Monster Spray

On Wednesday we took Simone to the doctor for her 4 year checkup.  I'm happy to report that she is very healthy, has perfect vision and perfect hearing.  Not sure why she can't hear me when I call her name or tell her 'no' but the doctor assures us her hearing is perfect. 

Here is photographic proof that yes she can hear the beep just fine!

He also said that she is as tall as the average 5 1/2 year old, yikes! She better slow down or she'll be taller than us before she hits 3rd grade.

One of the things we spoke to the doctor about was how lately Simone has had a hard time staying in her own bed.  The last few weeks she's come in our room several times wanting to sleep with us which we have been guilty of letting her do in the past but its become more frequent and more disturbing to everyone's good night sleep.  She is also having a hard time with the dark and is pretty concerned there are monster's in her room.  The Doctor had a wonderful suggestion for us, we need to get some Monster Spray.  We've never heard of it so the Doctor took me out into the hall and told me where to buy it. 

Here is what Monster Spray looks like if you were wondering...

Made by me of course but she doesn't know that and was very excited to see that I was able to find it at the store.  It's just water with a few drops of fragrance oil so she can smell it.  I made the label in photoshop because I thought it was cuter that way.

Last night Daddy sprayed the Monster Spray by the door of her room, by the window and in the closet and guess what...NO MONSTERS!

Simone was very happy this morning and if she is comforted by the thought of Monster Spray than by golly we'll make gallons of it.

One of the other things the Doctor suggested is using positive reinforcement which of course we have been doing and seeing good results from.  We also talked about reward charts which is something I've thought about doing.  I looked online and found tons of inspiration on Pinterest and found one that a very nice lady created for her kids.  She has a free download on her blog if you want a copy.  I decided to modify it a bit for my needs and added some different graphics at the top, things that I want to make sure Simone is doing like sleeping in her own bed every night, brushing her teeth, letting us brush her hair without complaint, taking her fluoride and picking up her toys.

Here is my version of the chart;

and a close up of the graphics that I added. 

It took me a long time to find clip art that would work for my needs so if you are interested I found it here.  I just right clicked the images I liked saved them to my desktop then dragged them into my photoshop document, recolored them and voila!

We plan to start this on Sunday and I bought cute little multi colored star stickers to mark each task as she does them.  I'm hoping for good results from both the Monster Spray and the Chore Chart.

Have a wonderful weekend!  We're planning on cheering loudly for the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday and I'll be back Monday for more.