Mom-To-Mom Sale!

There’s a huge consignment sale that happens twice a year in my hometown. (It’s so big that it takes place at the sportsplex (where Lamar works!) and occupies an indoor soccer field and a few indoor basketball courts)! Before we moved back here, I didn’t really get to take advantage of it. I missed it last year because I had a teacher workshop, and the year before, I went on the last day (when a lot of the good stuff was gone).
This time, I made out like a bandit!
My friend (who is really thrifty and good at shopping) recommended that we get there an hour before the doors open. I’ve never been the first in line for a big shopping event (I usually avoid anything involving long lines), so this was exciting ! I thought about bringing Livia and putting her in the carrier, but I took her to my Mom’s instead. I’m SO GLAD I did. The waiting would have been awful for her. We got there right at 8 and were the second people in line. There were a few benches open, so we were some of the lucky few that got to sit for an hour instead of stand. 15 minutes after we got there, there was a line out the door. And the sale didn’t start for another 45 minutes!
On one side of the Sportsplex, you could buy clothes, shoes, and small toys. On the other side, there were strollers, car seats, and BIG toys (ride on cars,play kitchens, etc). There were lines to get in on both sides, but once you paid $2 and had your wristband, you could skip the line and go back and forth to each side.
Before the doors opened, I made sure I had an idea of where everything was, so I could be done shopping as soon as possible. I was looking for two things: a booster seat to keep at my Mom’s house and a nice Spring jacket for Livia. I also planned to get some size 3T things for her to grow into. My friend said she’d look out for some cute shoes so I could focus on getting what I needed to get. Seeing the long line behind me gave me a pretty big adrenaline rush!
My first stop was the 3T aisle. I breezed through there. I didn’t even look at the price tags, I knew everything averaged $4-$5 anyways. I found TWO cute Spring jackets right away. Then, I found THE most beautiful floral dress. I don’t even know when she’ll wear it! But I got it anyways! Then I found 4 more. A “4th of July” dress, an Easter-y dress, a Christmas-y dress, and a casual dress.
I found a few shirts (I really hoped to find more shirts, but a lot of them were “graphic tees” and I don’t like those. Maybe I’ll go back Sunday). I also found 2 skirts and 2 pairs of shorts. My friend helped me find SIX pairs of shoes, one of which is a very nice pair of pink and grey New Balances. $8. Livia loves sneakers, so I had to get them !
Now that I was done shopping for clothes, I had to run to the OTHER side to look for a booster seat. My friend held my two big bags of clothes/shoes so I could get there before they were sold out. Thank God for her!
The line was SO long by the time I got there, I would’ve waited an hour if I didn’t have a wristband!
I speed walked over to the high chair area. YES! I found a simple little booster seat. Then, sitting there completely ignored, I saw a Bilibo chair ! For half the price it is online ! I must’ve looked extra excited because people seemed to be wondering why I was so excited over this:

Well, it’s a really popular (award-winning) toy for open-ended play. (“Open-ended” means it doesn’t have a specific use, the child uses the toy however he/she wants, making it up as he/she goes). To adults, it looks like a weird bowl. But to kids, the possibilities are endless. It’s very durable, so kids can sit and rock in this thing, use it as a “helmet” put water in it, wherever their imagination takes them. Anywho, my inner preschool teacher can’t resist a good open ended material, so I got it.
Then, just as I was about to go pay, I saw it. A white, pristine condition KidKraft play kitchen. The one I’ve been thinking about getting Livia. Yes, she has a perfectly good kitchen now. But this one is perfect! It has a sink, a microwave, an oven, AND a refrigerator! And it was only $50 (they retail for $150 and up)! There were at least 3 other women eyeing it down, so I knew I couldn’t walk off…but it was too heavy for me to lift! I tried dragging it. It wasn’t happening. Thankfully, I was able to flag down a guy working there. He helped me carry it to my car! Just as we got to the parking lot, I heard Lamar’s voice “Really?” He was in his car, just getting to work. I told him I was going to the sale to buy “two or three things”, so you can imagine the look on his face when he saw this big fancy play kitchen ! Being the awesome hubby he is, he made space for the kitchen in his car, since mine is smaller. 🙂
I ran back inside and paid for the clothes. For 6 pairs of shoes, 5 NICE dresses, a few nice shirts (one Tommy Hilfiger), a few pairs of shorts AND a Fireman dress-up outfit, I spent $105. Add in the play kitchen, the Bilibo rocking chair and the booster seat, I spent a GRAND TOTAL of $170. The kitchen by itself would’ve been at least $150, so who KNOWS how much I saved!
Livia is napping and has no idea about the play kitchen. Lamar is on his way to bring it home. I can’t wait for her to wake up and see her surprise!!!

What I got! (Only things not pictured:the shorts).

6 Fun Things We Did Today!

* We went to Story Time! It was a birthday themed Story time, so we all wore party hats and read “Birthday Bugs”! Livia loved the balloons!

*We went to the “big park”. Livia ran to the big kids’ park and climbed some steep monkey bars that led to a slide. She climbed so fast-before I knew it, she was out of my reach! She thought this was hilarious. A taller lady helped me out :).
*We made ham and cheese grilled sandwiches for lunch. Livia was my cheese sprinkler 🙂
*We took a spontaneous walk with an old friend from high school and a new friend who lives up the street. They were walking their dogs and Livia LOVED running along with them !
*After visiting Grammy & Nonno, we saw a cat roaming around our house. She was very friendly and playful. We said “hi” then went inside. As soon as I shut the door, Livia burst into tears and was asking for the cat. It was around 6:30 but it was still beautiful and light outside, so we ended up stalking the cat for almost an hour because Livia was determined to play with her. 🙂
*We tried making homemade healthy “ice cream” (frozen bananas, cocoa powder and a tiny bit of peanut butter). Next time I’m using a food processor, not a blender! It was more like a smoothie. Still yummy though.

I am in love with the warm weather. It allows for so much spontaneity. (And winter coats are a pain ! :-p )

Why I Love Being Home

Lately, I’ve been asked what my favorite part of staying home is. Well.. after putting some thought into it, I think the thing I love most about being home with Livia is that we really spend quality time together. The TV stays off. When I have to clean or do other chores, she “helps”, and it becomes fun. We go on walks and have “conversations” about what is going on, and I recently started asking her what she thinks people are doing/where she thinks they are going, etc. Today we passed a construction site and Livia was so amazed by the big steam shovel, we stood and watched it for 5 minutes.
We randomly went to Story Time at a library and checked out her first book. It was awesome!
We go to a park or take a long “nature walk” every day.
We get messy. Really messy!
We listen to different music and dance.
We take care of our Parakeet together.

Some days are more challenging than others of course, especially when one of us wakes up on the wrong side of the bed, but we talk through it and do the best we can.
I really wouldn’t trade this for the world!

STEAK! And Football.

Before: Some delicious yellow rice and a decent sized juicy steak. I expected Livia to eat about half of it. I started cutting it up.

Apparently I wasn’t cutting fast enough!

The end result shocked me!

Needless to say, I’ve got a GREAT eater on my hands!

After a big lunch, Livia had a very quick nap. She must’ve known her team was playing. We celebrated the Packers’ victory with lots of cheering and dancing! She can kind of say “Go Pack, Go!”

Gosh, I just have an awesome daughter. I’m so lucky!

Why I say “F$@k It!” At least once A Day!

Scenario: I buy some el-cheapo bubbles from the Dollar store. I open them outside and start blowing them with Livia. She’s chasing them, saying “Bubble!!!” popping them and running
back for more. All is well. Then SHE wants to be in charge of the bottle and the wand. I give her a turn, and half of the bubble solution is on the floor within 0.5 seconds. There isn’t much to do at the beach house so I kind of want to stretch playing with bubbles for 10 more minutes, and I decide that maybe it’s best for me to hold the bubbles and blow them. However, Livia has her heart set on being in charge of the bubbles. The 0.001% of me that wants to micro-manage starts over-thinking. “She will pour all the bubbles out, probably on herself, it’s breezy so I’ll have to change her (which will make her mad), and then we will be at square one as far as what to do next”. Then, I just smile and say (not out loud) “F@$k it!” , give her the bubbles, watch her dump them out and swish her hands through it, take off her wet clothes and let her play in her diaper for a little. She has a blast.

Scenario 2: We go on a morning walk in the stroller. I plan on it just being a short little walk to the pier and back. We get to the pier and stop to look at the sound. There is a tiny sandy area that looks like a mini beach. The water is shallow and clear. I say “Let’s come here tomorrow, Livia. You can come in your bathing suit and swim!” Then I look at her, and for some reason I just feel bad. I want to let her out, but I over-think “If I thought she’d get in the water, she should’ve just worn a onesie. She’s got her pants on! Won’t she be cold on the walk back? Should I take her leggings off? Where will I even put them?!” I come to my senses, smile, say “F@$k it!” Roll up the leggings, roll up her sweater sleeves, take off our shoes and walk in. Yeah, she got her leggings soaked, and we walked back wet. But when she was in the water, she brought her pine cone with her and “washed” it! She was learning something and having spontaneous fun. This may have never happened if we would’ve just turned around and walked home.

It’s easy to micro-manage situations sometimes, especially if there’s a convenience factor. I don’t want or mean for it to happen often, but sometimes it does and I don’t realize it til later. I committed to staying home with Livia, and I owe it to her to let her be a toddler and do toddler things.

So I’ve committed to saying “F@$k it!” (and embracing whatever chaos comes) a couple of times every day. A couple of times doesn’t sound like a lot, but keep in mind this means giving my 15 month old complete control of a “big” choice, without “helping” making any suggestions or offering any alternativesunless it’s a big safety hazard obviously-I wouldn’t let her ingest something dangerous to teach cause and effect). There are plenty of times she makes independent choices throughout the day, but there’s always a little guidance or redirection involved, even when it isn’t needed. It’s usually to prevent something trivial like making a spontaneous mess (we have plenty of “planned” messy time).
I think it will be a great experience to see her doing EXACTLY what she wants to do and learning from it. A mess can only get so big, clothes can be washed, so what is there to be afraid of? I think we will both learn from it.
So,”f$@k it”!

#MommyChallenge: Empathizing with my toddler.

Over the past week or so, I can see a significant change in Livia’s behavior. ❤

She gets frustrated a lot, and I get it- she’s smaller than everyone around and can’t make all of the choices she’d like to. She also doesn’t understand WHY she can’t.  And that must REALLY suck!

It’s especially a challenge this week because we are on vacation with my parents at our beach house, so her choices are a little more limited. She doesn’t have all of her usual toys, and lots of stuff in the house isn’t ideal for a 15 month old to play with. There have been plenty of times that I’ve had to pick her up and move her to a different area, which she isn’t really used to- and she DOESN’T like it. We spend LOTS of time outside, so that helps!

I’m trying to limit the word “No” and only use it in situations where she’s being really unsafe and risks hurting herself (or someone else). Something that is working for me is replacing the word “No” with “Let’s”.

“Let’s give ‘high fives’ instead of hitting”.  “Let’s play with one of your toys. This can break easily.”  “Let’s find something else to eat”. 

When she gets mad, I try to remember the empathetic language one of my former coworkers, Susan, would use. I call it “embracing my inner Susan” :).  I’ll say things like “You’re angry. You really wanted to play with ______, but it isn’t safe. Let’s try____”.

Livia can sign “angry” and “sad” (and she actually connects “sad” to hitting!), so I’m encouraging her to use them when she is upset.

Yesterday, she said her first sentence “No, mine!” I was so excited!  Maybe it won’t happen again for a few months, but since then I’ve been trying to help her use 2-word sentences to express what she might be feeling (another challenge within itself).

So far, I’ve only come up with “No help” for when she wants to do something herself. Earlier today, she ran over to the outdoor steps (which she can easily climb, but they have big gaps in them), and when she saw me right behind her, she said “NO!! NO!!”. I could tell she was mad because she thought I was going to pick her up.  I said ” Say ‘No help'”.

It’s definitely a “one-day-at-a-time” journey, but with lots of hugs and encouragement, I hope things should be relatively smooth for her! ❤

A New Chapter Begins

Yesterday I said goodbye to the wonderful families I worked with for two years. I resigned from my job as a teacher. I miss everyone very, very much <3.

At the same time, I am overflowing with joy because from now on, I am staying home with Livia!

My first impressions of ‘Stay-At-Home’ life (so far)…

–I am pleasantly surprised at the large amounts of energy I still have at the end of the day.

(Then again, I am now caring for ONE child now instead of  five or six at a time).

-I am really excited about cooking and baking now. Not only do I have time to do it now, it’s also a great learning experience for Livia! Before, cooking was SUCH a pain in the butt! I’d get home at 5:40, scramble around to get settled in, try to whip something up WHILE Livia would cry and cling to my leg because she hadn’t seen me all day…it just wasn’t fun.

-I am actually on my phone MUCH less. I chose to stay home so that I could enjoy quality time with Livi. Quality to me = electronics-free. With the exception of sharing a few pictures, I’m not on there looking at Facebook or furiously browsing Pinterest. That is for nap time.

-I have been able to stick to a similar routine that Livia followed at school.  Our schedule is more flexible now, but I do try to go outside at the same times as she did before, sing the same songs, and build from the experiences she had in her classroom with her AMAZING teachers.

-I am  trying to re-organize our small space to make it optimal for learning. Lamar helped me move furniture on the patio so she can have her toddler table/chair set out there with an easel. The huge windows will give her a gorgeous view of the world below. I can see her having some playdates there! AND some messy, sensory fun! 🙂

-I actually have more of a social life. Ok, maybe it’s because I JUST quit my job and maybe it’ll be short-lived (hope not!). But for now, I’m loving visiting with former parents at my school and other people! (That reminds me, I have a coffee date in 30 min!)

 

All in all, I love it. I feel like I’m on a permanent vacation. This doesn’t feel difficult at all!  I couldn’t ask for more! Have any of my readers stayed home for any period of time? How did you like it?

 

Livia’s First Park Adventure!

One of Livia’s favorite things to do is look out our bedroom window. We live on one of the top floors, and Livia is fascinated by the “little” cars, houses and people outside. Last week I noticed a park on the other side of the street. Today we decided to check it out. It. Is. Awesome. There is a small jungle gym for kids Livia’s age with two slides (a small toddler slide and a “big kid” slide), a larger jungle gym for 4-5 year olds, a swing set, some little tunnels, and a big sand pit. There were a couple of kids Livia’s age and few “big” kids running around and jumping off the platform that separates the two jungle gyms.
The first thing we checked out was the slide.

There were several ways to climb up to the slide, and Livia tried them all!
At one point, there was a boy (about 3 years old) who was going on the big kid slide behind her.Livia decided to follow him. The thing is, once he was off the slide, he started putting  wooden blocks at the bottom of the slide. Being the preschool teacher I am, I asked what he was building.  Turns out it was a barricade. I let him know Livia might go down the slide. He said  “It’s ok, she can slide down and knock them off!” I was a little hesitant, since it was a pretty big slide AND there were wooden blocks at the end. I also noticed a couple of judging eyes from the benches. As I stood at the top of the slide with Livi, I knew I  had two choices. Accept this big kid’s challenge or move to the baby slide. Livia was tired of waiting, let go of my hand and slid through that barricade like a champ! She even helped rebuild it so he could go through it again, too! My baby is awesome.
From there, she crawled through the tunnel a few times.

We spent about a minute on the swingset, and then she noticed the ONE thing she can’t resist…

WATER.

Beside the sandpit, there is a water faucet for cleaning sand toys. She spent about 20 minutes “washing” sand toys and sneaking some sips of water.  There was another boy there, too. He was almost 3. They took turns at the water faucet and played together. Unfortunately, Livia made him cry a few times by wacking him with a shovel and snatching toys. I redirected her (as best anyone can redirect a 1 year old) and apologized. His mom said he’s just too sensitive. I thought this was pretty funny.

I knew she was all done when she signed “eat” and said “up”. We walked home, happy and drenched in water and sand.
I can’t wait to go back!

HandFootMouth

We managed to dodge it like a bullet last time it was going around our school. This time, we weren’t as lucky.
I knew something was wrong last Saturday because she couldn’t sleep (she usually sleeps like a rock)! She was clearly tired, but she kept rolling around and kicking in her sleep. On Sunday, she just wasn’t herself. My little ball of energy was unusually calm and just wanted to be in my lap. I took her temperature and she had a fever of 101. It was the last week of school and I could not miss any more days, so my mom kept her home and took her to the doctor.  Before she left, I noticed she had what looked like a terrible diaper rash. Livia has never had a diaper rash, so I made sure my mom brought it up to the doc. Turns out it wasnt a diaper rash, but the telltale blisters of hand foot and mouth disease. Over the next few days, she developed little bumps on her elbows, knees, and feet. Luckily she didn’t have it in her mouth, so her eating wasn’t affected.
Hand Foot and Mouth disease is a virus that is very common at preschools and daycares. There isn’t a cure for it, you just have to let it run its course.  It causes a lot of discomfort, so Livia took Tylenol and some Benadryl. Ibuprofen makes her EXTREMELY hyper, so that was out of the question-she really needed to rest.  It has been a week now, and her blisters are almost completely dried out and she’s acting like herself again!
Have any of your little ones ever had Hand Foot and Mouth disease?

Helping Livia Self-Soothe Before Naptime

I’ve always been very hands-on when it comes to helping Livia sleep. I was either rocking her, wearing her, or just holding her until she’d eventually doze off. Now that she is becoming more independent and wanting to do more for herself (feeding herself, brushing her own teeth), I figured it would be the perfect time for her to try soothing herself to sleep (we’re on vacation for the next week and I’m around all the time).

But how? Where? Livia isn’t used to spending any ‘awake’ time inside a pack-and-play. Whether we’re at Grammy’s, Mimi’s,  or our home, I make sure she has the freedom to explore and choose what she wants to play with.  Keeping this in mind, I knew that putting her in a pack-and-play while she’s awake would probably be a challenge.

She naps happily on her mat at school, so the first thing I tried was patting her back while she laid on her travel cot. Once she was laying quietly, I walked away. When I peeked around the corner to check on her, she  had climbed off, gone over to my dad in the dining area and managed to get some lemonade from him. -_-

I decided that it was time to try the pack-and-play. I knew she wouldn’t just stay awake. “When she’s tired, she’ll sleep”, I told myself, unsure if I was reassuring myself or just trying to convince myself.

I  gathered 3 of her favorite books and put them in, I gave her a kiss and gently plopped her inside with them.

Understandably, her first reaction to my putting her in the pack-and-play was screaming and fussing. I would usually react by scooping her up right away. But this time, I decided to go into a different room and see what would happen next. I decided that, if 10 minutes went by and she was still screaming, she wasn’t ready.

After about 2 minutes, she grew quiet. I heard her sit down, and when I peeked through the doorway, she was reading one of her books!  She started rolling around with them, reading them laying down and throwing them around. She was relaxing by herself!

She stood up a few times and jumped up and down, sometimes babbling loudly and sometimes she’d whining, but then she’d go right back to reading. After about 10 minutes, she was laying down with her eyes half open. 3 minutes after that, she was asleep!

She has been asleep for about an hour now, and I am so proud of her! My big girl went to sleep without any help!