The Terrible 5s

Eli never had the terrible twos or threes. Our rough years have been four and five-and not solidly for two years. We'll go for awhile and I think we've gotten past it, but then it shows up again. Yesterday, we had multiple meltdowns and I was about at my wit's end. So I found this really great website for parents called Empowering Parents. Click here to check it out. I realized I over-negotiate with him and so when I say no about something, he knows there is a chance I will change my mind, at least in part. So when I don't change my mind, sometimes he is okay with it, but other times we have a meltdown. Which leads me to our other issue-he feels entitled to get something any time we go out. I don't get him something every time we go out, but I think I do it often enough they he figures he has a pretty good chance he will get something. So I've decided to come up with a specific plan instead of some wishy-washy idea of how I'll deal with these issues. First, I found this website with behavior charts (which we have used before, but not religiously enough). You can find these awesome charts for kids (or any chart for that matter) here. I picked the 3 strikes chart. Each day he does NOT get 3 strikes, he gets a behavior buck (from the same website). At the end of the week, he will get a $1 for every behavior buck he earned. Then, any time he asks me for something, I'll say, "Well, how much money do you have?" If he doesn't have enough money, he will have to save up for it. Any time I personally buy something for him, I'm going to save it for his birthday or some holiday so he isn't getting some book or toy out of the blue, just because I thought he would LOVE it. And last, I need to decide what constitutes a strike and spell it out clearly for him so that there is no wishy-washiness there either. I think I'll make a chart for that too...

McCarty Farm=perfect wilderness of childhood

We went to the McCarty farm yesterday so Justin and Micah could work on the cobb oven. We love going out there. It's in the middle of nowhere and you just feel so calm and peaceful when you're there. This is the perfect place for Eli to experience the wilderness of childhood. He can pretty much go wherever he wants without having meddlesome parents interfering. For instance, he and Harper went out to one of their ponds to look for fairies and trolls. Eli wasn't buying into the whole fairy and troll thing, but Harper had him convinced they were real by the time we left. Another adventure was going down the rabbit hole to find Alice in Wonderland (a hole in the ground there dog started). Eli was really disappointed that we didn't want to keep digging so he could find it, but all was well once he and Harper started watching the movie, after which Harper and Eli took turns being Alice and Mr. Rabbit. Another note: Eli pretty much spent the entire day in his underwear. It was beautiful outside and we're in the country, so why not? There were places where some snow hadn't melted yet, so it was really funny seeing him walking through the snow in his underwear. He even tried it with no shoes but that didn't last long. We are so grateful that Eli has a place like this where he can really be a kid. Pics to be posted soon.

Pillow fights and snowball fights

It's amazing how much fun a 5 1/2 year old can have with pillow fights and snowball fights. They are pretty fun for the mom too. Although the 5 1/2 year old and his mom may have to wear protective gear next time...

Magic Tree House

Eli loves the Magic Tree House books. We've read all of them plus the research guides. He has always wanted a tree house or outdoor playset (actually, if he had his way, both). I would love to give him a tree house for his 6th birthday in June. We don't really have any good trees for a tree house, so we would have to build a "treeless treehouse." And by we I mean Justin and possibly 1 or 2 friends. I could paint it though! Anyway, here is a really cool picture and blueprint for building one. Now we just have to see how much it would cost to build this monster... Here it is.

The Joy of Destroying Things

So I got bored last night. Must be the weather. I started thinking that it would be fantastic to stand at the oven and be able to look into the dining room at the same time. Out comes the hammer. Out comes the saw. Wow, I have no idea what I'm doing.

On a positive note, no child has ever admired his father more than Eli admired me as I recklessly threw the hammer into the wall. He kept asking me if I knew what I was doing. Of course I said yes. Lying to children is what fathers do.

At one point Eli said, "Is this when the house falls down?". I had to put the hammer down, laugh, pick it back up, and say (in my best Atticus Finch), "Not yet."

The Dangerous Book for Boys

My parents gave Eli a book a few years ago for when he gets older called The Dangerous Book for Boys. This whole "wilderness of childhood" thing reminded me about this book, so I got it out. The chapter on building a treehouse got me especially excited b/c we're trying to figure out a way to build Eli some kind of treehouse/fort. I think this book will be perfect in our quest to let Eli have his own adventures. If you want to read more about this awesome book, click here. And for you parents out there that have girls, they have The Dangerous Book for Girls too!

Our Backyard

During the devastating blizzard that we somehow managed to survive this past week, Eli was a little more willing to bear the cold than I was. I did make it outside for some sledding and snow fort building, but the little fellow still had some energy to expend, so we bundled him back up and threw him in the backyard.

Our backyard is something to behold right now. It's pretty much a junkyard. I'm a magnet for free stuff, so there's a neverending collection of scrap lumber, windows, bicycles, and an assortment of used "_______" mixed in with the chicken coop, the straw bale garden, the "junk" shed. So I settled in next to one of our windows to observe our little explorer.

It was SO interesting to watch him pick up random pieces of useless bits of whatever, and try to figure out what he could do with them. Pieces of sheet metal were collected into the wheel barrow. Scraps of wood were lifted, inspected, and usually dropped back down where they came from.

I gave him one bit of guidance. Under no circumstances was he to enter the shed. I described it to him as a death trap for adventurous 5 year olds. Sharp, heavy objects just waiting for someone to pull them down in a murderous pile. To add just a bit more temptation than was reasonable, I had managed to leave the shed door open.

Watching him stare into the cavernous shed of death, pulling together every bit of restraint he could muster, was pretty entertaining. He didn't go inside, but he sure wanted to. And he will, eventually, and that's ok.