Sparkle Snowflakes

Fingers crossed we won’t actually get anymore snow here in central Virginia but since this winter has been especially snow filled,  we made sparkly snowflakes for this week’s craft time.

First I cut out long strips of paper.  I used light purple because it seemed more fun than plain white.  I also grabbed a stack of blue construction paper, glue, sparkle paint and Q-tips.

I had the kids glue the purple strips onto the blue paper in a pattern that overlapped to make a snowflake.  If they wanted there was room for two snowflakes for one page.  Then they squeezed on bunches of sparkle paint and used the Q-tips to spread it around to cover their snowflakes and the rest of their pages.  Seems the bigger the kid the more sparkle necessary. 🙂

Easy toddler craft – sparkle snowflakes

Seriously, with the flu everywhere plus it seems like it’s been raining always… we have been doing so many crafts.  How else to fill long days stuck inside? I’m beginning to suffer from some serious spring fever.  Fingers crossed for sunshine and 60*’s sooner than later.

Happy crafting!

Amanda

Easy Winter Mitten Craft Idea

Every Monday my kids and I facilitate craft time for Cartwheels & Coffee, a local coffee shop with a play land for the kids (awesome, I know).  My kids love getting to participate in making the crafts.  My son often helps me brainstorm ideas of what to make. It’s really a great gig.  Anyways, since I’m already coming up with the ideas, I should go ahead and share them.

This week we created a mitten with handprints.  Our mittens turned out to be totally easy to make and adorable! This is one you may actually want to keep.

The prep for this is super simple. I grabbed some construction paper, printer paper, extra large stamp pad, sharpie and glue.  I pre-cut the construction paper into the shape of a mitten and printer paper into the shape for the fluffy mitten ends.  I let the kids glue together the mitten and the white mitten ends.  Once that was complete we added the handprints and their names for a finishing touch.  Here is our completed product:

For my older son I had him write his name himself.  He loved stamping his hand. 🙂

I’m sure you could jazz yours up with stickers or jewels.  We wanted to keep ours looking clean and simple so the sweet handprints stood out a bit more.

Hope you and your littles have fun making this sweet craft.

Happy Holidays!

Amanda

Free Printable and Editable Toddler Chore Chart

Just in the past few months of my parenting journey, I’ve realized, my children are capable of being helpful. Amazing! I found, though, that we all need a little practice and prompting to help grow the habit of helpfulness. 

That being said, I am all about easy.  I don’t want a crazy complicated chore board.  I need something simple, easy to edit and right in front of our faces.  I came up with a easy to edit chore chart.  We tape it on the fridge, add check marks when tasks are completed, when the page is full of checks the kids earn something small.  Usually a piece of candy.  This simple reminder keeps up all on track.  You can download the chart here.  I used this chart for my 3 year old.  I have a longer chart we use for our 5 year old.  He can handle more chores, etc.  The great thing is this is easy to edit.  Add rows, change out the pictures and you can make this work perfectly for whatever your goals are for your children.

 

Hope this helps in your journey raising strong and kind people.

Love,

Amanda

Living Regret Free

I’ve been thinking a lot about how we ended up here?

If you would have asked me what I thought my life would be like in 5 years, 5 years ago… my answers I know would have me landing in a very different place than I am.   Something messed up the plan, changed my heart and brought us here.

The more I examine I realize -love and passion and faith and calling- all mixed into one pulled our family into uncharted territory.

Here are a few things I’ve learned as I have reluctantly stepped out in faith over the past few years…

Quiet.  The leading of the Holy Spirit is often sounds like a whisper, often unrecognized until you get down the road. I felt this call the day I met Isaac (our oldest).  A life changing sense of love for this kid swept over me the first time I looked into those tiny blue eyes.  I knew my life needed to be different if I was going to be the Momma I wanted to be… but I didn’t know how.  So, I just prayed.

Time.  So many times, things take more time than we think!  We are impatient people but God works with eternity in mind… he isn’t in a rush.  I met Isaac.  Went back to work.  I tucked that call back down into my heart.  I had to wait for His timing.  I had to wait for Him to act in ways only He could in order to see the change unfold.  I had to be patient.

Sacrifice. I’ve given up everything I thought I should be and I’m sure I will be called to give me. Recently, our pastor talked about how the Holy Spirit prods us to live outside the lines and I’ve found that to be true 100% of the time whenever I’ve made a choice I knew was out of love for the Lord and not out of love for myself. BUT the beauty of it all is that when you are pursuing love… it doesn’t feel so much like a sacrifice…it feels natural… like your doing just want your supposed to be doing.  PLUS…all the things I thought I may be “missing out on” God has provided for me beyond what I could have expected (YaY)!

Passion. I was asked at an interview a few weeks ago what are you passionate about?  I was interviewing for a retail job so I probably should have answered something like, I’m passionate about customer service or sales, right? Well, what I said was I passionate about raising strong upright children. Huh?  Well, in that nervous moment it was the only thing that came to mind (ha… I really do get very flustered when I have to talk to lots of adults at once).. ALSO, it’s the truth for me right now.  When God starts leading you to new places a passion starts to grow!

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My question for you is, What call has God been whispering into your heart? What passion does he want to give you?

My encouragement is, I know that even when we face change it’s so SCARY and often times hard at first.

When we are brave, I truly believe it is the only way to live that avoids regret.

When we ignore God.  Play it safe. Run away.. God can still work…He is so very patient… But the question then is, What are we missing out on for ourselves?

I’m certain when we choose safe we are sure to look back and see regret.  

NOW, I say this… and I am the most change adverse… wants to play it safe person…HA, so you know these past years have been something real for me. Even though that’s my default setting… my heart tells me it’s no way to live. I am thankful for the grace to overcome my fear and live His adventure out in my life!

Love,

Amanda

Part 2: Tips for growing from a family of 3 to 4

When I was preggo with #2 I tried to look up helpful articles/blogs/etc. on making the transition from 3 to 4 (especially with a 1 year old) but didn’t find much.  I assume this is because all Mom’s in this stage of life are much too busy and tired to spend their time blogging! That being said I felt compelled to share a few of the things that have helped over the past few weeks.

1. Make time for your Partner 

When I had my oldest I was overwhelmed with the amount of love I felt for this tiny human and for a while he was all I focused on… as a result I started to feel disconnected from my husband (bad news bears).  This time we made a choice to continue to make time for each other even through those first crazy and sleepless weeks.  It helped so much! We have been able to work as a team.  Any tension or arguments that have come up have quickly faded.  It makes a world of difference when you feel you are taking on the challenge of parenting together! Some simple ways we have made time include: getting a sitter for Isaac and eating out, taking long walks with the boys, watching a show together before snoozing at night or even just sitting and eating dinner together while Isaac plays.

2.  Get Help

We are so lucky in that we have a lot of help this go around! We have both of our parents (which are wonderful).  Our church set up meals to be delivered to our home for weeks after Lucas was born.  This help has been so necessary! If people around you offer to help during this time of life… say YES! You may feel guilty but the reality is you need some help.  Having a growing family is a lot of work… it takes a village!

3. Get out

This may not help everyone… but if you are more of an extrovert follow my advice! Get out of the house, everyday! It may feel exhausting or like a lot of hassle but it will help you feel like a human and not a Mommy machine.  Also my toddler LOVES exploring and our home gets old quick.  Taking him out everyday helps him to stay busy… and sorta distracts him from the fact that he may be jealous.  Our days go so much better if we keep moving (it also helps with weight loss, all that carrying, walking and lifting is good for you!).

4.  Make Friends

This has been the most helpful thing for me.  I was working before I had Lucas so spending most of my time at home with my boys was an adjustment.  I LOVE IT but I know I would quickly become depressed if I didn’t have other Mom’s to connect with almost every day of the week.  I started attending the Mom’s group at my church the first week I was off and since then have made friends with lots of other amazing Mom’s.  If you don’t have a Mom’s group at a church, join a community Mom’s group, there are so many! Having someone who understands where you are at in life to talk to is powerful.  Plus the boys get to play with their little ones, it’s a win win!

5. Get Rest (whenever possible)

It’s hard to rest with two little ones but even if you can’t get a nap in just sit down and hold the baby when the big one is napping.  It will help keep you sane (I promise).

6. Date your Kids 

My oldest loves his Mommy and I am so grateful for this but he often struggles to see me holding and nursing Lucas.  What has helped is for me to make time just to tune into him several times throughout the day.  I also try to nurse the baby as much as possible during naps and before the oldest gets up in the morning so I am free to devote my attention to him for a while. On the flip side I make sure that I spend most of nap time as well as time after the oldest goes to bed snuggling with the baby.  When I take the oldest places that I know he is able to play more on him own (like the park or children’s museum) I wear the baby so I get some extra baby time.   I still often wish there was more of me to go around but that is one of the unavoidable challenges of having a growing family.

7.  Shower everyday

It will help you wake up and feel better about yourself… even if you just slip back into your sweats.

8.  Keep your expectations low & don’t be too hard on yourself when things don’t go how you’d hoped

Motherhood is wonderful and difficult.  It makes you a better person but sometimes you feel like a failure.  We are Mom’s for a lifetime so if one day doesn’t go well you have time to figure it out.

I am so thankful now that we have two little guys so close together. I am so glad they get to grow up together and it’s really cool getting to snuggle with a little one while watching our toddler develop.  Good luck to you if you are expecting or welcoming another!

Love,

Amanda

The interesting 1’s no one told me about

When you become a parent there are so many choices about how to raise your kids.  You can be an attachment person, a “cry it out” person, a formula person, a someplace in the middle person and so on and so on… Before having my son I put NO thought into the kind of parent I wanted to be.  I knew I wanted to be a Mommy and figured the rest would just work itself out.  Once I had this child I found I naturally am more of an attachment kind of parent in that I love nursing, baby wearing, couldn’t stand to hear him cry more than 5 minutes and he slept in our room for about 13 months.

BUT this thing happened the moment he turned 1 that I was not at all prepared for… which threw a bit of a wrench in my no cry strategy… he started throwing fits! He suddenly had opinions he managed to clearly express with no words at all. First he decided he was not a fan of car rides and screamed at the top of his lungs the entire time he was placed in the car. Then, he decided life was more fun with Mom than on the floor…. so if I happened to set him down at the wrong time he would cry, scream and sometimes even bang his head (ouch!). There was even this one time I didn’t realize he really wanted to touch the yogurt so I put it away before he got to it and he threw a 30 minute fit following me from room to room expressing his outrage.

The reason I have found this stage to have been more challenging as well as startling is that first it seemed like overnight my sweet happy baby needed boundaries and I wasn’t sure how to appropriately put them in place.  Next, communication is just forming between the ages of 1 and 2… so as a parent I often am unsure how much he can understand and while I feel he has remarkable nonverbal communication skills, I still sometimes just am clueless as to what he wants.

As we face this stage I have found a few things that have been helpful for me and thought I would share in case you had any of the same experiences with you very interesting one year old…

1.  Redirect.  I have a pretty stubborn little guy who gets VERY fixated on things so this does not always work but when I see he starts getting worked up I try to start talking about, pointing to or engaging with something new.  I feel like this is very appropriate for his age and given his lack of communication skills… I can’t give him a lecture on why the stove is hot and therefore he can’t stand on it right this moment… but I can give him a cool piece of tupperware to look at while I take care of the whole oven thing.

2.  Be silly. This is most likely just for my benefit…. Toddlers have BIG emotions and so do pregnant people…. I happen to be pregnant and have a toddler so I have to be careful to make sure his BIG emotions don’t provoke a unfair emotion from me.  When Isaac is upset over the yogurt or what not I often will try to make the situation into a game or use a fun voice to talk to him about him being upset.  He probably thinks I’m crazy but it helps me stay calm amidst the storm of emotion.

3.  Give hugs and breaks. Most of the time these outburst happen because Isaac is tired or has been at daycare all day and misses me.  He cannot express either of these emotions with words so often times especially in the evenings after work he expresses this through crying over tiny things.  After realizing this to be the case I have worked to make sure I spend more of my evening sitting with him, holding him and giving him lots of hugs especially when he becomes upset.  At first I felt like if I hugged him I was affirming his tantrum behavior but at this age and at this time of day I have come to believe that in fact he is just trying to tell me he needs a little extra loving more than anything else.

4. Pick your battles carefully. enough said…

5. Be consistent. If I don’t want Isaac to play with the fireplace I have to let him know that he can’t touch the fireplace every time he gets near it until he understands the boundary I am working to put in place.  For me I feel that the things Isaac “can’t” do should be a short list… I don’t want him to be afraid of the world and I want him to feel free to experiment. But of course if something is dangerous I make sure I am firm and consistent in saying no.  Isaac already almost never pushes these boundaries.  Kids learn quick!

6. Take a break. If you have a spouse let him step in during these moments of frustration or if you have a friend or a mom or anyone really… but when you find you are feeling frustrated it’s probably the best for everyone if you take a breather.

If you have any ideas on how to appropriately set boundaries for 1-2 year old please share them with me! Parenting is such an adventure.  I feel like there is so much trial and error (sorry kids).  It’s hard to know for sure you are doing the best for your kid.  I think in the end if you are doing what you do with love your kid will know it and turn out ok… BUT I won’t know this for sure for many years since I am still just testing out my theories on my boys.

Love,

Amanda