The Marble Jar Revisited

So we've been having discipline issues with Ryan. He is loud, disobedient, and he is constantly pushing his limits. It is exhausting and it makes us all grumpy. A few weeks ago, my friend Janae shared an idea - using a marble jar. If he's good, put a marble in. If he's bad, take a marble out. When the jar is full, he gets a new toy. That worked for about a day. I think Ryan wasn't motivated by a toy and it took too long to get a reward. He needs to see results a little faster. So we abandoned the marble jar. We've tried other things like time-out and taking away toys, but he doesn't seem to be learning and I want something to reinforce good behavior instead of just punishing for bad behavior. So we will try the marble jar again, but with different rules. His everyday "rights" will now become privileges. His current reward: watching his favorite show, The Dinosaur Train. And I won't wait until the jar is full, he only needs to get 10 in the jar. We'll see if it works - I'll keep you updated. Anyone else have any other discipline ideas that work in case this one doesn't?

Not abandoned

Okay, this blog has not been completely abandoned. I still think about it every now and again and I have no reason not to update it. It guess maybe since Zach was born, we haven't quite settled into a routine. Ten months later, I think we're almost settled, so I'll try a little harder to keep it updated. I also figured Dave's parents (recently returned to the mission field) would like to see what's going on with 2 of their grandsons. So here you go!

The Basement

After a few short months full of noise and extra dust, the basement is finally finished. Well, not completely finished, but in livable condition. It is still a work in progress - there are still many things left to be added, cords needing to be hidden, and walls to be covered. But if that's the definition of finished, then the rest of the house still needs finishing (anyone who's been inside my house knows how bare the walls are - I don't do decorating). I can't decide what I love most about having it done, but here are some of the candidates:

-Sending Ryan downstairs and closing the door. Ahhh, peace and quiet.

-Having a place for Ryan's sports stuff (and the big box to play in)

-Lots more closet space

-Lots of extra carpet to vacuum

-The nice tile work in the bathroom

-Having a TV with HD

-Letting Ryan play in the empty closets, thinking they are trains

-The computer will be out of Ryan's room

I think I definitely know what Dave's favorite thing about having the basement done:

The 55-inch Samsung LED TV. Beautiful. Of course, it will be more beautiful when the cords are hidden behind the wall and there is a cabinet below the TV to put all the techy stuff in.

So here's to 50% more livable space in our house!

California Adventure

Has it really been 4 months since I've posted anything? No, I didn't abandon the blog. Wow, time flies! Well, it's been a fun summer and we've done a lot. Maybe I haven't posted anything because I'm overwhelmed at all the catching up, so I'll just start with our most recent adventure and tell you about the rest of the summer as I get the chance. So an alternate title to this post: What I learned while traveling to the Bay Area with the 2 kids.

- Rent car seats instead of bringing your own. Lots to carry at the airport.

- My boys are good at flying on planes. Zach slept the entire time, both ways.

- Marriotts have very comfortable mattresses.

- There is a train that goes under the bay between Oakland and San Francisco. Its name is BART. Using the automatic ticketing machines for BART involves lots of steps and can be a little complex for the first-time user. All I want is a ticket to ride the train. How tough can that be? A lot more difficult than you would think. Anyway, Ryan liked to ride on BART. He also got to ride on a plane, a bus, a boat, and in a rental car. Lots of vehicles on this trip.

- Because we only had 1 day in the city, it was nice to take a bus tour and see it all. If we would have had more time, I think we would have taken the hop-on-hop-off tour so we would be able to get out and do more. Ryan's favorite stop: The Golden Fence Bridge. He is very fascinated with bridges and always asks now if we can take our car on the Golden Fence Bridge.

- There is still a lot of "segregation" in San Fran, as it is divided into lots of districts, and lots of people live/work in these districts based up their places of origin. There is a lot happening in the Chinese District, lots of pizza and pasta restaurants in the Italian District, and lots of rainbow flags in the Castro District. If the Salt Lake Valley was divided into districts, I think mine would be called the White District. Which district do you live in?

- Take advantage of restrooms when they are around. Otherwise, you'll be walking from one end of the wharf to the other (yes, from pier 44 & 1/2 down to pier 1) when Ryan starts his ever-popular yelling at inanimate objects - "no poo, don't come out yet!" So, after 10 more minutes of walking, we finally found a high-quality (not) restaurant/bar and took care of business.

- Humidity takes quites the toll on our junk food. I opened a bag of animal crackers and it was soggy within 1 hour. We also left Ryan's big round lollipop out overnight and awoke to a sticky, melted-lollipop mess.

- Seafood on Fisherman's Wharf was good, as was the Ghiradelli chocolate.

- The Pacific Ocean is very cold. It has been over 7 years since I have visited California and have since been to much warmer beaches. But it was a fun afternoon in Santa Cruz and Ryan had a great time burying Dave and he didn't seem to mind the sand in his pants until we were walking to the game and he would stop and scream "mom! My thing itches" and proceed to scratch himself (but his th's sound like f's and he has a slight southern drawl, so it sounded like "mom, ma fing itches!") The guys behind us got a real kick out of it. How could you not laugh?

- Google maps are not always right, especially when you have the wrong zip code in your search field.

- Nobody (including Ryan here) cares about San Jose State football. It reminded me of Utah football in the 1990's, before the stadium was rebuilt. It seated about 30,000-ish, and about 1/2 of the seats were empty and 1/4 of the seats were filled with fans from the visiting team. We didn't get strip-searched at the gates to confiscate every last little bit of outside food or drink (just a pat-down of the backpack to check for alcohol) and the line for the women's bathroom was a mile long. There were no face-painters or tailgaters and if we wanted, we could have parked right next to the stadium. It was a fun game with a few frustrating moments when the Utes just couldn't get into the endzone or kick a field goal. We miss Sakoda!

- Ryan loves to walk and run and can do it for miles at a time.

- Most important thing learned: we are good at vacationing and should do it more often.

Update

So, it's been almost 2 months since we've posted anything. A lot has happened in the last 2 months. Here's some highlights, as pictured in the slide show:
-we welcomed a new baby into our home. Zachary Karl Pulsipher was born April 21 and was 8 lbs, 1 oz 18 & 1/2 inches
-we celebrated Easter
-went to the Utes' Red & White game
-celebrated Mother's Day and Memorial Day
-went to the aquarium and Wheeler Farm
-officially kicked off swimming season at the splash pool
-planted our garden

Busy, right? Hopefully now that we're almost adjusted to the new baby, I can stay up to date here! More pictures to come later...slide.com is really slow at loading and sorry, I don't know how to get rid of the song. Suggestions, anyone?

Snow Day

Every day that it snows, Ryan asks me if we can go sledding. I always tell him that we'll go when daddy gets home (knowing full well that it will melt by the time Dave gets home). This morning Ryan was so excited to see snow and the ground. And he knew that daddy was home today. So the first thing he said was "Would you wike to go swedding?" We have such a tough time saying no to Ryan, especially when he looks up at us with those cute little blue eyes with long lashes and asks in his super-high-I'm-so-cute voice. "Can I pwease go swedding?" So at 8:30 this morning when everyone else was in their warm houses (probably still asleep) we were out sledding. Lots of fun, and yes, I could still zip up my coat - barely.

Busy

I guess it's been awhile since I've posted. I guess I just got busy and forgot. We've had a fun month. Ryan started (and completed) his first round of swimming lessons. I had fun taking him to the pool 3 times a week and he seemed to enjoy it too. Now he's swimming laps at the South Jordan Rec Center. Just kidding. He mostly learned safety stuff and got used to going under water.

We also decided to put Ryan in the other in preparation for the new baby to come. So after lots and lots of searching, we found a new bedroom set and quilt. Dave also painted. It was a much more positive painting experience than the last time. We still need to put up the wallpaper boarder that matches his quilt. Other than that, he is completely moved in. He was really excited to have his big boy bed, which made the transition a lot easier. But on the first night in his new bed, he fell out and it scared us to death - it's a very tall bed! So everything's a lot better after I found a safety rail and we can all sleep soundly. Well, as soundly as we can.

I also tried a new recipe for sugar cookies, something I haven't made for about 5 years. They turned out a little too soft (definitely undercooked them), but after a few days, they hardened up. And as you can see, we have a new designated beater-licker at our house!

And I finally got to go to another U of U basketball game. Makes me excited for March Madness. Watching basketball and eating Girl Scout Samoas and cadbury minieggs are what I associate with this time of year. What would spring be without 'em?

Encore

All of you seemed to enjoy Ryan singing, so here's a couple new songs for you.

In case you couldn't tell, that was "I'm Too Sexy" by Right Said Fred ("I'm a model, ya know what I mean..."). Here's Ry's version of Stayin' Alive.

Monet in the making

Lately when Ryan goes to the daycare at the gym (to see the "buddies," he calls them) he has been painting with watercolors. Yesterday he really wanted to paint but didn't get to. So today while I was out and about, I was really brave (and nice) and purchased a new set of Crayola's finest for my boy. He was so excited. So I put on a superbig t-shirt on him and put him in the high chair so he wouldn't ruin our dining set. I am pleased to say that it wasn't a total disaster like I was expecting. He didn't even get any paint on his shirt. The colors did get a little mixed up and he wanted to drink the water and lick the brush, but I can deal with that. Still working on staying in the lines and keeping the colors separated, so instead of being a Leonardo, he's more of a Monet right now...

Sorry

So I haven't posted anything for awhile. We've been a little busy. Doing what? I have no idea. Somehow the time seems to fly by so quickly, but if you ask me what I did at the end of the day, I wouldn't be able to tell you. A couple of highlights over the past couple of weeks:

- We celebrated Dave's 30th birthday

- We went to the parade to celebrate the Utes 13-0 season

- Dave put up more shelves in most of our closets, giving us ssssoooo much more storage space

- We added more to our food storage

- Ryan is mostly potty-trained with the #1 thing (still has yet to poo in the potty)

- I have a new helper to help me clean the potty

Here's some pictures.