Routine gone haywire?

Have you ever felt like you have so much on your mind, so much to tell the world, yet there are no words forming in an understandable order?  I pretty much have been feeling like that lately.  How many times did I open the blog page to write something, just to close it again and go and do something else.  Well I'm still feeling like that, but will try anyway.


http://www.dreamstime.com/royalty-free-stock-photo-confused-dinosaur-image13672635

Play Therapy update:
I have received confirmation from the play therapist this morning that Kiddy#1 no longer needs play therapy as she adjusted well to her new school and environment now.  I am so relieved.  Kiddy#2 on the other hand has not yet adjusted to her new school and the bigger class and will continue her sessions.  A new teacher started recently whom she absolutely adores.  She does seem much happier and seems to be making progress.  She has made one friend, but does not always feel like playing with her (or anyone else for that matter).  I'm hoping to find a way of encouraging her to play with the friends in her class more.  I have mentioned this to the teacher yesterday who will hopefully also give it some thought.

Routine:
We had such a nice routine going before Granny came to visit at the end of last year.  For a chance it felt a bit like we had things under control and 'knew what we were doing' (is that even possible with pre-schoolers?  I might have been in denial!!).  However, since the Christmas season and going back to school/work, things haven't been like that again.  Yes, they do go to bed the same time every night, they do get supper more or less the same time every night, etc., but I'm missing something.  Maybe the play time we used to have where all four of us just had half an hour of fun together.  It seems like evenings are such a rush to get everything ready for the next day and to get the girls fed and in bed on time that we are missing that important part of our day.  Yes, of course we still spend time with them, but it is in-between doing other things.  I think it is time to rethink our routine and just stick to what we know worked for us last time.  It is easier said than done, but something which is very important for us to 'get right' again.

The girls have a poster which the therapist made for them with our 'house rules' on it.  The first rule is "to be kind to one another".  There are 9 other rules like "listen to Mommy and Daddy the first time";  "share your toys", etc.  Every time they do something to the contrary to what the poster says I will say something like "what does your rules say?" and almost always one of them will reply with "be kind!!" whether it was relevant to what our conversation was about or not...

They are getting along better lately.  Previously they would have scratched or punched each other and scream at each other when they happen to be in the same room at the same time, etc.  It was quite hectic, but the play therapy seemed to have helped a lot.  Kiddy#1 is very jealous of her little sister (although we do try to give them equal attention) which always resulted in them fighting.  Nowadays they love spending time together and just play or colour in together.  In the past they wouldn't even think of sharing the crayons without trying to scratch each other's eyes out.  It is so lovely to hear them laugh and being silly together.

Mom, No-one will like you!

http://www.clipartof.com/gallery/clipart/worry.html

Tuesday was a public holiday.  While Hubby and I were still asleep, Kiddy#1 woke up and decided it is time to be her own hairdresser.  Within a few minutes she managed to cut all of her locks off!  I mean everything.  She came into our room with her hoodie on.  Seeing that it is summer, I found this a bit suspicious.  I asked her to please remove the hoodie, but she was hesitant.  After convincing her she took it off and I saw what she had done.  She simply said "Look Mom, I look like James".  I had no idea who James was.  I found out afterwards that he is a boy in her class.  At this point I wasn't sure if I should laugh or cry.  It was pointless getting upset over it, because the scissors were left on a counter where she could reach them.  (May I just mention that I didn't leave them there!).  I took a picture of her new hair-do and showed her.  She was even more shocked than me and eventually started crying, begging me to put her long princess hair back!

The New School
The girls visited their new school and loved it!  I am so relieved.  They love their new teachers and when we dropped them off Kiddy#1 asked me to please leave her at school and to go to work!  Honestly... Mom's must be so thick-skinned!

Enough TV for one day!
On the weekend we were about to go out when I told Kiddy#1 she couldn't watch another DVD because we we had to go.  She was not impressed.  I've tried to explain that we were in a hurry to which she replied "Mom, no-one will like you!".  I must admit I did laugh to myself about that comment.  Obviously not where she could see me.  It reminded me so much of how cheeky I was at times when I was younger.

Routine went out the door!
Since the school holiday started the girls' routine is all messed up.  Granny is visiting so that is something new to them as well as we don't often get family visiting us.  That in itself caused their routine to be less-strict.  Last night they refused to go to sleep.  Daddy was working late and by 10PM I was still fighting to get them to go to sleep.  I heard Kiddy#2 fiddling and went to see what she was up to.  I found her lying in the passage with her pillow on the cold tiles!  I took a picture and when she saw the camera she loudly said "Cheeeeeeese!" with a big grin on her face!  Looking at the picture today I think she was so cute, naughty but cute.  Last night I was not so amused.

25 Days to Christmas
We've done a few crafts and read passages from the Bible surrounding Jesus' birth and upbringing.  Here are a few things we did (again, most of the ideas came from Melanie B. http://melanieblignaut.wordpress.com/):

(I baked these for them as a surprise)

On the days we didn't make any crafts we were singing Christmas Carols or they've made crafts at Sunday School.

Wishing everyone and your families a blessed Christmas filled with love, joy and peace. 

Counting our words

Little Kiddy#2 is at an age where she repeats EVERYTHING we say.  So now we have to be so very careful (we should always be, I know) of what we say in front of her.  Yesterday was so funny, her daddy was telling Kiddy#1 to pick up her toys and she echoed every command from him.  This really got to Kiddy#1 who walked out of the lounge while making little fists shouting her sister's name.  It was very funny, but of course we couldn't laugh because they were so serious about it.

Yesterday afternoon Kiddy#2 fell over clothes that was lying on the floor ready to be washed, and bumped her head against the door frame.  She had a big bump on her forehead.  Luckily the bump is gone now.  I got such a fright!


www.toysrus.com

They've got one of these bouncy animal things, I'm not sure what kind of animal it is, but it looks like it might be a cow.  (Not the one in the picture, theirs is yellow!).  One day Kiddy#2 came to me and asked me where "Boink" is.  We soon realized that she was referring to her bouncy animal toy.  We thought it was so cute that she named it so appropriately.

We haven't done a 25 Days To Christmas craft since Friday due to a lack of concentration and a lack of time, but we did do our daily Bible stories surrounding the birth of Jesus Christ.  Yesterday at Sunday School they made Angel Crafts made from Doilies and colourful pipe-cleaners.  Something similar to this:



The difference was that the bigger doilies were used for the body and the smaller ones for the wings.  The heads and halos were made from the pipe-cleaners.  They also received a cover for a light switch each with the verse, John 8:2, written on it.