Parents University--Consistency

Kat, over at The Secret Life of Kat, is hosting Parents University on Thursdays. Session one is this week and the topic is discipline. So here is my two cents--don't forget to head over to Kat's blog to see the other contributions!

This is certainly a broad topic, but I guess what I want to focus on today is consistency.

That was a buzz-word for me going into parenting. I thought that to be a "good" parent all I would have to do was be consistent in disciplining my children. Feel free to laugh here! Aren't we all great armchair parents before we actually have kids?

Anyway, three children later, I do still think it is important to be consistent. If a specific action or disobedience will result in a specific punishment today, then it should always result in that same punishment. That way the child knows what to expect and can thrive within those boundaries.

The point where this became the most difficult for us was when we realized that our second child does not respond to discipline in the same way that our first does. It was hard for us (okay, mostly me!) to accept that we would have to treat each child individually. It would be so much easier to have a cookie-cutter answer to every situation, but in reality that just doesn't work.

One of my sons is VERY strong-willed, the other is very compliant, and as such, they respond very differently to (and require more or less) discipline. So to get the best response out of each one, we do discipline the two differently. We are still consistent with each child, and we do have expectations of both that are the same, but their punishments will vary according to the child. And we always make sure that their punishments are private to protect the dignity of our children.

I think they take after their dad.....

'cause they sure didn't learn that from me! :)

And also . . . .

. . . . there's a fun contest over at MCK MAMA's blog! I don't know what the prize is yet, but I'm sure it's fabulous . . . . so head on over and take a guess at what her photo is a picture of!

Little girls are so fun!

Of course, little boys are so fun too. I don't mean to say that they're not.

But can you put little boys in flower decorated tights? And shiny black shoes with bows on the toes? Can you get away with big ribbons and bows in their hair? And little bits of lace here there and everywhere?

Yep, it's great to have a little girl!

Thursday ramblings....

So I know I've been ignoring my blog. Too much going on! I'll just leave you with a few quick pictures and an update.

Sam is doing MUCH better. He was released from the hospital on Tuesday and has been resting at home. He must have taken the doctor seriously because he actually did REST which is quite unusual for Sam. He was up and about a little bit yesterday and today he actually went in to work for a short day. So things are looking up on that front!

Bridget is doing well. She is just the most joyful little baby in the world! It seemed like she was ready to try baby food, so I gave her rice cereal for the first time last week. Here is a picture of her first bite:

which was taken right before she spit it all out! I've tried a few times since that day, but she still isn't quite ready. The funny thing is that she gets really excited when I feed her and loves to try it, but she just can't figure out how to swallow it yet.

The next two pictures were taken on our new property a few weeks ago. Sam called on his way home from work and said, "Why don't you pack a picnic and we'll eat it out at ranch!" So that is exactly what we did. It was great--the weather was beautiful and we ended up staying until it was REALLY dark. The boys ran around with flashlights and Bridget took a little nap.

Have a great week everyone!

Not quite how we had planned for our new year to begin....

It might look like a normal evening, playing cards with Jon and Kelly......

.....cards, snacks, lots of diet coke.

The thing that makes this night unusual is the location of my husband.....

Not content with just spending all day on New Year's Day in the emergency room, Sam thought it might be fun to spend a couple nights in the hospital to cap off the week.

Sam had a minor out-patient surgery a few weeks ago. There have been a few unexpected complications and he had to have an emergency surgery on Sunday morning. He is doing fine and is expected to make a full recovery.

He has a pain pump attached to his bed and a table full of junk food--I think he'll make it.

All joking aside, please do pray for Sam. My husband is a real go-getter (always moving) and it is VERY difficult for him to be confined to a hospital bed. Please pray that he would keep his spirits up and that his body would heal quickly. And that he would be patient with the nursing staff! :)

San Antonio....and the fate of the gingerbread house.

For a few weeks before Christmas, Sam hinted to me that we might be going somewhere in the days after Christmas. Some sort of little vacation with Jon and Kelly. All he would tell me is that we would be driving somewhere between 3 and 30 hours, and he wouldn't tell me which direction. Didn't exactly narrow it down, did it?

Christmas morning, Sam let me open a little package that showed me our trip would be to San Antonio for three days, including a visit to Sea World!

It was a little chilly in the morning when we got to Sea World. Good thing we all had coats and hats!
Henry got to ride his very first roller coaster! It was really so fun. He laughed through the entire thing, got off and ran right up to the start to go again.
Much to his disappointment, Jonah wasn't tall enough to ride the roller coaster. He found joy in the teacup ride instead!
We stayed at the park all day and the boys crashed in the car on the way back to the hotel. Daddy was happy to carry them up to the room--I'm sure he was feeling very thankful for elevators!

After a few minor modifications, we had a great two-room suite! The kids slept behind the curtain in their room.....

and the adults played cards and ate junk food in our room! :)

Jon and Kelly had their own room, but we confiscated some of their furniture while doing our renovations!

We went to almost all of the shows at Sea World--they were so much fun. That is really a great place. Sam was able to get us really inexpensive tickets on craigslist.

While we were in San Antonio we also ate a great Mexican dinner on the river walk and took a boat tour of the river walk. It was all still decorated for Christmas and looked so very pretty. There were Christmas lights EVERYWHERE. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of anything after Sea World since my camera battery needed charged and I didn't remember to bring the charger along!

And on a completely unrelated note....

Remember our lovely little gingerbread house?

It has been driving the boys crazy. It is made of candy, after all.

And candy is meant to be eaten, right?

I told the boys they could start in on the house, and I showed them how to pull off the pieces they wanted to eat. All very civilized and everything. I walked away for a moment and when I came back, they were devouring the house with their teeth!

At least they were taking turns!