Thwarted but not completely

Yesterday in an effort to get to the gym we divided up the kids and started to get ready. I grabbed Henry and Went into Jake's room. Changed Henry's diaper and put some clothes on him while Jake bounced in his bed so excited to see us. Once Henry was dressed I put hm in Jake's Crib and pulled Jake out to change his diaper and get him dressed. With both babies in onesies and socks per gym rules we went into the other room Where Kate had got Finn up and dressed. I got my very stylish workout outfit on with Jake in Henry's baby cage and Henry on the bed properly pillowed to keep him from rolling off. Towels, diapers, water bottle, plugs, iPods, and membership cards gathered Kate went out to the car to back it out while I gathered up the babies again. Kate let out some minor profanity (which Finn repeated 3 or 25 times) as she walked back to the house. Jake's carseat is in Scott's car so we can't go. Gathering up the kids and parphenalia needed to go out is a mini workout in itself so Kate sent me out on my own. I think the thought is I'm the fat one and need the workout more. It was nice to get out with no kids even if it was to workout. I put the windows down, hooked up the workout playlist from the iPod to the stereo and enjoyed the view. Once at the gym there was one machine open on the end and I got on and got started. There are flat screen TVs with things like ball games and news and luck would have it that the two in front of me had Judge Judy and Some Headline News "Where's Caylee?" show. I tell you I couldn't care less about either of those two. Seriously, this is news. I'm probably a terrible person but how can you devot an entire show to that crap. It was a call in show too, so people were watching and calling in to get their two cents in. I turned up the music and powered through sweating like a madman. The workout felt good, exhausting but fruitful. Not the plan but a good hour away for me.

Dear Raiders,

The time has come for us to part ways. It's not you it's me. Wait that isn't true it's you not me. When we first started this relationship you were in L.A. with my beloved Lakers and Dodgers and then you moved, albeit back to where you came from, but away from me. You left L.A. for Oakland and I should have called it quits then. But then you signed Nip and I couldn't turn my back. But now after countless 1 0r 2 year coaches who have never had a chance to put their stamp on the team, and getting rid of the one coach that was any good, it is just too much. I'm breaking up with the Raiders for good. I have found another team. You had know this was going to happen when I moved to Indy. I got to go see them a couple of times, you were there for a couple of those games too. The civic pride, the fan friendly owner (that is if you ignore Baltimore Fans), the lack of violence in the stands and around the stadium. I've moved on Raiders, I'm with the Colts now. It's offical. I know you may think this is Sports Bigamy, once you pick a team as a kid that's your team for life but the rules clearly state is the team leaves or the owner is terrible you can leave. I'm well with in my fan right here and I hope you don't try to fight this. I will remember the good times; the Bo Jackson Monday night game, as well as the bad; the travesty in New England with M*$%^#F@#%$#$&% tuck rule. Let's keep our memories and say good bye.

Happy Birthday Jesse

I told Kate it was Jesse's birthday and Finn wanted to sing for him, well him and Grandma and Papa but really mostly for Jesse!

Timeouts = No more Trucks

When he is naughty he goes to timeout. He has a chair in his room that is his Timeout chair. When he screams, hits Jake or Henry, throws toys he goes to timeout. It didn't seem to be working, going to timeout means attention. We go in there and try to explain why he is in trouble and he gets one on one time with mommy or daddy. We are angry and he is meant to be punished but to him it as time of his own so he would try to go to timeout. We had to change it up a bit and not give him special attention during the timeout but that still wasn't enough. So e decided that toys would be taken away to reinforce the timeout. I explained to Finn about consequences, I kno he doesn't understand completely but you have to start and be consistent so we started. Do something naughty, go to timeout and get one toy taken away, and not just any toy a truck. The first day he lost 4 of his trucks, the next he lost 3. His toy box was getting pretty bare of quality vehicles. When we ran out of trucks we took away his stroller. We got to the point here he had no more trucks or toys of any kind that were uniquely his. Do we take away his books now? On Friday Finn had a good day. It was 3 in the afternoon and no timeouts for the whole day. We told him that if he made it to dinner with no timeouts he could have 5 trucks back. We had been given him trucks back when he did good things like coming when we called him or sharing with Jake but this was an epic day. He made it to after dinner with no timeouts and him and I excitedly went to the garage to the box where confiscated toys live and pulled out his five favorite trucks: The red pickup truck, the mail truck, the green jeep like Aunt Bum's, the cement truck, and the Gator. He also negotiated the release of his stroller and for the next two hours played with these things all ove rthe house. We didn't hear a peep from him until it was time to skype with Grandma and Papa. It really was great to get to reward instead of punish. Saturday was another pretty good day, had a timeout but nothing to bad and this morning I told Finn that if he goes the whole day without a timeout then he can all of his trucks back. The monster trucks, buses, transformers, and the rest. He got really excited thinking about he beloved trucks and ent off playing. I had Henry in my lap watching football at 7:30 in the morning and Finn comes up with his Mail truck and smacks Henry in the head above his right eye. Got him good, like they were in a bar fight. I immediately brought Finn to timeout where he screamed and tried to smack me. I sat him in the chair and he screamed with all his might. Meanwhile Henry was crying like crazy in the living room waking up Kate from her sleep in day. I went and got three trucks to take away and went in and let Finn know that he could no longer play with these anymore. He sat in timeout until he stopped screaming, almost ten minutes. I don't get it, why does he take a truck and nail Henry in the head as part of playing. He might have been jealous but he was getting just as much attention, I just don't get it. It has been a rough morning.

The new stutter

Finn has started stuttering in the last couple of days. He repeats the first word of sentence 5 or six times, sometimes more. It is heart wrenching to hear. I feel bad for him, worried, even a little frustrated sometimes when it takes so long to get out what he is trying to say and that makes me feel incredibly guilty. It is so strange how it all started about Tuesday afternoon. Before that he was spitting out sentences pretty clearly. He has trouble with his "L" and he replaces his "S" with an "F" but you could understand what he was saying and he was stringing a number of words together. I did some reading online about stuttering and toddlers and it is pretty common. Most sites say that all kids go through some form of stuttering as they are going through changes in the amount of words they know and the amount that they can effectively communicate. While it is pretty normal it could also mean that he will continue to stutter. I learned to let him get out what he wants to say without rushing him or anticipating. Then show that I understand him be repeating back what he said: "Maybe maybe maybe maybe get maybe get the truck off the table." "You want to get the truck off of the table?" It helps to have something to remember and reinforce so that I don't just feel helpless. We will wait and see how Finn continues to develop, he doesn't seem to get too upset about the stuttering and he powers through with what he wants to say.