Finally A Name...

After MONTHS of looking up names and tossing names back and forth we FINALLY have the baby's name... Andrew Gregory Simmons. It is made up of his three grandfathers' names. Andrew from my dad, Gregory from Michael's stepdad, and obviously the Simmons name from Michael's biological dad.

Michael had considered his biological father's name, however, decided on Papa's (Greg) name since he is the grandfather that both our boys will grow up knowing.

While I'm glad to finally have a name picked out... I'm even happier that Michael picked something that is SO meaningful. I know the name will mean alot to both our fathers. Since I'm also big on knowing the meaning of names, so I looked it up.
Andrew - is Greek for strong, courageous & Gregory - is Greek for watchful, vigilant

I love that he will have such a meaningful name, just like Sean.

Dressing Alike

Sean is SO excited about being a big brother. He's even told me that he wants his brother to dress like him. Normally I wouldn't do something like that unless it was for pictures, but since it was his request I've been trying to keep a look out for places that have matching clothes. Kind of hard since Sean is in 7-8 and his new brother will be a newborn. However, yesterday I was able to find some cute stuff at Carter's of all places.

I thought these would be cute for the day the baby is delivered.

Here are a few other shirts I got for them:

Teaching Your Child About Money

http://www.msgen.com/assembled/money_savvy_pig.html

With the crash of the financial market and the economic troubles our country has been facing I thought this would be great to share.

Michael & I are Dave Ramsey fans. Sean by proxy has been listening to Dave's show almost every day during the week when he's on (for probably the last year), so much so, that when I pick him up from school he asks me to turn his show on. Sean now knows he can catch the last hour on the drive home. Sean's favorite day is Friday, because callers get to scream "I'm Debt Freeeeee!!!!"



When Sean was about 4 we stopped buying him stuff, because he started asking us to buy it. That's when we started allowances. Sean has learned that he must provide some sort of service to earn money. This has worked out great, because we don't have a chore list for Sean. He actually takes the initiative to do stuff, then promptly tells us what he's done and asks for money (it's pretty funny when he does it). Sean is almost 7, but for the last 3 years he has done every thing from sorting laundry, taking out the recyclable to the bin outside, emptying the trash, putting dishes away, dusting, vacuuming, and he's even scrubbed the toilets a couple times.



So what do you do once your child earns allowance for their own spending... TEACH THEM TO BUDGET!!!! We're fortunate, because Sean doesn't like to spend his money (much like my brother when we were kids). At one point Sean saved so much that we HAD to take him to open a savings account. The great thing is our local credit union (Texans Credit Union) has a program that every time Sean goes in and makes a deposit he gets stickers for his chart. When he gets 10 stickers he gets a prize. Sean is all about goals/prizes, so that has given him more incentive to save more. We did explain to Sean breaking up his money and that it's okay to spend some of it. This way he learns to save some, donate some, invest some, and spend some.



So how do you get your kids started. I saw this cute piggy bank in Family Fun magazine that would be a great start in teaching your child about money... and hopefully teach them to avoid what SO many Americans are facing today. Debt up to their eyeballs, foreclosures, and trying to keep up with the Jones. NEWS FLASH... the Jones are BROKE and about to lose their house and luxury cars!!!

Getting Your Kids to Monitor Thier Own Screen-Time

With the last three days be ice days in the Dallas-Ft. Worth Metroplex the TV has probably been on more than most parents have wanted it to be. I found some creative ideas in Family Fun magazine to help your child learn to regulate their own TV time.

1. Use 2 small jars and label them Time Saved and Time Used. Put marbles or beads in the Time Saved jar. How many you put is up to you, but each bead represents 30 minutes of TV time. Each time your child wants to watch a show they have to move the bead to the Time Used jar. When the beads are gone... TV time is gone.

2. Activity = TV time - Make a chart with 30 minute increments on it. Use a clothespin to mark the time. For every 30 minutes of active time (playing sports, running around at the park, etc) the clothespin moves forward. Every time your child sits in front of the TV the clothes pin moves back. This gets them active, because they have to exercise or run around to earn the TV time.

3. Pay to Watch - This one I'm going to try, because Sean hates to spend money. At the beginning of each week give your child seven one-dollar bills. For every hour of viewing time they must pay up $1. The incentive... whatever they don't use at the end of the week they can keep.

This would work well for your video game junkies too ;)

Loving The Belly

Sean is very excited about his baby brother. Only 4-1/2 more weeks til he makes his appearance. We had maternity photos done a couple weeks ago and I just love this photo. Sean has been bonding with his brother throughout the pregnancy. Before my belly got uncomfortably large, Sean used to jiggle it and tell me that he was playing with his brother. Now he's resorted to zerberts and kissing my belly goodnight.

He's going to be a great big brother.