*sigh* ....Ethan.....

*SIGH* Ethan, I love you, but YOU are very crafty! (And when I say crafty, I mean devious)

How do I get this boy under control? I have mentioned in older posts that Ethan is a bit of a troublemaker at school. He just cannot sit still. He does not listen well. He likes to do his own thing and NOT pay attention. His teacher has a "star system" and if a child misbehaves he has to move his star down, and each time he moves it down he loses a bit of recess time. If he behaves well, the star remains at the top of the charts. If that happens, they receive a star stamp and if they stay at the top for the entire week, the children get to pick a prize out of the treasure box. I have been working with Ethan the entire school year. Figuring out ways to reward him when he behaves and praise him for all the good works he does and when he misbehaves trying to figure out an appropriate consequence to fit the crime. It does not seem to be helping because this child will do whatever he pleases, whenever he pleases. He does not listen! Now I am not saying he is a bad kid. He is actually a GREAT kid! He is very helpful, loving and kind...when he wants to be. He is incredibly smart. And when he decides to actually pay attention in class he excels! In fact, he is an incredible speller. He always aces the pretest for spelling so he never has to take the actual test and that earns himself extra playtime on Fridays. Just last week he aced the pre-test and got 2 out of the 5 challenge words correct!
(Sidenote: these were the challenge words; natural, pollution, aside, resources, and eggshells. He got aside and eggshells correct. This is how he spelled the other three; nachril, polooshun, recorses....I just thought those mispellings were so cute. He did a great job of sounding them out!)
Okay, back to what I was saying before. He really is a smart kid, but we have our troubles with him and I just do not know what to do. On Friday, I was talking with his teacher about the week. She said he struggled alot in class this week and didn't stay at top. She was sad because the week before he did so GOOD at keeping his star at the top of the charts. I interrupted her saying that he did stay at top on Tuesday. She looked at me and said, no he didn't. I said, Yes, he did. He had a star stamp on his hand. I remember because I let him stay up a little later that night. His teacher hung her head down low and said she was hoping it wasn't true. I asked her to explain. She said that on Tuesday she had to leave early so Ethan's class was walked out to "pick-up" with another teacher. (Ethan has play practice on Tuesday and stays on campus) She said another teacher had seen Ethan go back into the classroom for something and came back out a few minutes later. I was stunned! I didn't know what to say or do. I asked Ethan why he snuck back in to the room to stamp his own hand. (as if i didn't already know) He said he wanted to get a "special".
So now what? Suggesstions? Anyone? This kid is getting sneakier everyday! Help!

Stranger?

Okay....ONE more post....

This week in Aidan's preschool I have been teaching them about safety and stranger danger. I was very impressed that all the preschool kids already "knew" to dial 9-1-1 in case of an emergency and to run away from strangers. They seemed to be listening and answering all the questions correctly. Tuesday after preschool, Aidan was riding his bike in the front drive. I was unloading groceries from the car. Over at my neighbors house, there was a man there who has been there the last few days to try to clean up the yard for a new couple moving into the house. His truck was in their driveway. After I unloaded all the groceries I called for Aidan to come in. He didn't respond. I walked further out into the yard and called for him again and heard his little voice say from behind the man's truck, "over here mom". I walked around the truck all the while hearing him a big belly laugh. I asked what was going on and the man told me what had happened.....

Aidan: (riding up to the 'stranger') HI! My name is Aidan. I am not supposed to talk to strangers, but you're a nice stranger.
Stranger: Okay, thanks Aidan.
Aidan: Hey!? How'd you know my name?
Stranger: You just told me
Aidan: Oh.
Me: Whats going on Aidan?
Aidan: Hi mom, I know I'm not supposed to talk to strangers, but he is a really nice stranger. He knows my name too.

I started to laugh too. The man was really nice, and he said he has had the same talk with his little kids. I chatted with him a bit and then gathered the kids into the house. I was walking into the house I told Aidan I didn't think he quite understood my lesson today. He said, "I know....I am not supposed to talk to strangers, but mom, he was a Nice stranger." I guess I still need to work with him on that.

I'm an AWESOME mom!

I'm an AWESOME mom! That is what Aidan told me after I fixed his bike. Normally, I would brush it off like it was no big deal. I mean, really, what is the big deal? Greg showed me once how to change a flat; take the wheel off, take the tire off the wheel, take the tube out of the tire, put a new tube in, put the tire back on the wheel, put the wheel back on the bike. Sounds simple, right? Nothing I couldn't handle, and in 20 minutes his bike was up and rolling again. No big deal. He took his bike for a test-run and it was perfect. He rode up to me with a huge a grin on his face, and said, "You are an AWESOME mom! It totally works!!". And then Ethan nicely commented to me, "good job mom". Then it struck me....it was a big deal. It was a big deal to him that I took the time out of my day to fix something he so desperately wanted fix, so that he could ride bikes with his big brother. It was a big deal....to see him happy and know it was my fixing his bike that did that. It was a big deal....that I learned how to fix a tire so I could be prepared for this very instance. It was a BIG deal.

I've never really paid attention to the small things as being big deals. I never gave myself any credit for the little things I did. I've never thought of myself as an awesome mom. I struggle with motherhood daily. I never think I am doing a good job. I all too often focus on the bad and not on the good. I always feel like other moms are way better than I am. Other moms do way more for their kids than I do. I feel like so many other moms have their life more in order and put together than I ever will. I never think my kids ever appreciate me. So thank you Aidan for thinking I am awesome. Thank you Ethan for telling me I did a good job. I really needed to hear those things.

That day, for the first time in a long time, I really felt like an awesome mom.

I AM AN AWESOME MOM!

Las Vegas

The first weekend of May, Greg and I decided to take a spur of the moment getaway trip to Las Vegas. My parents said they would watch the kids. So we packed my VW, plugged in the GPS and hit the road. We got on the road a little late Friday so we didn't roll into Vegas until about 11pm, but hey, Vegas never sleeps, so we didn't miss out. Not more than 30 minutes in Vegas, I hit a slot machine (nickels) and one some cash! I cashed-out immediately and bought Greg and I some dinner. :o)

After a good nights rest and sleeping in, we headed out for the day. Saturday was jam packed. We decided to visit Mandalay Bay and see the Shark Reef Aquarium. Very nice. I loved the Octopus! It was so active that day and I snapped a lot of pictures.

One thing that Greg and I like to do is eat. We like finding those "hole in the wall" restaurants that have the best food, usually recommended by someone. One of the shows we like is Guy Fieri's, 'Diners, Drive-ins and Dives'. Before we left we did some research and found 1 restaurant in Vegas (The Four Kegs) that he has been to many times before when he was going to school at UNLV. We watched the video clip of the place and we knew we HAD to try it. While in Vegas, we knew we had to schedule time in our busy day to take a break and get some grub and FOUR KEGS was the place we were going. The lady who served us was just the sweetest gal ever. She let us know what they were famous for and gave us some other recommendations from the menu as well. We ordered their famous Stromboli, and a dozen of their Southern Spicy hot wings and an order of onion rings. All I gotta say is YUMMMMMMM!!!! It was so good. The wings were the best I have ever had. If you are ever in Vegas, I recommend going there! Here is link to video clip from Guy's show featuring Four Kegs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHizzoeEYKY&feature=player_embedded

After a busy day of walking, gambling and eating, we decided to head back to our room to rest up before our nights activities started, but not before we placed a couple bets on the Kentucky Derby. ;o) (That was really fun to watch, too bad our horses didn't win.)

We had bought tickets to go see Cirque du Soleil's "KA" at the MGM Grand. I have never seen a Cirque du Soliel show, so I was really excited to finally get to see one. It was really good, and I am so impressed with their talent. The special effects were awesome too. I really enjoyed myself. I think Greg was pleasantly surprised that he liked it also. (He was a little hesitant at first). The MGM was really crowded. Apparently there was a fight that night too. Greg isn't too big on crowds, so we walked across the catwalk over to New York, New York, where we got to witness a fight of our own. We had stopped to take pictures and down below were a couple of chicks have their own little smackdown. It was quite entertaining. We couldn't really hear what they were fighting about, but one girl got a couple good hits in and knocked the other gal to the ground.

Sunday morning we went to the Stratosphere to watch the people do the SkyJump off the top of the Stratosphere and free-fall over 800 feet. That was pretty cool. Next time I go, I want to do it. Overall, we had a pretty good time. The drive home was long. We got stuck in traffic at the Hoover Dam for about an hour, then a few miles past that there was a fatal accident that delayed us another couple hours. After we got moving again things were fine until we reached the Phoenix city limits and the freeway was down to one lane for another accident. Ugh! By that time all we wanted to do was GET HOME! (but we still had to pick up the kids) Other than that, it was a good getaway.

Tombstone

Over the weekend, Greg and I were invited to go to Tombstone by my brother Christian and his girlfriend Liz. We gladly accepted as all of our boys are HUGE fans of playing cowboys and getting into gunfights. (Aidan is the most into it...his favorite movies...John Wayne movies. I swear, its all he watches!) All my boys wanted to wear their cowboy outfits, so they strutted the street of Tombstone in their cowboy vests, hats, bandanas, and guns. Aidan was hilarious, he was so concerned about losing his gun that he kept his hand on it the whole time. It looked like he was ready to get into a gunfight himself, ready for a quick-draw. All the "Tombstone cowboys" saw him and did a quick draw to him, and he didn't get what was going on. What do ya expect...he's 4! It was a really nice day, not too hot with a nice breeze which made the day that much better. We had a great time. We saw a rootin'-tootin' cowboy show, and saw the Birdcage theater. We had all the kids (my boys and Liz's girls) take one of those old time photos too. It was soooo Cute!! (I will have to post it later after I get it scanned) I brought my camera and was able to get a couple nice pictures as well. Thanks for the invite Christian and Liz. We had a great time. :)

Aidan unknowingly ready for a quick-draw

The kids with some towns folk

Liz's girls

Marshall Aidan and his prisoner, Evil Ethan

Here are some of my "artsy" photos

Tombstone