Tag Archives: Lex

Charts and crafts

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Lex finished his “get out the door on time” sticker chart last week so we did some chart making this afternoon. I made one for myself (dorky, I know, but I really need to figure out how to motivate myself to lose these last 10lbs!) and then Lex made himself another one. I was going to make his, but he wanted to do it himself. His spacing was a bit off, which worked out well because Eve wanted a chart too, so he cut his apart and made one for him and one for her. Isn’t he sweet?!

Lex writing

Lex making his chart

smiles

Smiles for the camera!

writing the days

He wanted me to write the days because he was worried he couldn't fit them in the boxes. When I explained the M/T/W/TH/F shortcut he was thrilled.

After our chart making activities we decided to make cookies (hmm… and I wonder why I have trouble with those last 10lbs!). Lex helped for a few minutes, but on the way to the recycling bin with the empty egg carton he announced, “We could recycle this, or… we could do a craft project!!” Coincidentally I recently read about an egg carton dump truck project that I thought looked like fun. Lex loved the idea. We brought my laptop to the table and he followed the instructions while Eve and I made cookies. He needed some help with the cutting and hole punching, and he made a few modifications of his own (need tape, no time for glue to dry!) and he had a great time. It was awesome.

following directions

Lex is excellent at following directions.

glue

I got the glue out but Lex insisted tape would be better. He was right.

coloring

Lex told me decorating the truck was his favorite part. This is his "stop taking pictures of me" smile :)

finished

The finished dump truck. Pretty cool, huh? It even has a license plate on the front.

open dump truck

Kindergarten has him well trained. He wrote his name on the truck so we don't get it confused with all the other egg carton dump trucks around here!

Sick days

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We have been dealing with an interesting sickness in Lex this week. Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning he said his stomach felt bad and he needed to throw up. He never actually did throw up (then) and he seemed fine otherwise (no fever, ok energy, ok color, etc.) so I sent him to school on Wednesday. I was wondering if maybe it was nerves more than actual illness because he kept saying his stomach was “flipping over.” He apparently did ok, but when he got home he ate a few bites of snack, threw up, then fell asleep in my arms on the couch at 4:45. Alan got home awhile later and put him to bed and he slept straight through until 6am Thursday morning. He woke up happy and ready to go to school. I chatted with his teacher Thursday morning at drop-off and she had two theories. She said on Tuesday his best friend announced that they were no longer best friends, but apparently continued to play with Lex all day Tuesday and Wednesday anyway. She said other than the statement he made there seemed to be no change in behavior. She also said that they played the game that Lex doesn’t like in gym class again last week, after not having played it for a long time. He did fine Thursday, but when he got home today he spent the afternoon on the floor saying his belly hurts and he needs to throw up. Fortunately he didn’t actually throw up this time.

I’m left wondering if he is really sick or feeling anxious or something. One thing I do know is that he is VERY tired. We’ve had several busy weeks and weekends with lots of travel and I think he (and all of us!) just need a rest. We are looking forward to a low-key weekend coming up. Eve has one birthday party to attend, but otherwise I think we are going to be camping out at home.

Wednesday night when I brought Eve up to bed we found Lex sleeping like this:

lex sleeping p1

lex sleeping p2

lex sleeping p3

Our official “throw up bowl” is in there somewhere and for a minute I was worried he was going for the bowl in his sleep and missed. I was quite nervous about what we would find under that pile. Fortunately, it was just him, sleeping. Crazy sleeper!

By the way, did I mention that he is completely out of diapers now? I think it has been a month or two now that he has been sleeping in underwear and waking up dry. Yay!

Photography

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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.

doll collage

Here is a little video Alan made of Lex taking the flower photo below.

Smart boy

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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! :)

Printer problems

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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!? :)

Free bowling

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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!

Dry nights

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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 :)

A new sticker chart

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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.

sticker chart

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:

smoke alarms

See what Lex learned from his fire station pamphlets?

stained glass pictures

Check out the sun shining through our "stained glass" pictures. It was beautiful.

Operation Behavioral Change, Stage One: Removal of Offending Items

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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?