Monday, December 10, 2012

A little this and a little that.

I'm back :)  I told you October totally wipes me out and blogging is almost the last thing I feel like doing this time of year.  But I thought I'd check in and share some pictures on my blog.  November was a pretty slow month for us, which is always nice coming out of October, which is always a very busy month for us!  Now with December in full swing and Christmas right around the corner, our calendar is filling up again, but honestly, I like it that way!
 
Jayden and Sophia taking a break at the park for a photo :)

Out enjoying an unseasonably nice day.

Sophia trying to ride Shelby dog :)

The good ole stomach bug hit our house a few weeks ago, HARD.  It first took out Sophia, then hit Jayden, then Randy and finally me.  Lucky for me, I got the better end of the deal than the rest of them, but it was not a pretty 4 days at the Russell house :/.  So glad that's behind us!


Jayden showing off her loot from her first WWE live event.  I don't know for sure how she got into this whole wrestling thing, but it cracks me up listening to her talk about it!

Sporty Sophia ready to play some ball out at Great Grandma and Grandpa's house on Thanksgiving.  I was so excited to get her into a soccer program this spring through the UPWARD program at one of our local churches, but unfortunately kids with special needs have to be 5 before they can start playing :(  She's one heck of a kicker now, she's going to tear it up in two years!


Just clowning around :)

I found these charts and reward bucks at the Dollar Tree a few weeks ago and thought, for $3 maybe something like this would help Jayden with responsibility and keeping her attitude in check a little better.  So far so good.  The top chart is a behavior chart and whenever she starts getting disrespectful or out of line, she gets a "strike."  Four strikes and she doesn't get a check on the job chart for being respectful that day.  I started giving her 7 "jobs" to do daily.  Some of them are things she has to do regardless, like brushing her teeth and hair, but it's how long it takes her to do them after being told that I'm looking at.  We struggle in the mornings sometimes with Jayden not wanting to get up and get ready.  So I tell her once, go get dressed, brush your teeth and brush your hair.  Then I set the timer for 10 minutes and if she does it within that time, she gets a check and a reward buck for doing each in a timely manner.  Anyway, long story short, she has the opportunity to earn 7 reward bucks per day, 35 per school week.  So when she earns 35 reward bucks, she can cash those in for $5.  We started this last week and she messed around a few mornings and didn't stay on task and lost the chance for some bucks, but as of  today, she has earned her $5.  We're not expecting her to do keep up on the weekends, for right now, but we're still in the beginning stages of this and I must say I'm pretty pleased with how things are going so far :)


At the children's museum one Sunday afternoon :)

We got a cute picture of the girls before heading out to our Down syndrome playgroup Christmas party this Saturday, which was so much fun!  It's rare to see Jayden in anything "girly", but she was a trooper and I appreciate it :)

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