Preschool ... and a disciplinary chart

I love a new year!
I feel like that instead of celebrating New Years on January 1st, we should party in September.
The real holiday is too close to Christmas anyway.
I digress.
The fall just feels like beginnings to me and I am super excited to have a baby in "school."
She is super excited too.
Just look at that mug:
(She was much more excited than her apprehensive look implies).
Ryan now attends Wonder World preschool.
She loves it!
She jumps out of bed each morning , gets dressed without being told, and screams at Ezra to shake a leg.
Ezra doesn't need any persuasion.
He wishes that he attended too.
He tries to bolt in to her classroom when we drop her off, and I have to drag him out ... crying.
It is actually quite sad. Poor second baby.
I try to tell him that being at home with Mommy will be more fun.
But neither of us really believes that.

Showing off our first-day-of-school outfit and a sticker she received in class.
Isn't she darling?
And with a new school year, comes a crack at a new disciplinary tactic: positive reinforcement.
It is a revolutionary idea.
Scott and I were discussing our parenting techniques and decided that threating the children with vinegar and a visit from Nanny McFee wasn't cutting it.
I don't want my kids to be ill-behaved.
And I don't want to be that mom.
The disheveled one that all other's look at with pity as all my children simultaneously pitch a deafening fit in the paper towel aisle at Walmart as I am scream-whispering for them to be quiet or else, while frantically/haphazardly throwing various items into the cart, which in turn leads to overlooking the one object that we came to Walmart to buy, which then results in a mad dash back through half the store, which produces the opportunity for one particularly clumsy boy to mash his head into someone else's shopping cart, which only triggers a fresh outburst from said boy, who in turn scares the baby that has just barely managed to fall asleep. All we needed was toilet paper for crying out loud.
Anyway, hopefully this new reward system will be effective.
We picked three things for them to work on.
At the end of each day they can earn a total of three stickers for good behavior, and once their chart is full, they can pick out a treat at the dollar store. (Nothing but the best for our kids.)
Hopefully, this will encourage Ryan to stay in bed at night and Ezra to eat his dinner, among other things.
So far, so good.
It has only been one day.

And finally, to tie into our new beginnings theme, I made some new headbands for Ryan to wear to school.
See what I did there?
They were really easy, and really cute.
So cute that I took them and wore them myself.
Well, I tried that "hippie-type" look with it wrapped around my forehead, but probably looked like a fool.
Maybe it would work if it had more flowers on it.

Well, here's to a happy new year!