Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Careful

Bennett: We have to be careful with Graysie. (Why you ask is he calling him Graysie. Good question.)

Caden: I know. Cause if you hit him in the face he will go 'Waaaaaaaaaaaa. Waaaaaaa.'

This informational tidbit brought to you by the smart boys.

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Manipulation 6 year old style

So yesterday Harrison had a bit of a meltdown. There is a back story to why he melted down but it isn't important to the humorous part of the story.

Harrison had been yelling at me for awhile. In recent weeks we have taken on a new and fairly effective strategy of not listening or responding when Harrison is yelling at us. He knows this, but we remind him as we feel is necessary. When he started on this yelling crusade I politely reminded him that I was not ignoring him, I was just choosing not to listen until he started talking to be in a calm, normal voice. 20 minutes later...

I am sitting in the office and Harrison is yelling. I am not looking at him.

"Why aren't you listening to me? MOM!!! MOM!!! Why!!! Why aren't you listening to me?!?!

"I am going to remind you once more that I am not going to listen to you unless you are not yelling."

Harrison is suddenly silent. With great difficulty he says through a controlled sob: "I'm not yelling now."

As I turn to look at him I say: "O.K. Harrison what do you want to say?"

He gets about 4 inches from my face and yells: "BUT I'M YELLING NOW!!!!"

At this point I came very close to losing my cool. But not in a 'I'm going to rip your head off' kind of way. It is in a 'I don't know if I can keep from laughing in your face' kind of way. Who does this child think he is and where does he get this stuff!?!?!

Friday, April 8, 2011

Sharing


While kissing on Harrison this afternoon he started pulling away from me.

Me: Hey - don't pull away. I am the only girl that gets to kiss you!!

Harrison: No your not!

Me: What other girls have been kissing on you?!?!

Harrison: My grandmas. (shy smile)



I don't always share well...


Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Annie, Annie, mad at Mommy

This morning during reading time, Bennett selected "llama, llama, mad at mama" by Anna Dewdney. We have read other Llama, llama books, but never this one. Before we started I asked everyone if they had been mad at their mama's before.

Bennett: "No. (smiles and gives me a kiss!)

Miles: (sheepish smile) "Nooooooo!"

Caden: "Never!!!"

Annabelle: She gets the biggest smile she has had all morning and shakes her head vigorously up and down!!! I guess she's the only truth-teller I had today. :)

Saturday, April 2, 2011

Random Days

Random days and random pictures.

Celebrating Dr. Suess's birthday and huddling around the kid computer.


What did you say? Maddie is not a horse? Oh, I didn't know...


"We're the three best friends that anyone could have!" (BTW... Miles is shouting FRIENDS!!!!)


Bennett and his babies. They don't look like willing participants in this photo op!


I'm surprised that we don't have cases of mono going on in my house cause there is a lot of kissing going on!!! :)

Caden and Bennett LOVE hidden picture puzzles. This was on a Friday afternoon when Miles had gone home early so I decided to try and take a nap on his bed. Within 10 minutes, Bennett and Caden decided that their quiet time was over and they would join me. Eventually there was not enough room for me!

Bennett often leads the reading after lunch. Sometimes I wonder if he has some sort of crazy memory because he can often repeat books word-for-word after we read them. He really pays attention!!! :)


I am doing everything I can to get Harrison to love reading as much as I do without making it seem like reading is a punishment so I was THRILLED when Bennett showed me the picture that he had just taken! He is a great reader, but he seems to think that he should only read at school! I checked out some Young Cam Jansen books at the library and that is what he is reading here. He likes the mystery of finding out what is going to happen next!

Game One of Thirty-six

Sports season has started once again in the Neipert household. The difference this year is that Bennett is old enough to play baseball, Harrison went from 8 baseball games a season to TWENTY, and Harrison decided that he really wanted to do Spring Soccer as well as Fall Soccer. That means we have up to 3 practices a week and sometimes 3 - 6 games a week depending on the week. This goes on until the second week of June so there is an end in sight!

It may seem like I am complaining, but really it is a lot of fun. Harrison's first soccer game was this morning and he did AWESOME. He scored 3 goals and was always moving and looking for a way to score or play wonderful defense. I'm glad I didn't say no to him when he said he wanted to play soccer. He loves it! I worry a little about "over-scheduling" the kids but I think we will do just fine. It is Chris and I that I worry about! Chris is taking on ALL of the practices and games, while I try and take off enough work to just get to all of the games. Hopefully we remember to feed everyone... :)


Harrison in action!!


Harrison and Josh discussing their awesomeness...


Celebrating a goal. What a great teammate!!!


Bennett was at the game too. It just might have been a little cold for his liking!!