I am going to write my own parenting book!!!

Just joking... but one thing that Scott and I have been doing is using something completely opposite of what all those parenting books tell you to do. Now this may come and bite us you know where before long, but it is so funny for the time being that is it worth it!!!

As all of you know, 3 years olds seem to all go through this rebellion phase. For example, if you tell them the sky is blue, on no, it is red! Or when it is dinner time, they want their batman snack, or something completely opposite of what you have for them.

So, what Scott and I have been using is: REVERSE PSYCHOLOGY


Here is a typical conversation with Sawyer about going to bed now days...

"Time for bed Sawyer"
"NOOOOO, I don't want to go to bed." He then lays on the ground, throws a tandrem, screams and cries, gets up and runs around screaming how he is not going to bed.

So, now, we have started using reverse psychology, here is a typical conversation:

"It is time for bed Sawyer"
"Nooooo, i don't want to go to to bed" (think of all Sawyer's comment in that 3 year old whining voice.)
"Okay, that is fine, you can stay up all night, watch TV, eat cookies and do whatever you want."
"Are you going to stay up with me?" Whinning
"No, we are going to bed."
"I don't want to stay up all night, I want to go to bed!!!!" whinning
"Well, you need to be a good boy then and we will let you go to bed, but if you are a bad boy, you will have to stay up all night!!!"
"I will be a good boy!" NO WHINNING!!!!!

He then walks up the steps, climbs in his bed.... and goes right to bed.

No, chasing, spanking, fighting him to stay in his bed..... just climbs right in!!!


It is working for the moment.... so we are taking advantage and giggling while doing it!!!!

Thank you!!!!

No pictures.... but a big thank you for my friend Melinda, my mom and my husband for helping me alot for my final vacation to the beach this year!!! We went to our cottage at Surf City for a week, the weather was perfect, only had to leave the house to get pizza and to go to dollar general, and relaxed/played with the kids on the beach! It was so much fun to be with good friends and family! It was a real vacation!!!!!

What vacation????

Just kidding... but not really! I decided to take a couple weeks off this summer before I had the baby so I can go to the beach and play with the boys. Well, this week at the beach.... in one word, HECTIC!!!! The boys and I went to Emerald Isle with Brandy, her kids, and mom and dad from Friday to Sunday. It really was fun for the kids there because there was a lot of room for them to play, a golf cart to ride to the beach and a pool!!! It was a lot of work, but it really is worth it to see a smile on the kids faces! Reagan learned how to swim on her own, Sawyer absolutely loved the beach and pool, and Jackson and Braxton played really good together! Besides the kids not wanting to take a nap and throwing tantrum's, it was just dandy! :-) Oh yeah, and I forgot to mention that my kids, whom have always slept in past 7:30 or 8:00 have now decided that 6 or 6:30 AM is a better time to get up in the morning!!! So I guess I am going to have to learn how to be an early bird from now on, or either I am going to have to teach them to sleep in again!!! :-)

We tried to get the four of them to take pictures together, but this was the best one I got before Braxton ran to me crying, Jackson ran to the ocean and Sawyer dove in the sand! Our ONLY sweet little girl in the mix loves the camera and does MOST of what you ask her to do!

Sunday, we all went to Surf City for a few days! The weather was absolutely beautiful the entire week, and I don't think that I could have picked a better week for the kids to be able to be outside and play! I even got to see one of my closest friends Charley and her son a couple times! The only flaw there was that Braxton got sick and we had to make a trip to the doctor, but at least he started feeling better after that! Here he was having a blast outside swimming with nothing on!!!

After Surf City, we then went to Brandy's house in Little Washington for a few days, and her house is like vacation all the time anyway! (For us anyway... she might not think so with a crowd all the time!) She has the river and a pool! So nice! I even think that the kids got a long pretty good to be around each other so much!

Sawyer didn't want to get out of the pool! He opened the pool up... and closed it down!

Brandy has a lot of really close friends that she invites over for the 4th of July and they have lots of kids the same age. One of the moms, Carla Mitchell, had hats for all the kids and she taught them a lesson about the 4th of July. I am not sure how much they retained, I was just happy that they all sat there long enough to get a couple of pictures!!!!

I have to thank my in-laws for all the help they provided for me since I am now 7 months (29 weeks) and not quite up to par these days! I am so blessed to have such a great family to be around on both sides and I thank GOD every night for everything he has blessed me and my family with!