Monday, January 26, 2015

Flight of the Kiddos

For the first time since before we were married, we are escaping the cold Vermont winter for a week. We are flying to Florida to visit Grandma and Grandpa.

Big Bro was a little anxious about flying but quickly calmed down and enjoyed the flight. He sat between his father and a kind, chatty French Canadian grandfather who taught him French words and talked about everything from chickens to Wild Kratts. This was actually his second flight, but he doesn't remember flying to LA when he was 1.


Lil Sis was anxious too at first because the hum of the airplane as we boarded was too loud. I spent the time covering her ears and playing with baby Pepper and some other stuffed friends to distract her. 


Soon she was happy to just eat snacks and watch shows on the smartphones. She was a superstar on her first flight!

The flight itself was nice. It felt like an old fashioned, pre-911 flight with the seatbelt sign off most of the time and people lingering in the aisles stretching their legs and chatting. Lil Sis made herself right at home, sitting between me and our seat mate, a sweet lady from Malone, NY via Montreal. Our seat mate didn't even mind that Lil Sis sprawled out between us.



This entry barely seems blog worthy since there's no lesson to learn or funny incident to tell. It was just...easy!..and even pleasant. I took a nap, I wrote this blog entry, I just wished I had brought a book. My carry on was overstuffed with snacks which was my excuse for not bringing one, and I figured I wouldn't even get to touch my phone since the kids would be using it nonstop, so no kindle book time. But I was wrong. Noted for next time.

There was a bit of turbulence at the end of the flight but the kids just giggled like it was a ride at the fair. Then, despite a long wait at the baggage claim, a long drive in Florida traffic to get to a restaurant, wait for food, then drive finally to the grandparents' house, the kids were phenomenally good the whole time. Seeing their good buddies Grandma and Grandpa had a huge hand in that, as did playing outside on green grass without boots or coats.

Day 1 of vacation = huge success!




Monday, January 12, 2015

Archive of my BVTMB Posts

In honor of recently publishing my last post for the Burlington Moms Blog, here is a list of all my posts published there. Hopefully the links will stay good over the years so I can go back and see them if I so desire.


Though I enjoyed writing them all, I have marked my personal favorites in bold. They were the ones that were the most important/moving/cathartic for me to write.



































Wednesday, January 7, 2015

Solution to Screaming

Big Bro has never been that excited about preschool. He has fun when he's there and gets glowing reports, but at home he pitches a fit each school morning.

I was getting really tired of his tantrums every time I would have to tell him, "it's a school day, please go get dressed."

Nooooooo! It isn't! I'm not going!!!! Cry. Scream. Whine. Pout. Stomp. Repeat.

Over the Christmas break I read Vicki Hoefle's book "Duct Tape Parenting." In it she talks about making kids take on responsibilities for themselves in age appropriate ways to make mornings run more smoothly. She talks specifically about kids having an alarm clock to get up for school so that it's not mom doing the all the wake up calls and insisting, "no really, it's time, I mean it, you have to get up and dressed for school."

I had an alarm clock for school days when I was little (my mom laughed when I explained Vicki Hoefle's methods because they are so similar to what she did when I was growing up), so this wasn't a parenting leap...merely a recognition that it's time

I asked if Big Bro would like to have an alarm clock to get him up on school days. He was very excited by this, so we went to the store and he picked out his own clock. It barks when it rings.


I told him that on school days his alarm will bark and that's his cue to get dressed, brush teeth, and eat breakfast. If he does all those things with time leftover, then he can watch a short show before school.

So far the system is working wonderfully and we have had much happier, smoother, and timely mornings. Let's hope it continues even after the novelty has worn off.