2012 thus far

I have officially been nannying R (23 mo) and S (2 1/2 mo) for an entire month! R was going to stay in preschool until mid February but she just loves being home so much that she has not gone in over 2 weeks! She loves adult attention and being able to do her own thing which she gets a lot of at home. At first, she had a very difficult time sharing me with her new little sister, but we have come SO far in just a few weeks and she is really understanding that S needs my attention sometimes also! S is so darling , its crazy how natural it is to love such a helpless little thing! She has been fighting sleep lately and loves to socialize, unfortunately if she doesn't sleep enough, she breaks down in the evening and screams for 30 minutes at a time!

So... here's my question! R has started getting time out when she either does not listen after multiple warnings, or refuses to do something she needs to do (ie. a diaper change or wash her hands). She LOVES the timer and makes sure I remember to set it! She gets so excited when it goes off. Yesterday she put herself in time out, haha I laughed so hard! She kept getting up and trying to walk around with her snack and after only telling her twice that she needs to stay at her table, she goes "R needs time out, R stay at table" she put down her snack and headed over to the stairs, then she says "Timer emmy, timer". I'd be afraid I was not getting through, but when I ask her why she was in time out, she always gives me the right answer! Anyway, back to my question... would it be bad to give her, her own time out timer for her birthday? a pretty one that she can watch tick down...

While looking for timers, I found the coolest time out tools on amazon! Including my favorite, A little floor seat that beeps when it no longer feels pressure so the parent can walk away and know if the kid gets up!! It also lets the kid know they can't get away with it because it beeps until they sit down again! oh, and its small enough to take to grandmas house or the park so you can keep the consistency! Time Out Pad

On another note, Brandon is doing GREAT! He LOVES it here in San Clemente, as do I, and finally has his own biker gang!! ok, when he reads this, he will laugh and give me that "really, em, really... biker gang?" look! In reality, its made up of him and 2 family guys from our church but he loves mountain biking with them and goes every weekend! He has been wanting a nice bike since his got stolen almost 2 years ago and FINALLY found one that won't brake the bank but that is great quality! He has been riding around on a cheap one (mountain bike standards) that is 3 sizes too small, and has a broken something important, fork maybe? His new bike is as big as bikes come and our neighbors (both build bikes for a living) tuned it up for him and made sure he put it together perfectly! Technically, the bike is for his birthday... but it was on sale now so he was afraid of waiting until April to buy it!

Because I worked so hard the past 4 1/2 years in college, my parents wanted to get me something special to celebrate my graduation! I have a REALLY hard time thinking of things I want... I just like small things and am in heaven when I get a bag of dried mangoes! My dad had me think about it for a little while and I decided that I wanted a treadmill! Our neighborhood has very few street lights and is a little bit ghetto so now that I am working from dawn till dusk I can't run outside... meaning I've stopped running completely! It arrived last week but we have had some electrical problems since our house is old and they take up lots of power! Brandon finally got it up and running smoothly so my training can now begin! Training? you ask... Brandon, Cory, Rick, and I are running in the Camp Pendleton mud run (10K) in June, I am SO excited!!

We also went to my fist ever surf competition!!! It was AWESOME!!! unfortunately we only got to see the 7 year old boys and 13 year old girls, I was hoping for some pros... but it was still fun and a lot cuter!