rooster for days. 

The Napkin Quandary

When Dad does Matty's lunch napkin . . .

 . . . it can require a follow up explanation.

When Mom does it . . .

 

4 Hours of Climbing in Cars

I'm not really sure why we started going to the auto show 5 years ago.  I think it was because we thought Matty would enjoy looking at the cars.  Now it's something our kids look forward to all year and ask when it's coming.  They don't really care about the latest and greatest cars, they just want to be allowed to climb all over them. 

This year I thought we'd just go for 2 hours maximum so the little ones could still have their naps.  4 hours later . . .

Now you see them . . . Now you don't!!

  

 

 

This was Dan's favorite car and just a titch out of our price range at nearly $90k.  We're thinking Lexus will be calling us any day about our new adorable hood ornament idea.

It's hard for us to take 4 kids places like this but we had such a good time this year, and we're glad we made the effort to go.  (And thanks to my dad and Aunt Dawn for helping us wrangle them!)

Little Dancer

Jossy had a ballet recital in January.  She was VERY excited to dance on a big stage again. 

Even though she's a very stoic little dancer, I'm just super proud that she even goes on stage at all!  One of the main reasons she started taking ballet was so that we could get her out of her little comfort zone here at home and try to get her to make new friends and even TALK to other people.  She's come very far and more importantly she LOVES ballet.  She plays ballet frequently at home with Lacey, making up dances for them to perform.  It takes a lot of courage for her to get on stage and look out at the audience.  I'm sure the smiles on stage will come later.  :)

7 Months

Alice turned 8 months old today, so it's little weird to be blogging last month's pictures.  (Again, it's that stupid voice in my head saying everything must be done in order.)

I kind of love this little girl just a smidgen.  She's so sweet and mild-tempered and stinkin' cute to boot!  She loves her toys and to stand in her walker. She prefers to eat at dinner with us and will growl if we try to leave her out of it.  As of 7 months, a good night for her meant she was only waking twice to eat.  Some nights were as much as 4 times.  2 felt like heaven.  Her favorite foods at this point were puffs, cheerios, applesauce and sweet potatoes. 

Her siblings are still in love with her.  They love to play peek-a-boo (her favorite game) and make her laugh.  We feel pretty darn lucky to have her in our family.

Tasty!

Is there anything more delectable than one's own toes?  I dare say no.

And is there anything cuter than a contortionist baby who loves to suck on hers?  Again, I say no.

This, That and the Other

I LOVE BLUE EYES!!!

Matty got a treehouse puzzle for Christmas from Santa, then another one of the world from his grandma in Idaho.  We all had fun working on this together.  There were some crazy shaped tiny pieces on this one!   It was a fun way to learn some geography.

The kids haven't gotten to play much in the snow this year since we've had various illnesses off and on and the snow hasn't always been great to play in.  This was the first snowman they got to make of the season.  

For FHE one day we talked about the Plan of Salvation.  Here's our crazy attempt at illustrating it together. Lacey's doodling sure helps clear things up.

Someone to Match

Matty sometimes feels left out that his sisters get to dress alike and he has no one to match with.  So for Christmas he gave his dad a tie to match the one we had given Matty for his baptism.  He loves that he has someone to match now!

More Christmas

What? It's February you say?  I should be done blogging Christmas?  I wish!  I would love to move on but this little annoying perfectionist inside me requires things to be blogged in order. UGH!  That voice is the whole reason I never get to blog about anything I really want to, because I'm too far behind!

We were supposed to have Christmas dinner at my sister's house.  We were about ready to go when Lacey got up from her nap and couldn't be made happy.  She didn't want to eat and had a fever.  So we decided she would stay home with Dan (who had cold/flu symptoms.)  Not 30 minutes later he let me know Lacey had thrown up.  He had the joy of cleaning it up while the other kids and I got to open more gifts and spend time with my family eating yummy food.  Poor Dan.

Lacey continued to be sick all night long.  When she felt well enough the next morning we let her open her presents from my family.   It just makes me sad to see a kid opening Christmas gifts with a puke bucket next to them. 

No one else got Lacey's stomach bug thank heavens.  We all got the influenza instead.  It was a LONG 2 week Christmas break full of sickness.  Alice somehow didn't get ANYTHING!  We felt very fortunate.