Clean teeth

As a dental assistant I saw many unspeakable things happen to peoples mouths when they didn't take care of their teeth. This has made having clean teeth a big deal for me, and as a result, I always try to make sure Crystal's teeth are clean too. (Little kids with big cavities in the dental chair is a heartbreaking sight).
Anyway, I'm glad to report that Crystal loves brushing her teeth. As a matter of fact, she's slightly obsessed with it, and would do it all day long if I let her. When I tell her it's time to put the toothbrush away and do other things she gets really upset and cries and cries. I guess if I were a nicer mom I'd just let her do it all day, but I'm afraid she'll spill water everywhere if I'm not watching her, and I don't want to deal with the mess. Here's a 12 second clip of her brushing her teeth. The background music is Scott playing his xbox.

LET THE GAMES BEGIN.....

Welp, it's about that time. I am really not looking forward to this since I potty trained two of my brothers and my cousin when they were toddlers and it was horrible. Of course I was much much younger, so I'm hoping that it will be easier for me this time around. She's still pretty young though, so I'm not going to pressure her. POTTY ON DUDE!

Pushing the limit

I told Crystal today that she was not allowed to get off the couch while I went to make her chocolate milk, because I didn't want her to take out all the toys I'd just put back into her box. She knows when I mean business and knew that I didn't want her off the couch until I got back at all. I explained to her that when I got back she could come off the couch all she wanted, but not until then. The problem is like all toddlers she gets bored fast, so instead of climbing off, she just found a more interesting way to sit on it....she took her pants off and climbed to the very top. When I came out she just waved at me. At least she's obedient.

"Honey!"

Crystal is having her friend Gabriel (the son of Scott's friend, Mark Owens) over everyday this week for an hour or so, and for some reason when he came over yesterday she decided that she needed to refer to him as "honey" instead of Gabe. I guess she just copies what she sees at home. She did this the whole time he was over. If you listen carefully she keeps saying "Thank you honey!" every time she hands him the ball.

Crystal is ready for Halloween!

Here's Crystal looking festive for the season. Unfortunately by the time we were done taking pictures it was naptime so she had a tantrum in the last picture...but it looked really funny cause of the outfit, so I posted it in the slideshow.

Lazy

To keep her out of mischief, I let Crystal have her own little bowl of popcorn in her playpen while I got ready to go out. When I came back she had it balanced on her tummy and was laying on her back eating it like a lazy bum.


What a little Goof ball! She never ceases to amuse me.

Making Children Mind Without Losing Yours

I am currently in the process of reading a really great book called "Making Children Mind Without Losing yours" By Dr. Kevin Leman.
Dr. Leman, is a well known psychologist and the author of 21 books on marriage and family, and also has been a guest on Oprah, The view, Regis, Good Morning America and many other popular television programs.
Unlike many psychologists, he is a very devout Christian and father of five, who believes in incorporating the Savior in all family aspects, including how we discipline our children.
The book, is largely based on the scripture Ephesians 6:1-4 which states:
"Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right.
Honour thy father and mother; (which is the first commandment with promise;)
That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth.
And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord."
Of course, not being LDS and not using the King James version, his quotation is slightly different, however the idea is the same, making it applicable to LDS parents as well as those of his own religion.
A lot of what he writes is how our relationship with Christ can make us a better parent, and a better friend to our children.
One of the key methods he uses in parenting is called Reality Dicipline, which incorporates establishing a healthy authority over your children, holding them accountable for their actions, letting reality be the teacher, using action more than words (instead of warning your child a thousand times what your going to do if they keep up negative behavior), and living by your values.
He explains the differences between healthy and unhealthy discipline, as well as explaining why children misbehave and what to do about it.
He also gives informative and simple suggestions to everyday issues in raising kids like picky eating, temper tantrums, sibling rivalry, attention seeking, lying, forgetting, talking back, bedtime battles, potty training, watching too much TV, road trips, dangers of life, peer groups and many, many other issues that parents continually deal with. His suggestions can be applied to children from as early as 2 years old up through the teenage years.
He has entire chapters on setting suitable allowances, curfews, and privileges, and how to use them as a means of discipline when the child misbehaves.
Accountability is a big deal to this author. He explains that children as a whole in society are growing up without learning to be accountable for their own decisions, and as a result, struggle when they start to grow up and enter the real world.
Something I also like about him is that he makes it clear that child rearing is an art form, and a lot of times you have to go with your gut. He also explains that although his book offers many suggestions, that it is up to the reader to decide what is appropriate to use in their home and what they choose to do without.
Not all of it is easy, especially how he emphasizes on remaining calm as a parent when your child is acting up, and to be careful not to discipline them in the heat of anger and frustration. However, his suggestions make a lot of sense, and I hope to practice many of his suggestions with my own children.
Anyway, I recommend this book to all my friends out there who are raising little children of their own, and would like to look at some new options on ways to teach your child how to be responsible and successful, while using authority and decisiveness to show your children that you care about them.
I bought it used, on amazon for four dollars including shipping and handling, and I'm sure you can all find it for the same price if you just buy it used instead of new, which I also recommend. Have a nice day! (:

Fall season is here, so far so good

Sorry it's been a while since we stuck in some new posts, (a special apology to Liz). I guess it's easy to get sidetracked into the daily stresses of life and loose track of the little things. September was a good month. Not too much new going on around here. Crystal has become obsessed with the magnets on the fridge, so we bought the little alphabet letter magnets, which have become her new favorite pastime. It actually comes in handy as a great distraction when she starts getting whiny. Lately as soon as she acts up, one of us will say something like "Go find me a letter J." She then gets a huge grin on her face and runs to the fridge and stares at it for fifteen minutes until she finds out where the J (or whatever letter we ask for) is hiding and brings it to us. Now that it's October, we're helping Lisa's parents with their somewhat famous Halloween display in their front yard. Every year they successfully frighten all the young trick-or-treaters in the neighborhood with their decorations, smoke machines, sound effects, etc. They go all out, and as a result, many in Lisa's family look forward to Halloween every year. We'll be sure to post a few pictures when it's finally all set up. Conference was awesome, as always. We look forward to reviewing the talks for the next six months to catch anything we may have missed when Crystal would get loud...but hey, that's parenthood, right? Other than that, nothing too new happening. Here are some fun pics of Crystal being Crystal to pass the time:

Halloween decorating

Here is a Witch Lisa made with her mom during the priesthood session while the husbands were gone. We added a cape which we bought at Savers later on, but it's not in the picture. It's going to be the newest addition to the display in her parent's front yard. Isn't it nice and ugly?

Another haircut

Okay, this is the last time I'm going to cut it for a while, I promise. I guess I just get bored so I mess with my hair a lot. I actually did it a while ago and forgot to post it for those who care, so here you go. As you can see, it's a couple inches shorter with some added highlights. I like it.

Elmo is religious

So every night before Crystal goes to sleep I run through a little prayer with her. She loves to pray with me, and is very obedient when asked to fold her arms. Her favorite part is saying "Amen!" at the end. As a matter of fact, she doesn't call it "praying", she just refers it to doing "amen". Well the other night after we said our prayer together we read her usual Elmo book. On one of the pages Elmo is bending over and laughing with his arms crossed over his belly, and when we got to that page, Crystal brightened up and said "Elmo amen too!" I never looked at it that way before, but she did...what an observant little girl!

Strawberries

Crystal is addicted to strawberries. Lisa offered her a cookie and then took out a crate of strawberries for herself to eat in front of the television. (Lisa loves to eat fruit while she watches TV.) However when Crystal saw Lisa bust out the strawberries she dropped her cookie which she only licked without biting and took the strawberry Lisa was about to eat right out of her hand. Every time Lisa would try to eat a new strawberry Crystal took it away from her to eat it first. It was really funny, and Crystal ate almost the whole thing by herself. Unfortunately, her outfit isn't going live to see another day.

Dinosaurs

One night, we were watching Night at the Museum at home when Crystal noticed the part where the big skeleton of the T-rex came to life. It terrified her, and she then developed a fear of anything dinosaur.
She usually overcomes her fears when we let her see up close how something works and how harmless it really is. For example, when she was younger she was afraid of the vacuum until we showed her how it worked and let her touch it.
Well, it just so happens that the worlds largest Dinosaur museum was only 10 minutes away at Thanksgiving point, so we took her there yesterday to check it out.
She really enjoyed some dinosaurs...


and was still afraid of others.

But most of it, she found fascinating.




All together, the expedition was a success and even though the ones with big teeth make her nervous, she likes dinosaurs. She even has toy dinosaurs that she plays with at home now.

Here are some more pictures of our trip to the museum for those who enjoy looking at them: