Lex has been having a lot of fun with my camera and tripod lately. A few weeks ago he had a fashion show with his Melissa & Doug magnetic doll. Eve grabbed hers and joined in as well. These were taken over the course of a few days.
Here is a little video Alan made of Lex taking the flower photo below.
Lex came home with a note earlier this week that said
Your child has earned happy faces on his daily communication/behavior chart everyday or almost everyday since the beginning of the school year. Since your child is doing a great job following the school rules, I will no longer be sending a daily communication/behavior paper home.
I congratulated him on his consistent good behavior and jokingly asked “How will I know if you’re still behaving in school?” He said, “Don’t worry mom, I’ll tell you every day.” :) He’s so sweet.
Today he came home with his report card. We got his first one in the fall at his parent/teacher conference, but apparently you only get one of those each year. This report card came home in his backpack. No surprises, of course. He is at or exceeding expectations in all areas. We are very proud of him.
I asked him if I could take a picture of him to put with this post, but he refused. He said he doesn’t want me taking any more pictures of him. Hmm…. I’ve been noticing lately that I have a lot more photos of Eve than of Lex. I’ll have to secretly work on that! :)
A few weeks ago we decided to replace our old (old, old, old) printer with a fancy new one. It worked well for about a week, then declared itself jammed and despite our best efforts to convince it otherwise, HP ended up replacing it. The new one arrived yesterday and works like a charm, except it won’t print in color. Gah! I was mumbling and complaining just now to Lex about having to deal with HP again and figure this out (I’ve been on chat support with them now for awhile and the dude has no idea, he keeps asking where I bought the printer from!) and sweet Lex says, “We can just color it in with markers or crayons. It’s ok Mom.” Isn’t he sweet!? :)
I love finding these things around. This one he left in my bed after quiet time one day.
While discussing bowling and an upcoming bowling date (which happened this morning and was fun!) we had the following conversation.
Me, to Lex: “Bowling costs money, but we have a coupon for a free game of bowling.”
Lex: “Then it won’t cost us any money!”
Me: “Well, the coupon is just for one person, so I still have to pay for everyone else.”
Lex: “Ok, then you can use coupon for you.”
Me: “Why?”
Lex: “So it won’t cost your money. I don’t have any money so we won’t have to spend any money.”
Me: “So you think that if you don’t have any money then they won’t charge you any money?”
Lex: “Of course. How can I pay money for bowling if I don’t have any money.”
Hm…. I think this boy needs a lesson in finance. I hope this conversation makes sense in text. It was funny in person :)
This morning we went bowling and invited one of his classmates. It was a lot of fun! The two boys and Eve and I all bowled and I got a spare in the 8th frame to eek out a win over the 6yr old! Then they ran around and happily shared $2 in quarters at the video arcade. Good times!
I hope I’m not about to jinx this, but Lex has had 11 dry nights in a row. After five nights with a dry diaper he opted to try sleeping without the diaper. He’s tried once or twice in the past and always wet his bed pretty quickly… but so far he has been dry every morning! Perhaps he’s all done with diapers…? Not unheard of at this age :)
Last week, while listening to Lex very excitedly tell me that he only has to earn two more stickers at school to get a fancy bracelet prize (he got it today!), it occurred to me that we haven’t done sticker charts around here in awhile and it may be a useful to our morning routine. I discussed it with him this weekend and he was super excited. Together we made up a chart, some goals (out the door with no fussing and in the car by 8am), and some rewards (watch a movie, date with mom or dad, trip to the science museum, etc.) The deal is if he gets all five stickers in a week he’ll get to choose a reward on the weekend. He has been talking about this since Saturday and was out the door bright and early Monday and today. It’s awesome, so far! I know it won’t last forever, but I’m hoping it will at least last long enough to put an end to his whining about school habit.
He hung it on his door and asks me each morning if he can put a sticker on the chart. He is so cute!
Of course we’ve already run into a small glitch. Snow day tomorrow. That’s probably an automatic sticker, right? He shouldn’t lose the week because of the weather. :)
More for Lex:
See what Lex learned from his fire station pamphlets?
Check out the sun shining through our "stained glass" pictures. It was beautiful.
Have I told you lately about my struggles with Lex’s behavior? I’m sure I have. He has turned into a cranky, grumpy monkey. The whole school thing, the stubbornness, the crankiness… It’s driving me crazy! Yesterday we were having a nice time playing in the snow when he suddenly pushed Eve over. For no apparent reason that I could see. Then, as she sat on the ground crying, and I tried to walk over to them in the deep snow, he picked up a snowball and threw it in her face!!!! That is NOT OK behavior in this family! I sent him inside and he gave me a snotty comment about wanting to go in anyway and then stuck his tongue out at me as he went in! Grr!! My friend and her son were over so we all tried to have as much fun in the snow as we could while Lex watched from the window. When we came everyone but Lex got hot chocolate. He cried. I told him that boys who act sweet outside get hot chocolate inside, but boys who don’t, don’t. He got over it quickly, but mumbled some stuff under his breath at me.
I want to blame it on outside influences, so easy to do, but I had a brilliant (I hope!) realization today. I was reading Calvin and Hobbes to Eve at lunch today and it struck me that all of Lex’s misbehaviors of late are very Calvin-esque. Very! So I rounded up the books and put them back in storage. Alan got them out a few weeks ago and the kids were excited. I know they are not age appropriate, but I thought the kids would get bored of them quickly. Turns out the kids LOVE them and read, or want them read, all the time. All the time! The comics are funny, of course, but obviously not age appropriate and I don’t think the kids even get the jokes. Lex seems to get the snotty attitude though!
So I put them all away. Eve fussed for a few minutes and then got over it. Lex fussed for a bit longer when he got home. He threatened to be be angry at me for the rest of his life. He promised to fight me. Then decided it would be a physical fight. I am proud to say I held my ground and did a superb job handling him and it didn’t escalate at all. After about five minutes he had moved on and I was feeling like a great mom! Yay for those moments!!
At our informal dinner tonight Eve read some good books she hasn’t read in awhile and Lex pulled out his dinosaur book. THAT’S what I want them reading! Lex told me about stegosauruses forming protective circles to protect their young from a tyrannosaurus rex, and he noticed that an author in the dinosuar book is also a regular contributor the Highlight’s magazine. I was so happy! His brain needs dinosaurs and good books, not snotty six year olds throwing snowballs at girls.
Good job mommy!
Operation Behavioral Change, Stage Two: TBD?
We sent Lex to school yesterday, more or less happily, but got called back about ninety minutes later because he had cut his lip. Apparently a boy pushed by him, knocking him over and he fell against the back of a metal chair. He somehow cut right through his lip. I was on my way to drop Eve off at a playdate, so Alan (who has the week off) went to pick him up. The school nurse suggested a trip to the doctor, so off they went. The doctor said that it looked ok and didn’t need stitches. Alan bought some ice cream and they came home for some cuddling on the couch.
When Eve got home from her playdate she joined Alan and Lex on the couch.
He cut through under his lip and scratched his chin. Doesn't he look sad? I don't think it hurt too badly though because he was up and bouncing around pretty quickly.
Our new printer has fancy features that let you print projects and coloring pages. Alan taught the kids how to use it, then they all sat down and made some cars and pixie houses. This might be the most arts and crafts Alan has done in years. :)
This morning when I dropped him off at school all the kids were staring at him and trying to get a peek. His best friend came over and put his arm around Lex and asked if he was ok. Another little girl gave Lex a big hug. He told me today that the hug helped make his feelings better (because the boy who pushed by him hurt his feelings). It was cute. Before I left the room I explained to Lex why all the kids were looking at him. His teacher said they all had a ton of questions yesterday and were very concerned about him. I wonder if he’s the first real injury of the school year. Go Lex! :)
How do kids do it? This is how we found Lex last night. Sound asleep.
Once or twice a month we find them in odd positions like this. Often we laugh and photograph it before moving them :) I can’t remember if I’ve posted such pics before.