First Quarter Report of 2010 - Part 2

Mommy, wow, I'm a big kid now!

On May 8th, Evie will turn 4- halfway to her baptism age of 8. The 'terrible twos' started around 1 1/2 yrs old and lasted until she was 3 1/2. However, the age of 2 was the most mellow of those yrs. It appears that Evie has moved on from that stage. She is trying really hard to be a good girl. Every morning that I go to work she says "Daddy, I will try really hard to make good choices." When I get home the first thing she says is "Hi Daddy, I made good choices" (sometimes that isn't the case). Then at bed time when she prays, she says "...and please bless Evie to make good choices." How can you not love your daughter for that?

Evie loves to be a big sister for Lizzy. She constantly is asking, "Mommy, can I hold her?" "Daddy, can I feed her?" and we let her quite often. Unequivocally her favorite toys are still pink, she loves Disney princess, and playing with my little ponies and Polly pockets. She also is becoming quite the architect when it comes to building with blocks. Some of her new favorite things to do are: play outside with water and digging holes, coloring in her color books, playing the 'snake game,' and playing with daddy's iPhone. The last year has been an interesting one which included the absence of dad, moving from place to place, and Evie getting her own room.

I think we pushed her a little too hard last year. We expect a lot from our eldest and she stepped up to the challenge, just not on a consistent basis. Evie is like me in a lot of ways when I was a kid. She is full of energy, highly creative, defiantly independent, and insatiably curious. A recipe for regular disasters and disappointments, as well as surprising successes. Before, her room consisted of two dressers, a box for dress up clothes, access to her books, and pictures on her wall. The pictures lasted a few days before they were torn down to do boredom. One by one, 2 weeks at a time her books would be ripped, torn, or written in. Her dressers, well, let's just say she found interesting use for those, including using them as an instrument to unlock the "child lock" closet.
Over time it dawned on us that we were expecting too much from her all the time. So we have switched to a strategy of helping her 'make good choices', by removing temptations. Her dressers are gone, and now mom & dad have furniture in the bedroom! (Two problems solved in one.) Her books have been taken for safe keeping, now she can only read them in our presence or have us read them. This has made it so we are forced to read to her even more. It also has showed her the value of books. One of the last things we took were the dress-up clothes, and it has turned out to be a positive thing. She still gets to play with them, but as a reward. We really wanted her to have good crayons because hers were old and worn out, but she breaks and loses them so quickly. So now we have two sets. One she uses when she wants to color during the day- monitored by us, and another that is 'special'- only used when mom or dad color with her.

I want to devote another paragraph to lessons Tamy and I have learned with Evie. Keeping her on a routine provides her with reliability and security. Taking away Evie's nightly snack helped her understand our expectations. At 7:00 pm she cleans her room, and whatever time is left she rewarded by having mom and dad do whatever she wants to do until 7:30 pm: coloring, reading, singing, playing etc (she chooses). This helps her to take pride in her room and responsibility. Keeping books and some toys out of her immediate reach gives her a respect for other's things, and helps her to treat them special. Evie wants to be good, but we have to set her up for success.

Evie can now button her own shirt! She is such a big kid.

One day a taught Evie how to use a wall to do a handstand, at least once a week she shows me how good she has gotten- brings a smile to my face. Tamy does an awesome job having 'school time' with Evie. Last year she learned the alphabet letters with picture cards, colors, and shapes. Now she is learning numbers and identifying letters big and small, and using Spanish words.

Not to be outdone by my magnificent wife, I also sneak in some of my own teaching here and there. I teach her things like how to make a volcano and how to stand on your head. Since Evie loves to dance, and there is a good chance she will go into dancing or gymnastics, I want her to learn balance and agility. So I taught her how to do a headstand using a wall. Once a week she comes over to me, "Daddy, watch me do a headstand!" Then she shows me how good she has gotten.

One time when I was reading to her, one of her books was all about the Earth. It talked about the core, crust, earthquakes, and volcanoes. That is hard for some college kids to learn let alone a 3 year old. So I pulled out my trusty iPhone and went to YouTube. We spent 30 minutes looking at real volcanoes, earthquakes, floods, tsunamis, and tornadoes. She loved it all, but her favorite was the volcano. So I decided that we should make one so she can see it in action. We got out the vinegar and baking soda along w/ a small baby bottle. Evie poured the vinegar and out rushed our volcano! "Do it again Daddy," she said excitedly. We made red, blue, green, and orange volcanoes, she had a blast. A few days later we did it again as a family.