Yes Mom

There is a movie called "Yes Man" that came out a few years ago. I've only seen it once but the gist is that the main character is always saying no to everyone.  He gets cursed and has to say yes to anything anyone asks of him.  He learns a valuable lesson about life and all that good stuff. The movie was pretty silly but it did make me think about how much I say no, specifically to my children.

No, you can't have cake for breakfast.  No more t.v.  No, we've read three books and I'm tired--go to bed.  You are already doing dance, gymnastics, and piano so no you can't play soccer and take tennis lessons. No you can't go outside right now, we have homework.  No you MAY NOT get the glitter out. No you can't make your "special salad" for dinner tonight.

Really, it wears me out.  I hate saying no so much.  Most of the time I say no for their own good, but sometimes its because I just don't want to deal with whatever it is they want.  I don't want to have to clean up the mess, stop what I'm doing, or get out of our routine.

Today I decided to be a Yes Mom. My alarm went off at 6:25 and I woke to pouring down rain. It never crossed my mind that it would affect school.  So at 6:45 I went to wake up the kids like I do every day.  We had just sat down to a bowl of cereal when the school system called saying we would have a two hour delay. Grrrr.....if that call had been 15 minutes earlier and I could have gone back to bed!  So we ate breakfast and turned on cartoons (we NEVER turn the tv on in the mornings before school).  At 9 a.m. I found out school was cancelled for the day due to flooding of our streets.  At 10 one or two children wanted food.  I asked what they wanted and heard waffles.  So, I thought, "Why not?" So I made waffles and we ate 2nd breakfast.  Then My Boy asked to ride his bike.  In the rain.  I thought, "Its 70 degrees.  Why not?"  So we all geared up and went outside.

We stayed out for an hour or so and then went in.  They asked for more t.v. My answer,"Go for it." At 1:30 people were hungry again.  I said yes to making 3 different things.  Then they asked to make cookies.  We did.

As of right now, I'm NOT forcing the baby take a nap.  She and her sister are reading books in her crib.  My Boy is doing a jigsaw puzzle with 100 pieces.  No one has screamed today.  No one has hit a sibling today. Everyone has behaved quite well on this lawless day and we've had a pretty darn awesome time.

Who knows what we will do next?

Maybe I'm not going to be a Yes Mom everyday but I'm definitely going to give it a go more often.

Enjoying our yard!

We are loving our new back and front yards.  We spent most of the weekend bike riding, skate boarding, and go carting!  We are so blessed!

September

September is flying by!  We have been busy with school and all of our activities.  I'm having a hard time sitting down to update this little blog.  My baby girl has decided that some days she is not going to nap. It makes blogging pretty tough!  Here is a little rundown of what's been going on in our lives:


This little Princess is potty training!  She has successfully gone #1 in the potty several times and #2 in the potty one time.  We have no consistency yet....but I'm hopeful to be free of diapers SOON!

 Sometimes a even a bag of Cheetos isn't enough to keep you awake after swimming class!  Oh...and she only gets Cheetos once in a blue moon so she was really tired!

The Hubs and I went to Dallas last weekend--ALONE!  It was our first time to have a weekend alone in 2 years and 4 months (but who's counting?).  We had a great time.  Our mission was to find furniture for our new Casa.  I came back with lots of ideas but I'm trying not to hurry and make quick decisions.  I'm really impatient to fill the house...but I want to do it right.  It was awesome to linger over meals, indulge in a Spa morning, and shop! Thank you Grandma and Grandpa for keeping the big kids and thank you to Nini for keeping little bit!

Here is my Pumpkin souffle at the restaurant Rise in Dallas.  I went there with friends last Spring and had to go back. AMAZING. It's in the Inwood area.  Go to there!!! ( you get this phrase if you watch 30 rock:)).

Happiness is an Anthropologie dressing room....these are my purchases....

I heart Nobu!  My husband said, "So, did you decide on the Tuna Salad?" This made me laugh so hard.  All I could picture was a Tuna Salad sandwich, which is clearly not Nobu style. You can take the boy out of the country.....

And my favorite photo of the week of my silly girls.  I love them!

Marathon

I feel like I started a marathon on Tuesday and I have to run it the rest of the school year.  We've been lucky the first two weeks of school because we didn't have too much going on after school. Well, it all started this week and my head is spinning!

My baby girl started swim lessons!  She cried the entire 45 minutes of the first one.  Yesterday, she only cried the first 15. Thankfully they are during the school day and not after school. My Boy started swimming this week too, but of course he refuses to have his photo taken.

 We started dance lessons and gymnastics.  My son decided he wanted to do gymnastics with his sister this year. Both kids were able to get in at the same time and same place. Woohoo!  This girl is ALSO taking piano (more on that later).

I've done a bible study with the same group of girls for 5 years. We started meeting this week too.  Here is my little bit on the way to the church nursery. She is so big with her back pack (pack pack as she calls it) and lunch box.

 We also had our first round of spelling tests.  Its old hat for My Boy:

  Lollipop has to get the hang of it.  I'm very proud of her.  She was super nervous about her first ever spelling test.  If you make above a 90 on Wednesday's test you are exempt from taking it on Friday.  She had her words down perfectly on Tuesday night.  Then she took the test.

She wrote the wrong word on #9!!!! At least she spelled the wrong word correctly! And she wrote "u" for "a" in her sentences.  She never did that at home.  She also wrote a taG on her other sentence and got it wrong because she capitalized the G.  Its a learning process.  I feel so bad because I AM proud of her but all I wanted to do was scream PAY ATTENTION!!! 

Dear Lord, please help this type A mommy be patient! And clearly we need to work on handwriting (it will all come in due time :))

Is it Thanksgiving Break yet????