In The Past Month

All right, we have moved on to a new tactic on getting Allie to clean her room.

We had tried posting jobs in her room, kindly encouraging her to do them. The encouraging turned into nagging, then yelling, and her refusals turned into all-out wars. We tried not allowing her to do anything fun, like going to the library or park, when her room was messy, but that just made it so I couldn't do anything fun either, since she's too little to leave at home alone. We tried putting all her toys in a garbage bag, and holding them hostage in the garage. She didn't care. She'd actually point the bag out to me, with this spiteful little grin on her face, every time we walked out there to get in the car. Kevin had to force her to clean her room, after two weeks, because I was sick of those toys being out there. We had even tried having her pick toys to give away to friends, but she was almost too excited to be giving gifts to her friends. We really needed the consequence to be painful. Then I got my "junk" email from LDSLiving. I was about to trash it, seeing as how the subject was, "Gobble Bag."

Yeah, sounds riveting, I thought. My finger was headed straight for the delete button when something told me to wait and open up the email. I did. Turns out that freaky-sounding title had to do with a way one mom got her kids to clean their rooms, and eventually to keep them clean. I won't go into how she did it, but I'll just fill you in on our variation. I told Kev what I wanted to do, and he was game, so come Saturday night, we made a quick trip to Target where I picked out a laundry bag. After we got home, I took the bag out of the packaging and brought it to Allie's room. Allie's room at that point was actually pretty darn clean, since Kev had nagged her into submission earlier that morning. I introduced Allie to the Gobble Bag (a.k.a. the laundry bag), and he growled and greeted her in a low, rumbly voice-- well, as low as a soprano can get. I told her that The Gobble Bag loves to eat toys and books that are on the floor or even on her bed, if they're not meant to be there, but that he only comes out to eat once a day right before bed at 7:15pm. Each night I would set the timer for 15 minutes, but when the timer would ring, then the Gobble Bag would come out and "gobble" up the leftovers. Her eyes grew wide and she blurted out, "Mom, don't let the Gobble Bag eat my toys! My room is clean!"

I said, "I know it's clean, Allie..." But then I spotted one toy train on the ground that Sami had brought in. I pointed to it, and said, "...except for that one. Look out, the Gobble Bag is going to eat it. Better get it!" I made chomping noises, slowly inching the Gobble Bag closer to the target. Allie yelled, "Noooo!" and jumped down to save the train. She put it away, and the Gobble Bag left the room disappointed. Every day she talks about how she doesn't want me to let the Gobble Bag out, because she has to clean her room first. We're planning on giving the bag of of toys back every Monday night, but as we notice the same toys being gobbled up each week, then we'll start throwing or giving them away, since she obviously doesn't care enough about them to keep them from being gobbled up. I'm not expecting this to last long with Allie, considering how inconsistent she is, but it's nice for now. Honestly, though, we really didn't mean for her to be terrified of the bag-- it's just a perk. I'll let you all know when it stops working, though.

Moving on, the girls completed a session of swimming lessons this past month. Allie is a little maniac-- jumping into the 5 ft. end, surfacing, and swimming to the side all on her own. Of course, her swimming is more like flailing her arms and legs as much as she can. It ain't pretty, but, heck, she's only thee! Just the other day at a friend's house, she couldn't get enough of jumping off the diving board-- Kev caught her as she fell in, but she was a wild woman! I'm proud of her. She really got over her leach-y-ness from her May lessons. Sami took a parent/tot class with me. The class was helpful when it came to Sami getting used to the coolness of the water, which had previously made her cry. But she had trouble trying to stay focused on the activities. The other people around her fascinated her too much. When we took her to the community pool on Friday, she had no trouble trying to swim and kick her legs since hardly anybody was there to distract her, so maybe that's the way to go now.

Towards the latter part of the month, Sarah and her fiance Jeremiah came to visit us for a weekend. We went to Universal Studios (without the girls, thanks to Beth) and rode a wicked roller coaster that made Sarah sick, spent a morning at the Kennedy Space Center, and went to the beach. We rented surf boards so Jeremiah could teach Kevin how to surf, and wouldn't you know it? No waves! Man, each of those boards cost twenty bucks to rent! We nearly got caught in a thunder storm, though. At one point, I noticed the ground wasn't as hot as it was when got to the beach. I looked up to see clouds. Oh, glorious clouds! But they were dark clouds. After a while, I heard the thunder, and warned everyone. They just nodded their heads. All right, maybe I'm just being paranoid. Then I saw flashes, and again I told Kev. He nodded. Then I saw the bolt. Anxious, I warned everyone again, and ran to gather up all our things. Within minutes the wind picked up big time, and I pointed out that when the lifeguards are even leaving, you know it's time to get the heck out of there. Sarah agreed, and we all gathered our things as quickly as we could, rushed to shower off, and raced to the cars. As soon as we got in, the rain started, and by the time we drove around the corner, it was a full-on downpour. Welcome to Florida rain, guys! What fun having those two here. Allie was so depressed when she woke up the Tuesday morning when they had already left for the airport. She wandered over to the guest room, saw Sarah's things gone, and said, with a pathetic pout, "Where are my friends? I want my friends to come back to my house!" Sami had a special bond with Jeremiah, too, and I think she was a little sad they had gone as well. And if you're looking at these pictures wondering which one is Kev and which one is Jeremiah, don't think you're crazy, because, yes, they are similar-- tall, blond, same coloring. Jeremiah is the one wearing glasses. Just be glad Kev wasn't wearing his glasses-- then you'd really be freaked out.

And with all that, here comes August... Before I forget, so far Allie has managed to get a frog in her room at bedtime (honestly, it wasn't her fault), but while I was trying to catch it, it took this beautiful flying leap from the windowsill to Allie's bed, and then hopped around while till I was able to trap it in Allie's Mrs. Potts teapot. And Sami managed to split her head open the day after... while I was in the middle of telling a friend about the frog that had gotten in Allie's room! While visiting this friend (and telling the frog story), Sami was playing with a toy near their rustic entertainment center. She bent over to grab the toy, and we heard a thump. I figured she just whacked her head again-- she tends to just throw that thing around. She was hunched over with her back to us, and I walked over to her, picked her up to comfort her, and saw blood gushing, pouring, from her head. "She's bleeding!" I said. I carried her to the kitchen where we kept pressure on the wound. The bleeding stopped after less than ten minutes, and we covered it with a Band-Aid until I was able to get to Wallgreens to pick up some butterfly bandages. She's doing great now-- no goose-egg, no infection, no opening, just a nice, healthy scab. So, no worries, mates!