Wordless Wednesday - The Bean's Hunt For The Perfect Christmas Tree

Thrifty Mom Finds A New Source for Deals

The other day,  I spent over five hours shopping for the Bean’s Christmas dress,  I know that may not seem like much but I knew what dress,  I was getting from the very beginning.  Yes the five hours was spent hunting down the very best deal.  Would it be cheaper online, with a coupon code or if I went to the store with a coupon?  Was it cheaper at this store or that.  Every time I had my hand on my credit card, I got a new idea of how to save money.  Recently, I happened upon www.become.com and I must say it is a winner in my book.  They have everything and I mean everything and they do the comparison shopping for you.  With vendors form Target to The Land Of Nod, there is truly nothing you cannot find. 

In fact, in my latest pass though,  I came across a fabulous deal on Sperry’s (which I am obsessed with),  a butterfly candle holder (For a certain secret Santa),  butterfly purses (the Bean is currently obsessed with butterflies and shopping...yup,  she's my kid alright) and celtic bedding , our bedroom is in desperate need of some oomph and I simply cannot decide what direction to take.  Anyway,  like I said,  there is something for everyone and they do the price comparisons for you so check it out,  it is more than worth your while if you are a thrifty mom like me!

How To Spoil My Toddler Rotten Without Ending Up With A Rotten, Spoiled Toddler

With the last of the Thanksgiving leftovers waning,  our home is in full holiday mode,  boxes of decorations are waiting to be placed and I am typing in the  white light glow of lights on our fresh cut Christmas tree.  With the house bathed in shades of red, the husband and I are constantly finding ourselves whipping out our smart phones or tilting the laptop to show the other another wonderful Christmas gift for our soon to be spoiled toddler.  She gets so excited and even more than her excitement, her daddy and I are over the moon excited at the idea of buying Christmas gifts this year.  Last year since she was barely six months old, we held back and we made her a book that we hope she holds onto nostalgically for a long, long time.  This year we will find her a forever gift but the floor is destined to be covered in brightly colored toys as well. 

Of course, with our excitement comes a quiet yet steady little voice in the back of my head warning me about going overboard.  As a child, Christmas was about spending days on end with family and about amazing food and hours of board games.  It was not about shopping, it was not about presents and while we did receive gifts, it was never extravagant and there were no calculated expectations.  I do not want my toddler to grow into a spoiled child, I do not want a rotten sour faced child scowling back at me when she does not receive an entire aisle of a toy store that she requested.  I don’t even want her requesting gifts.  I want Christmas to be about giving and making presents for others, I want her excitement to be centered on family traditions. YET, I also want to give her the moon wrapped in a bright shiny bow.  Every time I see something and imagine a smile on her face when it is given to her, I am unable to resist.  So how do I find the line? How do I spoil my dear Bean without ending up with a spoiled toddler destined to be a spoiled child?  I see how materialism has changed childhood.  I see children that do not want to build forts in a corn field or hike through the woods when they can sit in front of a video game or IPad and while I am as guilty as any of being overly consumed by technology and materialism.  I want to protect the Bean, I want her to have a simple childhood protected from greed and envy for as long as possible.  So again, how do I draw the line between the competing desires of my heart?  How do I give her the world while making certain that she never takes it for granted? I realize that as a mom of a toddler, I have a bit of a pass but if I don’t think about it now,  how can I be certain I will figure it out before it is too late?

The Apple Pie, A Favorite Thanksgiving Day Recipe

One of my favorite Thanksgiving Day recipes is most certainly the apple pie.  I am not sure how or why but in my book it surpasses the pumpkin pie every time.  Two years ago I decided to make my first apple pie for our Thanksgiving family dinner.  Big problem, you see my cooking skills were less “make a homemade pie” and more “heat a hot pocket in the microwave”.  Fast forward to one of my favorite Thanksgiving Day recipes going horribly wrong when somewhere in the process, I decided that there was simply not enough sugar and began to improvise.  Big Mistake!  The pie tasted like a partially melted sugar cube and has been a source of humiliation ever since. 

This year I decided to redeem myself by taking on the elusive apple pie once again.  I googled recipes, watched the cooking shows and finally began peeling the apples.  I am happy to say that I feel it was a success, it looked like it came straight off the table of the Martha Stewart show and in my opinion it tasted delicious!  Apparently an apple pie does not require six pounds of sugar.  Now all I have to learn is that if I want to indulge in one my favorite Thanksgiving recipes at the end of our Thanksgiving family dinner, I may want to skip over that third helping of sweet potatoes.  Since I am still brimming with pride at the result and eyeing up the leftovers as a possible breakfast I thought I would share the recipe.

Apple Pie

• Crust:
• 1 box refrigerated pie crusts, softened as directed on box
• Filling:
• 6 cups thinly sliced, peeled apples (Gala and Granny Smith)
• 1/2 cup sugar
• ¼ cup brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice

Directions

1.       Heat oven to 425 degrees F. Place 1 pie crust in ungreased 9-inch glass pie plate. Press firmly against side and bottom.

2.       In large bowl, gently mix filling ingredients; let sit for 1 hour in colander;(this keeps the filling from running out when it is served) spoon into crust-lined pie plate. Dot with butter; Top with second crust. Wrap excess top crust under bottom crust edge, pressing edges together to seal; flute. Cut slits or shapes in several places in top crust. chill in refrigerator for 30 minutes; Brush crust with evaporated milk and sprinkle with sugar

3.       Bake 40 to 45 minutes or until apples are tender and crust is golden brown. Cover edge of crust with 2- to 3-inch wide strips of foil after first 15 to 20 minutes of baking to prevent excessive browning. Cool on cooling rack at least 2 hours before serving.

This recipe will be going into the book of my favorite Thanksgiving recipes and will surely be making an appearance for many years to come.  In fact I will probably make two pies so there is more for breakfast in the years to come.

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Cutting Down A Christmas Tree…Once you Go Fresh...

I grew up with an artificial Christmas tree, then one year in high school, I convinced my Dad to shell out a few bucks for a fresh tree cut by the boy scouts.  The smell of evergreen as I passed through the living room became intoxicating and I knew from that day on that an artificial tree would never again cross my threshold.  I even managed to pull a seven foot tree into my third floor apartment (up a spiral staircase) in college.  When I met my husband, I went one step further and found a local Christmas tree farm and together we trudged into the field and immerged an hour later with a freshly cut Christmas tree.  Since then we have continued cutting down a Christmas tree annually, as an official kick-off to our holiday season.

Cutting down a Christmas tree has become one of my most cherished Christmas traditions and this year it was one that the Bean experience for what I hope will be the first of many, many years.  Black Friday as shoppers rushed the lines in stores across the county, we loaded into the Jeep and headed to our favorite Christmas tree farm.  When we arrived we loaded into a horse drawn wagon and headed into the fields, with the Bean waving madly to the passing horses; “Hi-Lo, Hi-Lo,  Hi-Lo”!  We walked up and down until we found the perfect tree and the Hubby sawed it down as the Bean sat in the grass, munching on her snack of goldfish crackers.  We headed back to the farm in the wagon and walked through a Christmas wonderland with apple cider and hot chocolate as they prepared our tree and then we headed home.  It could not have been more perfect, we have trudged through the rain, sleet and snow in years past so the unseasonably warm 65 degrees made the Bean’s first experience a breeze.  I realize that cutting down a tree each year may not be the greenest teaching in striving towards green parenting and one day I hope to buy balled trees and plant them, but we will need more property than our ¼ acre currently affords us.  Until then, we will continue cutting down a Christmas tree, basking in the evergreen scent that permeates the house and after Christmas,  the local boy scouts will pick up our tree and recycle it into mulch which will then be spread on our local playground.  All in all, it is a win-win and an amazing start to our Christmas season.

Photographing Toddlers And Being Schooled in Patience By A Very Small Human Being

With Christmas just around the corner, I am working on my Christmas cards.  I am a professional procrastinator so not surprisingly, I am running behind schedule.  However, armed with a truckload of Christmas props from my Christmas decoration bin and a gorgeous Christmas dress for the Bean, I headed over to my sisters apartment to take a shot at shooting my own Christmas card photos.  The first challenge in photographing toddlers’, is the fact that I am simply not a photographer.  I headed to this photo shoot armed with a point and click camera and a smart phone, which is all the equipment I am capable of handling.  Lucky for me, my sister lives in an amazing building with a huge ballroom on the top floor.  We headed into the ballroom, and unleashed the Bean, handing her a variety of Christmas props and began shooting, 2 camera phones at a time.  I shot hundreds of photos, the majority of which were a blurred version of my dear Bean racing across the dark wood floors of a rather majestic room.  In the end the best pictures came towards the end of the morning when the Bean began to tire out and I learned that when photographing toddlers, it is all about the numbers because you normally get one good picture for every hundred taken.  I did manage to get a few great shots but (much to my hubby’s chagrin) we will still be heading out to the local mall for our annual family photo, I am simply not ready to take on the group shot.

Three For Thursday–A Break From Holiday Planning

This morning, I realized in a moment of breathless panic that Thanksgiving is next week. I LIVE for the holidays and typically my menus is planned, my centerpieces are made and my outfit is dry cleaned (ok , technically my outfit is usually just thrown on the guest bed, but if it needed dry cleaned, it would be). After wading through recipes and cutting coupons and of course trolling Pinterest for fall crafts and décor, I cannot be more thankful for Hanging By A Silver Lining’s Three For Thanksgiving prompts.

Three things that I am grateful for from the year 2011:
Being Out Of Work - My plan to find a full time job this year went out in smoke. The truth is I was laid off from 2 more jobs in one year. However it was the best thing that could happen since the two companies both belong on the worst managed companies EVER and because I have enjoyed watching the Bean magically transition from a baby to a toddler.
I became an artist *cough*. I don’t think I will ever be able to seriously think of myself as an artist but technically, I am creating art and selling art and that is mind blowingly awesome to me.
Our local library! Seriously until the Bean was about 6 months old, I had never been there (to that branch not a library in general). It is magical and I don’t know who loves it more between the Bean and I! It has saved me money by allowing me to check out books and videos to test drive before buying them only to realize Bean did not like them.

Three things “I’d rather not”:
Have our family Christmas photo taken in a mall photo lab. It is mind numbingly awful and it takes all my energy and patience to keep my eye rolling and snarky comments to myself, but I will do it (armed with a “even you can’t mess up these shots” list) because it is cheap, and that is what matters to this thrifty mom.
Buy clothing in a thrift store, I garage sale like a fiend in the summer but that is more about the 9AM hotdog, I find deals on new stuff that is better than consignment pricing with just a little extra time!
Buy furniture in a retail store. The Mark-up is redic and the quality is just not what it once was, I would take a refinished piece from the Salvation army any day of the week!!

Three Thanksgiving plans, traditions, or memories: Al l I ever dreamed of was traditional family holidays and Thanksgiving is now just that for me and my family and I wouldn’t have it any other way!

Thursday, While This day once meant throwing in the turkey and going back to bed for a lazy morning with the hubs, I have a feeling the Bean will have plans of her own this year, but our day will include coffee and a YUMMY breakfast as we prepare the turkey and put finishing touches on the other dishes. There will be snuggling, football, family and Way too much food! It should be perfection!
Friday – My hubby, Bean and I will bundle up and head to the Christmas tree farm. We will board a horse drawn sleigh for a ride into the woods, we will trudge around forever as I search for the “perfect” tree before I finally agree to the tree hubby saw 2 minutes after getting off the wagon. We will ride back to the barn, and treat ourselves to hot apple cider.
Saturday - My extended family has their Christmas dinner during this weekend, in a fire hall, because we have outgrown all homes and it is a magical time for me and the only time of the year to see some family members.

Three sneaky things I do: I take the batteries out of certain toys, there is only so much “music” I can take in one day.
I play predominantly country music when it is just the Bean and I, hoping that she grows up to love it so that we can out vote Dad and listen to country in the car.
I pretend to be sending emails on my phone when in fact I am playing Words With Friends

Three things that I missed the boat on:
80’s music, I love it now but I did not listen to it until 2 decades later
Learning to cook, my grandmother was an amazing cook and if I would have paid attention, I may not be floundering my way through the kitchen.
Backpacking through Europe after college, I missed out on the getting pick-pocketed in hostels and meeting people from all over the world but all in all it is not too haunting of a miss

Three pictures: A Fun Toddler Activity, Bean's First Balloon

Auntie M shared a birthday balloon with Bean and she was tickled pink

 She kept looking back suspiciously at the balloon as if she didn't know it was following her because it was tied to her wrist

 She finally caught it

We walked through the park for half an hour with the balloon and when it accidentally untied we waved goodbye and blew it kisses until it disappeared from sight

Fighting The Toddler Nap, Is This How A POW Feels?

I cannot imagine anything worse than begin a prisoner of war, I have seen the news, I have watched NCIS, I have heard about the dripping water and forcing POWs to listen to horrific music on the level of the Macarena for hours on end.  Like I said I cannot imagine anything worse, however, I think that battling the toddler nap may be a very close second.  Right now as I sit outside my Beans nursery door, I think I would trade hours of the Macarena for the whining and angry pleading “mommy, mommy” coming from the other side of the door.  The fact is that nap time is one of the most trying parts of parenting for me and it is because it is not always that bad.  A few weeks ago, my little Bean was coming up to me, stuffed puppy in hand and saying “night, night” and going down without a peep for almost three hours.  Do you know what a mom can get done in three hours??? I admit, I got cocky and I got spoiled and the kitchen floor got washed…by hand. The last two weeks have not been quite as smooth.  My little Bean has been waking up at the 45 minute mark (which is a natural transition to light sleep) and has been Refusing  (and yes the capital R is necessary) to go back to sleep.  So, our days are filled with exhausted whining and way too much caffeine for a single human body to consume safely in a 24 hour period.  She is exhausted.  I am exhausted.  The floors are a mess.  She throws tantrums in her crib that completely break my spirit and I just feel like I am doing it all wrong,  like I am paying a karma-like penance for getting cocky about having this whole mom thing in the bag.  I have tried going into the basement with the monitor to actually try to clean without torturing myself by standing outside her door but there is a statute of limitations for how long I will let her cry and while it may not be the same every day, I start to panic about letting her cry for too long.  So here I am preparing to rescue her, since her wails are not ceasing, I am tired and I feel like an awful mom that is incapable of getting her daughter to nap when I know that is what she needs.  This battle with the toddler nap seems to be ever changing, it goes from an easy win in my pocket to a frazzling war in which I emerge harried and then back again.  Today, I have not emerged the victor but tomorrow,  well I have great hopes for tomorrow.

Fall Toddler Crafts – Why Rake When You Can Make Leaf Turkeys

I am constantly on the lookout for toddler crafts for my little Bean but at only sixteen months, many of the amazing toddler crafts are just a little bit above her level.  However after trolling Pinterest (my latest obsession) for a few new ideas, I came across these leaf turkeys and decided to give it a go.  This project was magical for more than one reason.  For one thing it required fallen leaves, which meant going outside to pick them up.  

Bean spends every morning leaning against the patio doors pleading to go “side, side peas” and with fall upon us,  I find myself having to say “no” more and more often.  Today we bundled up and went into the backyard with her Halloween bucket in tow.   I tried explaining that we were putting leaves in the bucket but she just stared at me blankly so I began picking up leaves showing them to her and then placing them in her bucket.  After only a few leaves she began taking them from me and placing them in her bucket on her own.  Then as her toddler independence surfaced, she began taking the leaves from me,  walking them to a new spot in the yard,  laying them down on the ground and then picking them up and putting them in her bucket on her own.  Finally, she realized that my taste in fallen leaves was no comparison to her own and she began shooting down my leaves with an affirmative “NO” as she turned her back on me and filled her bucket on her own.  

Once her bucket was full,  I told her we were going to take them inside and she looked at me overturned her bucket with and “uh oh”!   I tried to hold in the laughter as we began filling the bucket all over again. 

When it came time to create our turkey, I cut a circle out of plain cardstock.  We started by coloring the circle.  Then I turned it over to add the “tail”.   think glue dots would have worked but I only had scotch tape.  I started by handing the tape squares to Bean but after I pulled the tape from her hair, I changed my strategy and added the tape to each leaf and drew crayon dots on the circle.  She then pushed the leaf to the circles and we both patted them down.  When the leaves were added, we flipped the turkey over and added the face.  I recently bought a container of a hundred foam stickers so since I was working with what I had we used upside down letter “y”s for the feet, the insides of the “o”s for eyes and a “J” for the nose.  The Bean added the eyes and nose and I drew crayon circles on the front to help her place the feet.  

Since Bean was not ready to be finished and threatened a tantrum when I lifted her turkey away, I placed tape circles on the back of a few leaves and let her add them to the front until she got distracted and walked away!  

All in all this was definitely a great fall toddler craft and it was one that we can continue tweaking since our yard has an abundance of fallen leaves.  I am thinking leaf pumpkins, leaf pilgrims, leaf Indians native Americans!  I hope you enjoy this one and be sure to let me know if you have any ideas for more fall toddler crafts suitable for a one year old!

Still looking for more Fall Toddler Crafts,  follow me on Pinterest

Wordless Wednesday - Toddler Fort Building 101

Considering Community Sustained Agriculture As A Means Of Weaning My Toddler Off Hotdogs

My little Bean is a persnickety eater to say the least.  I say Persnickety because some days she will literally eat nothing but hotdogs and other days nothing but fruit, which has me thinking about checking out community sustained agriculture. I know that it is up to me to get healthy meals into her and I swear I fight back against the hotdogs but when she refuses meals until late afternoon that mom paranoia takes over as I just “know” she is on the brink of starvation and I give in and head for hotdogs.  To appease my guilt,  I am at least splurging on ridiculously priced organic hotdogs that are not made from the really disgusting stuff,  but still,  her menu needs a bit of variety. 

Now admittedly, until last week I had never even heard of CSA or (community sustained agriculture) which is rather shocking considering that I live in quite the farming county.  So when a friend suggested it after the Bean literally plowed through a weeks’ worth of fruit in less than half a day, I looked into it. I found that a farm near by that is just such a co-op and now I can’t get the idea out of my head.  You see you pay around $600 in the early spring and then you simply drive to the farm each week for your share of the crops (and from looking at sample shares it is quite abundant) from May till November.  My first concern was that $600 seemed like quite a bit to drop for fruits and veggies but when I did the math, I figure I spend at least that on produce over the summer between the grocery stores and farmers markets that I frequent all summer long.  My second concern was the sample lists.  My family is not exactly daring when it comes to vegetables.  I mean, I had to google Rutabaga and then when I saw rhubarb,  well yuck.  I’ll take double the rutabaga if I can skip the rhubarb.  My grandmother used to make rhubarb jelly (which honestly tasted like strawberry) yum and rhubarb pie, which well, not so yum.  So the idea of picking up a pile of rhubarb (when I know full well it will not become jelly) seems like a waste.  I feel like my grandmother only dealt with that annoying weed because well her generation wasted nothing and I am not trying to be wasteful but that rhubarb will end up on the front lawn with a “free” sign and when it is still there a week later I will direct my husband to mow it over.  On the other hand maybe this is the time to learn to appreciate new vegetables and recipes like I am always saying I want to.  Maybe this is a way to begin a tradition of sustainability that I can pass down to my Bean.  Maybe this is a chance to put my money where my mouth is when it comes to green parenting.  Maybe it is a way to finally realize that my black thumb is not going to ever produce a crop beyond a few peppers for summer salsas.

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Three For Thursday - A Virtual Time Machine

It is Thursday which means Heading over to Hanging by a Silver Lining for her Three for Thursday prompts. I must admit I am beginning to look forward to these early in the week and this weeks nostalgic trip through time were no disappointment!

Three long lost hobbies:

• Sketching
• Writing poetry (I cannot tell you how many dusty sketch/writing journals are piled into the basement from my youth.)
• Running (I love running, it makes me a better person and I have not run regularly in a long time…I have succumbed to laziness)

Three jobs/careers I have had:

• Interior Designer
• Bartender
• Lifeguard

Three childhood dreams that came true:

• I have that perfectly boring June Cleaver life complete with a house in the burbs, monogrammed tote bags, traditional family holidays and an AMAZING husband and baby girl, which is everything I ever dared to dream for.
• I learned to surf (badly but it still counts)
• I have been paid to create art (just the fact that people refer to my creations as art is actually a dream come true!) 

Three childhood dreams that didn’t come true:

• I Planned to have a Bachelors, Masters and PHD by this time and yet the three diploma frames still sit empty
• I never went bungee jumping and now I am afraid the fear of leaving my daughter with a broken mom will over power my desire for the thrill.
• I did not become a marine biologist that rides dolphins 

Three toys I asked for Christmas when I was a kid:

• I don’t remember asking for toys as a kid or even being aware of what was really available until I was older, although I did always want the navy monogrammed LLBean book bag with the reflector stripe (and I just can’t let it go). 

Three pictures: Taking a cue from Evelyn at Hanging By A Silver Lining and going with nostalgic pictures

 Me and the Hubs Hiking At Cunningham Falls

 Before Lil Miss,  these boys were our whole life! (they are still spoiled but not quite as much)

It is hard to believe she was ever this small!

Be Sure to hop over to the Parenting Patch to check out another Three For Thursday!

Mouth Watering, Homemade Macaroni And Cheese Recipe For The Lazy Chef

I have attempted to perfect a homemade mac and cheese recipe for years.  There was some little voice in the back of my head telling me that if I made it myself instead of opening a box it would immediately become a guilt free pleasure.  I labored over countless recipes, shredding cheeses, melting them slowly, and then I discovered Stouffers and while I would normally prefer not to name drop.  Stouffers makes a banging macaroni and cheese and it has become a staple in my house.  Not only that but I have (with hardly any guilt at all) taken credit and praise for my amazing macaroni and cheese when it has in fact been the Stouffers frozen macaroni and cheese.  That’s right, work function…I would grab a Stouffers, peel back the lid, dump crumbled bacon, tomatoes and breadcrumbs on the top and VOILA!  It was my secret weapon.  Still, a small part of me still wanted to go legit.  Last week, I came across a recipe that made my mouth water and headed straight out for the ingredients.  The recipe was for crock pot macaroni and cheese and since I am constantly on the lookout for new ways to use my crock pot, I was sold.  Later that night, as my husband and I took our first tentative bites we looked at each other with slow grins…we had found our new recipe!  It was amazing and it was so, so easy so I really had to share!!

I hope you enjoy and if you have any lazy chef recipes to share I am all ears!!

Crock Pot Macaroni and Cheese

2C. uncooked elbow macaroni

4 TBS butter

2 ½ C sharp cheddar cheese  (used ½ extra sharp cheddar and ½ asiago but I experiment with the cheeses constantly!) If you shred your own blocks of cheese it melts way better than the pre-bagged shredded cheese!

3 eggs beaten

½ C sour cream

1 can condensed cheddar cheese soup

½ tsp salt

1 C milk

½ tsp pepper

Chipotle hot sauce (optional)

Directions:  (get ready for the easiest recipe ever)

CROCKPOT ON HIGH

Cut your butter into small pieces and throw into the crock pot, add the shredded cheese

Combine the beaten egg, sour cream, soup, milk, salt pepper (I add chipotle hot sauce...it does not make it spicy, just enough for flavor).   Add macaroni and stir and then add to crock pot and stir!! 

Cook on high for 30 minutes, turn crock pot to low for 2 ½ hours, stirring occasionally.

ENJOY

A Crafty Mom Digs Through The Trash For Christmas Decoration Ideas

With Christmas just around the corner and reminders in every store I pass, I am having an increasingly difficult time not playing Christmas carols.  I do my very best to wait till after Thanksgiving but my resolve is slowly waning.   As a self described crafty mom,  I am determined to make as many gifts as I can and since I have been concentrating on crafts that are recycled in some way I thought I would share my latest crafts.  Since I am still mulling over certain gift ideas (and since some recipients are readers) I may have to hold off on showing the final gifts but I did make a few wreaths this year that turned out remarkably well considering that they were my first shot at wreaths. I am all about DIY and recycling so the newspaper wreaths have a very special part in my heart.  I hope you enjoy and as soon as I find some spare time (cough, cough) I will try to get a step by step tutorial posted because they are sooo easy!!

This is literally the Sunday News cut into strips and wrapped around a form (I used a green foam form but I recently experimented with pipe insulation from Home Depot and it worked rather well), with Newspaper and 1 red felt rosette hot glued to the form

 Better picture and this one was so quick and easy to make!

 This one was a bit more time consuming but it is all recycled newspaper rosettes !

Ok no recycled materials (unless you count leftover yarn) but this one was fun and so easy!

Wordless Wednesday - Remembering The Last Year

Letting Go Of My Mom Stress On The Toddler Playground

I am a big kid stuck in a mom’s body and while I have not yet given into mom Jeans, I have morphed into a responsible, play date planning, coupon cutting, wearing a million hats mom.  Last night, I sat on the sofa, overwhelmed just thinking about all the things on my plate for the next few days.  Today, I let it all go on the local toddler playground.  I spent the morning away from my Bean and when I got home in the afternoon, the Bean was up from her nap.  The sun had turned our fall day unusually warm and I realized it would be an absolute injustice to stay inside.  As an adult, I love the playground.  I love to swing, I love to walk through the fallen leaves, I love the all too short joy of the sliding board descent.  Still, until I became a parent, it was only on the most indulgent of afternoons that I would find myself pumping my legs on the swings.  Now with a rambunctious toddler at my feet these trips to the playground are almost a decadent daily necessity.  Today, there was no play date.  It was just the Bean and I.  We pulled into our favorite playground and my eyebrows shot skywards as I realized the warm rays of sun had brought children from every corner of my town to this favorite local.  I thought about leaving and then I spotted the “old” playground in the distance.  It was not fancy but it was also empty and just called out to me.  We pulled up and I stuck my phone and keys in my pocket and we headed for the toddler playground.  I snapped pictures as the Bean ran through the leaves and in and out of the sliding boards and then I when I had pulled my phone out for the billionth time for a joint sliding board venture,  I realized it was time to put the phone away.  Sure it meant I would not get more pictures and that I would not be Facebooking or twittering our fun to the masses but what it did mean was more than worth it.  With the phone in the car, The Bean and I ran up the stairs and slid down the sliding boards, we waved to the birds overhead and the puppies in the adjacent dog park.  We played drums on the park bench with twigs we had gathered and when I realized the toddler swings were muddy we climbed on a swing together.  We swung entwined with the sun beating down on us and she laid her head on my shoulder silently and I realized that this is what a fall day was supposed to be.  I did not agonize over the many things that would remain on my To-do list for another day, I just swung, and holding my smiling Bean tightly wondering which of us was enjoying the toddler playground more. 

Parenting Fail: Giving My Daughter The Cold Shoulder For Skipping Her Toddler Nap

If there is one thing I have learned about parenting it is that just as you think you can hit cruise control, you will inevitably hit a speed bump.   After thinking we had finally hit our groove and figured out the whole toddler nap, I have found myself spinning in the wind.  This week has been a nasty battle ground between the Bean and I over the issue of her toddler nap. I don’t know what happened or what to do.  She went from taking a gloriously long afternoon nap, to actually asking for a morning nap last week to barely sleeping half an hour this week.  I am at a loss and after battling the Bean all week long, our war finally came to a head.  The Bean went down for her nap without an issue but when she awoke thirty minutes later, I was determined to get her back to sleep so I turned on the monitor and let her go.  I watched as she yelled for me to come and get her, I watched as she began to throw a tantrum.  I watched torn between wanting to rush right in and knowing she needed more than thirty minutes of sleep each afternoon.  I listened to her roaring angrily as she rubbed her sleepy little eyes and finally I got into the shower across from her room,  thinking that she would surely be back to sleep by the time I got out.  When I stepped out of the shower, she was still roaring so I chalked up this battle as a loss and went and got her out of her crib.  She was sleepy and she was a bear so I thought we would simply start over.  It was frustrating but I went back to the basics of avoiding toddler sleep issues.  We ate another lunch to make sure she had a full belly, we ran to the mart for room darkening shades (after a week of piddly naps, I was desperate), and when we got up and I got the shades in place we sat in her dimly lit room and read stories for about thirty minutes until she was sleepy and rubbing her eyes.  I deposited her in her crib and just as the door clicked shut, the howl began.  My head dropped in frustration and fifteen minutes later when I finally gave up we were both in a foul mood.  The Bean was no longer cuddly sleepy she was grumpy and exhausted and I was grumpy and exhausted.  It was not my proudest mothering moment.  I was mad at my toddler, I was mad and as she lifted her hands to me with a book in each hand I turned away from her and started hanging clothes in her closet.  I knew I was being obnoxious, I knew I was not being a good mom but I was mad.  I know that she needs a nap but I also need that nap time, that is when I get things done and I simply could not hold in my frustration.  I should have just let it go and rolled with it.  I know that you have to be flexible and finally,  I put on her shoes and coat and followed her around the yard as she played happily while I scowled angrily thinking about everything I was not getting done.  When my husband got home,   I left.  I was angry.  I was angry with my beautiful cherub because my day did not go my way.  I ran errands and drove with my windows down, getting home in time to say goodnight. 

Today is a new day and as she naps peacefully beside me, I am doing all I can to think of ways to make it wonderful in hopes that her first memory will not be the day her mommy refused to smile.  

30 days to Hands on Play – Build A Fort

Yesterday I came across Hands on as we Grow and their 30 days to hands on play challenge.  It is a challenge designed to get you unplugged and playing with your child.  I loved the idea and loved the idea of new toddler activities to play with the Bean.  Since I jumped on the wagon a bit late, I decided to join in on the Build a fort day.  I love building forts and we have those large foam puzzle pieces that have been shoved behind the sofa ever since we got around to buying baby gates.  Yesterday, Logan had her bestie over for a play date so we drug out the puzzle pieces and we (ok I) got to work snapping the pieces together.  Once I got four snapped together for the roof, the girls ran over and jumped on the new surface and began dancing so we danced around on the pieces until they lost interest and when they stepped off, I went back to work.  I could seriously build forts all day long so after I built and rebuilt a fort into a tunnel the girls squealed with glee as they raced in and out. The fort is still standing and Bean raced right for it this morning not even asking for cartoons as I finished my coffee.  She is a bit young for some of the suggestions of the challenge, but fort building was a success.  Today it is beautiful so I am hoping for a walk through the leaves as our hands on play.  I don’t know if I will follow the 30 day challenge to the letter but I do love that I will have the challenge here to remind me to unplug and just play,  like nothing else matters because when it comes right down to it,  nothing else matters.

Three For Thursday - Another Lighthearted Glimpse Into My Mamalicious Journey

Three things I stole from my kids’ Halloween candy stash: 
Bean has not had candy yet so to be completely honest, I stole everything except;

• her cookie from Grammy
• a juice box
• her Halloween tights (they are not my size J )

Three things I buy that have to be name brand:

• Paper towels- The generic are simply useless in my opinion
• Diapers – I have tried the generic but they just are not as soft as my beloved Pampers Sensitive
• Lipton Iced Tea mix…for me there is no second choice.

Three things I spend more than fifteen minutes doing every day:

• Cleaning the kitchen…I get it clean and then it is snack time or dinner time and it is once again destroyed, it is a never ending cycle
• Lately it has been trolling Pinterest…it is my new obsession and I am constantly trolling for new crafts, recipes, toddler activities and photo ideas…check out my boards.
• Reading to the Bean, more than anything I want her to love reading so sometimes I have to set a timer as motivation and sometimes I read to her from my design magazines but I make certain to read to her every day

Three things that put me in a fantastic mood:

• Swimming, running, hiking with my family, sometimes it is hard to motivate myself but I am never grumpy at the end.
• My Bean’s completely innocent belly shaking laughter, I wish I could bottle it!
• Sitting on the beach with my husband, Any Beach, Any Weather, Any Time 

Three things I do that a grown woman has no right to be doing anymore:

• Sometimes when I walk past a mirror, I throw up a cheerleading fist pump and spirit fingers…don’t judge me HAHAHA
• I take Flintstones chewable vitamins because grown-up medicine is yucky
• Watch TV with my “woobie” I simply cannot settle in for cuddling without a cuddle blanket 

Three pictures:

 The beginnings of a future garage band

snack break

fall fun

Be sure to check out the Three For Thursday Posts of a few of my favorite bloggers;

Mommy To Twincesses

Parenting Patch

Hanging By A Silver Lining (the brains behind these great questions)

Wordless Wednesday - My Best Halloween Ever

**I was out of town and really did have plans to remotely upload this blog on Wednesday but alas,  my technical skills did not match my desire.  My apologies!