Lessons Learned: Raspberries, coupons, and table manners

Today was a learning day for everyone in our little family!

The baby learned that blowing raspberries and bubbles was fun.  He knew how to do it for awhile, but today he discovered he could amuse himself with it and make others laugh.  He spent most of the day trying to get a laugh out of everyone with his raspberry skills. 

My 3 year old has volume control issues.  (I'm sure some of you other mommas out there know exactly what I mean.)  He has a bad habit of yelling over people who are speaking to get attention, especially at the dinner table.  We have, probably for the good part of a year now, been trying to end this trend with him.  We've tried straight up explaining to him that it's rude, correcting him verbally, sending him to time out, and we've lost our cool and yelled at him about it, oh and we've done the ignoring trick.  Honestly, the ignoring worked the best, because he wants attention when he does it.  That includes negative attention.  So giving him no attention sends him the message that his yelling will not work the way he wants it to.  But I have trouble getting everyone who eats with him, including my husband, to be on board with that and follow it religiously, and you cannot mess up with this method.  If you break and even so much as look at him, that is a breech.  It is hard to ignore a shouting child, but it works very well when I'm alone and I strictly follow that method.  Well, today we had a breakthrough.  He was just sitting there, eating dinner, and I came over with my plate to join the family.  (I could not eat what they were having because it contained dairy, and the baby has a dairy sensitivity/allergy.  That is another story for another post, but long story short it made me late to the table.)  When I sat down, my 3 year old said "Oh, now we are all eating together at the table.  I am being quiet at the dinner table because other people are trying to eat."  I honestly teared up.  I thought this child would never get this.  This lesson would be lost on him forever.  He'd be 46 years old, and screaming over people talking in a boardroom one day.  I was sure of this.  I hope that he remembers what he said tonight, and the new trend of being respectful of the other people trying to eat a peaceful dinner continues.  I reinforced his good behavior by immediately giving him a treat at the conclusion of our dinner.  I also told him when his Aunt and Grandmother mentioned how proud they were of him.  That got a big smile and a high five from him.

My husband and I learned about the power of coupons.  We have always used coupons here and there, but they mostly get forgotten at home until they are expired.  Well, after one episode of TLC's "Extreme Couponing" show, coupons were at the forefront of our mind.  Mommas, listen up... Pampers has a killer pack of coupons in their diaper boxes right now, at least the ones that we got.  With their manufacturer's coupons, plus coupons from the booklet target just mailed out last week, we saved about $60, plus with in store deals we got a $5 for purchasing one of our items that we had 2 coupons for!  Target will take one of their coupons and one manufacturer's coupon per item.  $65 in savings!  You and your partner could get out for a nice little date with $65. 

So today had a little something for everyone going on.  Now there is a wintry mix going on outside, so we shall see what tomorrow's fate will be in the AM.  Hopefully it is as good as today was.