Just some fun stuff

I was playing and found these. They're kind of fun, but almost seem to contradict each other sometimes. Maybe I've just got a multi-faceted personality. :)

You Are Basil

You are quite popular and loved by post people. You have a mild temperament, but your style is definitely distinctive. You are sweet, attractive, and you often smell good.

What Spice Are You?

And this:

Your Mind is Blue

Of all the mind types, yours is the most mellow. You tend to be in a meditative state most of the time. You don't try to think away your troubles. Your thoughts are realistic, fresh, and honest. You truly see things as how they are. You tend to spend a lot of time thinking about your friends, your surroundings, and your life.

What Color Is Your Mind?

And this:

You Are Coffee Ice Cream

Energetic and lively, you are always on the go. You're doing a million things at once and doing them well. You tend to motivate others and raise spirits. You are most compatible with chocolate ice cream.

What Flavor Ice Cream Are You?

Days Three and Four Results

Days Three and Four both went pretty well. About the same as Day Two. The boys still really like being heroes to each other and will try to do nice things so they can be. There were still occasional fights, but sometimes when they'd start fighting, one of them would yell, "You're being a bully, not a hero!" So it is starting to sink in a bit.

In other news, Ben lost his third tooth yesterday. His top two teeth have been wiggly for a long time, but the third tooth he lost was one on the right side bottom, next to the middle bottom. He was very excited to have the tooth fairy come and was wondering what would happen if he saw her. He didn't see the tooth fairy, but was pretty excited to show his brothers the dollar he had under his pillow when he got up this morning.

Results for Day Two

Day Two worked out much better than Day One. It helped to have read the story in FHE, so when the boys would start to fight, I'd just ask them, "Are you guys being bullies or heroes?" They'd usually stop fighting pretty quickly. They were all very excited to be able to be heroes to their brothers and do nice things. Chris decided that he wanted to bring a graham cracker up for everyone to have a snack, so he said he wanted to be a hero and do that. He and Alex also cleaned up a box of toys while Ben was at school that he had dumped out earlier. Ben and Alex were always running to get things for everyone and wanted to help out. They're all also much quicker to say sorry if they accidentally hurt each other.

Chris kind of cracked me up after he had been picking up some of the toys for Ben. He came and sat by me and said, "I'm a hero, huh Mom?" I said, "Yes, you are." "I'm a good guy, right?" "Yes, you are a very good guy." "I'm good, aren't I?" "Yes, you are very good." He grinned and gave me a hug and then ran off to do some more. I thought it was very cute.

Day One's Results

So Day One of my experiment for the week was basically a complete and total failure. I did kind of expect that for the first day, since it seems like the opposition is always worse to try to get you to give up before anything good can come of it. Through the day, the boys actually fought more and threw more fits. At one point, the 3 oldest boys were all time out at the same time for a while.

On the up side, our Family Home Evening went pretty well and we read a story in the Friend called "Bullies and Brothers" that gave us a way to help the boys want to help each other. We just ask if they want to be a bully or be a hero. They want to be heroes. So we can move it on from that to have them think of ways they can be heroes to their brothers. They get very excited about being heroes, so they're more willing to think of ways they can help each other out and serve each other. It's also been working as a pretty good way to get them to stop fighting when they start, since no one wants to be a bully.

Hopefully with that to help, Day Two will go a lot better.

Weight check for Daniel

I took Daniel in to the doctor today for a weight check and to check on his ears that still had fluid in them at his 9 month appointment. I had it planned so I could drop Alex off at preschool, take Daniel to the doctor, then get back in time to pick up Alex and then drop Ben off at the bus stop. Of course, things don't always go as planned.

To begin, I was a little late getting the kids in the van and over to Alex's preschool. So of course I was a little late to the doctor. On the up side, we didn't have to wait at all to go back. We went back to the room and the nurse listened to Daniel's pulse, then we stripped him down and took him to weigh him. He weighs 18 pounds, 7 ounces. Then we went back to the room and had to wait a little bit for the doctor to come in. He asked some general health questions and asked if Daniel still has a runny nose or coughs. His runny nose and cough will stop for a couple days, then start back up, then stop, then start back up. Then the doctor looked at the growth chart and showed that Daniel's weight has a good curve and is on the way back up a little bit. It seemed to be at about 15%, but I couldn't see it really well. Thinking back, it was probably just below the 10% line. Still much better than Chris was at this age ... he was off the low end of the chart. He then listened to Daniel's chest and said he could still hear some wheezing in his lungs, but at this age, it's not too big of a concern and not really anything they'd do about it anyway. He then checked Daniel's ears, which both looked good.

We were free to go after standing in line for a little bit to make Daniel's next appointment, which is his 12 month well-baby check-up. We hurried to the van and got everyone buckled in and saw that it was almost 11:00, which meant that we'd be late to both pick up Alex and for the bus. Especially when we kept getting behind really slow drivers and kept hitting all the red lights. Ben really wanted us to try to make it to his bus, so we decided to try to drop him off there before picking up Alex. We saw that we had missed the bus at Ben's stop and the next stop from way down the street. From there, I couldn't tell if it had turned into the next subdivision or if it had turned onto Cherry to go into the third subdivision. I drove up past the entrance to the next subdivision and saw the bus pulling out, so we hurried and turned around and went down Cherry to the next stop. Ben was very happy to get on the bus.

After we dropped Ben off at the bus, we went to pick up Alex, who was happily playing with Ashtyn and eating pretzels. Luckily I had warned Ashtyn's mom that we were going to the doctor and she had said it was fine if we were a little late picking up Alex.

Then after getting gas in the van (at $3.399 a gallon!), we finally made it home where the boys played outside for a bit before we came in for lunch. So even though things never go quite as planned, it's nice that they turn out okay anyway.