Rian's Taking Over Today!!!

Hi Everyone!!!

^^

It's me, Rian! I'm taking over House of Harringtons today because Mommy's been really sick this last week with allergies. She says that when it gets really windy, her allergies act up (whatever that means). I just know that there's been a lot of nose-blowing and coughing going on around here and that she's been taking a lot of naps with me lately and I'm loving it!

Anyway, let's talk about some of my favorite things. A few weeks ago we did a family bike ride to one of mine and Rory's favorite parks.

Daddy had never been there before, so I was pointing out the bike city. I can't ride a bike just yet (who knew you needed to be able to reach the peddles), but it's still really fun running around the mini city.

Rory loves going to the park too. He had a lot of fun with Daddy on the swings. Most of the time Mommy can't push him because she's too busy running after me and making sure I'm not jetting into the parking lot.

Most of the time we go to the park with my friends and their mommies. It's pretty fun because some of the mommies bring stuff for us to do. Last week we learned about the letter B and got to hear a story about three bears and a little girl that took things that weren't hers. Her mommy and daddy should've taught her that it's not nice to take things that aren't hers. But after the story we got to color and make a bear to take home.

This is Rory's! He did his all by himself. His is really good and he didn't need Mommy's help, not even with the eyes!

This one is mine. I colored it all by myself and when Mommy put glue on the paper I got to put the ears, nose, hands, and feet on top of it and push it down. I liked doing that. Mommy had to add the eyes and the marks on the ears, nose, hands, and feet because I can't do that yet and I really wanted to go play on the playground with my friends.

I'm not sure why I'm not allowed on this giant ladder. Rory's allowed to climb it.

I mean come on, I've mastered climbing this little one weeks ago. On to bigger things, right?!?

Minnie Mouse is still a huge favorite of mine. Well actually Mickey Mouse and Daisy Duck too. Mickey Mouse Clubhouse makes me happy. Have you seen the one where Donald has to help the baby ducks get to the beach? Oh my gosh it cracks me up everytime I see it!

I like to help Mommy in the kitchen. We got to have pancakes for dinner the other night! Rory and I love when we have pancakes for dinner!!!

My Nama and Papa have these little books sent to me every month. I love looking them and having Mommy read the little stories to me. Who knew getting mail could be this fun! Mommy and Daddy get things in the mail all the time, but their stuff looks boring. Maybe they should have Nama and Papa send them stuff too!

I'm pretty sure I'm up to no good. Look at my face, I always make this face when I'm about to do something that Mommy says is a no-no. Right now I like to stand up in the bath tub and jump down in a giant splash! It's super fun but Mommy always tells me something about slipping in the tub and going to the emergency room...blah, blah, blah.

I love wearing sunglasses or as Mommy calls them, my sunnies. I have a bunch of them, but these are my favorites right now.

I even wear them inside and make Mommy wears her sunnies too. 

Remember this pic? Yeah, the one where I'm in Mommy's belly. 

Well she was right, I'm a Dodger fan. 

And Mommy put a little potty in the bathroom just for me. Just between you and me, I'm not entirely sure what to do with it. When Mommy or Daddy tell me to go potty I run to the bathroom and sit down. And that makes them really happy, but then Mommy tells me to make potty and I don't think she knows what she's talking about because I make potty in my diapers. Can someone explain the purpose of diapers to her? 

Oh yeah, I hate being told no! You see my baby stoller? Well I started using it as a step stool to reach all these cool things that Mommy and Daddy keep hiding from me. And well Mommy's not to happy about my creative solution. When she tells me no, it gives me a chance to practice my tantrums. 

I've also been learning new words lately. Mommy's favorites are ok, sue-sue (choo-choo), o-pen (open) , up and peese (please). She makes me say "up please" when I want her to pick me up and "open please" when I need her to open something for me. I already mastered tank you (thank you), Or-reeee (Rory), Ooos dat? (Who's that?),  T'ere it/he is! (There it/he is), sew (slow) and a bunch more.

I could end this post here, but I know Mommy would want me to talk about Rory too. He's a really cool big brother, even though he tells on me sometimes. He has a lot of neat toys in his room and he lets me take all his toys out of his toy box so that I can sit in it. Sometimes I let him chase me around the house and we both laugh when he catches me. I want to do everything he does!!!

He really loves when Daddy makes giant bubbles. He runs around the backyard chasing every single bubble. Don't tell Mommy, but Daddy's way better than her at bubbles.

Here's Rory with his recent allowance purchase, a Rescue Bot Tranformer. Mommy said she was proud of him for not spending all his allowance and saving some of it last week. If you ask me I think he should've bought me something with his leftover five dollars. After all, I do help him unload the dishwasher. Oh wait, except that he's usually trying to load it. Oops my bad.

Rory thinks it's really funny to hide in the clothes at stores. But someone needs to tell him we can hear him giggling and we can still see his hat!

Well guys, that's all I got for now. I hope you all enjoyed my first post. Hopefully I'll be able to come back again.  

{Shhh! Don't tell Mommy I was here. I'm positive it's a big no-no to be on the computer!!!}

Bah--Bye!

xoxo

-rian 

Working Hard Pays Off

Hi There!

I want to share with you all something that we've been working on with Rory:

A few months ago, a friend of mind posted on one of her social media accounts that she and her husband were putting their two-year-old son on an allowance schedule based on what tasks he completed and each task was worth 25 cents. I remember her making the comment that they wanted to teach their children to earn money rather than just receive it for their allowance. She made a comment like "No one is going to pay him for simply waking up." And that has stuck with me for some time now.

About two or three months ago I decided that it was time for Rory to start learning about money: how to save it, when to spend it and how to be responsible for it. I casually put him on an allowance schedule similar to my friend, Melissa's. I told him that he could earn money for chores and that he could do whatever he wanted with the money he earned. For weeks I would mention that tasks could be completed for money. Sometimes he did them and sometimes he didn't. One Saturday afternoon Randy asked Rory how much he had earned and if he wanted to go buy Legos with his money. Of course Rory wanted to go get Legos! In that first seven weeks he earned $17.25. So we went to buy some Legos. Later that night, he was flipping through a booklet from his newly purchased Legos and found a set that he really wanted. He was so excited and mentioned something that next weekend we could go get that one for him. Oh no! I quickly informed him that we were not going to be buying Legos for him anymore and that if he wanted that set he was going to have to work for it. We looked up to see how much it was and I told Rory that he wouldn't be able to earn enough money to buy it by the next weekend. However, I knew if he worked really hard it was possible for him to have enough money in two weeks. So for two weeks, Rory would ask me what he could do to earn money and everyday he would do numerous chores and tasks. And 13 days later (that's right, a day early!), we took him to the bank and paid his allowance.

With his hard-earned money tucked away in his wallet, we headed to the Lego Store. He had never been there before and had no idea there was such a thing.

And that was the set that he had been talking about for weeks.


Luckily for Rian there was a Duplo station set up




With no time to waste, he got line and patiently waited for his turn at the counter.
{I love that the girl in the background is staring at him}


He (well, actually me) became a VIP member. Once I told the very nice man at the counter that Rory was the one purchasing the Legos, he directed his attention to Rory. Rory then took out his money and set it on the counter.


Waiting for his change.




Rory was so excited that he was able to get those Legos


Randy and I were so proud of him for not only earning the money, but for setting a goal and completing it, and for saving for something he really wanted. The weekend before, we had to make a Target run and while we were there Rory struggled with the idea of spending the ten dollars or so that he had earned during that week or saving it for the fire truck set that he really wanted. He understood that he only had enough money for a small set, but what he didn't get was that if he spent the money he had saved, he wouldn't have enough for the fire truck. What he learned standing at the entrance of Target was a very valuable lesson that hopefully will stay with him forever. I know its a lesson that I will remind him of the next time he is faced with a tempting choice.


{Luckily he had birthday money to cover the taxes! :0)}


So here is the concept of his allowance:

He gets paid for chores that help our household (folding/putting away laundry, dusting, picking up dog poop, feeding the dogs, vacuuming, taking the trash cans out front for trash day, putting the trash cans back after trash day, picking up the backyard in prep for the gardener, cleaning the bathroom, helping with meals, loading/unloading the dishwasher, helping with the groceries, etc).

He also gets allowance for a good weekly report from school. The idea behind this is that at his age, doing well in school is his job and in return, he should get paid for it.

He doesn't get an allowance for cleaning his room, getting dressed, brushing his teeth, things of that nature. Nobody is going to pay him for doing that once he is living on his own and therefore, neither will we. Now I understand that he will not get paid for the chores and tasks listed above in his adult life, but I look at our household like a business and those tasks help our "business" run smoothly.


I'm working on setting up a chore chart for him so that he can manage the tasks that he wants to tackle and complete without me having to write it down. I just haven't found one that I like. I guess I need to do a little Pinterest research on it. :0)


Anyway, thanks for stopping by!

xoxo
-aMie

Spring Break & Easter Weekend

{I'm not sure why there is a huge, blank space between the tile and post-sorry}

Hi everyone!!!

How's everyone doing? Well I don't know about you, but I'm beat. Spring Break and Easter sure took a lot out me. I don't know how the Easter Bunny does it.

Instead of a week of catching up on a little sleep, the kiddos stayed up a little too late and woke up a little too early. And instead of feeling relaxed, by Friday I was anxiety-riddled by all the people that were out and about. What are all these people doing at the market and target and the mall? Oh yeah it's spring break.

But we spent our week having lunch with friends, creating crafts with our playgroup, doing a little unplanned, unwanted spring cleaning and looking for some eggs...

I found this cute little girl in my closet one night. She looked just like another little girl that destroyed another part of my closet earlier that morning. Remember the unplanned, unwanted spring cleaning? Thanks Rian, I guess I should go through my closet and clean it out at ten o'clock at night.

Rian, what are you doing up there?

No you cannot have a donut!

We had a pizza dinner and egg hunt with our playgroup at the end of the week. And as one of the dads was giving the kids instructions on the egg hunt, Rian decided that her basket made a better hat. 

She reminded me of the little blonde, curly-haired boy that liked to put a bucket on his head in the movie Parethood!

And they're off!

And then there went Rian

Hey guys! I found another egg if someone wants it!

Umm, guys?!? There's another egg right here!

It's like right here!

See?!? Right here!

The next morning we were all packed up and ready to go to Cali!

Nap time!!!

Well what else am I suppose to do when the kiddos are asleep and Randy is busy driving?!? A road trip selfie it is!

The VERY first thing Rian did when we got to my parents's house was grab a banana. If you haven't seen my parents's kitchen lately, they are redoing the cabinets so there are no doors on the pantry right now. And of course the bananas were front and center where Rian could see them. She blames my mom really for her having to steal the banana. 

And then it was time for some fun in the sun!

Opening baskets at my SIL's house. Thanks Aunt Courtney!

Up next were the baskets from Grammie! A Spider-Man basket for Rory...

...and a Disney Princess one for Rian

An Easter Bunny stayed up way too late to put these together... along with some goodies for the cousins!

In Rian's basket: Strawberry Shortcake bubble wand, bubbles, a coloring book, chalk, a mini puzzle and bunny cookies.

In Rory's basket: Spider-Man bubble wand, bubbles, backyard baseball bases, chalk, a mini puzzle and pretzels.

Easter morning the kiddos opened baskets from my parents

{don't mind my giant cup of water on the table}

Opening Easter baskets is an exhausting job...

Trying out her new flip flops from her basket

She fell asleep waiting for us to get ready to go...

Showing off their baskets from the Easter Bunny!

We went to my Nana's for Easter. And yes, I packed him a lunch! He fell asleep on the way and was still half asleep as he was eating.

The kids had a blast hunting for eggs with their cousins! There was a total of 175 eggs!!! I spent many Easter Sundays hunting for eggs with my cousins in that very same yard and it was amazing watching all of our kids looking around for eggs together. I felt very blessed that we could share that time together. 

I wish I had a picture of all the kids running around together. It was everything I envisioned Easter to be. Thank you so much to everyone that gave the kiddos Easter goodies! We packed a suitcase full of stuff from everyone :0)

I hope you all enjoyed your weekend and are having a wonderful week! 

xoxo

-aMie