Behavioral Helps

I've been finding different ways to help with behavior and cleaning around the house. Here are a couple things I made this past week:


I found this on Pinterest (which is where all good ideas are found these days) and one day last week, when Natalia was *actually* playing by herself, I saved and printed the sheet, found the closest thing that looked like it would hold toys and taped it on. Then I printed up a chore sheet, cut them in to strips, made a little pocket to put them in and I think it turned out pretty great. We've only had to use it once so far. Hopefully it will help keep the house clean :).



I made this chart after seeing my SILs on her blog. She had a link to another blog with almost this exact chart. I threw it together in like 10 minutes. I've been getting a bit desperate for a visual to help Leilani see how she's behaving. She loves doing nice things now because she wants to make it up to the top "outstanding" block. Everytime she makes it to the top, she gets a "good behavior" card and after she collects ten, she gets to pick a prize. So far, she has three and we've only been doing this for three days. So, that's good.


I have a pocket folder on its way from amazon, along with some strips to write the house rules on, and I'm going to post it next to the behavior chart so Leilani has a visual reminder of the rules. Hopefully, that will help her remember and improve her behavior. I got that idea from my SIL, too. I'm stealing one last idea from her (for now, I'm sure in the future I'll steal more) and when Leilani breaks a rule, I'll have her write it as many times as she is old. Hopefully that will help her remember the rules, too. I also got a time-out rug. It's pink, has a princess crown and says "Even a Princess Needs a Time-Out". Leilani thinks it's super cute. So far, we've had to use it once.

Hopefully, all of these measures together will help. And, I'm still not yelling (yay!). We're doing lots of stuff together, cuddling, and reading.

The First of February

So today, to help me along in my no-yell challenge, I made this:

I went to Wal-Mart and found a frame on clearance, got some orange paint, glitter and ribbon. I painted the frame, glittered it up, made a bow and glued it on. Then I put some pink colored scrapbook paper and used the glass as a dry erase board and wrote "Raise your words, not voice. - It is rain that grows flowers, not thunder."

After Natalia woke up, I put her in the stroller and we went for a little walk around the neighborhood. Only about twenty minutes, but it felt great and Natalia LOVED it. My new mantra is "even a small workout is better than no workout." Sometimes I feel kind of like "why should I work out, I can only do it for a few minutes" so now, I'm just gonna do those few minutes. I also bought a baby yoga book for Natalia and a Yoga ABC coloring book for Leilani - we'll do a new move each week and she'll get to color it in, too. I'm really excited. I've been wanting to teach Leilani yoga for a while and now I think I've found a good way to do it.

I had to go get a few things for Super Bowl Sunday...we'll be going over to some friends' house and obviously we'll need some vegan options. I got some vegan burger crumbles, daiya cheddar, salsa and tofu (to make my own vegan sour cream), and I'm going to try to make a dip my brother used to make all the time. It was fantastic and I can't wait to vegan-ize it. I'm also going to try veganizing one of my favorite soups sometime next week - cheesy bacon potato soup. I made a soft cashew cheese I'm going to use in place of the cream cheese, I have smoky tempeh crumbles (in place of the bacon), and soy milk powder to make the heavy cream. Anyway, back to Super Bowl Sunday - I'm also going to make chocolate chip cookie doozers. I'm pretty excited. Tomorrow, Leilani and I will be baking up a storm :).

Tonight we made one of Leilani's favorites - tacos! I use TVP (instead of buying veggie crumbles, it's so much cheaper!) and we used crunchy shells since Leilani specifically requested them. Also, Leilani's school is doing a Read-A-Thon and Leilani needs sponsors! We're going to read 20 minutes a day for the whole month of February (since, ya know, we don't ALREADY do that - averaged out, anyway) for a total of 560 minutes for the month. She's going to read at least five of those minutes, then I'll read the remaining 15 or less. Hopefully, by the end of the month, she'll be reading most of it. That's my personal goal, anyway.

Tomorrow, it's on to baking!

The One-Month No Yell Challange

I don't know when, or even how, but somewhere along the line I turned in to a yeller. Leilani does NOT like bedtime, so puts up a huge fit. I yell. Leilani doesn't want to brush her teeth. I yell. Leilani takes toys away from Natalia. I yell. Leilani plays instead of eating. I yell.

I think you've got the picture. I yell. A lot. I'm not proud of it and I want to change. So I'm issuing myself a month long challenge. For the whole month of February, I'm going to try not to yell. And if I do, I'll apologize and move forward. I'm also going to reward myself if - no, when - I make it. I'm going to buy myself this

from babycakes NYC to make the Fat Pants Cake - brownie, covered with vanilla frosting, then crumbled cookies. Oh yeah...that ought to keep me on track, if nothing else will.

Although, really, I think the improvement in our relationship will be good. I'm tired of yelling. I'm tired of arguing. I'm tired of it all. I need a change and I'm hopeful that this will help. It's hard putting this out online, but I'm hoping that the transparency and accountability will help me. I'm hoping that all of you, my readers, will help me. Just knowing that you're reading this is making me feel more accountable already.

I'm also going to buy the materials to make this today, so I can use it as a bit of inspiration:

I got the idea for both the no-yell challenge and the framed saying above from The Orange Rhino.