What's for dinner tonight....BBQ Fish

BBQ Fish

Ingredients:

4 Pieces – Tilapia

Lemon Pepper Seasoning

Lemon

Jack Daniel’s Hickory Smoke BBQ Sauce

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Rinse off tilapia

Place in glass dish

Sprinkle lemon pepper seasoning over tilapia

Cut lemon in half and squeeze the juice over the fish

Cut up the half of lemon into pieces and place in the dish

Pour BBQ sauce over the fish

Cover and seal with foil to keep the fish moist

Bake 30 – 45 minutes

Let’s be honest, when my mother first gave me her recipe, I was thinking BBQ & Fish?!?!?!? Is that a possible combination??? I was so use to BBQ chicken and beef, but the aroma this dish gave off was simply….amazing…mouth watering!!!

Painting With The Earth

This is a fun activity to do with your kids, especially the younger ones!

Materials:

Paint Brush

Construction Paper

Plastic Cup

Plastic Spoon

Water

Directions:

Take your child outside with the plastic disposable cups and plastic spoons. Fill the cup with dirt, as much as you need. (You can also use this time to talk about nature; makes it not only a fun activity, but a learning experience)

Once inside, grab construction paper, white or light colored paper shows up best, paint brushes and water.

Pour a little of the dirt onto the paper. Using the paintbrush, dip it in the water and paint on the paper.

The dirt should turn into “paint” and make a cool painting!

My daughter loved this activity, as you can see from the pictures below! We talked about the colors of the dirt, texture and what it's used for. 

Teaching Your Toddler About Their New Sibling “To Be” (When you’re expecting)

As soon as I started showing, I began to teach my daughter about her new sibling. I know a lot of people, including family members and friends, said that she wouldn’t understand, that she’s “too young”. BUT I have reason to believe otherwise.

Every opportunity I had, I would bring her along with me to my gyn and sonogram appointments. I even showed her pictures of the sonograms and explained that it’s a baby and yes it’s in mommy’s tummy.

So…for those of you who are expecting little ones and already had toddlers, here are some really good tips for teaching your toddler:

·         Show your child sonogram pictures

·         Take your child to your doctors and sonogram appointments

o   Let them see the screen as the nurses “check out” your baby

o   Let them hear the baby’s heart beat

·         If you have infant baby dolls, show your child and let them practice using diapers and bottles

·         Most importantly, let your child be involved

Do you have any tips or advice for teaching your toddler about the new baby?

From Our Bed Back to Her Own: Transitioning my daughter back to her own bed and not feeling guilty

Well, I have to be honest, since my daughter was an infant, I’ve loved resting with her…that oh so addictive yummy baby smell. – Hey, I know I’m not the only mother who is in love with the smell of a baby!! But as my daughter got older, she somehow got on a schedule of laying with me when it was time for her to go to sleep at night.  Of course I wouldn’t tell her no because whenever she laid with me, she was knocked out within minutes, sometimes seconds- I couldn’t complain.

But I will admit, after a couple of months it got bad…to the point where she didn’t want to be put in her crib at all! That not only affected our cuddling and intimate time, but made it so that we barely laid together at all.

To make things even more complicated, I was expecting again! I wanted to cuddle at night so my hubby could rub my back, tummy and feet, but with a 1 year old in the bed with you, that was not going to happen! We were faced with a top secret (sort of) special task – operation get Kay to go nite-nite in Kay’s Bed! Now, I will admit that this was not and I repeat WAS NOT an easy task!

It took night after night of attempting to tire her out to the point where we could put her straight in the bed. Finally after months of trying, she is in her own bed – no if, ans, or buts about it! Every night I say “time to go nite-nite in your bed” and she gives kisses and we put her in the bed and she sleeps ----ALL NIGHT!!!!!

…I feel so accomplished and I’m glad that this hurdle is over…

…now on to the next one J

Mommy vs Daddy: Round One

….Procrastination….Oh how it annoys me!!!

….(sigh)…As I come to you from a place of annoyance and frustration, I have to tell you that I can’t stand procrastination! That is one of my biggest pet peeves, of course among other small things. Now, I’m not saying that I haven’t procrastinated before because that would be a lie, but once my family “begun” I did my best to not do so in any way. Well my wonderful “husband” on the other hand….

First let me start off and say that my mother was and still is very VERY organized! I learned from the best, very best! She taught me how to manage my time and plan out my day so that everything that needs to get done is done and its either before it has to (if it has a deadline) or right on time- NO EXCUSES!

From all of this, I learned that men procrastinate way more than woman do- it’s the truth! And when you throw kids in the scenario- well that just further proves my point.

The picture above seems so accurate especially on a Saturday. Now of course the lists are different in the matter of tasks to do, but they’re still things that need to be done.

I feel like this topic will always be one of my pet peeves and with me having two daughters, I will be sure to teach them how to be organized like my mother taught me!!

                         Love, Procrastination-Free Mom

A Twist On Breakfast ♥

This is a fun alternative to the simple and plain cereal and milk or waffles / pancakes that your child normally has for breakfast! It’s also very healthy!!

Breakfast Kabobs

Ingredients:

Waffles (I used Eggo Frozen Strawberry Waffles)

Banana

Strawberries

Grapes

Plastic Skewers

Directions:

• While your waffles are toasting, cut up the bananas in thick but bite sized circles, the same with the strawberries

• Once the waffles are done, cut up into small triangles

• Then, begin to put the kabob together, starting with a piece of waffle, then fruit following.

                                                  Enjoy!

Adventures at the Park

We’ve always taken Kay to the park, but had to assist her in sliding or climbing, etc. Now that she’s getting older, she wants independence and is able to run around on her own! Of course, we still had to help her, but not nearly as much as before!

Being able to sit back and watch her run freely around, I just cherish these moments because I know that she won’t be this small for long. In our everyday, busy lives, I think it’s important for all of us as parents to take out time to just “watch” our children grow because with a blink of an eye, they will be grown…..