Creative Kimpire: January 2025

I’ve never been so happy to have 30° weather before in my life. That two week holiday school break that extended another week and a half was brutal 😅. The last part of the prolonged time off was the worst because the novelty of the snow had worn off by then, not to mention the frigid temperatures made playing outside impossible. Okay, maybe not impossible, but I wasn’t doing it. Going outside at all made me question why I live where the air hurts my face 🥶. But before the icy nonsense showed up, we had plenty of fun in the snow. We made snow ice cream for the first time, and the small hill in our front yard gave the boys just enough of an incline to slide down. Well, it and the literal toy slide 😆. You’ll see below 👇🏻. So, I’m glad we got to play in it, but I’m over it now and it needs to stay away. Well, as long as it doesn’t cause anymore school disruptions, we can probably get along, I guess. I’ve heard there’s a chance of a return next week, but Quinn already had this first week of February off due to Pre-K parent/teacher conferences, so it would’ve been much better to have come now 😠.

The first snow of the year ❄️ 👅

Snow ice cream with cousins ❄️ 🍦

We recreated a photo of Kate, Lincoln, and Quinn from 2020, adding Ash to it. Oliver fell asleep, so he couldn’t get in on it, unfortunately. ⛄️

It’s not that I mind having Quinn home, it’s just so much louder whenever he’s here 😆. He and Ash play together really well sometimes, andddd sometimes they can’t stop bickering. It’s exhausting being a constant mediator to silliness because they’re both irrational AF 🤪. I realize that’s age appropriate for the subjects, but that doesn’t make it less annoying.

Aside from the fussing, it feels like Quinn matured some over the last month and a half. He’s in a position between big kid and little kid, and his likes and hobbies are changing. To inspire desirable behavior and use positive reinforcement, we’ve brought back our reward chart. It lost its value for a bit while Quinn attempted to challenge our (mostly my) authority. That didn’t gain him anything, so now we’re back 👏🏻. The parameters of his success changed to correct the behaviors that are the most offensive. He gets a mark on his chart for sleeping in his own bed all night. He had been doing well for a while, but then he regressed, waking me up, saying he was super scared. Between the two of them, I was getting woken up 2-4 times per night, and I would often not be able to go back to sleep. It’s funny how brave he became whenever there was a reward involved 😅. So, that’s one incentive. Another is cleaning up and/or putting toys and clothes away in his room without fussing. Less whining for the win. The last standard is staying out of time out for the entire day. He can do that by following the rules—keeping his hands to himself, using kind words, doing what’s asked of him, etc.. Keeping his hands to himself had become quite the problem because Ash was getting hurt often. Quinn had advanced on his reward chart through the other specifications, and was two dots away from earning his next reward when he went back to school for the first full week after the break. That Monday, I got a message from his teacher that he had needed several reminders to keep his hands to himself. I told her I would talk to him whenever he got home and to please let me know if the trouble continued. I did that, and also told him I was taking away a dot, which meant his reward would be delayed for two days, assuming he followed the rules. I reminded him the next day what was at stake, and told him if he misbehaved again, he would lose another mark and his last reward (which he loves), as well. That must have been motivating enough because his teacher let me know he had had a great day and worked very hard. I was proud of him, and told him so whenever he got home from school. Ash has been working on his own rewards by using the potty, and he had earned his second reward that day, but just right before we had to get Quinn off the bus, so we had to wait to go to Walmart to get it. I told Quinn he wouldn’t be getting a toy at Walmart since this reward was for Ash only, but if he behaved well, he could get some ice cream there for doing so well at school. He helped Ash pick out his prize, and he was very kind the rest of the evening, avoiding time out, and thus earning his next reward. I had actually already ordered it, but was fully prepared to keep it put away until he earned it.

Ash chose this large spiderman that came with changeable outfits. He fed him dinner, and then shot me with his web shooters 😑.

Quinn’s Gatorade water bottle, his second reward

For his first reward, Quinn chose an unconventional prize, insisting that what he wanted most was an office chair 😅🥴. I didn’t just want a random chair sitting around, so Philip and I did some brainstorming. We already had a desk that’s built into the kitchen area and wasn’t being used as such because I have a standing desk that I use in my office/craft area. It was more of a catch all from coming in the back door and where I kept the recycling bins. However, we relocated them and I setup the desk for Quinn. He had a specific kind of chair he wanted, but I would’ve had to order it and he didn’t want to wait on it. The reward chart already forces delayed gratification, so I guess it’s okay for him to be impatient once he has succeeded. We went to Walmart and he picked one out. He spends time there every day, coloring and writing letters. This is done all on his own. He also keeps it very neat, and doesn’t like for things to get messed up. He chose the color of his second reward, a white Gatorade water bottle, because he thought it would look the best on his desk 🤣.

He keeps the essentials on his desk. You know, like, markers, Thinking Putty, and Play Doh 😅. He squirrels away all kinds of things in that desk drawer, so it’s the first place I look if I’m missing something 😑. His favorite office supply is post it notes. He calls them tickets and hands them out all of the time. He asked me to get him a picture of Spider-Man and Venom for the wall. I printed and laminated one, and then I found a cheap frame for it at IKEA, which he was super excited about 😆. I made him an “iPhone” and he sits it on a charging stand 😂.

Whenever we go shopping, Quinn asks for deodorant, necklaces, and hats. For his next reward he said he wanted a mannequin but then changed it to a white Nike hoodie 🤦🏻‍♀️😆. He told me recently that he didn’t like most of the gifts he got for Christmas. I can see why, because I didn’t get him anything along those lines. I felt bad when he told me that, but I realized later that I probably couldn’t have made better choices because he didn’t even know at that time what would make him happy. Like that Joker suit that he insisted on having, he told me the other day whenever we were cleaning out and sorting things, that he didn’t really like it anymore and we could get rid of it. I told him that was fine, but he’s not getting another one. We agreed to just relocate some things to the attic, and wait and see if they are missed. My guess is they won’t be.

Our first trip to IKEA with the boys happened last month. This may be the last “little kid” toy Quinn chooses to buy 🥺.

Ashy got a pup, too

Quinn is very into how he looks, and I had no idea this phase would start at 5 🥴. He is constantly asking me to take his photo so he can look at himself. I gave him a haircut the other day, and after he took a bath, he put on his pink shirt, saying he looks older when he wears plain shirts. He wanted me to take his picture, and when he saw it, he said, “My hair looks fire!”😂🤦🏻‍♀️. He has been sick with a cold, mostly being a couch potato, and told me to make him the warmest boy in the world. I snugged him all up, but then he said, “Never mind, I don’t need a blanket. I look cooler without one.” 😑😑😑.

His 🔥 hair 😆.

Quinn watches some families on YouTube whose kids are obsessed with Takis, so of course, Quinn insisted on trying them. He used to love spicy food, but I doubted he was going to like them. I googled and found that there are two varieties that aren’t spicy, so I got some of each flavor for him to try. Unsurprisingly, he (and Ash) only liked the two mild flavors. I found a bag of the blue heat ones in the fridge and asked him why they were in there. As I suspected, he was trying to cool them down 😅. We had a discussion about spice vs. temperature.

This pic cracks me up 😂

We had to go see Dr. Gary a few weeks ago because Quinn couldn’t hear a damn thing. This seems to happen every winter and it’s so frustrating for everyone. Philip and I feel like we’re yelling at him, but if you don’t, you have to repeat yourself all day long. Dr. Gary said there wasn’t any wax, which is what I thought the problem was, and they weren’t red, so he suspected Quinn had water trapped in his middle ear. He prescribed him an allergy medicine and Flonase. Quinn didn’t like the nose spray at first, but he has since gotten used to it and doesn’t even flinch whenever I spray him. They worked great at first, but now we’re back to where we were 😞. I asked Dr. Gary to make us a referral to an ENT doctor.

These two looked pretty cool with their hats at the doctors’ office.

Quinn and I have both grown and learned so much, and no one can push my buttons like he can. My easiest trigger is when Quinn tells me “no” whenever I tell him to go to time out. That makes my blood boil. He wouldn’t pull that shit with his dad, so it feels extremely disrespectful for him to do it to me. I have a hard time keeping my cool, and I often lash out because I’m angry, speaking to him more harshly than I usually would. How am I supposed to teach them to regulate their emotions whenever I can’t even get my own shit together? 🫠. It’s all a power struggle.

I felt like Quinn and I drifted apart for a while, but I think we’re connecting better nowadays. Maybe it’s his new maturity, or maybe it’s me realizing that he’s only going to be little once, and I don’t want to look back on this time and feel like I didn’t do my best. Maybe it’s because he’s becoming more like me 😂. He’s great at straightening the living room without being asked. He apparently thinks the chair and ottoman need covered 😆. He uses the blankets as rugs all of the time, which drives me crazy, but I love his tidiness!

I’m trying to focus on his best qualities. He is a very grateful child, and every time I hear him say, “Thank you SO much,” when I give him something he has wanted, it warms my heart. And his heart is another of his best attributes. When he’s not sassing me, he can be the sweetest kid 😆. When he’s getting along with his brother, I love listening to them together. He gets Ash laughing sometimes, and then he’ll come to me and say, “Mom, did you hear that boy cracking up?” 🤣.

He’s pretty good at entertaining his brother 🥰. (I hope this is the last pic you see with that atrocious wallpaper 😉).

🥹🥹🥹

Most of the time, Ash has excellent articulation (which is no wonder, given the amount he practices speaking 😭), but sometimes there are phrases I don’t understand. If Quinn is around, I’ll ask him if he can translate, and sometimes he can. But sometimes he just repeats whatever it is Ash is saying, in the same way he’s saying it, as if it makes sense, despite both of us knowing we don’t understand 🤦🏻‍♀️. There are a few things that he says that aren’t quite right, but I’ve committed his pronunciation to memory, so I get it. An example is package, but whenever Ash says it, it sounds like pirate ship for some reason. He says, “Ugga bar,” for granola bar, and often proclaims he’s the king of the “wordle!” 😅. Philip loves to get him started with that one.

He is in his overstimulating phase, that involves asking me the same question or repeating the same words and phrases over and over again. I remember Quinn going through that phase, but it’s worse with two, because Quinn does his fair share of talking still.

Ash regularly inches in beside me on the couch and then commands, “Give me space!” I’m proud of him for using his words, but I always tell him that’s not how it works. He knows how it works with the markers though. Anytime he wants to draw on the white board, he’ll say, “Mom, can I have a dry erase marker? I’ll never write on the floor ever again!” That’s exactly how he says it every time 😅. He’s cleaned the floor and the wall enough times. He wasn’t allowed to use markers at all for a while, but he’s back to being allowed as long as I’m in the same room as him.

Something else he tells the same way over and over again is his dream about aliens. The first morning after it occurred, he asked me repeatedly to show him pictures of them on my phone. I didn’t have a clue what he was talking about, but I soon figured out that he had dreamed about them. He claims that aliens were dancing on our porch, like Pennywise, and I took pictures of them and then sent them to Asher. Sent them to him on what, he hasn’t been able to answer. His lack of electronics makes that pretty impossible 😅. He doesn’t even really know who Pennywise is, aside from seeing people dressed up like him. What other two year old has dreams like that?!

It’s hard to believe he’s going to be three soon. I had hoped he would be potty trained by his birthday, but I don’t have high hopes. Some days he’s all about being a big boy, and some days he tells me he doesn’t care about getting to put a sticker on his chart 😑🤦🏻‍♀️.

He was pretty excited about earning his third prize, a Bumblebee costume, which he had been talking about for weeks. There have been several times during the last couple days when he has come to me and said he wanted to pee in the potty so I’m keeping my fingers crossed 🤞🏻.

Ash ended up catching Quinn’s sickness, which means I also caught it. He coughed and sneezed directly into my eyeballs so many times 😭. Kids are so gross 😂.

What we’ve been up to:

Snow day art with Harper

Trying out a new technique for a picture for Kiki 😅

Quinn had to make a snowman for his classroom, so I mixed up some puffy paint (glue and shaving cream).

Coloring mixing and letter searching. I froze letters in different colored water, and then gave them the letters to make their names, so we could see what color their letter combinations made.

It was so much fun that they wanted to do it again the next day.

I’m always looking for ways to practice learning letters with Ash. He enjoyed fishing the pieces of the puzzle out and then putting them back in. He was working hard, look at that tongue 😛 😅.

He has been doing so well with making shorter marks and staying close to the confines of the lines of the picture he colors ❤️. His chosen subjects aren’t my taste, however 🫠. He asks me to print the weirdest things for him.

We did a number search one morning, and both boys loved it. I hid post it’s in the kitchen with numbers 1-20 and they had to find them in order, and put them on the matching number on the white board.

Quinn told me he doesn’t like the morning work he has to do at school, which is quantifying numbers. I made some cards to help him practice, and he was so proud of himself whenever he got the answer right 😃.

Quinn and I had been playing Go Fish quite a bit, so I made a deck of superhero alphabet cards to change things up with.

I bought a deck of Uno Junior for them to try. Quinn loves playing it.

I started working on the walls in my office, which meant moving things around. That lead to Quinn finding some jigsaw puzzles that he forgot existed. He jumped right in putting them together, and didn’t even ask me to help. He hadn’t tried either of them in probably a year, so I was shocked when he was able to complete them alone and fairly quickly! I told him how proud I was of him.

We’ve made lots of muffins and homemade donuts. They love helping pour the ingredients into the mixer.

Between boxes and forts, I’m almost convinced that they don’t even need any toys 😂. We had box beds, skis, and a stretcher, as well as a hot tub and a dog pen.

Quinn makes forts with pretend bathrooms and tvs, what else could they need?! 😂. I love how committed they are to laughing at the white board “tv.” Quinn is pretending to go pee in that top pic 🤣.

Our new living room chair makes a great fort wall/blanket holder.

We tried our best to make it to see lots of our favorite kids’ basketball games. When the novelty of the concession stand wore off, they found other ways to amuse themselves. Kate even found alternative entertainment during one of Lincoln’s games by teasing her baby brother with a ring pop 😅🤦🏻‍♀️. Poor Oliver wanted to lick it so badly 😛.

Speaking of licking things, Ash and I attended story time at the library, where the snack was a diy chocolate covered pretzel. I wasn’t the least bit surprised when his hand got dipped instead of the pretzel 😑 😅.

I’ve been busy working on the walls. Yes, still 😤😅. I got the remaining foyer walls and the living room painted, and I started removing the wallpaper in my office. Woo hoo! My progress on my office slowed down once my Velcro children got sick and became “stickier” 🫠. All Quinn wants me to do is lay on the couch with him whenever he doesn’t feel well.

I swapped out the last of the original curtains for blinds, and painted the walls a light blue. Our old living room was blue, too, so we like having a blue living room, apparently 😅.