Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Home Goods Gift Card
I love the Reluctant Entertainer. Its a great site on how to entertain on a budget with some lovely recipes. Right now they are offering a $100 gift card to Home Goods, one of my all time favorite stores. HOW AWESOME! We are waiting to move in a few months and it got me thinking about fixing up my husbands office when we do. Will absolutely have to go visit the store.
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
A tisket, a tasket, a green and yellow basket
First ever Easter party for C today. He came outside with the other kids as I was taking photos of the group. What did he do as soon as he got outside? He threw his basket down the hill to watch it roll and completely ignored the eggs all over the ground for the first 6 minutes. I had to giggle and totally enjoy his toddler moment! Love that little guy!
Saturday, April 9, 2011
Letting go . . .
Most of you know I started out as a teacher. I have a background in early childhood education. Like most moms I started out with a list of things I would NEVER do and quickly threw them out the window the minute that C came home from the hospital. Now I am sure that some of you will gasp in horror but oh well . . it worked for us! So here goes . . .
1. I will breast feed . . . which I sort of did. My son was a lusty 10 pounds when he was born and went straight into 3 month old clothes before ever leaving the hospital. I spent the first week beating myself up over the fact that he would NOT latch on. We saw people and talked to people and got LOTS of advice that really did no good as a whole for a new mommy. We went out and used my husbands hospital discount and got a Medela pump which I LOVED! We were repeatedly told that if my son didn't latch on that my milk would dry up . . . HAHAHAHAHA! Sorry but we still laugh about it to this day cause it didn't. I pumped for four months until I was told to stop . . which we will get to another time.
2. I will not give him formula or rice cereal in a bottle. That is so very easy to say when you aren't sleep deprived and the only thing standing in your way of a good nights rest is a baby with a full tummy! My pediatrician actually told us to supplement with formula until my milk came in and we stumbled on a lovely surprise. I could feed my son breast milk all day long and then give him a night bottle of formula and he slept beautifully. Around the third month of his little life he was so hungry that our pediatrician suggested just a little rice cereal in his bottle. Granted he was in 6 month old clothes at the time and Momma could not keep up the supply for his demands and it was highly suggested by our midwife that we switch to formula. As a side note I would avoid ever mixing formula with breast milk as it does not sit well with babies tummy.
3. No Paci EVER! This lasted for maybe less than a month. There are studies out there that suggest a Paci can help avoid SIDS but I will let you check that out. Now I still am of the firm belief that after the age of two a child should be weened off of them. We are in the process of getting rid of them but its a VERY slow process when your kid has speech issues and likes to scream in public a lot. Sorry just keeping it real. More on how to get rid of them later.
4. No Wally-world babies. Hope I don't offend anyone here as this is more of an inside joke with my husband than a negative shot at Wally-world! Don't get me wrong, I love the super mega store and all its great deals but in the college town where we met there were some MESSY babies in that store. For me this meant that C would always be fully dressed with shoes or socks on his feet, dressed for the weather outside, and clean. Fast forward two years and most of the time he has shoes on his very sweaty feet (man that toddler has some man feet!) and he is as clean as a toddler could be. There have been times we have gotten looks in this hot southern town cause my baby boy had shorts on in 70 degree weather. UM . . . folks we are from a bit further north than here and that boy SWEATS! Anybody dealt with an overheated toddler . . not fun! Any how . . . . my husband loves to tease me anytime our drooling toddler has a wet shirt or manages to wipe a bugger across his rosy cheeks. Right now its pollen season and whooo there is some snot coming out of his nose! In case you don't have a toddler yet . . . they are MESSY but oh so lovable!
5 TV as a babysitter . . .don't think so! Up until about three months ago this was actually pretty accurate. There were times I prayed C would find some interest in a kids show just so I could get a chore or a phone call off my to do list. Never happened and I am kind of glad that he isn't hooked to TV all the time even though selfishly it would make my life easier. Recently he has shown some major interest in the Wiggles. He loves the music from the show and will dance like crazy or sing parts of the songs. About a month ago we let him watch a taped episode and he was transfixed. Whoops! Now he asks for it all the time. I am still pretty firm on TV not being a babysitter. He gets 30 minutes of it a day when I am cooking dinner purely because he is velcroed to my leg if I don't find something to occupy him. As a side note if anyone has a suggestion for non TV activities for this period of time I am open to solutions. Until then meal prep time will be accompanied by Murray, Jeff, Anthony, and Greg babysitting my kiddo.
6 Every moment is an EDUCATIONAL moment. This was the tough one. This is the rule I am still dealing with even today. I am in a twelve step program for it and its helping but there are days that I relapse. We were taught in school that every moment is an educational moment and should not be wasted. I sadly took this to heart literally and proceeded to heap a pile of mommy guilt on my plate about it for nearly two years. I felt that if I wasn't in my sons face all the time that he would fall behind developmentally and that as a stay at home mom this would make me a failure. UMMM??
I have to thank my dear hubby for the light bulb with this one. From day one J has been more hands off than me. Not in a disconnected way but in a lets see what he can do on his own way. J grew up in a Montessori school and man what a blessing that has been. While I was buzzing around C like a helicopter and exhausting my self, J would sit back and let him figure it out for himself.
Often my son would reach milestones when I was off at a meeting or out with a girlfriend because J was letting him explore and figure things out on his own. It has taken a lot of stressful frustrating moments for me to realize that if I back off and observe rather than get in the mix that things will work out just fine. Since January I have started reading a book on the Montessori method and am sold lock, stock, and barrel! This may have to be a separate post all on its own . . .yup! Look for that soon!
I am sure there are many more Rules that I had pre-baby that I have broken but for the time being they have escaped me.
1. I will breast feed . . . which I sort of did. My son was a lusty 10 pounds when he was born and went straight into 3 month old clothes before ever leaving the hospital. I spent the first week beating myself up over the fact that he would NOT latch on. We saw people and talked to people and got LOTS of advice that really did no good as a whole for a new mommy. We went out and used my husbands hospital discount and got a Medela pump which I LOVED! We were repeatedly told that if my son didn't latch on that my milk would dry up . . . HAHAHAHAHA! Sorry but we still laugh about it to this day cause it didn't. I pumped for four months until I was told to stop . . which we will get to another time.
2. I will not give him formula or rice cereal in a bottle. That is so very easy to say when you aren't sleep deprived and the only thing standing in your way of a good nights rest is a baby with a full tummy! My pediatrician actually told us to supplement with formula until my milk came in and we stumbled on a lovely surprise. I could feed my son breast milk all day long and then give him a night bottle of formula and he slept beautifully. Around the third month of his little life he was so hungry that our pediatrician suggested just a little rice cereal in his bottle. Granted he was in 6 month old clothes at the time and Momma could not keep up the supply for his demands and it was highly suggested by our midwife that we switch to formula. As a side note I would avoid ever mixing formula with breast milk as it does not sit well with babies tummy.
3. No Paci EVER! This lasted for maybe less than a month. There are studies out there that suggest a Paci can help avoid SIDS but I will let you check that out. Now I still am of the firm belief that after the age of two a child should be weened off of them. We are in the process of getting rid of them but its a VERY slow process when your kid has speech issues and likes to scream in public a lot. Sorry just keeping it real. More on how to get rid of them later.
4. No Wally-world babies. Hope I don't offend anyone here as this is more of an inside joke with my husband than a negative shot at Wally-world! Don't get me wrong, I love the super mega store and all its great deals but in the college town where we met there were some MESSY babies in that store. For me this meant that C would always be fully dressed with shoes or socks on his feet, dressed for the weather outside, and clean. Fast forward two years and most of the time he has shoes on his very sweaty feet (man that toddler has some man feet!) and he is as clean as a toddler could be. There have been times we have gotten looks in this hot southern town cause my baby boy had shorts on in 70 degree weather. UM . . . folks we are from a bit further north than here and that boy SWEATS! Anybody dealt with an overheated toddler . . not fun! Any how . . . . my husband loves to tease me anytime our drooling toddler has a wet shirt or manages to wipe a bugger across his rosy cheeks. Right now its pollen season and whooo there is some snot coming out of his nose! In case you don't have a toddler yet . . . they are MESSY but oh so lovable!
5 TV as a babysitter . . .don't think so! Up until about three months ago this was actually pretty accurate. There were times I prayed C would find some interest in a kids show just so I could get a chore or a phone call off my to do list. Never happened and I am kind of glad that he isn't hooked to TV all the time even though selfishly it would make my life easier. Recently he has shown some major interest in the Wiggles. He loves the music from the show and will dance like crazy or sing parts of the songs. About a month ago we let him watch a taped episode and he was transfixed. Whoops! Now he asks for it all the time. I am still pretty firm on TV not being a babysitter. He gets 30 minutes of it a day when I am cooking dinner purely because he is velcroed to my leg if I don't find something to occupy him. As a side note if anyone has a suggestion for non TV activities for this period of time I am open to solutions. Until then meal prep time will be accompanied by Murray, Jeff, Anthony, and Greg babysitting my kiddo.
6 Every moment is an EDUCATIONAL moment. This was the tough one. This is the rule I am still dealing with even today. I am in a twelve step program for it and its helping but there are days that I relapse. We were taught in school that every moment is an educational moment and should not be wasted. I sadly took this to heart literally and proceeded to heap a pile of mommy guilt on my plate about it for nearly two years. I felt that if I wasn't in my sons face all the time that he would fall behind developmentally and that as a stay at home mom this would make me a failure. UMMM??
I have to thank my dear hubby for the light bulb with this one. From day one J has been more hands off than me. Not in a disconnected way but in a lets see what he can do on his own way. J grew up in a Montessori school and man what a blessing that has been. While I was buzzing around C like a helicopter and exhausting my self, J would sit back and let him figure it out for himself.
Often my son would reach milestones when I was off at a meeting or out with a girlfriend because J was letting him explore and figure things out on his own. It has taken a lot of stressful frustrating moments for me to realize that if I back off and observe rather than get in the mix that things will work out just fine. Since January I have started reading a book on the Montessori method and am sold lock, stock, and barrel! This may have to be a separate post all on its own . . .yup! Look for that soon!
I am sure there are many more Rules that I had pre-baby that I have broken but for the time being they have escaped me.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Plesss
Love the new word C has started using! He says Please so sweetly when he wants something. He also uses thank you but is still just signing it. Granted he is not always so polite. Lately he has been totally showing his age with toddler temper tantrums! Luckily I have had the great opportunity to observe some amazing mothers of toddlers over the years and for the most part I just walk out of the room. Within seconds he realizes he has lost his audience and gives up screaming or follows me and starts again. I find it rather comical. Probably shouldn't but I do.
Guess thats all for now . . .off to run some errands!
Guess thats all for now . . .off to run some errands!
Friday, March 11, 2011
Project Simplify . . .
It's Spring Cleaning time! Over at http://simplemom.net/ she is setting up a Spring Cleaning Project called Project Simplify! I love that someone has taken the time to organize spring cleaning for me. This week the focus was our closet and while I started thinking there wasn't much to do other than fold up my messy piles of clothes I was wrong. I haven't bothered to clean out clothes since I got pregnant over two years ago. There are a ton of clothes that no longer fit or need to be repaired. Here are the before and after photos.
Before . . .
Here is the Goodwill pile and . . . .
Before . . .
After . . . I was able to hang up all of my shirts from my dresser as well!
Hopefully it will stay this way!
Here is the Goodwill pile and . . . .
here is the pile I took to my sewing room to be repurposed, mended, or ironed! Bring on the Spring!
Friday, February 25, 2011
EFMP . . .
On a whim the other day I asked Cs pediatrician if speech or orthopedic braces qualifies him for EFMP. I totally expected her to tell me no, that it didn't. Turns out I was wrong! Not only does he qualify but we are REQUIRED to register him for the program. OOOpppsss! Not one of his specialists had ever said a word about it. J and I are both familiar with the program in regards to more severe disabilities but never realized that our son fit in to one of those categories. In case you aren't military EFMP stands for Exceptional Family Member Program in the Army and offers assistance and resources to those who need it.
As a side note speech is going well and we are adding more and more words to Cs vocabulary every day. There are still a lot of B, P, and M sounds (which are called bilabial) but a new word is a new word! He is also starting to hold conversations with J and I and though we don't always understand what he says we are loving it none the less.
As a side note speech is going well and we are adding more and more words to Cs vocabulary every day. There are still a lot of B, P, and M sounds (which are called bilabial) but a new word is a new word! He is also starting to hold conversations with J and I and though we don't always understand what he says we are loving it none the less.
Friday, February 18, 2011
Word of the Day
"Hep"
C is now asking for help with everything! Despite his need for speech I love how cute it sounds when he leaves the L out. This week we are working on moving a cotton ball around with air blown through a straw.
New Words . . .
Yogurt
Pop
Want
Duck
Help
No
C is now asking for help with everything! Despite his need for speech I love how cute it sounds when he leaves the L out. This week we are working on moving a cotton ball around with air blown through a straw.
New Words . . .
Yogurt
Pop
Want
Duck
Help
No
Friday, February 11, 2011
Montessori Ideas
I have been reading up on a lot about raising a child in a Montessori home lately and I dearly wish I had known more about it before C was born. My husband, J attended a Montessori school and I feel like it gave him a huge academic advantage. I am starting to transition out some of his things in favor of more toys that are focused on this method.
As a teacher trained in the traditional method of teaching public school this has been a huge adjustment to my way of thinking that every moment must be a teachable moment that I am involved in . . . umm . .HOW stressful and exhausting! I am learning that C needs those moments of quite focused alone time just like I do. In fact I have noticed his academic growth explodes after periods of quite "work".
I found these awesome wooden stacking items at Hobby Lobby for $8.00. They also had a wooden unfinished nesting doll that I intend to paint for him.
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