Jumping on the "Our 2011" bandwagon.

January- Sweet Teagan turned 1!! She shared her birthday with her best friend Matilda and then her sweet friend Izze was born that day too!

*picture via*

February- At Teagan's doctor appointment her amazing doctor wrote her a prescription for no hot dogs or juice at school. We love her doctors!

March- The age of the tantrums begin...

April- This was a big month for us! We announced Teagan was going to be a big sister, she had an awesome play date with her best gal pal and she colored Easter eggs for the first time!

May- We had our first ultrasound and we didn't find out if we were having a boy or girl.

June- We said Bye Bye to Teagan's Binky, Josh and I celebrated our four year anniversary and I talked about Gestational Diabetes.

July-We were 25 weeks and I had an emotional vomit, I prepared for BlogHer '11 and I talked about Papaws.

August- I waddled around BlogHer '11 and learned a few things.  Then we set off on an extrucitatingly long road trip to Vermont.

September- We hit 37 weeks and decided to have a family picture day thanks to Jada J!!

October- Kyra Mae Reid is born and I rocked a successful VBAC but honestly didn't blog about it until November, what? I was kind of busy!

November- Kyra hit the one month mark and we hunted for a Christmas tree with the Heavner's!

December- Teagan sang "Happy Birthday, Jesus" with her bff Matilda in their school Christmas program, I talked about and admitted to having Postpartum depression and how frustrating breastfeeding has been this time, and sweet Kyra turned 2 months old! Of course we celebrated Christmas as well!

A huntin' we will go!

Hunting for our Christmas tree that is!

We started a tradition last year with our amazing friends the Heavner's.  Our families go together and pick out our Christmas trees and take pictures.  This year was so much fun! Teagan and Miles trumped all over the place picking out our Christmas trees.  But of course before we even headed down the road from the farmer's house to the Christmas trees Kyra had her first official blow out.  Let me just tell you, had that happened with Teagan at 1 month I would have freaked out.  This time I just dealt with it and we went on our way.  Mark that up to experience.    
We had a great time.  A few temper tantrums between the three of them (Addie was the only one who didn't have a temper tantrum) and that was it..  We definitely count that as successful! After we picked out our Christmas trees and took a few pictures we headed to a nice little spot on the side of the mountain to have lunch.   and then headed home from there.  Next year we'll probably do like we did last year and head on to Asheville to spend the rest of the day.  Kyra was a little young for that adventure right now and both Teagan and Miles were exhausted after running around after Christmas trees all morning. 

 

And here is the temper tantrum pic...haha.

Dearest Teagan

Dearest Teagan,
It's been a little hard the last few weeks.  You have entered hardcore "tantrum mode".  This is hard for all of us.  Your dad and I want to teach you the best we can.  We want to guide your heart not just your behaviors.  We are ignoring your tantrums.  Honestly, some days it's really hard to ignore because it's easier to just pick you up and do what we're doing with you in arm but we know that isn't going to teach you anything.  I want you to know when we ignore you while you are throwing a fit we still care but we are teaching you that is not the way you get what you want. 
Our goal is to guide your heart because that is the root of everything.  It's pretty easy to alter behaviors.  We could teach a puppy to alter their behavior.  Helping you realize why certain behaviors are acceptable and why others are not is the key to what we are trying to teach you.  That fact is a burden we don't take lightly.  We have been entrusted with you. All of you.  Heart, Mind, Body & Soul.  We love you and only want to do what is best for you. 
I hope you can always realize that Daddy & Mommy love you and we will always do what we think is best for you.  We are all making this jouney together.  We will make just as many mistakes as you but we will learn from them together.

Forever & Always,
Mommy

Tantrums

Whoa, Nelly! Have we reached "that age"? We sure have.  The age of tantrums.  Something we are trying to nip in the bud now.
I teach parenting for a living and while talking the talk is easy from my side of my work desk I get a reality check when i get home and have to practice what I preach.  The current approach is ignoring the tantrum but keeping a watchful eye so she doesn't hurt herself if she starts rolling around. 
Usually a tantrum is fueled by me or Josh telling her no.  If she is on a hard surface I try and move her to a carpeted area and then just let her have her tantrum while I keep a watchful eye from across the room.  At her age I don't let it go longer then 7 minutes because to be quite honest I would rather her not make herself sick and she can't calm herself down after that point.  After she stops or after I pick her up I put her on my lap, calm her down and explain to her why I said no, etc., give her a kiss and hug and then let her go back to playing. 
Our theory is letting her realize at a young age that daddy and mommy are not going to tolerate temper tantrums and when we say no it means no. 
What are you discipline techniques? Have you had to deal with tantrums yet?  If not how do you think you will deal with them? 

Here is one of the "tantrum pictures" I snapped a week or so ago...this one will come back out in about 15 years...