September Soundtrack

Be sure to click the link to each song, in case you haven't heard it :)

"You can stand under my umbrella - ella ella"

Under my umbrella"

I realized that have actually never owned an umbrella of my own. I used my parent's umbrellas growing up, but never really needed one in Utah or felt it was worth the purchase. 

Now we own 4. 

You just never know when it will rain in Chicago. (I guess you might know if you watched the news or checked the weather, but that takes way too much brain power).

And the rain is nothing like a Utah rain. You actually get WET!

"Eat it! Get yourself an egg and beat it!

You should actually listen to the song - it's pretty funny. 

I have a lot of photos of Lydia eating. Not sure where she gets her affinity for food. Couldn't possibly be from me!

 "Just open up your mouth and feed it! 

Just eat it! Eat it!"

"I'm so glad I found you, I love being around you.You make it easy. It's as easy as one two, one two three four...

I LOVE YOU!"

Great discovery: Bennison's Bakery. This is a croissant with cream cheese, bacon, cheddar cheese, eggs, ham and something marvelous over the top - probably more cheese. I may have consumed the entire calorie recommendation for the day in one sandwich, but it was oh so worth it!

Ben had a cookie and Lydia ate the donut before I could get a photo. That's my girl!

"Darling it's better down where's it wetter, take it from me! Up on the shore they work all day, out in the sun they slave away. While we devotin' full time to floatin', under the sea!"

Ben started swimming lessons this month! He is such a fish. Life is definitely "the bubbles" in the water for him.

"Mission Impossible"

Mitch had a recruiting conference at BYU, so the kids and I decided to make a surprise visit to Utah to visit family.

The 'Impossible' part of the mission was not the secret, it was the plane ride. Traveling with 2 toddlers gets a little tricky, but we survived. 

I think Ben was the only person who read this pamphlet. 

"I was a fool to ever leave your side. Me minus you is such a lonely ride... 

Reunited and it feels so good!"

You want to know what I missed about Utah?

Dick's Market Donuts...It was a wonderful reunion!

Oh! And being reunited with the family was good too :)

Lydia and her girls. 

(horrible picture with Grandma Rencher, but it was the only one I shot!)

I don't think Walter was as excited about the reunion as Ben was. Ben wouldn't leave this dog alone.

Being able to hang out with cousins was a dream come true for my kids! (And to be honest, it was fabulous for me too!)

"I'm too sexy for my shirt! Too Sexy for my shirt! So Sexy it hurts!"

I think Ben must know what a good looking boy he is because we cannot keep clothes on him!

I'm too sexy for your party! Too sexy for your party! The way I'm disco dancing!

I get knocked down! But I get up again! You're never gonna keep me down!

Poor Jaxon took a big fall midway through our visit. He and Ben were out on my parent's playhouse trying to carry some chairs up the ladder and Jaxon fell right on his jaw. It broke on both sides and was such a bad break he had to have 2 metal plates put in during a 3 hour surgery. The picture on the left is the day before the accident. The picture on the right is the day after his surgery.

He is a tough kid and seems to be bouncing back like a champ!

"There can be miracles, if you believe"

And look, Mitch even did his own ironing on the trip! There are miracles.

"The first time I saw you, I knew love at first sight must be true!"

AND WE GOT TO MEET BABY CARTER!!!

It was love at first sight. My kids couldn't keep their hands off him!

We had a FABULOUS time seeing everyone. 

DON'T YOU JUST LOVE THE PEOPLE?!

Happy Thanksgiving Birthday!

What a month!

10 Commandments of Not-So Good Parenting

Dr Laurence Steinberg, PhD, is the author of "The Ten Basic Principles of Good Parenting". He has some great theories and guidelines for parenting that are pretty widely respected. I thought I would share how we obey his 10 rules.

1. What you do matters

Dr. Steinberg says, "What you do makes a difference. You're kids are watching you".

Ignoring the large print on this basket that says "DO NOT PLACE CHILD IN BASKET" is definitely setting a good example for my kids. I didn't place a "child" in the basket - I set "children" in the basket. They should really make that more specific.

2. You cannot be too loving

Steinberg stresses that you cannot spoil a child with love. Many times people mistake showing love by buying material possessions and giving the child their way. This thinking, he says, is incorrect. You show a child love through your actions and the things you do with them.

We really don't buy too many things for our kids - we figured they weren't old enough to care and having Mitch in graduate school meant we just didn't have too much money anyway. This concept came pretty easy to us. We show our kids plenty of love through extreme play - such good parents. 

3. Treat your child with respect

(I'm going to change this to teach your child to treat others with respect)

 The washing machine in our apartment broke last week and Ben decided to wet the bed for the first time in months - thus creating an even larger mountain of laundry than normal. Anyway, we had to go to the laundromat a couple of times. And as is the case in every laundromat I've been in, I was greeted with the Spanish Soap Operas, lovely Spanish music and a "plethora of pinatas" (10 points for anyone who catch's that reference).  There might be one or two other white people there, but they are usually single men stuffing as much laundry into one machine as possible. As we were sitting and waiting for our laundry to be washed, a darling little Latino girl walked up to us. She didn't say anything, so I asked her name. Of course, she didn't speak English, so I asked again in Spanish. It was like I pressed the "on" button. She didn't stop talking for about 5 minutes. I think she was telling me all of the names of her cousins, parents, grandparents, siblings... All the while, Ben is watching her with this weird face. She finally turned to Ben, asked his name, and waited  for his response. He looked at me, looked back at her and said "blah blah blah blah blah".

Definitely a notion of great respect, right?

4. Adapt your parenting to fit your child

 In his nightly prayers, Ben thanks Heavenly Father for his daddy, Lydibug, Superman & Spiderman. At least he's learned to be honest about what he is grateful for.

I tried really hard to get Lydia to play with the play dough and she only seemed interested in eating it, until I made it into an accessory.

5. Establish & Set Rules

Without the string, the kite falls...

...and apparently if the string gets tangled, the world ends.  We had a few "Irv" moments during this first kite flying experience. 

We also discovered we need 3 kites, one for Ben, one for Lydia & one for Dad. 

6. Foster your child's independence

I am a big fan of teaching my kids how to do things and learning new skills. Ben loves to take his own twist on these lessons. For example, the knobs in the kitchen sometimes come loose. Ben would get very concerned when the knobs would wiggle. I spent a few minutes and showed him how to screw the knobs on tight. The following morning while putting the dishes away, I hit myself when a booby-trapped knob popped off the drawer. Ben likes to unscrew the knobs and then gently place them back on the screw, so that when I pull on them they pop me in the belly. 

7. Be Consistent

The other night, I tried to give my kids some choices for dinner, rather than just telling them what they were going to eat. I consistently kept saying, "You can have pasta or rice". Ben's response was consistently "No, watermelon!". Lydia's response was, "Treat! Treat!". 

When I left the room for a moment as they were both freaking out, Ben helped himself to the watermelon in the fridge. 

Lydia couldn't get to her candy because she can't get off the chair by herself. 

About the only thing that is consistent around here is chaos.

8. Avoid Harsh Discipline

I don't really have to do much here - Ben has no problem disciplining himself harshly. :) 

(The real story is he tried to fly like Superman and ran into the door frame going as fast as a superhero should).

9. Explain your rules and decisions

Steinberg says that generally parents over-explain to small children and under-explain to older children.

Apparently I am over-explaining the principle of modesty to Lydia and under-explaining it to Ben.

10. Be involved in your child's life

Although we do make a million parenting mistakes daily, we try and spend as much quality time with our children as possible. Here are some fun things we did the last couple of weekends.

We went to the beach last weekend. We mistakenly parked by the dog beach, but it turned out to be really fun for the kids. Lydia was in heaven with all the dogs running around and plenty of sand to eat. Ben was a fish! We couldn't get him out of the water when it was time to go. We did have a good chuckle at how odd we looked at this beach. Seriously everyone there was with their dogs and no kids and we were the only ones with no dog and just our kids.

This weekend was the Chicago Air Show. We could hear the jets practicing all day on Friday, so we headed down to Belmont Harbor to catch a glimpse.

Can't go on an outing without a proper meal, right?