They had all three been teething again....generally they each take a turn for about a week...except Asher who never really seems to be very irritated with the whole teething thing. Poor Gabriel had a super bad week last week....for the first time EVER I had to get him from his classroom at church. It was seriously like someone had stole my child and replaced him with a crazy demon child....I have never seen him so grrrr. Luckily when we finally got him in the truck he fell right to sleep and woke up my normal child again. The craziness was quite embarrassing though.
Attitude and Character is something we always work on here at the Howard house. Our kiddos are nearing the 2 year old age, and I simply refuse to give in to the "terrible two's" mark people put on kids. Hence we have been working since day one to give our children a foot up on this label.
So what are we doing?
#1 is prayer. We believe it is of vital importance to pray over our children...we pray for their character, attitudes, behavior, health, discernment, wisdom, and that as they grow they will learn who they are in Christ, put Him first. We also pray that they will grow in love, towards each other, us and other people. Discipline is also HUGE....and Consistency in that discipline is even more so. When a parent disciplines they must always be in control. An out of control parent cannot teach a child self-control. We discipline in grace...we do not tell our children "you are being bad" or stuff like that....it is what they are doing that is bad. We show them that we love them no matter what, but there will be consequences for bad choices/wrong decisions/disobeying. SO when our children receive a spank on the bottom or a time out, they are also talked to about why. I know it may seem crazy to some, but children really do understand more than you know. We teach our kids to look us in the eye when we talk to them....which is hard for even most adults :) We believe that if we take the time with our kids at young ages, it will save them in the long run. BUT we are definitely no experts. We just do as we feel God leading us.
Another way of discipline we use in our house is "good jobs". When our kids do something that warrants a good job, we clap for them and tell them! If one get's a good job, the other two are quick to follow as they too want some props! It can be things as little as putting their drinks up where they belong, or throwing trash away, or helping pick up toys, giving each other lovies (hugs n' kisses), obeying the 1st time. They are young, so every little thing counts in our book! Since we have done this for so long, they also clap for each other!
Are our kids perfect? far from it! Are we perfect? heck no! BUT we seek God's face and strive to be better each day than we were the day before. We are going to have days of fit throwing here and there. It's all part of the process. But it's what we do, how we act....how we RESPOND as parents that will make all the difference!
anyways.....enough boring rambling about discipline.....here are a few pics!!!
Gabriel in daddy's shoes :) he was having some trouble trying to walk in them to say the least....prob why he generally sticks with mine :P ha
More snow....a lot more snow! This time we had enough that Chris was able to stay home as the roads were impossible....So the kiddos got some sledding time with dad!!
Acting like big kids....
Our trio is obsessed with sitting in "big people" chairs, so every once in a while we are letting them eat a snack in reg chairs instead of their high chairs. Although they can barely even see over the table, they think it is SUPER cool!!
Trinity taking Asher for a ride on the motorcycle!
Everyone in a front facing carseat!!! Way to go Asher on the weight gain!!! woo hoo
love the "an out of control parent cannot teaqch a child self control". that is good and so true.
ReplyDeletebtw your parenting book is in the bag of clothes i need to give you, lol
i agree terrible 2's is a bad confession! i have a book called, "making the terrible 2's terrific" haha
oh and i'm sorry about about gus not being a great sharer sunday, in my effort to be consistent with him i made things worse. lol
ha! you're funny....I would have done the same thing to mine...sometimes we just have to remember that consistency may not work to our advantage at the time, but in the long run will :) you did the right thing. With mine, I'm ok with a little fit if it means character building in the end :)
ReplyDeleteIt was seeing you guys last night.
ReplyDelete