Archive for the ‘those darn kids’ Category

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Now a Manual for New Parents

Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010

I think every new parent believes they’re prepared for parenthood, until the baby arrives.  I know I felt that way. I read the books and took the classes and bought the gear, but somehow having that baby to care for, twenty-four hours a day, seven-days a week, changes everything. Now the questions and anxieties and doubt in your parenting abilities immerge.

That’s where knowing other parents comes in handy. Talking to parents who are going through the same thing or have dealt with similar issues are a great resource. I participated in a program earlier this year with Mom Central and Pampers calling on parents to share their great wealth of baby knowledge. Pampers’ plan was to develope tip sheets designed for new parents, consisting of advice from parents who have dealt with sleepless nights and survived, parents who have transitioned from maternity leave to going back to work, parents who have discovered a few tricks on handling parenting.

Pampers asked for tips and parents answered, maybe even you submitted a tip or two. Now the Pampers A Parent is Born Tip Sheets are launched. If you’re a new parent or know one, these new tips sheets might just become your new best friend. You may not be handed a instruction manual when your baby arrived but at least these handy tips might keep you sane during that emotionally charged, sleepless first year.

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Surviving the snow storm

Thursday, February 11th, 2010
Even a little snow is good for snow angels

Even a little snow is good for snow angels

I’ve been reading the tweets and viewing the blog photos of the big snow storms hitting parts of the US. Some people had difficulty making it home after Blissdom (Nashville, TN) and a few couldn’t make it out to the first ever Disney Social Media Moms conference (Orlando, FL).

It feels sort of strange reading these tweets and looking out onto our cold yet green (okay, brown) yard. No snow and it’s February. I expect living in the city, north of the lake, we won’t see much snow, but none at all?

Well hold on. Last night’s local new reported a big snow storm was heading our way. And here it is, all 5cm of it!

Okay, so that’s not much but it’s snow. It’s kind of embarrassing when the news needs to exaggerate the weather reports. I sort of expect it, but with other places getting hit by real snow storms you would think they would know better. At least we didn’t call in the army to plow us out, this time.

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Chinese Lanterns for Chinese New Year

Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010

Don’t ask my why, but we celebrate Chinese New Year in our house. I don’t remember when it started actually. My seven-year-old daughter is the one with the fascination. Chinese New Year happens to coincide with Valentines Day as well as Family Day (long weekend), so I guess we’ll be busy. We have a large dragon we hang up in the house and usually eat traditional Chinese food (did you see ScatteredMom’s menu plan this week for a nice International flavour).

To keep in the spirit we just finished reviewing Barefoot Books Lin Yi’s Lantern. At the back of the book was directions on how to make a lantern. So while my oldest was at school, the younger two worked on making their own lanterns to decorate the house.

First they decorated the outside of their lanterns

First they decorated the outside of their lanterns

After folding the paper in half...

After folding the paper in half...

... they cut strips

... they cut strips

Rolled and glued and handles added, the lanterns are finished.

Rolled and glued and handles added, the lanterns are finished.

The kids loved their finished lanterns. They’ll make great decorations for Chinese New Year if they survive being paraded around the house.

You can also see my review of Lin Yi’s Lantern as part of my Write a Review Wednesday post on my main blog.

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A Bad Mommy Moment

Thursday, January 28th, 2010

I’ve had one of those moments, those bad mommy moments. You know the ones where you look back on what happened and shake your head in disgust.

My seven-year old will be turning eight in April. I know, that’s a few months away, but we thought we’d be taking a trip to celebrate her birthday that’s why we were talking about it now. It turns out she doesn’t want to go away but instead wants to host a party at home. Remember last year, when I hosted her birthday, my very first at home party? It was a great success even though it was a lot of work; I was exhausted at the end of the two hours. But if I could do it last year, I could do it again this year, right?

So after dinner my daughter and I sat down to talk about what she wanted to do. See, my daughter gets these great big ideas in her head which is fine but I’m the one that has to fulfill them so I wanted to set expectations early. She wants to throw another Webkinz themed birthday party like last year, but with different things. The only thing different from last year is she wants to control the party.

I know what you’re thinking: So what, it’s her birthday. It should be what she wants it to be. You’re right, but the parent in me, the one who has to gathers all the elements and buys all the supplies and makes all the decorations and deals with the upset child when it doesn’t turn out the way she wants, that parent stepped in and started taking control. Needless to say, my daughter took this as taking over HER party. We exchanged words, not pleasant ones, and she went to bed.

As I was getting the other two in bed I replayed the events in my head. I totally was taking over her party. I had set high expectations at the last party, the one I had more control over, and was worried her version wouldn’t live up to it. I felt awful. I went in and apologized. I explained that she could have the party anyway she wanted; it was her party and I would work with her to make it what she wanted. We talked about it. We apologized for the things we said. We hugged. We both realized we were getting wrapped up in The Party and forgetting the actual event: celebrating my daughter’s birthday.

Now my daughter is thinking of just having a few girls over for a play-date (movies, munchies and video games). I think that’s going to be a great birthday.

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Almost Wordless Wednesday: Checkmate

Thursday, January 21st, 2010
Have chess board, will travel

Have chess board, will travel

Due to the weather the kids at school has an indoor day last week. To keep the kids occupied and stop them from bouncing off the walls one of the teachers introduced my daughter’s class to the game of chess. She fell in love. For the next few days dinner conversation consisted of different moves you can make with the chess pieces, what the chess pieces are called, how much fun it is to play chess, so on and so on.

When she found out the school has a chess club she just had to belong. And to belong meant she had to practice. And of course in order to practice she needed her own chess board. So her dad bought her a chess board on the weekend. Actually he bought it for the whole family but my daughter has become the keeper. So now in the morning she plays chess, after homework she plays chess, they practice at school on Wednesday and of course she has to bring HER chess board to school (like carrying a backpack and lunch bag isn’t enough of a struggle). My daughter is so obsessed with chess she tries to play a game with her three-year old sister, who just wants to make the pieces dance.

I guess I need to learn so my daughter has someone she can actually play and practice with. No any good chess books for beginners?

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Trying not to forget

Sunday, January 10th, 2010

In December the family took a trip to Disney World and planned to attend Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party. Unfortunately my two youngest were sick so that just left my oldest and myself heading out to the party. Even with the rain we had a lot of fun, maybe too much fun. Since those attending the party could enter the park before it closed, party goers were given armbands. We went to the party the first night we arrived but my daughter continued to wear her party arm band for the rest of the trip.

We arrived back home and she heads back to school, still wearing her party arm band. Christmas comes and goes and my daughter still wears her arm band. You can see it on her arm during our breakfast with Santa. I was only able to convince her to remove it today. Now it sits on her dressor, so she can daydream about the next time she head’s out to Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party (hopefully without the rain and with her brother and sister in tow).

disneychristmas

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Activewear for Active Kids: Agoo Bigger than Boxing Day Sale

Tuesday, December 29th, 2009

agoo12560offEverything Mom had a chance to review Leg Huggers, a line of fashionable and functional baby leg warmers made by Agoo Activewear. But did you know they make clothing for beyond the baby years. At Everything Mom, We’re looking forward to reviewing some of Agoo Activewear’s new clothes for kids when the new season is released. But you can take advantage of a great sale they’re having right now.

Bigger Than Boxing Day Sale: Up to 60% off

From December 26, 2009 until January 31, 2010, you can save up to 60% off all in stock 2009 Fall active wear. From hoodies to shirts, pants and skirts, stock-up now. And if that’s not enough to entice you, all orders over $50 receive free shipping! Hurry, sale ends January 31 or while supplies last.

If you have a little one, be sure to checkout our review on Agoo’s Leg Huggers. We’re also giving away three (3) pairs to three (3) lucky Everything Mom readers. And keep your eyes peeled on Everything Mom for a review and giveaway of Agoo Activewear line for active kids, coming just in time for Spring.

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A Christmas tradition: Sibling Sleepover

Monday, December 28th, 2009

When we had kids we started developing some Christmas traditions: attending the Santa Clause parade, writing letters to Santa, eating Christmas Eve dinner in Chinatown, the elf tree, but if asked I think my kids would say their favourite tradition is the Sibling Sleepover.

Let me explain. We’re fortunate to have a house large enough that all three of my kids have their own room. I think everyone needs personal space at home (if you can afford it that is). But during Christmas break things change. During the two weeks my kids don’t go to school and therefore are up later and sleep in longer (though not much longer it seems), all three of my kids camp out in their brother’s room. Thus the Sibling Sleepover. My son sleeps in his raised bed and we blow-up two air mattresses for under the bed and on the floor for the two girls. They tell stories and jokes, make plans for the next day, talk about what they did today and just have fun, sometimes for hours after bedtime. And the surprising thing, no fighting.

Let the chatting commence!

Let the chatting commence!

Of course weening the kids from Sibling Sleepover won’t be a lot of fun, but at least they’ll have two fun-filled weeks of silliness. What are some of your Christmas traditions?

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Potty training does have its drawbacks

Wednesday, December 9th, 2009

You may remember we’ve been going through potty training with my youngest. We bought her motivational underwear hoping to kick-start her enthusiasm. Then we stopped using pull-ups and dressed her in underwear for the daytime (pull-ups on at night).

As expected, we had a lot of accidents (and a lot of laundry). Then one day it just occurred to me that my daughter wasn’t having as many accidents as when we started and she was actually using the toilet. Sometimes she would tell me she had to go to the bathroom; sometimes I would just take her to the bathroom. But she was actually using the toilet at least for peeing, bowel movements are a whole other issue.

So you’re reading this thinking What’s the problem? I don’t see any drawbacks.

We had the Santa Claus parade come through town the beginning of the month and I knew finding a bathroom near the parade route would be next to impossible and the likelyhood of accidents was high so I had my daughter wear a pull-up. I told her it was just in case she had to go to the bathroom and we couldn’t get to one. So we’re sitting on the side of the road, the parade has just started and my daughter tells me she has to go pee. I explained that there wasn’t a bathroom and to just pee in her pull-up; that it was okay. She got upset and insisted she had to go to the bathroom. After about 5-minutes of whining she became distracted by the parade and we never heard about the bathroom again. When we got home I took the pull-up off and discovered she never went pee. She held out until we got home and she could go on the toilet.

It seems my daughter has developed an aversion to using her pull-up, which I guess is a good thing but can be somewhat inconvenient. On our recent plane ride from Florida, inconvenient became problematic. Using the same rationale as with the parade, I had my daughter wear pull-ups on the plane as well as in Disney World. She would go pee in the bathroom but since she has issues with having a bowel movement in the toilet (usually has an accident in her underwear) she never had a movement the whole time. Four days later, driving home from the airport, my daughter was so upset and complaining her tummy hurt. It wasn’t until I got her home and put on underwear that she went into hiding and … tada… a bowel movement.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad my daughter is preferring to use the toilet over her pull-up, most times. I guess during this interim training stage, where your child uses the bathroom almost as often as having accidents, I thought I could rely on pull-ups as a back-up plan. I guess I never realized how well she would be conditioned to not use her pull-up. Hopefully this interim stage in training will pass quickly and the pull-ups can be tossed out.

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Almost Wordless Wednesday: iPortrait

Wednesday, November 25th, 2009
Anybody in there?

Anybody in there?

I love my iPhone. My kids love my iPhone. My son found the camera button and proceeded to take pictures of himself on my iPhone. I now have a new wallpaper image. Can you guess what it is?

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