End of the Road Ranch

Today I wrote out the list of current behavioral goals that I have for the kids, with the goal date being the next baby’s due date - Sept 1st

For Dd Rachel age 1:

• Sit through church quietly
• Sit still in lap
• Understand Blanket time
• Go to sleep/lay still without supervision
• Hand Tristan items nicely when asked (by an adult)
• Reliably respect "This is a no-no."
• Consistently come when called
• Sit still for hair brushing/arranging
• Be quiet on command
• Not to touch things in store aisles when we get close
• Not to throw sippy cup off the table when done

For Ds Tristan age 2:

• Understand blanket time
• Be potty trained
• Take things gently from Rachel when asked
• Sit still alone at church
• Dress/undress himself
• Drink out of a cup neatly
• Say "Yes, Sir" and "Yes, Ma'm" without prompting consistently
• Going to sleep/ laying still without supervision

Most of the items are already well underway.  Tristan, for example, sits very nicely through the entire church service (some cheerios, juice and a quite toy doled out as necessary), but still sits very close to Papa, being held through worship.  Papa will need to hold Rachel when I have the newborn, so Tristan will need to be already adjusted to this.  Rachel has only just begun sitting through the services, but is no where near quiet yet (we go to the cry room and watch the service from there), so she'll need continued work on this. 

I just learned about Blanket time and like the idea so I thought I would implement it .  It is basically send a child to sit quietly on a blanket for x amount of time.  They can take a book or a toy, but they may not leave the blanket.  We have did this with crib time in our old house, because the playpen was in the middle of the small house, so the child was part of everything.  Now in this large house (we are temporarily at my parents while we build a new home) that tends to seclude a child to a room alone, which no one likes. 

Both children go to sleep pretty easily both at bed and nap time but are accustomed to being read to or having someone sit and watch for the least infraction for a few minutes before they really give up and fall asleep.  With the realities of the summer ahead, I will be putting kids down without dh to help and have a newborn, so it is best for all if I can say goodnight and walk away knowing they will stay down and go to sleep. 

Now the list goes to dh for approval and additions and then tomorrow we start being a little more focused on these lessons to make everyone’s life (esp. mine) easier before the new arrival.  Thank God we get 9 months to prepare!  When you have babies back to back, you need the time to pre-adjust.