Day two-

Last night was a tough one right about the time I was settling in to get some sleep myself. Paige has a cold, so that is not helping. During my 3rd trip into her bedroom (If you know me, you know this is unusual for us. Typically Justin tends to her because we have found that she just wants more of me in the middle of the night- where as she will almost always go back to sleep quickly if he goes in), I found her on the floor (Again). I looked at her little toddler bed and thought she has too many stuffed animals in her bed. No wonder she if falling off. So I moved her mattress to the floor, took all of them off and tucked her in. This worked for all of 15 minutes before she started screaming about how she wanted her mattress back on her bed.

I am also concerned that some of her night waking may be caused by some nightmares/night terrors. She typically is screaming out and seems to be asleep but upset about something. Or maybe falling out of bed scares her. I just hope we figure it out so we can all start sleeping better again.

Today, at dinner we tried a new "game". I had two bowls with 4 m&ms each. One was put in front of my plate and the other was put in front of hers. Every time she displayed good table manners (Waiting until we pray to grab her food, thanking daddy for making dinner, putting her plate in the sink when she was done, saying please, etc) I would put one of my m&ms in her bowl. Every time she displayed bad table manners (Touching me with her dirty hands, saying something that was mean, etc) she had to pay me an m&m. When dinner is over she gets to eat what is left for dessert. I have to say, today was the first day she only touched me one time during dinner! I hope we are making progress.

The living room wasn't as much of a disaster today so we didn't really have to help her during her clean-up "Game". I did have to hold the bag open so she could put the blocks in it. And I did walk her through the toys she needed to pick-up. But she is only 3, so she will get better with time. And her reward tonight was playing HiHo Cherryo with Justin & me. Then we had a little game of freeze dance to burn off any extra energy.

We also started discussing her doing chores in the near future. We talked about what chores she thought she could do. She suggested washing the dishes (Standing on her stool she insisted) but I suggested that putting her plate in the sink when she was done. I plan on making a chart (with pictures). I will put brushing her teeth and hair on the chart, but the only rewards for these will be the stickers. Her chores will be : Helping to make her bed, putting all her dishes in the sink when she is done with them, picking up her toys (All daily), and dusting once a week. She will earn a sticker for every chore she completes without complaining. At the end of a one or two week time period, she will get paid a nickel for every sticker she earned for her chores.

To help teach her about money, we are going to get three jars and decorate them. When she gets her money we will divide it as follows : 10% into the giving/tithing jar, 10% into the savings jar, and the rem 80% into her spending jar. When the saving jar is full, we will open her first savings account with it. The spending jar will come in handy when she wants a toy. She can spend her own money now, and I don't have to be the bad guy that always says no. She will earn a maximum of $.95-$1.10 a week (depending on whether we make Sunday a day of rest) for a maximum of around $50 a year. Not bad for a 3 year old I think.

We may adjust/add more chores as we go along, but I am really excited about this learning opportunity we have. Better to start teaching them now, then wait until they too old to really teach.