TrainerMomma & Good Days

One of the great things about moving is that you get to meet new, fabulous, and inspiring people. I have met such a person, and she has inspired me to make more of an effort to get in shape, eat well, and keep a smile on my face. She is marvelous and I completely love her blog (TrainerMomma), and find her enthusiasm really refreshing. She just makes me feel like it isn't hopeless or impossible. I am also unashamed to admit that she is having a giveaway that I would really like to win.

Randomly, but along the lines of meeting new people, these are the LG's new girlfriends. They are adorable and I could eat them up. Their mother is from Spain, father from Russia, and the girls are already trilingual. And so cute.



We have also been having a hard time recently with the LG. We have frequently been talking about his high energy while waving our rabbit ear fingers. The little devil has been making many more appearance than the little angel.



After a few breakdowns over the phone with my mom, in desperation she sent me a book called The Power of Positive Parenting by Glenn Latham. I read the first 3 chapters last night and decided I would start today with testing the effectiveness of its principles. Wow. What a difference a day makes.



This is not to say that annoying, obnoxious and downright stinky behavior didn't occur, but I stuck to his advice to ignore most of it. I ignored Mater as he was driven repeatedly into the glass patio door, ignored with crossed fingers and high anxiety as the LG carried the TP around the house teaching her to "walk", ignored his jumping from one item of furniture to the next, and ignored his spitting on the TP. I also made an effort to praise every possible positive behavior which included tenderly kissing the TP, cooperatively getting into his car seat, taking his shoes off at the door when we arrived home, leaving from the park without a tantrum, and making it though dinner out at Chipotle without one single outburst or reprimand. It really was an incredible day. And it makes me depressed. Depressed because it makes me realize that it really is all my fault. I know that as parents we like to stick together and tell each other we are doing a great job, but just one day of refusing to be bothered has made all the difference. Yowza. Anyway. For anyone interested in how this progresses, I plan to chronicle my study of this book and ensuing behavior modifications or lack thereof on my educational blog (the BigEd Project) that I haven't touched in months.

So we took these Easter pics of the kids for posterity, and as any of you with children know, it was not easy. There were a few gems, however, including this one that captures the enormity of the TP's mouth. It's enormous. She can easily stick her own fist in there, and unfortunately, we have also learned that the LG's foot fits in there as well ; )



Additionally, thanks to the BK and his idea to give them toys (I was adamantly opposed - I mean, come on, can't they just sit still like porcelain dolls for 5 minutes with beautiful smiles on their faces without being coerced?). Of course it worked like a gem. Love these two sweeties. So glad that they are mine. So glad they tolerate me as their mother. Just so glad generally.