No, I haven't forgotten about my favorite little guy Aiden. He is such a cool kid. Yes, I am kind of partial. :) I wanted to start out the new year with a couple of new things to try with Aiden to make our lives a little bit easier. We now use a sticker chart and limit the amount of toys he gets at a time. Two things I've always read about on those babycenter emails, but was just always too lazy to do.
I wasn't sure if he was old enough to understand a sticker chart yet, so I got online and googled. (Googling is the answer for everything, right?) Most of the ones I saw were a little advanced for him, so I just took a piece of construction paper, put his name at the top, drew some lines on it, and a sucker at the end of the line. Every five stickers he gets, he gets a sucker. I cannot believe what this kid will do to be able to pick out a sticker! It's amazing. He cleans up all of his toys, lets me change him (he used to run away), and just does anything we ask him to do now. I seriously never pick up toys anymore..it's amazing. Now I don't just go get a sticker and put it on the chart though. It's a whole process. I have to give him the sticker pack, and he sits there deciding which one he wants, then puts it on himself. After, we have to count the stickers to see if he gets a sucker, and then we spell his name at the top of the page. I thought this whole thing would last no more than a week, and then he would lose interest. Nope! We are going strong after a month of doing it! Yay!
(Don't make fun of my sucker drawings! LOL)
Being so sick with this pregnancy, we have been inside more than we used to be. Being inside more equals Aiden destroying his room more often. I was seriously having mental breakdowns over the mess this kid would make. I had Mark go out and buy five big Rubbermaid containers, took all of Aiden's toys and put them in the living room, and put Aiden down for a nap. I seperated all the toys by cars, puzzles, books, etc. and then put a little bit of each category in the buckets. Aiden gets one bucket at a time. We switch them out weekly. Another genius idea these babycenter guys had that I should have listened to a long time ago! Aiden used to just empty his drawers and buckets and not even play with the toys. I'm not sure if he was bored with them or if he was overwhelmed because he has so many. Now, he plays with his toys more than ever, and he gets so excited when he sees the new bucket because it's almost like getting all new toys. He still has his train table, racetracs, stuffed animals, & tool bench that stay in his room all the time, so I'm not a mean mom and only giving him one bucket of toys.
(The toys that stay in his room plus his one bucket. He had just cleaned up to get a sticker before lunchtime.)
(The variety of toys in his bucket.)
