Little Girls, Who'd Have Em?

We would often hear my Grandpa Atkin say this when the family got together.

It was funny to all of us, because out of the 24 grandchildren, there are only 6 boys. Three of those boys are some of the youngest, and were not born until after I was in high school. So needless to say our family events were always full of little girls, and my Grandpa loved it!

Last week, at the age of 90 my Grandpa passed away. I loved his sense of humor, and his quiet way of doing things to make my Grandma happy. There were three things I have always been sure of when it came to my Grandpa. He loved his family, the gospel, and most of all he loved my Grandma, and wanted her to be happy.

As my family gathered together I found it fun to look at my parents grandchildren, and see that just as my grandparents family was full of little girls, my parent's family is full of little boys. They have 13 grandchildren and only 3 of those are girls. Our family gatherings are full of little boys.

My sister 's daughter, Bethany, is the only girl at their house, so she is always excited to come visit and see her big girl cousin Emily, and Baby Balerie. They arrived Tuesday night and when I opened the door Bethany had a big smile on her face and said "We are at Baby Balerie's house." Then just like the last time they came to visit Bethany gave Valerie all of the love and attention she needed.

Bethany loves to play little mother, and she LOVES to be pretty. To her the color pink is not called pink it is called pretty.

Two days before the funeral my sister, Ellen, found a "pretty" dress, with matching shoes at the store, and bought them for Bethany. Ellen decided that it would be fun if Valerie had a matching dress since Bethany loves her so much.

When they returned from the store, Bethany immediately put on her pretty dress and wore it for the next two days. (except when she was sleeping.) She would go around showing everyone her pretty dress. The morning of the funeral, she put on her pretty dress, her mom did her hair and she came out looking very pretty.

When I pulled out Valerie's dress and began putting it on her I could tell Bethany was not sure that she liked the idea of having a twin. Then when we all started telling Valerie that she was pretty too, Bethany was done with that dress and wanted her other one on. She cooperated enough to get a few pictures, and then she went to find her other dress.

When she found it she brought it to Valerie and showed her that she had another pretty dress. (I thought it was really cute and funny.) Ellen really didn't want to change her, because we thought it would be fun for them to match. But Bethany was not going to have competition.

A few days later, after they returned home, Ellen showed Bethany the pictures we had taken of her and Valerie. She loves the pictures, and still wants to wear the dress everyday.

"Little Girls, Who'd Have Em?...........

Us's That Got Em!"

Consumed By Video Games

We introduced video games into our house just before Josh turned 2. Even though he could not play them he was mesmerized by them and had to hold a controller. Joe and Emily are pretty good about Video games. They like to play them, but if there is something else to do they will go do it. However Josh just wants to play Video games ALL THE TIME!

To him there is only one activity worth doing and that is playing the Wii. He does not want to play with friends, or go to preschool. He has even started passing up going on outings with me, which is something he use to always love to do. Now when I ask if he wants to go to the store, he says no I will just stay here.

I never felt like I really needed to limit Emily and Joe with Video games, because they were good about turning it off when I told them too, and not really spending too much time on it. (Joe has gotten a little worse now that he is older) But now that I have a 4 year old who is already ruining his life over Video games, I have had to change the rules, and I am up for suggestions.

Plan #1
I started by only letting them play an hour a day, and that worked for a bit, but after a few days when Josh had to turn it off he started following me around the rest of the day crying, whining, screaming and stomping his feet because he didn't get to play long enough.

This was not good for me. I told him if he kept doing that then he would not get to play the next day, but that meant nothing to him. So I reevaluated my plan.

Plan #2

The next thing I tried was having them do chores to earn their video game time.

Emily has always been a really good helper around the house, and will do anything for money. To get the boys to clean anything is like pulling teeth and money means nothing to them. However extra video game time is like gold especially for Josh. He will do anything for more Wii time. This was working most of the time, but now I feel like all we do is bribe Josh with the Wii to get him to do anything.

If he will clean his room, or pick up the front room, the toy room.
If he will ride his bike for a while or play outside. I have even had to use it to get him to play with friends.

You can see how we have gotten in a bad cycle. Then last night I really needed the kids to get some things done, so I told them if they did it, they could play Wii all day today. (knowing that they had school for part of the day.) The kids did everything I asked and did not complain. They went to bed on time and everyone seemed happy. Then at 3:00am Ryan rolled over to find Josh standing next to the bed.

"It's morning I am ready to play Wii all day!"

Of course Ryan sent him back to bed, and he eventually went back to sleep.


PLAN #3

Only play Wii on Saturdays?


To be honest I really don't mind my kids playing Video games a little bit each day. I find it gives us a little bit of down time, and I can usually get a few things done while they are playing. (unless I play with them.)

PLAN #4

I guess I will just keep limiting his time and introducing him to other things, and when he is a little older he will find other things he enjoys..................or he will just be old enough to stop following me around screaming and crying when he has to turn it off. (He does get sent to time out for that, and the Wii does not come back on.)

The Wii is consuming Josh's life.

There is so much more in life to be excited about, what can I do to help him figure this out?

I don't feel like this is a power struggle between us. I just feel like that is all he thinks or cares about.

Let me know if you have any ideas!

First Tooth

On Saturday I noticed that Valerie's first tooth had finally broken through. She has been drooling and chewing on everything she could for a couple of months, and she seems even happier now that it has broken through.


It is her bottom right tooth so it is impossible to get a picture of it right now. Valerie likes to stick her tongue in and out to feel it. She has also started saying la la la a lot now. I think it is because she can feel her tooth when she says it. It is so fun to watch her discover new things.