Random Tid Bits

Let's count all the ways the Apel family is busy!

1. Travis landed himself a gig at an elementary school. They wanted an artist to teach sculpture to the kids there. He had to test run some projects. He tested them out on Mica. Isaak got super jealous. We had to explain that Isaak's not the age group Travis needed to test these projects out on. They are wire on wooden blocks. You put knee highs over the wire. Then you can paint the knee highs with Gesso. It looks like a legit sculpture. Something you'd find in a gallery.


2. Travis also is wrapped up in an organization called Omaha Permaculture. They like his art. He likes them. The director of the group wants to hire him to do things from time to time. 


3. Travis has been modeling for a college class. You'd think with all these gigs we'd be rich! Nope we need health insurance that doesn't suck!


4. I had a doctor's appointment for that "thing" in my head. YAY! I'm cancer free. I didn't think it was cancer, but when the doctor pulled it out he said, "I'm glad we're sending this in to be tested. It was behind the muscle. It's a tumor too!" I actually had what's called a lipoma, which is in fact a tumor. I probably have had more of them on my scalp. They are super common. It's just fatty tissue build up. Some people get them after a major surgery, but I've had this one before my nose surgery. In my case it's more hereditary. In the next 4 weeks it will dramatically get lighter. I have to keep wearing sunscreen, otherwise it will turn pink. 





5. I've had a few interviews. I think it's safe to say that no one from my work reads this blog. Even if they do, they wouldn't blame me for looking around. Enrollment is way down. I'm highly respected, so they aren't going to fire me. I forgot how long it takes to fill out job applications, update my resume, fill out cover letters, work on design pieces for my website and so on. It sucks because I like my job that I have now overall. I really love my first year students. 


6. When I was trying to find an old employer, it brought on sadness. He was my first nice boss when I got hired on as a designer in Atlanta. Why was I sad? He's not from here. He's from Iran. Apparently he moved back to the Middle East to United Arab Emirates. I'm sad because it's hard to use him as a reference. Beside the personal part of it, I just hope the US didn't make him feel unsafe and unwelcomed. He was a super nice person and business man! I found him on facebook, and messaged him a thank you, for being you kind of message. If he would have begged me to stay before we were mostly packed up, I would have stayed. Our lives would be much different. I had 1 boss before him that was from Pakistan; he was not so nice. I was happy to have this nice boss. He was an inspiring leader. 


7. Next week is midterms. The week before midterms is always super busy too!


8. Isaak of course has been busy with basketball, Isaak will begin his Science Fair project, Mica's been busy with his project moving up in the Science Fair. We've had conferences, after school events, and birthday parties. 


9. Mica's school had a walk out. I'm ok with protesting if you know what you're protesting about. Somehow I think with middle schoolers they really don't have a clue. Travis talked with the boys for an hour about school safety, school shootings, what people are protesting for, and so on. The next day Mica's school had a verbal treat. The student that made the threat was searched by a police officer. I'm not surprised. Scary indeed. 


10. I can't forget the ice. A few ice storms last week made it difficult to get around. The car was in the shop for most of a week. What a mess that was! 

What have you been up to? Is your life super busy right now?

Random Tid Bits

1. I wish I could share good news about my nephew Emerson. He's been in the hospital for seizures. They've tried different meds. Nothing so far has helped. In fact things have just gotten worse for him. His 2 minute seizures are now 15 minutes! All these meds have side effects.
   
   Little Emerson has needed extra O2, a catheter had to be put in because he couldn't pee - they don't scan his bladder right because it is shaped funny, he was blocked with stool, he's sleepy but can't sleep well, he his thyroid was on the low side, he had a fever, he got a huge rash from one med that they have had to stop. Some doctors are all about helping Emerson, while others won't even show up. My heart melts for their family.
   
   I'm taking in Emerson's 3 brothers this Friday for the Isaak's school Fall Festival.
   
   
   



2. Isaak keeps getting papers like this sent home: 




To me it's crazy to grade 4/4, but whatever he's doing well.


3. Isaak got into Show Choir. I'm so glad he's taking his own path, and not following in his brother's footsteps. Mica did great! Isaak is Isaak. They are two different people with two different personalities. 


4. Mica to is doing well. He got a postcard in the mail from his math teacher saying how he's doing so great in class. Mica seemed proud! That was good.
   
   It inspired me to talk with my good students, and tell them how proud I am of how hard they work. I don't think it's going to go to their heads. They worked for it, and deserve it.


5. I'd say I'm ready for a relaxing weekend, but it will be a busy one: The boy's school Fall Festival with 3 cousins tagging along, an overnight with cousins, flu shots on Saturday morning, basket ball game Sat. morning, a friend get together somewhere in there (she's visiting), the boy's Leadership Camp Sat. night, and maybe Sun. will be a clean-up craft day.
   
   What do you have planned for the weekend?

I Do Like Fall, But...

I do like fall, but I hate that I have less time for photos. It's not even daylight savings time yet. It starts getting dark around dinner time now, and in a few weeks it will be dark when I get off of work.

I have no good pictures of the boys with pumpkins, or a fallish type theme yet. Leaves have just started turning colors here.

I love all things pumpkin. I dislike death. When I think of fall and winter death comes to mind. Grass dies, leaves turn pretty colors, but they fall only to turn brown and crunchy under my feet. Branches are left naked. Daylight is short. Veggies and fruit are slimmer at the store...why because many are dying for the season. Towards the end of winter I'm so sick of eating only bananas, apples, and oranges. At least there are cranberries, pomegranates, and holiday grapes that are out during Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Here's some oldie shots of my boys with gourds. Isaak loves gourds because they have texture.

 

What have we been up to? Like I said I don't have a lot of pictures. We've been busy though. Here's 5 things we've been up to:

1. Last night we bought a car. A blue Subaru Outback. We were going to get a Toyota Rav4, but the visibility wasn't as good as the Subaru Outback. So long to our 12 year old Pilot. The boys went to bed at 9 last night because of the paperwork at the dealership. Boo! They might possibly be grouchy today. They could also be happy because they are going to be taken to school in their first new vehicle. I told Mica it was expensive, so he offered me money. LOL



2. On Sunday I never got dressed because I was working on my Halloween costume. It won't be as good as my others in the past, but it will be fun. At least it's not something you can go out and buy. I'll be unique. 



3. On Saturday we celebrated my Mom's birthday. It was big family gathering. I was asked to bring a veggie. I made jack o lantern peppers, with strips of carrots, celery and orange cauliflower stuffed in them, and around them. Plus dip. Apparently at family functions when people ask me to bring a veggie they want a hot veggie to. My bad. My sister was like, "I thought you said you were bringing more than one veggie. I'm like, "I did." There were carrots, celery, cauliflower, and peppers. I swear sometimes I'm like Amelia Bedelia. You have to be specific with me. If you tell me to draw the drapes, I may just draw on them with Sharpies. Luckily she didn't make a big deal out of my lack there of, of veggies. She made green beans. I just felt bad. 



4. On Friday Travis cleaned our Pilot out to be sold. I made a big dinner. Later we drank root beer - beer and played Scrabble. I won. It was probably the alcohol. I usually never win. It was a landslide win. Spelling was not my strong point in school. 





The beer was good, but it won't be something we drink often. It has too much sugar in it of course. It was a nice mixture of beer and root beer. Source is here.



5. On Thursday we went to the boy's school. It was a curriculum night for Mica's grade. It didn't go the best, but that's a whole other post. We made a special trip to World Market. Omaha used to have 2 stores, but they've both been gone for quite some time. We got one back again. It's my favorite store, so I'm happy about that. :)

It's a Busy One

I swear I'm trying to get caught up. If you remember last week was midterm time. Midterms time, and final time is so busy. Yesterday my grades were due, but I had so many late projects handed to me at 5 on Friday. Much more late work turned in than I've ever had. I spent much of the morning yesterday grading. Then another instructor and I hung up 2 gigantic murals each student did a little section of. Maybe I'll share that with my WW. I have yet to decide.

This last weekend we got 2 big boxes of organic nectarines and apples from The Fruit Club.

Do you have The Fruit Club where you live? They go to spots where fruit is ripe, and fresh, load up, and travel to different spots to sell the fruit.

Source

They Fruit Club got into town later than expected. I pretty much had to process a HUGE box of nectarines right away. I'll use them for smoothies during the winter months. Now my freezer is packed with nectarines, shredded zucchini, chili peppers, June Berries and more. When it gets colder, I'll make June Berry Jam all one day. I also processed 2 pumpkins. We've had pumpkin seeds, pumpkin soup, pumpkin muffins, and pumpkin smoothies. I'm sure I'll have to make pumpkin something else tonight. The pumpkin puree needs to be used up!

Here's My Schedule This Week:

Monday: I made a spaghetti squash pie, processed nectarines, graded, hung up murals, and picked out awards for students - who's work gets put up front in the lobby.

Tuesday: I have to work on finding videos to introduce the Creative Cloud for Macs. I have to go grocery shopping during lunch. I have no other time to do it. Daddy has a meeting, and many more Tuesday nights called Artist Inc. It's like school, except he didn't have to pay for it. He just applied to it. I'll try and make pumpkin bread.

Wednesday: The boys have  jiu jitsu.

Thursday: I have a home party to go to for jewelery. I really hate home parties, but I feel obligated to go. Especially when Daddy makes jewelery. I'm sure I'll feel obligated to get something. At least the earrings I bought from them before are one of my favorite pairs. I plan on getting earrings, and stashing them away for Daddy to get me for Christmas. I'm practical like that. Daddy hates when I get my own Christmas presents. Let's just face it - I get most of the shopping done myself.

Friday: The boys have a Fall Festival at school. Prior to that I'll have to fix their costumes. When? I have no idea. Isaak snapped his elastic in the foot part of his Superman costume, and Mica whipped his whip too hard, and wants it fixed. He's going as Indiana Jones. I keep changing my mind as to what I'll be. I think I'm going as Coraline, but how to fix those buttons to my eyes will be hard! I most certainly will not sew them on - Ouch! Nope, I'll have to find away to glue them to my eyebrows. I may change my mind again. I have a few costume choices.

Source

What's your week like?

I'm sooo Sleepish

Maybe it's because I fasted all day yesterday, maybe it's because it's the first week back for my students, maybe it's because every night this week has been go, go, go, maybe it's because we still do not have a working toilet, and I had to go to a gas station at 2:30 AM to go potty, or maybe it's because I can hear the wind howling through thick walls (we're under a wind advisory).

Maybe it's all the above.

It's crazy though, I'm not doing the work my husband is, and I'm tired. I feel like I don't have a right to say, "I'm tired!" I've been dealing with the kiddos in the evening though. Last night I took Mica to Jiu-Jitsu. I can't wait until they split the class up! They are doing that next month, but have talked about it for a year I think. The seats for parents are limited, and there is an obvious difference in their skills. See all the kids without their gi? They are all new. At the Y I helped Isaak take a shower, took a shower myself, and had Mica take a shower after he was done with Jiu-Jitsu. At that point we still didn't have running water at home. Now we have running water, but still no toilet. We have a plywood floor now, and a start of vinyl floor. I had to go back to where we got the flooring because one box we had was damaged.

This was going to be my blogging day, but somehow all I've manage to do was stare at a screen all afternoon. I can't recall much of what I've done past lunch.

All morning I looked up topics for the students to give speeches on. Sounds easy enough. My co-worker that is giving an assignment wanted a list of different contemporary designers for the students to look up. Coming up with the first 20 were easy. I spent the rest of the morning trying to get the rest to equal 31. I need ones that are active, and had enough information for the students to research. The teacher I did the favor for has proofread all my handouts, so I owed her one.

What about you? Are you sleepish today?

Busy, Busy, Busy

Just a heads up, this week will be swamped. I'll try to blog some.

Just to give you an idea:

Monday

The Honda Pilot went in the shop for a recall. The emergency break has to be fixed. It was supposed to go in on Saturday, but they thought it would need a full day of service. Daddy called and got it in on Monday. We took it in, and they had no record of him calling it in. They made it sound like it was his fault. I for see a bad evaluation coming to them. Controversy in the making. I refuse to give a good evaluation to people that messed up; then want to blame us for the mess up. I wish a different Honda dealership was near us. We don't have time to run all over for this.

Daddy has to pick up some artwork at a gallery between 4:30 and 5. He may get me later than 5.

Swimming lessons are at 6:15 and 6:45.

We probably have to go pick up the Pilot after that.

Tuesday

Mica has a Music and Arts Festival at school. We missed the last event for his school the previous time because we went to the Lion King. We better go to this one. :)

Wednesday

Is Jujutsu. Mica was supposed to test for a new stripe on his belt two weeks ago. He hasn't been trying very hard, so Daddy said, "No." to that. Mica was mad. I feel like Daddy did the right thing. Mica has to learn to try. We kept reminding him that we are paying for him to go. We are not going to pay for him to test if he's not trying his hardest. He doesn't want to quit.

Isaak has a birthday party at BouceU. He'll love it.

Thursday

I'll be at work most of the evening because I have Portfolio Review Night. It's a night were many pros come in and students show them their portfolios.

Friday

Mica doesn't have school. Grandma and Grandpa will have an extra body.

Daddy has to work at the gallery where his artwork is at. I'll have the boys to myself.

Saturday

Mica has a birthday party to go to somewhere. I don't even remember where now.

How's your week looking? Are you busy to? This is usually a busy time for me because it's close to finals time. It's especially crazy because I have a student that is pregnant and needs her review sheet one week early and her exams one week early. I don't know how I'm going to do it, but it will get done.

Busy, Busy, Busy!

This time of year is crazy busy. does anyone else feel that way? Since I was sick last week, I've been playing catch up this week.

It's finals time at school. All the students projects were due this week. Next week are the exams.

For some reason Mica's school decided it would be a great idea having their holiday program smack dab in the middle of the day. Last year it landed on one of my class days; when the students had a final. This year it's later.

This year Isaak's preschool program is smack dab in the middle of my mandatory inservice meeting. Of course it doesn't help that he's sensitive and going through some stranger anxiety thing. I asked to the time off and attached a letter begging for the time off. I haven't gotten the time out form back, so I'll see if it happens. Otherwise just Daddy will have to go. Since he's in two preschools he has another program that same night. I will be able to go to that.

Super Busy!

I know I didn't even post a Sing, Sing a Song Saturday post yesterday. I still want to keep that going.

This weekend was crazy busy. I'll post about each thing we did with photos.

Here's a quick recap:

• We refinanced our house. Now we have lots of work to do before they inspect us. We have to put a railing in on some steps we have, we have to scrap and paint some of our house and we have to replace a door that goes from our basement to our garage. We both feel overwhelmed! We've never refinanced, so we didn't know all this had to be done! YIKES!
• We finally celebrated my birthday that was June 21 and Grandpa Spiehs' Fathers Day. It was nice we went to a park. That's something new for us.
• I had my first online friend over. I never met her in person. She assisted me with one of my very first giveaways. Check out Snugfits. We email back and forth and talk on Facebook. Her family (3 boys) came to my house along with Aunt Terra and her (3 boys) to have fun on our slip n' slide. It was a great time!
• Today I ran errands all morning. 
• I've been cleaning, spackling, digging up weeds and doing laundry all weekend! 
• Isaak has to of course be going through a stage of night time accidents. He'll go through a month of time being dry and then it's wet, wet, wet! I take him potty before bed. It doesn't seem to matter, he's still soaked when he wakes up! Uggg! 
• Daddy's been swamped at work! He's always swamped when we don't want him to be! 
• Blogger was acting odd yesterday for me. I went to upload a video for Sing, Sing a Song Saturday and my site along with others were just spinning. That's the main reason why I didn't get up a song.

Busy Times

We're busy all the time, but last week and this week have been crazy busy!

• We've had doctors appointments.
• Then on Daddy's weekend, which is on Monday and Tuesday; he got called in on Tuesday. The extra money is nice. More than the money, he's been wanting a day off for a long time now. It's been too busy there to get time off. He's been working A LOT lately. This time around since it was on a Tuesday (we don't do daycare, so we have odd schedules) he had Isaak with him. Isaak watched Wow Wow Wubbzy, while Daddy made teeth. He works at a dental lab. His co-worker was sick for two days, which put the lab in a bind. He worked much of the day, then went back in and worked from 7:30 PM to 1 AM.
• Last night Mica's school had an art and music show. We went to that before Daddy had to go back into work.
• I have a thing called Portfolio Review Night tomorrow night. Staying a night here or there comes with teaching.
• Daddy works his one night a month at a gallery where his work is at.  This Friday is that night.

Today Was a Busy Day

I started the day off with a big breakfast. I washed 3 or 4 loads of laundry between things. I wanted to get Isaak and Mica's bedding washed.

Between Isaak's accidents and sickness, I feel like I'm washing clothes all the time. I try and layer pee pads on Isaak's bed. Then I don't have to wash it all. I just strip layers. This time I did want to wash it all.

Isaak will go through periods of being dry all night and being wet consistently. We notice he wets more when he's growing and drinking more. I wish it would end though. Lately Isaak's wet, wet, wet. We don't use diaper. Just cloth training pants. I want him to feel when he's wet, but he sleeps right through it.

I went to the grocery store and to Costco. There are just some things I like to get at Costco: Cottage Cheese, Fage Yogurt, crackers, dried berries and cereal. Those things are our regulars.

I have to say that the boys were good. I have a plan to make shopping better. The boys do well when they have something to look for. Coupons work great for them! Grandpa Spiehs thought of making my own FAKE coupons. I'm going to try this. I'll cut out packaging on things we get normally and these will serve as the boy's coupons. They then will have something to look for. I might need to find some pictures online to print out for fruit and veggie coupons. It should help.

Then we came home for a quick lunch and I marinaded some meat and veggies. We're having fajita's tonight.

After that we went to see Aunt Terra's family. We haven't seen baby Emerson since his surgery. Not my choice. It's just that right after he had surgery Daddy, Isaak and I got a head cold. That took about a week to get over. Then Mica got it. I didn't want to take our crappy cold and give it to him! Even if his brothers had a cold to. It was nice seeing him without tubes all over! He's only having issues with spitting up. I guess a lot of babies that get G tubes spit up a lot. Little Emerson has two teeth now.

Then we came home and I made two beds. Isaak was grumpy by that time. He gets to be a little punk when he's in need of sleep. I wanted both boys to lay down and rest. Mica slept all afternoon yesterday with his ear infection issue. We then stayed up late to watch a rent movie called Dolphin Tale. It was a great family movie!!! Mica's been acting healthy as a tack today, but a nap after a busy morning and sickness should do him some good.



 

Now I need to start dinner and unload the dishwasher. There's always something to do. I'm just enjoying 10 minutes of sitting. Maybe that's the reason I started blogging. Not to record, but to rest. Not really; I guess it's true sometimes.   

A Relaxing End to a Crazy Week

I didn't have much time to breathe this week. Next week is finials time for my students. That pretty much means a lot of writing for me. I wrote review sheets, exams and answers and questions for a review game.

The review game is new this year. I call up three students.  Each student has a buzzer of some kind. My assistant answers the question and the student chime in to ask the question. It's Jeopardy style. If none of the three students chime in, the audience gets a chance to steel. For each point that they get, they earn two extra credit points. Some racked up points more than others.

I wrote the answers and questions, so my assistant didn't know what they were going to read before they read it. My favorite was for my assistant Mike today went something like this: Mike said, "PMS." Students: Giggled a lot. Then the student said, "What is Pantone Matching System?" I just loved it. I think it's crazy how they use PMS as an abbreviation for standard print colors, Pantone Matching System! My art students always giggle about it and they are in college.

I had two major projects due this week. Only one has been graded. It's a crazy rule breaking project. They have to paint the background, add packaging tape, paint the middle ground, add packaging tape, paint the foreground, add packaging tape and paint the details. It's kind of cool because they don't have to wait for their paint to dry. None of the student have ever painted this way. I loved seeing the results!

Here's my favorites:

Meet John Lemon:

 Meet Mr. Glutton:

 Tea Time with Bear:

I did have two issues with students this week: 

One guy did a strong message piece about suicide. It was a good concept. Well, it was sitting on his desk and he disappeared for a few days. Two other instructors freaked out thinking he could be true to his piece. To sum a long story up, everything is fine.

Another student got mad at me because I marked him absent. We take attendance and it effects their grade after they hit 3 absences for one class a week. Now his grade is suffering. Of course this is all my fault. He's not to blame at all. The last two sentences are what he thinks. I just follow school policy.

Those two situations were exhausting. 

The relaxing part of tonight:

Tonight we went to the YMCA up the street and went swimming for an hour! It felt nice to get away from it all! At first I didn't think we'd be able to go. I couldn't find Mica's swim trunks anywhere. I finally found them. It was odd going swimming while it's freezing cold outside! For awhile we had the pool to ourselves. I won a two month membership through Mica's school.

Then we came home and it was well past bed time! I got Isaak ready for bed, while Daddy assisted Mica. Mica was really tired. He needed more assisting than usual.

Isaak said, "Mommy you pretend to be Grandpa Spiehs and I'll be Grandma." I said, "Ok Grandma get your pjs on!" He said, "Ok Grandpa!" Then I said, "Get your diaper on over your underwear Grandma." He's still wets every once in awhile at night; I want him to feel his wetness, but protect his bedding! He said, "But Grandpa I don't wear diapers." I said, "Ok well pretend you are Great Grandma Kent then. She wears diapers." She has Alzheimer's disease, so that's why she wears diapers. That lead into a whole discussion about how some adults need diapers.

Off to bed.

Busy Bees

This week and next are so busy. Here's the run down:

• Aug 8: I started up the school year. I'm a college graphic arts instructor. I had a new project that lasts the first 1/2 the semester. The other 2 classes are pretty much repeats. 
• Aug 10: Mica turned 6. He unwrapped presents from us. We were going to go to Chuck E Cheese because Mica asked to go there once. Instead he wanted a movie night. We went to Best Buy to get a movie of his choice. He choose Disney's Hercules. 
• Aug 11: Mica had open house at his new school for Kindergarten. It was fun! He got to meet his new teacher. He looked nervous, but so was the next student. We had to miss Emerson's 7 week birthday party. Isaak went to sleep and woke us up with throw up on his new bedding! Then he threw up again! He was tired today.
• Aug 12: Thank Grandma and Grandpa Spiehs for taking in a sick boy! What would I do without you? They've already been around him yesterday. Isaak was cranky and none of us knew why.
• Aug 13: Mica's birthday bash.
• Aug 14: Isaak goes to hang out with his preschool teachers.
• Aug 15: Mica starts kindergarten.

Busy Busy Busy!

• I've been listening to presentations all day today. My brain hurts! I have to come back to work tonight for a Program Advisory Board Meeting. I have class again tomorrow. It's one of those weeks where I want to collapse.
• Daddy took some birthday money and is going to a Roger Waters concert with his boss tonight.
• We have cousin Kailey coming to babysit.
• We've been trying for the last few nights to finish up Mica's costume. Daddy made him Buzz Light Year wings that are the sweetest ones I've seen! We sewed straps for it last night. We also had to extend his costume. That was much bigger of a deal then I thought it would be. We might as well of made the whole costume. Mica is super excited though. He'll get to wear it 3 times. Halloween night and to the two preschool's he attends.
• I have to fix Isaak's elastic on the foot part of his Lil' Frankie costume too. It snapped when Mica wore it at his age. That shouldn't take long.
• I have to finish up my costume as well. Since I'm an art teacher, I have to dress up. A baker is my costume. I'm wearing an apron and baker's hat. So far I've made a lot of chocolate Cake Pops dipped in orange candy melts. I put them on sucker sticks this time. I have sugar cookies made, but not frosted. They are just leaves and acorns. I want to make Mummy's too. We'll see if time allows for that.

What's That You Say?

• Isaak gets pushed around by his brother and cousins. It seems as though that might come to to a stop soon, maybe.  
• He's this far been the sweet, quiet boy (most of the time).
• My cute little toddler has now scored an attitude!

• Mica was sitting on the couch watching TV. He asked Isaak, "Hey Isaak would you please hand me Buzz?" Buzz Lightyear that is.
• Isaak said, "No Bica (Mica) I busy right now!"
• He was busy filling a box full of small toys. Surprise, it's our two year old's newest hobby. If there's a container or bag he'll fill it with small toys!

• That's not all this two year old has been saying!
• He's been saying, "Mine. Not yours. You can't have it!"
• I thought the word "Mine" was bad enough!
• Just rub it in my face that it's not mine why don't you son!

• We're getting quite the bad talker in our house lately!
• If anybody has any tips on disciplining this two year old I'd love to hear what you have to say!
• We correct what he's saying with alternative nice words.  We look into his deep "Soulful Eyes" as Grandma Apel calls them when we say the nice words.
• We give him timeouts when he's doing something destructive like throwing, hitting, taking toys and biting. 
• Should we use the timeout chair more? He might be living in it then. 
• I believe in matching a punishment to the crime if possible. When Mica slammed his door one too many times, slammed it on Isaak's fingers, he lost the door to his room. Soap in the mouth for bad talking is not right! It's putting chemicals in your kids mouth. I know people used to do that, but I would never do that! Even if I did, I don't think a kid his age would make the connection.
• Sometimes I question if two year old's understand much more then we think they do, or is it the opposite? Maybe they don't have enough reason to understand alternative nice words.