Resolutions?

I am not big on New Year's Resolutions. (In fact, did I post about this last year? Something related to fitness? Clearly that didn't pan out). I do like to reflect on the past year and think, generally, about what I would like to accomplish in the new year, but I'm not one for grand statements.

That being said, I am feeling a bit like an old lady lately. You too? I just sometimes feel in a rut with everything - what we eat, what our house looks like, what I wear, how I do my make-up. Nothing life-altering or super important in the grand scheme of things, but I do think it is those little details that add up to a happier day and happier year.

So ... I am going to challenge myself to get outside the box a bit. I am frugal, but would like to add more color and fun to my life. I find some inspiration in these blogs and maybe you will, too.

Ain't No Mom Jeans - perennial favorite, check them often
Kendi Everyday - daily outfits, love the way she uses color
The Daybook - I just started reading this and really like the way she uses color. I dislike how thin she is immediately after giving birth, but I'm getting over that
Scout - A Mom's Guide to Stylish Living - this is a local KC gal
The Hairpin - I just randomly came across this blog and I find it very entertaining. Good writing on lots of subjects. In particular, I really like the posts by Jane Marie Feltes under How to be a Girl. She is a producer of This American Life on public radio which is one of my most favorite things in the world. Back to the point, though, her make-up advice is good entertainment. Not the look I would generally sport, but encourages me to be more creative. I confess that I am strangely entertained by watching makeup tutorial videos. I think it is kind of escapism from my normal life - who gets to sit quietly, drink wine, and do their makeup for 30 minutes? Sounds like bliss sometimes.
Pinterest - you are doing this, right? You must. It is a bit of a time suck at first, but becomes less so over time. My Pinterest feed is messed up and I don't think I get all new pins, which has helped with my addiction. I get all kinds of inspiration here. I like it a lot to catalog visual inspiration (clips from other blogs and stuff), whereas I still really like Evernote to catalog any text item (like recipes - can search by word).

Any good resolutions on your list? Where do you find inspiration?

Wishing you a Happy (and Colorful!) New Year!

What to do now?

I'm not quite sure how to discipline my child now without the threat / promise of Santa and Nicholas the Elf.

So far, I've used painted toenails as a bribe ("tailnose" as Ellen calls them) ... I'll paint your toenails, but only if you sit still for 30 minutes after to let them dry.

"Ok, Mama. "

Marshmallows

We were at Erik's work holiday party the other night and heard a cute story. One of his coworkers has a 4-year-old daughter who got really nervous last year visiting Santa and could only think to ask for marshmallows. Ha! Marshmallows it is (was). Her parents and family commented all year on how charming and sweet and funny it was. So ... year 4 ... she geared up for her conversation with Santa. She sat down on his lap, got nervous again, and could only think to ask for marshmallows!

Her parents will get her a few other special things, but it got me thinking ... how much do you pay attention to what your child asks for from Santa? Ellen has asked for NOTHING. Well, let me correct myself ... today I pushed her (yes, December 23rd) about what she wanted to ask Santa for. She was watching Cat in the Hat and asked (shockingly!) for a Cat in the Hat water cup. Ruh roh. Lesson learned. I will keep my mouth shut next time.

Though ... Santa pulled through on the water cup. Hallalu-yer!

Santa didn't go too crazy this year, though I think I over compensate because birthday and Christmas come so close together that I feel the need to stock up on some gifts for the year, but I think she would be happy with virtually nothing. If Santa brought a stack of copy paper and some Sharpies she would be thrilled. I buy her things because it makes me happy, but does it make her happy? I'm not so sure.

Life won't always be this simple ... in fact, this may be the last year ... something for you mama's with younger kids to keep in mind.

Happiest of Holidays to you and yours!

You still have time!

I know you've seen this all over the Internets, but just in case ... get yourself a personalized Santa message! It's really cute and Ellen loved it.

Click here to see Santa's message to Ellen

My favorite part is his praise of her hard work on brushing her teeth every night because, YES, we have worked hard on that.

Happy, Happy, Merry, Merry to you and yours!

In this season of sharing

Ellen graduated from Parents As Teachers this week. How is that possible? We talked about Kindergarten and everything, which is crazy town. Mind you, Ells has a late birthday, so she'll be almost 6 when she starts school, but still it's just right around the corner. (Literally, the school is right around the corner from our house and we talk about Kindergarten.every.day.)

Back to the topic at hand ... do you have a problem with sharing at your house? Ellen really does a pretty good job, for which I give full credit to daycare, but she does have her moments. Our P.A.T. educator gave us a good tip (especially for only children who don't have to share all day) ... have a chat with your little darling before a play date or big family gathering. Let them decide if there are 1 or 2 toys they don't want to share and put those away. Then, everything else is fair game.

We're hosting Christmas, so we might have to use this trick for a few of Santa's deliveries!

Best idea I've stolen this week

I still don't have our Christmas decorations up. Is it bad that I am dreading it? Yes, I think it is. I really do LOVE having a decorated house, and I love having the tree lit in the evenings when it is dark outside, I just don't like putting it all up. Or taking it down. This year, in particular, I am challenged with a new house and a new layout and no idea where to put things. Oh yeah, and no money for new stuff. Crafty holiday time at our house!

One idea I will be stealing, though, is to add a basket of all our holiday books by the tree for reading. We have tons of winter / Christmas / Santa books that I don't really know what to do with for the rest of the year. If you really had your act together, you could wrap each book and unwrap daily as an Advent activity. I don't have my act together (see above).

Also, while we're on the Advent topic, my sister-in-law sent us this awesome advent computer activity thingy. (My description is so appealing, right?) It is Jacquie Lawson's London Advent Calendar - you can see a demo on her website and it is some inexpensive fun. The animations are really charming and it doesn't really matter if you start it late!

My favorite girl

To my most favorite girl -

Happy Birthday! I celebrate this special day with you, though I hope I have celebrated at least one little part of the last 1, 095 days I've spent with you. You have turned my life upside down, yet most of the time I feel that this is always the way it was meant to be. You are my buddy, my shadow, my comedian in the backseat, the thorn in my side, and the best snuggler I know.

Our year has been full of challenges and I have counted on your sweet smile, your smush-face kisses, your questions, your diversion, to get me through many a day. Life was probably more simple at your last birthday, but I hope our lives will be even more full and rich at your next one.

You amaze us with your memory, your kindness, your inquisitiveness, and your incessant talking. You are the soundtrack to my life, in the most literal way. I spend more time with you than any other human on this planet and your sweet giggle and full body guffaw (as well as your whines and tantrums) punctuate my days.

I love to get in the car with you and wait for you to say, "Let's talk about ...." (policemen, firemen, ambulances, our day, school ....). I hope you will always tell us about your days and talk with us about what is important to you.

I love to watch your focus - drawing is the most favorite activity of late - and I love that I feel I really "know" you now. I know what you will like and dislike and I feel that I can support your interests and encourage you to thrive.

I love that you love school and are so sweet to your friends. This year seems to have come with more separation anxiety and it tears at my heart to see you sad and missing me or your Dad, yet I also secretly love how you drag out our morning good-byes with "one more kiss! one more hug!"

Though your behavior may turn on a dime, you can be so charming and you love to tell us, "Mommy. Daddy. I love you so, so much." We feel the exact same way.

I can't wait to see what the next year holds. We love you to pieces, are so proud of you, and couldn't be happier to celebrate this special day with you.

Love, love, love,

Mommy

Food for thought

I came across this post on A Cup of Jo - Motherhood Mondays: Who gets the best kisses?

It is pretty thought provoking. I have never been a very physically affectionate person ... caring? generous? willing to do anything for another person? I hope so. But, I'm not a very touchy-cuddly person.

That really all changed when Ellen was born, as I had this delicious, chunky, squeezy little girl that I spent most of every day with. How could you not kiss and hug over and over and over?

I hadn't really recognized the sense of feeling "touched-out", meaning that you have spent so much of your day in physical contact with another person, that you are just ready for a zone of "me and only me". I find the constant child wrangling to sometimes be exhausting ... punctuated by a kiss here or a hug there ... but mostly wrestling to put shoes on, or lifting in and out of a shopping cart, or buckling in and out of a carseat, or changing a diaper, or lifting on and off the potty, or, or or ...

I will try to be more mindful of all this .... you??

Take note!

Do you have some system for keeping track of the perfectly darling and/or amusing things your child says on a daily basis?

I'm really not that organized. But - I would like to be.

I sometimes note things on our family blog. And, I do keep a baby book for Ellen that I write in every now and then, but I always forget the best little quotes. Sometimes I'll text them to her Dad and I can retrieve them from my phone.

I recently started an "Ellen-isms" page in the little notebook I carry around in my purse for random notes ... it never fails that she blurts out something hilarious on our way to the grocery store.

Today I came across this free Quote Book download for organizing the funnies in a cute way at Kinderpendent (via Cool Mom Picks). A cute xmas gift for a new mom in your life, perhaps?

I think you could also make it something as simple as a perpetual calendar that you use to note kid-isms, or even a box of index cards you keep in your kitchen to collect the stories. I love reading the baby book my mom kept for me (thanks Mom! and, hooray for being the 1st child!) and these funny little things are so precious now that I have my own funny little thing living with me.

(And today - so timely! - a similar idea for a 2012 Best of My Days Notepad from Ashley at Under the Sycamore.)

In case you were wondering, the best of late ...
"It's not a secret. It's a tell thing."
"This fizzy water is pokey in my mouth."
"Are there any golfclubbers out today?" (such a better name than golfer)
"I don't have enough fingers. Just about 8. I want more. And purple ones."
"Can we work on a hug project today??"

Your Santa?

When Santa visited my childhood home, we had lots of unwrapped gifts, displayed perfectly. He was very generous!

When Santa visits our house now, he does pretty much the same thing.

What happens when Santa visits your house?

I saw this post on Design Mom and it made me start thinking about Christmas Morning. I feel like this Christmas with a 3-year-old will be the start of something memorable and a good age to add some traditions. If we ever have another child, it would be nice to have some established guidelines rather than the general gift-free-for-all approach that we have been using.

Does Santa follow some rules when he comes down your chimney?

File this one away

Have your kids really entered the baby doll phase? Ells plays with babies here and there, and talks about her babies a lot, but kind of treats her dolls/bunnies/bears/dogs all the same. She hasn't gotten into feeding / changing / napping babies yet, but I think the day is coming.

I saw this Corolle baby today on Cool Mom Picks. Pricey, but I LOVE the idea of using your own sweet baby clothes for dress up.



How does this compare to American Girl dolls? I'm honestly trying to avoid that place as.long.as.possible.

Got yourself a boy?

They don't seem so much different than girls and, then again, they seem totally different.

Maybe you'll like this blog I just came across if you have the XY variety in your house ...

Frog and Snail Society

Click! take a pic ...

(Diego anyone??)

Here is a good description of Intro to DSLR Cameras by Ashley at Under the Sycamore. As I've said before, I love her photography approach, especially when it comes to her young kids.

Maybe you can share with Santa for his list??

This is fun

You can download a free kids' album of music HERE: Original Friend by Lunch Money. They are a Grammy-nominated band and, I guess, sharing the fun!

I found them via Design Mom and she has a fun interview with Mo Willems today - love his books!

In the bag

Serious business today.

I need advice.

What kind of purse are you carrying these days??

I am finding myself in this strange period of not needing a diaper bag, yet needing both of my hands (and sometimes a 3rd hand) for child wrangling. I used the backpack with great success, and still do for long outings (zoo and such), but I just don't need it to run to Target.

I was gifted a very nice purse that I have used everyday for 2 years, yet it fell victim to the house renovations and has a big splotch of paint on the side. (Which pretty much just explains my life these days). The problem, though, is that it just goes over my shoulder like a normal purse, but doesn't stay on said shoulder when I am lunging for a child, or carrying 2 grocery bags and a child, or wrestling with a child in the freezer aisle.

I am definitely a 'purse' girl .. not in the sense that I care about labels or price (I'm cheap), but I carry a lot of things that seem necessary to me and I just can't swing the big wallet approach.

I was thinking a messenger / cross-body style? Or something with an option for messenger style? I don't want it to be too sporty looking. And, I need some kind of compartments inside - a huge tote bag is just a bottomless pit to lose things for me.

Suggestions? Tips? Pointers?

I'm all ears.

It's a little late

Do you all have a Halloween candy policy? It occurred to me, at our 3rd trick-or-treating stop, that perhaps we should have discussed this in advance.

Last year Ells didn't really notice what happened to the candy ... she liked to sort it all out, and had a few bites, but didn't really notice when it went into the cabinet and never came back out.

This year? Never gonna work. She literally told her grandfather, "Don't even think about it!" when he playfully tried to take some of her candy. She has a definite mental inventory of every piece in her bag. (She grudgingly allowed me to take away the worst offender in the 'choking hazard' category and she told her grandfather that the green candies 'weren't vegetables.')

She generally responds well to lots of priming ... if we talk about things for a few days in advance she behaves well and/or complies. Pretty much. Can I spring a new Halloween candy rule at this point?

Our nephew trades his candy in for a toy of his choosing, which I think works really well for them. I don't think it will work well for us after the fact, but maybe next year.

I've read about kids who get to eat as much as they want for a day, then no more. I think that is just pretty disgusting for an almost-3-year-old.

A three day rule? Toss it all after that? Might work ... if I hide it, she will forget sooner or later.

Keep it all and dole it out tiny piece by piece? I usually only give her 1-2 Skittles or M&Ms at a time anyway. (She did ask me tonight if she could eat her Snickers in the spring-time. Sure! Why not?)

We also live in a great new neighborhood and she got the motherload of full-size candy bars. Hmmmm. My hips don't need those, either.

Tell me your approach to this ... please!

The Big 3

Any advice on good gifts for the 3-year-old set? Miss Priss has both a birthday AND Christmas coming up and I'm very short on ideas for gifts.

She really doesn't NEED anything, but there has to be something to open and something for the Santa list. We are at capacity on books and the most popular books lately seem to come from the library anyway. She has a play kitchen that she loves, but there are already enough accessories for a small nation. The new playroom does not have any more floor space for a 'big' gift. I was thinking about a balance bike, but it seems cruel to gift that in December when it can't be used for months.

Further, it seems that most toys are baby toys, for ages 1-2, or for 4 and up. She plays with plenty of things that are choking hazards (hooray for great parenting!), so that's not the issue, but I'm just not sure she would be interested in some of the board games and such. What age does the dress-up obsession start? I was kind of thinking of stalking the post-Halloween sales for some dress-up goodies.

I'm at a loss ....

Do as I say, not as I do

Do you all have your bookcases and dressers and such tethered to the wall? I must admit that we missed that step in our baby-proofing. Even if we had done it before, we are in a new house now and need to do it all over again.

I have commented to friends that I have had to do MORE baby proofing in the new house, which doesn't make sense, except that the house is bigger and the almost-3-year-old is sneakier and she gets into things and I can't hear or see her. Chewing on a big button because it's "gum"? Yep. Playing with big scissors? Yep. Pushing chairs over to bookshelves and reaching to get things? Yep.

In the new play room we have a tall bookcase that is VERY tippy. It makes me nervous every time I reach for something off the top shelf. Ellen always asks for help and we are always close by, but still ... something bad could happen in a second. Even worse, another child playing at our house might not be so cautious.

Read this link on The Creative Mama if you are up for it. I find that I do sad things at work and it is hard for me to read sad things in my free time, but none the less, it's a powerful reminder that accidents happen to the best families with the best of intentions. Locally, a little boy died not that many years ago in a similar accident. I even have the wall tethers packed away somewhere in the house ... no excuses.

Stick a fork in me

I'm done.

Day 4 of no-nap over here. Not for me, of course, but for the 3-foot-tall terrorist that lives in our house. Nap for me? Ha!

Why did I need her to nap so badly today? Well, there are the 3 days of sleep deprivation, of course. Also, though, the plumber is here to auger our basement main drain because our basement has standing water and floating sewage.

See?

Kill me now.

Get in the picture!

I've been working on a 2010 family photo book with My Publisher. (Yes, I'm a year behind. I'm over it). As I looked through hundreds and hundreds of pictures, I realize that I'm in only a very few. Thank goodness my sister is a good photographer, because I know she has some, but it makes me sad not to have pictures of myself interacting with Ellen, because she is the person I spend the most time with in the world!

I think I've posted a link similar to this before, but check out these tips:
Because You Were There, Too: Thirteen Tips for Family Self Portraits