Keeping your toddler busy ALL DAY LONG

It's harder than one thinks....I'm finding that at least, my toddler, doesn't actually like playing with toys for longer than about 2 minutes at a time at this point. Not even all the super cook new Christmas Toys she got. (this picture is no one we know... but notice how ALL the toys are out of the container... just saying - there is no such thing as playing with one thing at a time)

Case in point, we bought Katie a Curious George Matching game and thought for sure it would take at least 20 minutes or so... we took all the cards out and laid them face up for her to match the pairs... she was done in about 4 minutes tops. That was my big activity for the morning... so I knew I was screwed.

I'm always surprised at how many working parents are at a loss with what to do with their kids when they are home with them for a full day that is a non weekend. Then I realize that their schedules are so busy that they probably have tons of errands, etc to do on the weekends like grocery shopping and stuff so they don't really experience a typical FULL DAY with a kid plus the novelty of having your parents home when they aren't normally... might be enough to keep them settled for a day or two.

This is why stay at home moms needs wine. It's HARD WORK. I feel like it's harder work the less kids you have. Kids entertain each other.

My best days are when Katie has a playdate because the kids pretty much take care of themselves, and me and my mommy friends can have an actual conversation and relax for a morning instead of constantly fretting over what activity to do next. So, I think if you have multiple children, they can help entertain each other - but I am finding being home with one child all day long, every day is beyond taxing. She gets frustrated and I want to pull my hair out.

So here are some things I try to do to help break up the monotony of being home all day.

1) Barnes and Noble Train Table - Katie loves playing there - so we go in the morning before naptime a little less than once a week

2) Local Libraries - some of them have awesome kids rooms - including a local one here in New Jersey that has a whole room with puzzles and tables and toys and a separate play area where the kids can be loud.

3) Playdates... I met some local moms who just happen to have kids Katie's age - I try to have one playdate with them a week. I kind of like breaking it up so that I can get 2 or 3 different playdates in the same week with different moms... but it's also nice to have them at the same time so it's a larger group.

4) Art Projects. Katie is obsessed - so painting, foam sticker projects, easy craft project kits - we made snowmen out of circles of my scrapbook paper and then I cut out hats, noses, etc... and I helped her glue them on. It was a hit. She also likes paint with water pages, but I find them annoyingly messy so am going to try to make my own.

5) Baking - Katie likes to help me bake - cookies or stuff that she can pour in and then help decorate or cut out (sugar cookies)

6) local museums - Children's Museums are great for a full morning activity but they can be a little pricey.

7) Play spots at the mall - we have a really nice one about 15 minutes away - we don't go often... but it's a treat and she likes it. We get there for when the mall opens and stay for about 45 mins tops... she really enjoys it.

When it's warm out - we go out once a day at least. We have an awesome park right across the street - and it was easier before I was pregnant and it got cold and all... but if you don't mind the cold and can chase a little one... outdoors on a warmer day does wonders for getting their energy out.

That's about all I have for ideas. We try to rotate those things as much as possible. Katie suffers from cabin fever pretty severely at this point and is super smart smart so I have run out of fun teaching material for the moment... which is why I am really hoping I can get her into daycare 2 - 3 mornings a week starting ASAP so that she can get playtime, circle time, crafts, etc... with other kids for 3 hours which will really help me out once the baby comes.


I wish you all luck in staying sane during the winter months... Don't be afraid to reach out to other mommies... we are all in it together. If you see someone at the park that looks normal and can complete a sentence... PURSUE it... that's how Katie and I met our good local friends - at the park, and then we took a class together and now we try to get together once a week with the girls and it's AWESOME!!!!!

For all you parents out there who have had a hard time keeping your children entertained during school vacations, etc.... make sure you give the stay at home moms you see out and about who look frazzled and scattered and tired an extra smile - they probably REALLY need it!!!!:) AND you should probably HUG your babysitters - often - especially if you have a babysitter that watches your only child... like I said - it's more work the less kids there are!

Leave comments with your ideas and activities - we all need the help!!!!!

Also... please share with me your biggest activity failure... for me it was painting for the 2nd time.
We tried to paint with a friend one day and she loved it. So I got her all kinds of stuff to do it and apparently it wasn't the same without her playmate... so she freaked out and refused to do it... it was a huge bummer for me as I had been looking forward to it for days!!

When your non-stay at home spouse is on vacation

This photo is a cartoon, that's why they look so content... this was NOT what we looked like in my house this past week.

We have been looking forward to the past 11.5 days for what feels like forever. Time to hang out and enjoy time at home, just the 3 of us - get some stuff organized and re-arrange some things in order to get better prepared for baby number 2 and just have a generally kick ass time.

The reality was that all being home at the same time, for so many days wasn't nearly as blissful as we had hoped.

Katie has been sick for about a month now on and off with different symptoms and has been a little cranky here and there which never helps us when we're all together. She is also going through a phase where she ONLY wants my husband to do stuff with her. We realize it's because the novelty of having him home is super fresh in her mind, but it doesn't help the sting when she decides she doesn't want me to even be in the same room as them.

So, our wonderful, relaxing, vacation went more like this. Dave had to play with Katie all day, every day while I went about my business cooking, cleaning, organizing and generally running the household as usual - only with my husband at home with me being cranky and bitter and bitchy the whole time because I felt left out and tired and cabin feverish.

I tried to explain it to him like this.... it would be like if I went to his job with him and tried to do stuff for him, differently than he did it, or tried to help out and generally just kinda was there like a shadow. Don't get me wrong, my husband is the finest specimen of a husband/dad out there - he cooks, cleans, runs errands, everything and anything I could ever hope for... but for some reason, having him home for so many days... still made things stressful and not restful like we had hoped.

I think it's because the house is all I have now. It's my full time job. So, I have ways that I do things and because it's all I do all the time, having an audience or observers makes me uncomfortable doing simple things like cleaning, cooking, etc... Especially since I'm SUPER pregnant and not feeling that well - so when Dave wants me to settle down and slow down - he doesn't understand that this is how it is for me every day.

Stay at home moms work at a different pace than most other jobs and having a Type A personality doesn't help when your husband is trying to take some of the burden for you. I know I'm lucky and I know he did his best to not get in the way - but I have been hearing from a lot of you out there similar posts about being excited to get your house back to normal - meaning no daddy during the day. It's a horrible thing and I need to work on it because my husband is AMAZING and it's not fair that I was so stressed out just because he was home. So... how do you make it work when your husband is home so that no one feels like they are in the way? How do you make sure that you make the best of the time and find ways to make the kids adjust to having mommy and daddy home for a few days?

This is what I must have looked like after being stuck in the house for so many days, with a sick kid, having Braxton Hicks contractions, and various pregnancy related aches and pains and trying to entertain for the holidays during a Blizzard. It's like you planned on doing so many things and at the end of the week nothing has been accomplished, the kid is still cranky, I was cranky and poor Dave was probably dreaming of going back to his peaceful office.
.
I'm not proud of it but I'm being brutally honest.

Here's to making it work in the future and making sure we NEVER have a miserable stay at home vacation EVER again. Shame on me for not finding a way to make it better before the end. I'm hoping it's my pregnancy crazies and not that I'm just turning into a bitchy Type A stay at home mom who mistreats her husband and is bitter all the time.
Please.... save me and my family from that!

When to visit the Doctor!!!!

I think I am quite laid back as a parent in general when it came to new Mommyhood. I wasn't the type to call the doctor every other day or stress out over every little sound and noise she made her first few months.
We have lucked out as Katie has never really been sick other than a little cold here and there that makes her crabby and irritable. She never really even spiked a fever that was worth any concern.

So last week when she got a fever over 100 for the first time, and was a little cranky and clingy - I assume it was just the dreaded 2 year molars. So we gave her some Tylenol and let her watch a movie an called it a day.

Fast forward to this weekend, when she got another fever, and then started having trouble sleeping through the night. I still thought it was molars and didn't worry too much although I started looking up some symptoms just in case.

That's when I realized it wasn't molars. There was actually something wrong with her. She would spike a fever in the afternoon - not eat, refuse to pee, she woke up with AWFUL breath that we couldn't get to go away even with brushing her teeth and she wouldn't drink anything.

Then she said her back hurts. I figured she was copying me as I always have a heating pad due to her brother and the penthouse he's created in my belly - but then I read about Urinary Tract Infections and realized I totally missed it:(
Unfortunately I didn't figure it all out until night time when we were putting her down.

So I called the doctors after hour service and talked to her pediatrician who said we would have to just get a urine sample in the morning. Not something I was looking forward to.

That night as she woke up for almost 2 hours to hang out with Dave saying she was sick and being pitiful - I was convinced I had let Katie get like Kidney stones... I was up all night and couldn't wait to get her into the doc in the morning.

I even ran over to the docs office before she woke up to get a urine sample kit to ensure it wouldn't be a contaminated sample because I knew she wouldn't be cool with giving a sample at the doctors office.

To cut this short... this is what happened.

She woke up, I dealt with her awful dragon breath, got her hydrated a little and got her sample. (pretty easily too - I just put the cup in the bottom of her old potty and held it up for her - she didn't even pee on me!!!)

We go to the doctor, they check for strep (because of her breath) and UTI - AND NOTHING.
GRRRRR
The doctor doesn't know what it is. She says she is obviously fighting something - and it could be viral (new parents least favorite words to hear I'm learning, as that basically means we don't know what it is, so we'll call it a virus and since viruses can't really be treated, you just have to wait it out)

She did give us Antibiotics which is the first real medicine Katie has had to take. We wait to get the official lab results back on Monday, but the doc says she thinks that the antibiotics will kill whatever is in her system.

A few things I've learned from this:

A) It's not always "just teething"

B) Urine Sample collection kits are good to have at home just in case (I never thought anything close to that sentence would ever come out of my mouth!

C) My kid is a ROCKSTAR for only being a little cranky and whiny and wanting to hang out with Dave at night considering there is obviously something legitimately wrong with her.

D) My doctors office is pretty kick ass and I am glad that we chose one that was just one town over because it makes it SO Much easier for last minute emergency situations like this!


Anyone want to share a medial experience about their kid on here... good or bad??
Anything you've learned or wish you had known before???

Lucky for us, we got it taken care of just in time for the holidays!!!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Christmas Gift Itch/Daycare in the mornings

Is anyone else just dying to give their kids just one of the new toys you have sitting in waiting for Christmas?

I don't know about you but Katie is BORED at home. I mean... TOTALLY scatter brained, can't even be bothered to color or do crafts anymore bored so every time she has a meltdown I am so tempted to just pull out something new so that it can keep her attention for just a little while.

I haven't done it - but man oh man am I tempted. This is the one true downside to having a baby with a birthday in the beginning of the year because then we get hit twice within 2 months with gifts and then we have a dry spell for awhile because we don't want to spoil her with getting stuff all year long. Even though we obviously buy her stuff during the year and so does her grandparents.

So, today we tried to make up a matching game with some of her flash cards which lasted all of 15-20 minutes. (She's awesome at sorting colors and shapes so that's what we went with) and it was only 9:00.
So, we took her out to shop a little bit and then went out to lunch where she proceeded to scream I WANT PANCAKES to everyone that walked by - but all in all it was a successful morning!

So, we have been able to hold off on giving her any presents for one more day.

In regards to her boredom, we are finding it VERY VERY hard to keep her interested in anything these days.
She knows her alphabet, her numbers 1 - 10, her colors and lots of shapes. She talks like a 3 year old and is able to figure out puzzles labeled age 3 - 5. She is potty trained.
So, I'm out of stay at home mom material at the moment.

With the new baby coming, we have decided that it's time to start sending Katie to daycare in the mornings so that she can get some circle time/play time/craft time in a structured setting with other kids to ensure that she is getting socialized and I can have some alone time with the baby so she doesn't feel neglected. (especially in the beginning when I'm nursing)

So, we are taking some tours over the next few weeks and we think we are going to just bite the bullet and spend the money to send her to daycare 3 mornings a week from 8:30 - 11:30. Until her brother comes, I will be doing consulting work during those hours to help offset the cost and to make me feel better about being a stay at home with no kid in the morning! Once the baby comes, I probably won't be able to work as much - but I'm hoping to be able to continue working at least a little bit to bring in some money and hep keep me sane!!

I never thought I'd be so ready to send her off to daycare/school. But she is obviously ready and we really think it will be good for her and I'm sure it will be good for me too - so hopefully it's a win/win for everyone involved. Guess I'll just have to keep clipping coupons to help offset her expense now:)

Anyone else send their kid to school/daycare early because of similar reasons?

Getting your toddlers to eat

O.k. I think Dave and I have been very good/lucky about most of the obstacles you face raising a toddler. (at least with this kid:) - let's see what happens with number 2.

We magically avoided biting/hitting/tantrums (for now) She is very well behaved 98% of the time and always has been, she potty trained in less than a week and we have been able to stick together on the little discipline we have to impose on her.

We are very very careful with ultimatums and we make sure that if we threaten her with something and she doesn't follow through that we follow through with the punishment. It's hard because most of the time we'd rather just forget about it to make it easier... however, we don't want her to think that she can get away with stuff.

This brings us to our biggest and most disappointing failure to date....

Food.

We waited too long to force her to eat regular food. For dinners, we had still been giving her something different up until about 2 - 3 weeks ago because we didn't want to deal with the hassle of sitting down to a nice cooked dinner and having to fight with her about what to eat.

That was our fault and mostly selfish because we wanted to eat in semi-peace... so now that we are making really good dinners every night, and trying to force her to eat it - we have tears and yelling at every dinner.

We try to bribe her by giving her a little bit of something we know she likes and making her try what is on her plate to get more and that sometimes works..... but for the most part I think we are failing miserably.

I know some people send their kids to bed hungry if they don't eat what is for dinner and up until now I had been afraid she'd wake up during the night hungry and to be honest, didn't want to deal with it - but at this point I realize we have no choice and have to make this right.

She doesn't like meat. I think it's a texture thing. She puts it in her mouth and then spits it out and says... "No this, take it away please". She eats pasta, but it has to be a certain shape or it appears to freak her out and she won't even put it in her mouth.

She won't eat mac and cheese, and hates vegetables.
We even tried to let her pick out vegetables at the store like my friend suggested, but that doesn't seem to be working. She eats plenty of fruit and likes yogurt and cheese, but won't drink milk.

Help me. I'm at a loss. I know a lot of you say that your kids are picky eaters at this age, but this isn't picky - this is down right resistance.

The only thing I noticed is that she has a play food set that includes peas and I think that sparked her interest in eating peas - because she will eat those sometimes... So for Christmas, I bought her a vegetable play set and am looking for some other foods to try to help, but I am not sure that will be enough.

What do you do and how long did it take until your child started to actually comply?

I'm pretty bummed about her lack of eating - especially since as a baby she ate EVERYTHING....
Suggestions welcome:)

Practical Christmas?

I've been frugal for as long as I can remember. Even when I was working Full Time and we didn't have a kid, I never was capable of blowing money on things we didn't need.
My most expensive treat was my gym membership.

I still have clothes in my closet that I wore in College/High School, I hardly ever pay full price for ANYTHING and I love sales and coupons. I use the library and comparison shop if I have to buy a book. (which I hate doing!!) We have a Keurig - but I don't use it every day - it's for special days and stressful days:) I make my meal plan based on what is on sale for the week and yes, I'm only 29.

This year for Christmas I am doing all my shopping online again to avoid the CRAZY crowds and waiting in line, etc... I always get free shipping so you can't beat it.

I was trying to think of what to get for my husband and I just can't think of anything that will really be a WOW gift. I thought I had done well last year when I found a local cooking school and bought him some classes there (he loves cooking) and this year I'm just tapped out for ideas.

So, I suggested that we give ourselves a budget and then just spend it on whatever we want for ourselves. Which is really the same thing as giving your husband a list and dictating exactly what you want him to buy for you, only you avoid any upset if he gets the wrong color/size or model!

My husband said that might be nice... except he knows I won't buy anything fun for me. And he's right... I'm already thinking of just using that money towards my gym membership or for clothes for after I have the baby - which totally defeats the purpose as the idea was that we'd buy something we wouldn't normally buy.

I have no problem buying for other people and if my husband came home and said he wanted to spend $1000 on a guitar or something - I wouldn't protest because he works hard and I feel he deserves it... but I am incapable of spoiling myself in the same way. My mother asked me what I wanted for Christmas last year and I told her I wanted new baking pans... and I did, and I love them - but that's how my head works when it comes to gifts...

Any of you have the same problem?

My frugality has made it so that we are able to live on one salary with no problem - I never have to question if we can afford something that we need - because we don't spend on things we don't need. My biggest spending habits tends to be on clothes - but all my clothes are so old that it's kind of necessary! So I am trying to stick to that so that when we have 2 little ones running around - we are still able to live the same way.

So, I think for me this Christmas - I will buy myself my gym membership and some new clothes and I'm happy with that - more than happy with that. It suits me!

Anyone else have trouble spending money on themselves?

Watch your mouth

Like everything else so far - Katie started talking early. She went from a few words to a whole lot of words very quickly, and is now speaking in broken sentences. You can have a conversation with her and she remembers and responds - it's great!
Except!!!!

Potty mouths. We always joked around my family how I was going to have to start watching my mouth because she would repeat and for the longest time we had no incidents.. I thought we were kind of in the clear. I had almost forgotten about it to be honest.

Then one night my husband was wrestling her to try to get a diaper on (before she was potty trained) and he got frustrated.... he did that parent breathing out thing that we assume will make some sort of impression on our kids, only it doesn't and Katie picked up right on cue and said,
"Damn it!"

Plain as day and appropriate for the situation as it's the only bad word he usually says.

We laughed out loud because not only had she stored this little piece of information - she figured out the context in which it was to be used!

The following week, we went to my parents house and my father was reading something and innocently stated out loud... OHHHHH DAMN
not 2 seconds later our little parrot said to herself... OH DAMN

We laughed about those cause it's still so cute but then she got serious.
The other day we were putting in the car for the beginning of a LONG journey over Thanksgiving and a cop squealed out and sped off for NO REASON near us (no flashing lights, just showing off) - so I was complaining about how obnoxious that was and all of a sudden Katie said
"Fucking"
"Fucking"
"Fucking"

So, my husband looks at me and I look at him and we said to each other... what did she just say? So we asked her what she said and she said... "Fucking" with a big old smile on her face.

Then the panic sets in and we are both looking at each other saying... I don't think I said that - did you say that.

So, I said... Katie why are you saying that and she goes,
"Mommy said it over there" and pointed to where I was just complaining about the cop.

Busted by a 22 month old.

So, now I try very hard to think before I rant. She hasn't said it again - so perhaps it was an isolated event for now - but we'll see.

So, for those of you with potty mouths who are pregnant or thinking of getting pregnant... NOW IS THE TIME TO STOP YOURSELF.
You might think you can stop when the baby comes... but it doesn't work like that -so if you really want to beak the habit - start now.

AND even if you think they aren't listening to you - they are. Always. So just remember that as you go into another room to talk on the phone to your best friend about something that bugs you - because they are like little shadows and can often go undetected!!

Happy Wednesday!