Blowing Bubbles in the Rain

The other day Kayden was just being down right defiant and not following directions, all because I wouldn't let him have a Shamrock Shake from McDonalds when he already had eaten a hot fudge sundae for goodness sake!  After several warnings I finally took away tv until bedtime.  I had prepared myself for a rotten afternoon dealing with a four year old that was sure to throw another fit because I had taken TV away, and much to my surprise, he didn't really put up much of a fuss.  I was grateful for his acceptance of his punishment and his willingness to find other things to occupy his time.  So, when he asked if he could blow bubbles, I looked outside and hesitated because it was down pouring rain.  Then I realized, rain wouldn't hurt the kid, and he would probably have such a great time doing it.


So, I got him loaded up with shoes, coat and hood and set him out to have a grand time blowing bubbles in the cold, blistery, rainy afternoon. 

He really had a great time hovering inside the garage blowing bubbles into the wind!

Valentine's Day

This week we celebrated Valentines day twice, once with Kayden's classroom on Thursday and then on the real Valentine's day (Friday).

Kayden had a rough morning on Thursday and didn't want to go to school, which may have resulted in him going to school with no shoes!  That is a story for another day.  I'm grateful, however, that Kayden snapped out of it quickly after I dropped him off because I had decided to participate in his schools Valentine Party and it may have not gone as well had he decided to stay in his funk.  The party wasn't anything extravagant, but rather simply a special valentine book, cupcake and the passing out of the valentines, but it was enough for the kids. 

Here are a couple of the pictures from his special Valentine's party at school.

I included this picture because of the boy behind Emily, flipping the finger.  They were singing a song and it started off with five of something, then counted down to zero.  Well, this kid stayed on one the whole time.  So funny.

 Before they got their Valentine cupcake, they had to eat their snack.

 Emily passing out her "Wild About You" valentines.

Kayden had fun passing out his Valentines.  We put little tags on these crazy straws that said, "Sip Sip Hooray, it's Valentine's Day"  I was aiming for a non-candy valentine and thought the kids would love these straws!

We then celebrated Valentine's day on Friday with Kyle.  Started off with meeting Kyle for lunch, where Kayden got car sick. :(  Then we ran a couple errands and ended up at a frozen yogurt shop for a mid-afternoon Valentine treat.  And then finished the day off with a steak dinner for Kyle and chicken for me.  Kayden had his favorite, macaroni and cheese, accompanied with a baked potato with sour cream, butter, cheese and cheez-its on top.  We polished off dinner with a cake I had ordered from Christy.  Yum.

We hope everyone had a fantastic Valentines Day! 

Snow Fun

We woke up this morning to a fair amount of snow, enough snow to have it last all day and not melt before noon.  And I'm so grateful and excited Kyle got to enjoy a snow day with us, not too often he can, so it was extra special today.  We had a blast in the white powder and made some ginormous snowmen and did so many fun things.

 

 First slide of the day.

After Kayden took a ride or two down the front lawn on his sled, he turned to me and said, "You want a turn, mama, I'll pull ya?"  I couldn't pass him up on his offer.

My view.

Dad had to step in and help, my ride was short.  Didn't take Kayden long to realize pulling isn't as fun as riding.

 

Then it was snowman building time.  The snow was perfect for building a big one, took no time at all.

 

 

And Kayden wanted a little head on this huge snowman.  So, that's what we/he did!

 

There's nothing like dumping snow on your own head! 

 

We were out there for several hours building snowmen, going on treasure hunts, playing with Charlie, Uncle and Auntie and some neighbors, taking a warm chocolate break at Nini and Papa's, and just having a good ol' time as a family in the snow.  We hope you had just as much fun in the snow, if you were lucky enough to wake up to some today. 

Bedtime

Bedtime, as many of you know, is not easy in the Bryant house.  We have struggled with Kayden going to bed since the day he was born.  He would wake up every fifteen minutes in the hospital and the longest sleep stretch the night of his birth was an hour and a half, at which time a nurse walks in and says I need to wake him to feed.  Um, I'm sorry, but no.  He is finally sleeping longer than fifteen minutes and I refuse to wake him up.  She, hesitantly agreed, but only after making me promise to feed him when he woke up.  Agreed.

So, since that first night in the hospital bedtime has been a long lasting, tears shed from child and mother, much negotiating and bribery enriched night.  Four years into it we still struggle many nights and I cling onto hope that one day he will be a teenager that I can't keep awake!  One can hope, right????

So, when Saturday came and I neglected to take pictures of kids playing at our friends birthday party, I decided to take pictures of bedtime.  And I'm happy to report it actually went rather well last night.  I am raising no dummy and he is the king of negotiations and stalling, but I'd be a happy Mama if he went to sleep every night like he did last night.

Our current bedtime routine is as follows:

Watch a bit of tv
Brush teeth
Play Hide-n-Seek - where he always hides with Kyle in the same spot and is ALWAYS surprised I can find him
Fish for books
Read the books Kayden caught
Then lights out

Some nights Kayden just isn't tired enough to go to sleep, so we let him play in his room nicely and quietly by himself until he is ready to turn the light off to go to sleep. 

And most nights he calls for us once or twice or maybe three times for this, that or the other thing, but I'm happy as long as he doesn't scream or cry.

 Can you see the book dangling there?  That's Kayden fishing for books.

He is so surprised he caught one!

 

And here is a little glimpse into our bedtime routine!  We hope everyone has a good week.