Busy Isn't The Word

Caution: This post contains very strenuous activities which may cause yawning, drowsiness and the urge to take a nap.

Wake up. Feed baby. Burp baby. Express milk. Rock baby to sleep. Make breakfast. Feed Self. Wake up toddler. Help toddler go potty. Feed toddler. Play with toddler. Repeat.

Exploring With Food! – Toddler Style

Growing up, I was always told not to play with my food, but now that I’m older and have children, I do! And I’m teaching my toddler that it’s okay to!

Fall Is Here!!!!!!!!!!! YAYYYYYYYYYYYY

Fall officially begun yesterday and boy, were we excited!  Hooray for fall time crafts!

Funny Toddler Lingo

Say What?!?

Just yesterday, I was talking with my daughter, asking her what she wanted to do next. We always have ‘school’ where I teach her the basics and each day we add another activity. So she responded, ‘mommy colors and open shut please’.

Yesterday was my daughter’s 2^nd birthday and we had her birthday party on Sunday. Let me just quickly tell you that it was fun and I am still in recovery mode!

Saturday Adventures

Oh, the joys of waking up early on Saturday mornings to enjoy the relaxing task of watching cartoons and eating a huge bowl of cereal. I remember when I first started this tradition with my daughter…we would wake up early on Saturday, about 7:00 am.

No Pictures Please

Hey, am I the only one who thinks pictures = disclosure form needed?? I mean, I don’t want to seem ‘uppity’, uptight or as if we’re ‘too good’ for anyone else to take pictures of us because we’re not! We’re some of the humblest people, well we try to be. But it honestly bothers me when people take pictures of my children.

----Let’s get real for a second…

There's More To Life Than Peanut Butter Sandwiches!

Well...my toddler doesn't think so!

Any time and every time I ask my daughter what she wants to eat she responds ‘peanut butter sandwich’. Now for an almost 2 year old toddler whose vocabulary is steadily expanding, that’s pretty good. But where this love of peanut butter came from, that I do not have the answer to! Some people say the foods

Oh no...she knows what lip gloss is.....

Anytime my purse is within her reach, I find my daughter in it. In my head, I’m thinking ‘nooooo!!!! It’s not time for that stage yet!!!’ Most times when I catch her I say, “Kay, don’t go in mommy’s purse please!” And she moves away quickly, almost to say ‘I wasn’t doing anything’. LOL. But this one particular time I waited and watched her,

My Little Social Butterfly

My daughter’s not even two yet and she loves people. No – I mean really loves!!! Not that I see anything wrong with it except I’m not really social when it comes to being in public!! My husband isn’t either and we have no clue how we’ve made such a ‘socially involved’ child. I laugh because I told my husband that if she could read, write and use the computer, she would love twitter, facebook and any other social media outlet.

Bidding Summer Adieu

Wait…what??? Summer’s over already? I can’t believe it! Where in the world has time gone??? I remember the first day of summer, I dreaded it because I was pregnant and heat simply wasn’t my best friend. But my daughter could finally enjoy running around outside without a heavy coat or a jacket, which she would attempt to take off anyways…

No Such Thing As Too Much Love

“Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne?” – Isaiah 49:15

Okay, I’ll admit it….I am addicted to kissing and hugging on my girls. No, it’s not a phase, but something that I will do forever. ---But you have to understand that its habit forming and quite frankly addicting!

Driving Me Crazy….But I Wouldn’t Change It

On days when my toddler seems to drive me crazy…which is often, I stop and think about life before her….how boring it was. It was like clockwork…doing the same thing every day at the same time, no excitement at all. Working all day – from sun up to sun down….that oh so boring life!

Growing up but staying young

It's almost like a contradiction....grow up but stay young...it reminds me of when people say never loose your youth, which I've heard so many times. 

Over the past 7 years I've found that I've grown so much as a person. First of all, its weird for me to say that I graduated high school seven years ago...I feel so old (even though a lot of you are like what???? You're young! Ha ha) and it is simply amazing to see the change. I wish I would of documented everything back then, but while everything is still fresh on my mind. In just seven years, I had a couple of different jobs, was in college and was trying to find myself....who I am, not really realizing that I had found me but was maturing over time. I also met the love of my life, which came a couple of months after I had told myself that I would focus or look or accept any other relationships. Thinking back on it, I was 'swept off my feet' and I didn't know it.... And even after a couple of years of dating we became really serious and had our first child together....

Even with all of the changes and causes for me to mature I know for a fact that I haven't lost my youth...some people focus so much on rushing to grow up not taking the time to cherish every moment...I realized that yes, I do want to grow up and it will happen eventually but I need to enjoy my life..and that's what I've been doing ever since. 

Being a mother of two children, I found it to be important that while I am teaching and disciplining them, I also have to enjoy life with them. With my oldest daughter before the younger one came, we would always do fun activities together. I would run around with her at the park, pretend to play store, have a tea party or picnic, jump on the bed and even when we go to Chuckie Cheese, run around and play in the ball pit with her. I wanted her to know that yes, I am mommy but I will play and get silly with you...it was only right and honestly fun. 

As a mom...if there could be any advice that I could give other new mothers, it would be to enjoy life and have fun with your children. Don't get too caught up in being a "grown up". 

Paintin’ N’ A Tastin’

This is the perfect solution for toddlers who love to paint but constantly put their fingers in their mouth 

Homemade Edible Paint

Ingredients:

Plain Yogurt

Kool Aid Packets

Paper Plate

Spoon to Mix Paint

Paper

Your Toddler’s Hands

Instructions:

Put a spoonful of yogurt on the plate; depending on how many colors you want, make sure you leave space between each little yogurt drop. Add kool aid, about half a packet to one of the yogurt piles and mix until it produces the color you want. Repeat until all of the colors you and your toddler likes are created.

Once every color is created, you’re done and it’s time for your toddler to explore!!!

I loved this little project because you can also use it as a time to learn; identifying colors, smells, tastes and mixing to get other colors!

Now, I will tell you that our fingers ended up being stained, but don’t worry! You can easily remove kool aid stains on your fingers with any toothpaste! (Really!!! Any kind works!!) And most importantly, it’s safe for your little one’s skin!!

School of Mommy

Yesterday as so many children headed back to school so did my toddler….the school of mommy J. I made it my business to spend a couple of months planning out activities and setting learning objectives that I wanted her to accomplish each month. When I was pregnant with her, I worked at a preschool as a 2’s teacher so I was already familiar with what she needed to master according to her age.

Since toddlers seem to have a really short attention span, we only spent about two hours focusing on learning. (To be honest, every moment is a learning opportunity, so it’s important to take every chance you get to teach J).

The first activity was days of the week. I made a sentence strip out of card stock paper which says: “Today is _______”. I used Velcro and made rectangles that had each of the days of the week on them. I went over the names and we talked about what the day was.

The second activity was weather. I also made a sentence strip for the weather in addition to creating a sun, cloud and rainy cloud. First we reviewed the types of weather then we looked outside and saw the sun, so she put the sun on our little weather strip.

The third activity was my name is. I spelled her name out in big letters so that she could clearly see each letter. We went over each of the letters in her name and practiced saying “my name is kayleigh”.

The fourth activity was ABC and letter recognition. We used simple alphabet squares as we recited ABC’s, I used the letters to show Kay the name of the letter and what the letter looks like.

The fifth activity was reading Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr. This is a wonderful children’s book that was one of my favorites when I was in kindergarten! I am sure your toddler would love it as well J.

The sixth activity was an arts and craft project related to Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. We made a coconut tree using letters of Kay’s name. She used glue to place the leaves on the tree as we recited the letters.

The seventh and last activity was naming body parts. I had these body part cards that show each of the body parts, the basic ones. We identified different body parts on the cards and I had her find where they were on her own body.

Needless to say, she was happy and excited about what we learned and even spoke about it. Today, I’ve prepared more activities to do with her and I will continue to work with here every day until she’s ready for school!! 

Oh my gosh! I think my favorite channel is Nick Jr…

As I am writing this, it’s about 5:50 ish am eastern time…I woke up to nurse and as I turned the television on I immediately turned to channel 256… What’s 256 you ask??? Well….it’s Nick Jr. No, my toddler child isn’t up, she’s knocked out snoring and everything in her bed. I began to hum the theme song to Team Umizoomi and I stop and realize that I didn’t channel surf, but I automatically knew what I wanted to look at without thinking about it.

Ever since Kay was born our television was programmed to Nick Jr – all day, all night, every hour, every minute, every second.

I can admit that when I’m not watching television, I find myself humming a song from one of the many ‘oh so cute’ kiddie shows, but did I mention that I know most of them word for word??!?! I think it's time for me to attempt to go back to sleep.....

Hello, my name is Ashely and I’m addicted to watching Nick Jr.

Going in circles :-)

So......I've been trying to work on shape recognition with Kay and she's been doing sooo incredibly well!!!

Today as we were going over her shapes, I thought I would try something different from the norm and ask her to draw a circle.

She took a couple of crayons and to be honest, I wasn't really expecting to see circles but I didn't want to underestimate her either.

She began to move her hand with the crayon in a circular motion and as I looked down. I saw circles....

I couldn't be happier as this is a major milestone that I didn't expect for us to reach yet, but the earlier the better :-).

                       - proud mommy

First Dentist Appt :-)

My daughter’s first dentist appointment was back in June of this year and it was…….unbelievably calm. Now when I’d spoken to other parents, they described their child’s experience as being “horrifying” with screaming, yelling and kicking – something that I had begun to prepare myself to brace for! But no, not my toddler, not Kay.

So we went in, signed in and Kay went to play in the waiting room. Only waiting about ten minutes, I was already nervous as I watched other children leave, some happy and others were clearly upset. Finally our names were called.

She sat so patiently in the chair waiting for the dentist to check her teeth and look, I was able to snap photos as waited:

Even once the dentist came to check and clean her teeth, she cooperated. Since she loved the dentist so much, they rewarded her with toys: a tea set, teddy bear and sunglasses. Now I only hope and pray that these trips continue to be peaceful!!!

♥ Mom who doesn’t like the dentist herself!!

Potty Training

Being pregnant and almost due, I found that I was in a rush to begin potty training my daughter! She’ll be the big 2 in September and while I had planned to get an early start before, of course things did not go that way!

I’d bought her potty training books; an Elmo one that’s really good and helpful because it not only shows Elmo going to the potty, but has sounds as well. (Here’s what the below)

She had her potty, which was a Summer Infant Step-By-Step Potty and a very good price! It was really cute that the potty resembled an actual toilet, yes including its own flushable wipes and toilet paper holder. (see picture and link below)

Summer Infant Potty

Side note: I would definitely recommend purchasing this one as it was very easy to use because it came assembled. All you had to do was clean it and it was ready for use!

So….when I took out her potty to initiate the “meeting”, she was actually interested! I’d placed her directly on our ‘big people’ toilet before, with help of course, but within a couple of days – ( 3 to 4 to be exact), she started using the potty!!! Day by day, I’ve begun to use various “potty” terminology so that she’s able to associate certain words with the potty.

One piece of advice that I can give you would be to take your child in the bathroom with you. Yes, I know they like to touch and mess with everything, but trust me, I did this and believe that this is one of the main reasons why my daughter was so interested in “peeing in the potty”. But show and explain to your child what you do, step by step and how to properly wipe themselves, flush the toilet, etc. Help ‘going potty’ be a known and not foreign subject to your child.

Another helpful technique that my mother taught me was to sit her on the potty near the television and/or her toys so that she can be engaged in fun while trying to succeed at a major task – going potty. She also stays occupied and you’ll find that you won’t have to say “_____, sit back down on your potty”.

Now I know that I must be blessed with this process being so easy, but for those of you who are struggling with helping your toddler to potty train, don’t worry!!! ….there is light at the end of the dark tunnel, really!! Hopefully my story will help you in one way or another J