Swimming, drawing, and a chore chart

I had a really nice day with Maya and Ella. Brett left early this morning for the Pedal People retreat. He will be back Sunday evening. It was so hot today, and after getting some ice cream at the little place in Florence, we went swimming in the river for a long time. Both girls are getting more and more comfortable with the water. They've been walking out to where the water is almost too deep, then turning around and heading back to the shore, putting their hands down when the water gets shallow enough that they can reach and pointing their legs out behind them. Great practice for being able to swim on their own!

While playing in the water today:

Ella: "I'm a crab."
Me: "Oh, you look tasty. Can I eat you?"
Ella: "No. I'm not edible."

Maya can suddenly draw a face/person! It's only been for the past week or so that this has been happening. Before then when the girls did drawings they didn't resemble much of anything. It's amazing how milestones like this just happen when you aren't expecting it. Maya is really proud of herself.

One of Maya's first drawings. She said it's, "A picture of Mama, with Ella inside her tummy!"

On a not-so-fun note, I've been really annoyed at Maya's tendency to throw things when she's upset. This isn't something new. She's had this sort of reaction for a while. I wish I knew the best thing to do to help her change it. This evening she threw her bowl of yogurt on the floor (and it got all over, including on my skirt) because she came into the kitchen, climbed up to her chair, and noticed I hadn't gotten her a spoon yet. I had it in my hand about to give to her. I could see that she felt bad and embarrassed for what she had done, and I know she was tired (which is when this sort of behavior usually happens) but, gosh. I told her she had to wipe up the yogurt, and explained that what she did really upset me (I was pretty much in tears, I was tired too) for several reasons. She did wipe it up, after first trying to get Ella do to it (who was more then happy to accept, she LOVES using the sponge) while I was out of the room to put my skirt in the laundry. Maya then told me, "But, I'm not going to say sorry!!" I said she didn't have to, but told her that kind of behavior was totally unacceptable, it's never okay to throw things because you're upset and next time she needed to use words.

We don't, and haven't ever really done timeouts, or other punishments for misbehavior like that. Nothing has ever seemed so bad to warrant it, and I'm not sure I feel comfortable with timeouts anyway. I really am stuck with this throwing thing, though. It seems like what we've been doing isn't making much difference. It's possible it is, and it's just a very slow process. But I'm not noticing the behavior lessening. I am open to suggestions and advice if anyone has any!

Some quotes from Maya this week:

"Sometimes when I buckle my bottom buckle in the bike trailer, it tickles my belly button hole, just like when I was born and I still had my umbilical cord."

"I like trucks a lot. Dump trucks, digger trucks, bulldozers trucks, and what I mostly like is ice cream." - First thing Maya said to me after a nap.

Maya enjoyed a shower this week, by herself for the first time! She stayed in there letting the water fill her cup and playing for about 10 minutes.  

Clipping Dada's nails.

I made a fun chart today to help the girls stay on track at bedtime. I got the idea from reading about schedules and daily rhythms. We used it tonight and they had a lot of fun! Both girls went through the bedtime steps mostly on their own, which was a nice change from pestering and reminding them to get ready.

Two charts, one on Ella's side of the bed, and one on Maya's.

It has magnets, to close each step as you go.

It's pretty fun actually. I may have to make one for me.

All done. Ready for bed!