Merry Christmas

I am taking a break from blogging for the next week to celebrate the holiday's with my family. Thank your to everyone who has been supportive of my new little venture and for your kind words. Warm wishes to everyone this christmas!
Sarah

Beautiful Books

 I set out a book basket this holiday and the kids have been enjoying the christmas collection that my family has.

The Mitten is a delightful book about a boy who loses his mitten in the snow and the animals who seek comfort in it. It's short enough to read to a toddler without losing them and the pictures are wonderful.

Room for a little one is also the perfect length for a toddler and tells the story of Jesus birth through the barn animals, I love this book!

The Christmas Sweater By Glenn Beck is my husband favourite and is constantly missing from the basket only to be found in Max's bed after the read at night!

Something about christmas makes it ok to sing the same song everyday without getting sick out it, read the same book and never grow tired. I have memories of christmas books that I read as child and I'm hoping that my kids and the kids that I care for will have the same happiness from these books.

Can you hear what I hear

Sometimes I hear myself throughout the day, I hear myself nagging, and directing and controlling. I don't know if as parents we can help it, if we can parent without conflict because not matter what at least once a day you have to request something from your child that they are not going to want to do. Brush your teeth, clean up, come for dinner, get your shoes on .....all simple requests but for some reason most come with a struggle a bribe and a hurried plead. I have been trying very hard to listen to myself and the children to slow down and remember that they are small and the day is big, the day is big for me so I can see how they feel the need to resist.
My husband and I have been changing our family ways over the past year, we have chosen to live a simpler life, to go out less, to eat in more, to talk more and listen more. We eat dinner together every night and our 2 year old can only seem to stay seated for about 10 minutes and nightly Daddy says to Max please eat with me I want to hear about your day. Just barley able to form a complete sentence Max is excited at this request and I translate what Daddy can't decipher as Max describes his daily highlights sometimes things that didn't happen that day but are clearly fond memories that we are excited to see he is forming.

What used to happen at our table was me begging and Max crying and both of us giving up frustrated. I was only focused on him eating his dinner forgetting that when you are two that's the last thing you are going to focus on. Mike and I used to talk between ourselves forgetting that little words needed to be heard. Now we listen and when he is done and we are all satisfied he is excused and we talk adult talk and listen to the chatter of make believe in the background and everyone is happy.

I am please with our approach to control our parenting instead of trying to control our child.

When our days seem to be filled with chaos and tantrums I encourage myself to be mindful of their world to take a deep breath and take time to listen.

Giving

 Last week was our last swimming session for the year and I wanted to make something for the boys teachers. Especially Max's teacher as he gave her a run for her money the first few weeks! So I thought it would be nice to have Max make the gifts. I needed a quick idea so that we could work on it while the baby napped. This was perfect and Max did almost all the work. I had him line up all the pretzels then told him that he must open all of the chocolates and place one on each pretzel before he was allowed to eat one.




 He worked very hard to unwrap each one and perfectly placed it on the pretzels all the while chatting about swimming and blowing bubbles and kicking his feet. When he was finished he was thrilled to be able to eat the left over's and I was melted to see that even though there were only three chocolates left over he still offered one to our dear friend who came for a visit and gladly ate the half melted offering, and the last one he offered to me. Makes a mommy so proud.

After melting the kisses in the oven I placed the smarties on as it was a pretty warm job for little hands! That night at swimming Max was so excited to hand out the treats and thank his teacher for all her hard work.

 

Happy Hands

By the end of the day my two year old is always needy for my attention after all the other kids have gone home. I hate sitting him in front of the tv so I always try to include him in dinner prep and I love it! But some day's I just don't have the time to let him help or it's something that isn't child friendly. So one night out of desperation I made a little sensory tub that I now keep in the cupboard for when that little voice asks to help and I need to keep his hands busy. I keep changing the toys that are in it and switch the contents from rice to pop corn to barely and it seems help him feel needed and me keep up with my task.

If you are looking for something to keep the little hands in your house busy try this!

The Little People Place: Creative Christmas

The Little People Place: Creative Christmas: "When were we learning the letter B the kids got hooked on singing Brown Bear and doing the actions we still do it by request about 3 times a..."

Creative Christmas

When were we learning the letter B the kids got hooked on singing Brown Bear and doing the actions we still do it by request about 3 times a day.


So I searched for something that we could do for christmas and didn't really find anything that I liked or that the kids liked. So I came up with my own little finger puppet rhyme and found a great tutorial on making finger puppets here.

Here is the poem

One little reindeer pulling Santa's sleigh


Oh no who will help me today


Two little reindeer pulling Santa's sleigh

Oh no who will help us today


Three little reindeer pulling Santa's sleigh


Oh no who will help them today

Four little reindeer pulling Santa's sleigh


Oh no who will help them today


Five little reindeer pulling Santa's sleigh

All the way to christmas day

It's simple and silly and they love it!
The have also taken this poem and started walking around the room holding each other's shoulders like a conga line pretending to pull Santa's sleigh.

Today we made our christmas wreaths and the boys amazed me. We have only been using glue for a short time and at first it was all they could do to not squeeze the whole bottle out at once but now that are actually crafting with purpose and using the glue to help them create. We started this craft with just the paper wreath and yarn that the boys wrapped around and around and then the glued on all their decorations. This time last year I was still pulling crayon's out of their mouths and now they are little artist.



Whenever we finish a craft they hold up their work and I say lets all clap for (the persons name) then we all clap for each other's work but today half of the work fell on the floor so we skipped the clapping till after nap!

Tis the Season

Last week I was feeling a tickle in my throat and was feeling panic in my chest at the thought of getting sick and then everyone around me getting sick. The runny nose had started and I was going through about 4 boxes of kleenex a day......ok maybe I am over reacting but I did get a slight sore throat and I did panic! So I was craving cold things and was thinking maybe my little people were to.
So I got out the blender and made some frozen treats.

I wanted them to have some nutritional value to them so I added frozen blueberries, bananas, yogurt and a little bit of OJ I only blended it for a moment so that it would stay thick.

I made them in little cups because we all know how long and messy it can become when a 2 year old is eating a popsicle.

I put them in a little container in my freezer then about an hour later used the kids spoons at sticks and froze them for another hour.

When nap time was done my treats were ready and the kids loved them.
 

I felt good giving it to them because it was so fun for them to eat and so good for them!

Other things I might ad next time.
Avocado and lemon
Sweet potato and apples
tofu and banana's
If you have a great smoothie recipe I would love to hear it just leave a note in the comment box.