Toddler Eating/Meals

One of the biggest things I was worried about when I was pregnant and once Jase was born was what he was going to eat as a toddler. I'm not sure what brought on this worry, but I assume it was all of the books I saw in stores about toddler food, the fancy plates for kids, ect. I know I was also worried about having a picky eater. Both my husband and I eat pretty much anything (aside from the I hate foods) and I was worried if I had a picky eater I would be super frustrated. I was also worried about making separate meals for Jase because, lets face it, I'm lazy and don't want to.... I don't want to make more food then I need to! Here I am today and I can say most days Jase is a great, well rounded, eater. I don't think this is because of anything my husband and I did, but mostly what we didn't do. Also I can only speak from having a 1.5 year old, he still has growing to do and his eating habits maybe be different next year.

We started Jase on pureed food and basically offered him all options, the only thing I stayed away from was stuff with meat because pureed meat just grossed me out. Once we saw that pureed food was no longer satisfying him we started adding in real food. From this time, Jase started to eat what food we had on the table, at this time is when he started to get an opinion on things he liked and things he didn't like. For example he loved pureed peas, hates regular peas. Just the other week I finally got him to eat guacamole, he's been turning down avocados and guacamole since day one of really food.

Today Jase eats all sorts of stuff and his pallet surprises us daily with some of his favorite foods being most all meat, kale, carrots and celery. Other favorite foods are anything sweet, like cookies, muffins and cake. Point being he's pretty well rounded and will choose healthy food over non nutritious food just like an adult does. They only thing my husband and I have been consistent with is offering Jase what we're eating. We also don't stop offering a food he at one point refused, he may change his mind in a week, month, day or never.

For dinner he eats what I make, sometimes he won't eat everything we offer, but he doesn't get another option. The only time he does get something different is when he's not feeling well. Now, I don't think we are strict about this so much out of wanting him to be a good eater, but out of wanting him not to be a bad one that we would have to cater to. Again, I'm lazy and not making two dinners. Lunch time is when we bend a bit about meals. For example I may make him a PB&J and myself a turkey sandwich. For consistency though, I still offer him adult food, he just gets smaller portions.

Jase may not eat everything offered at meal time, I try my best not to let that bother me. There are nights when I make a meal and all he eats is the meat, or only the fruit, ect. Jases' pediatrician told me at his one year appointment that I need to focus on his whole week of food intake instead of his day or meal intake at his age. Toddlers have days, just like us, that maybe they don't want chicken or the veggies you cooked, but maybe tomorrow they'll eat everything they missed out on the prior day. My child, just like every child, has days where all he eats are gold fish crackers and those days are hard, but I try to remember to look at the big picture. This has helped me relax a lot and also realize, overall, we are lucky to be blessed with a child that eats well without too much effort.

Because of everything I've just written, I'm afraid I don't have any clever toddler meals to tell you about. I'm very basic and just can't bring myself to cut my child's veggies and fruit into stars to get them to eat, I just don't have it in me. What I can say is that if a child is hungry, they will eat what you offer (of course this is allergies and other sevear things aside). Just in case for the future I am also holding onto all all the toddler meal books I have because hopefully we'll have more children and maybe that one won't be so easy. ;-).

What ways do you get your toddler to eat a well rounded diet. What did you do that worked, what didn't, what would you change?

<3Lindsey

Potty Training without Any Gimmicks

Potty training has been on my mind since Zoë turned one. As a mother who uses cloth diapers and has a child who HATES taking the time out of her day to have her diaper changed, I am eager to get her out of diapers and onto the potty. About a month ago, I was at the park with Zoë and one other mom was there. She had a 2 year old and asked if Zoë was potty trained yet. She told me about this 3-day Potty Training thing that she did with her son, so I checked it out.

It talked about feeding your child salty foods to encourage thirst and therefor the need to use the restroom, but that didn't sound all that healthy to me. The mom who had introduced me to the idea had also mentioned how she had to give her child "nutritional" beverages to increase liquid intake...another thing that didn't sound healthy to me. Zoë only prefers to drink water, and I'd like to keep it that way for as long as possible. 

I finally buckled down a few weeks ago, found a bunch of training pants in Zoë's size (which was harder than I thought it'd be since the common size for training pants is 2T and Zoë's already small for her age), and got to work. We have the Baby Bjorn potty in white. I wanted it to be the same color as a normal toilet. (I guess I was a little paranoid that if I got her a different kind of potty she might not ever want to use a normal one. I'm aware of my silliness.) The first few days, we managed 1-2 successful trips and as the days passed, our timing and her willingness got better. After about a week, we had one day with only 2 accidents (mostly because went about 30 minutes prior to her usual time) and I was so excited! 

Then the next day happened, and she did NOT want to sit on the potty at all. She'd cry and cry, but I knew she needed to go. Of course, as soon as I'd let her off, she'd say "pssssss" and sure enough she'd peed. It got to the point where she was starting to hold it for longer periods of time to avoid being on the potty. I was crushed. We had been doing so well, but I didn't want to traumatize her by forcing her to be on the potty. So, we're taking a break now. I'll bring it back at the start of the new year.

Do you have any tales, terrors, or tips about potty training?

Merry Christmas!

Hey mamas!

Because today is Christmas eve I'm sure you are all crazy busy and if you're like me, you still have a ton to do! Luckily I finished my shopping already but I still have to wrap almost all the gifts! We decided last minute(as in 10 minutes ago) that we're driving up to the mountains to play in the snow! What a fun way to spend Christmas Eve right? Let's hope we don't get all the way up there for our daughter to just turn her nose up at it haha I'm really looking forward to having a fun little getaway before the craziness of Christmas sets in tomorrow. Hope all of you have a nice calm Christmas and I will be back next week with lots of things to talk about!

Merry Christmas,

Randi 

Sleeping in Their Own Room

Happy Monday All. It's Christmas week!!!

Today is a question I had a mommy friend ask me to talk about. How do you get your baby to sleep in their own room? I'm afraid I don't have an answer to this because I know every child is different. I can, however, tell you what we did with Jase, What worked and what didn't for him and us.

Before Jase was born my husband and I knew we didn't really want to bed-share with him. I know this works great for some families but for us it was't going to work, so we wanted to make sure to avoid it the best we could. I want to insert here also that bed sharing and co-sleeping are two different things. Bed sharing is sharing the bed with baby and co-sleeping is sharing a room. We also knew we wanted Jase in his own room early on, ideally around 3 months, but we all know babies change plans when they're born!

Jase started out in our room in a bassinet type thingy attached to his pack-n-play. This worked great for a couple of days until we realized he had a reflux problem and needed a different soultion. I could go into a whole story about that, but I'll save it for a different day. A mommy friend recommended a Fisher Price Rock-n-play (RNP) so we bought that and Jase slept in it until he was around four months old. Around that age he started to get too big for the RNP so my husband and I needed to decide what to do with him. Because of his reflux, I was so afraid to put him flat on his back and in his own room so suddenly. I began searching the wonderful world wide web for answers on what to do with him. From my searching I found that parents had success transferring from the RNP to the crib by "mimicking" the RNP feel for the baby. See below for a way to mimic. We decided to try that trick, but still didn't want to move him directly to his room.

We opted to try Jase out on his back in the Pack-n-Play in our room to see how it went. This is where I will tell you when switching a babes sleep environment give it put to TWO weeks before you give up! The tradition took about a week in a half before Jase was back to his normal sleeping at night. Each night it got a little better. Around the two week mark we felt comfortable enough for Jase to be in his own room. He hand't had any spit up issues at night, so we worried a little less. When we moved him into his own room we did the same trick we used from the RNP to the Pack-n-Play for the crib. This again took about two weeks before his sleeping was back to normal. So the whole process was about a month of broken sleep (beyond the broken sleep you get anyways with a baby).

So, when Jase was around five in a half months old he was sleeping in his room and almost through the night. I actually think he started sleeping longer stretches when we moved I'm (after the initial two weeks). Possibly we were waking him up by checking on him for everything little moan and groan.

What we did was not always easy. There were so many times I wanted to just lay Jase next to me and fall asleep. Getting up out of bed to feed him and have to put him back to sleep some nights was REALLY hard, especially when we was in his own room, but I do think in the long run it helped him develop good sleeping habits. I also want to say that we followed his lead a little. We looked for cues of what worked for him and us once he was born. Obviously he wasn't out of our room at three months old like we originally wanted.

I want to note that every sleep decision made with Jase was a decision that both my husband and I made together. I really think it's crucial for dad to help as much as he can at night. (I know there are a million reasons why this is not always possible, but if it is, have him help) Having a back up will really help with sleep for everyone. There were times when whatever I was doing with Jase wasn't working, hubby would step in and Jase would be asleep in a minute. 

What worked for you when switching you child to their own room?

<3 Lindsey

Trick to mimic RNP: get a beach towel and lay out. Roll it up long ways. Stick the rolled towel under the sheet and make a "U" with it. When you place the baby to sleep place them inside the "U" with their butt sitting against the bottom of the "U". Place each side of the shape against their body. Each night move the sides a little further away. (turning the "U" into more of a "V"). Eventually you can remove the rolled towel all together. What this does is help the baby feel secure when they startle awake. Their little arms hit the towel and instead of flailing about and they also feel like they're sitting: like they sort of do in the RNP with their bum touching the towel. *I don't suggest this trick if your baby can roll over at night*

'Tis the Season

Last week, Lindsey and Randi brought up a great topic for this time of year: gifts for their little ones. Now, Wes and I both have small families, but Zoë is the only great grandchild, grandchild, niece, and our only daughter. I will admit that, from time to time, we've found ourselves "spoiling" her, but it's hard not to! I just want to give her everything that I can. That said, we still maintain modesty in our gift giving.

I really liked Lindsey's way of choosing gifts, and it was actually exactly what we did last year and for her first birthday as well. This Christmas, however, I'm choosing to do no toys. She already has a lot of toys (most of which are educational, but a toy is still a toy). I'm choosing, instead, to make our holiday, this year, homemade.

I haven't quite decided on everything I'll make her, but I've been noticing that she's really into drawing/coloring and when I was trying to make dough ornaments yesterday (fail, by the way), she was really into the dough. I had made her play dough months ago, but she was not a fan. So, perhaps I'll try that again and make her some paints or chalk.

I will say there are a couple of things we're buying. We have already bought her some clothes, and I plan on buying her a book as well. When I was growing up, my mom used to get us a book for birthdays and Christmas and she'd write a sentiment inside the cover. I plan on doing this for Zoë. I meant to start this last year, but, well, I didn't get around to it.

Anyway, that's our plan. Perhaps that will be our new family tradition. At least one homemade gift per year. What are your holiday traditions?

The Pros of Preschool

Before I had kids and before I had a job, I thought the idea of preschool was stupid. I thought it was pointless and I thought it was for lazy moms who just wanted a break from their kids. Boy was I wrong. My first(and only) job out of high school was at a Christian preschool about two miles from my house. Every thought I had about preschool was proven wrong. 

Preschool teaches kids so many different things. They learn to take turns, to share and to interact with kids their age. They learn to obey and listen to adults other then mommy and daddy. They learn to follow directions and to do things for themselves. Preschool also teaches kids how to use different manipulative a to do art projects. 

At our preschool we have a schedule that most classes follow to a 'T'. The kids have free play outside for about an hour while kids are being dropped off. Then they split up into five different classrooms and start their day. We do days of the week, months of the year, counting to find what day it is...we do the flag salute, we have a song helper to pick out a song to get the wiggles out and we have stories. Each week there's a different theme so the stories are based off of that as well as the art projects. Because we are a Christian based preschool we also read Bible stories and pray before each meal. 

After working at the preschool for 8(!) years I have learned so much and feel confident in raising my children and teaching them along the way. I am a huge advocate for preschool now and when my little princess is old enough I plan on bringing her to work with me! Luckily we offer several different programs so she could just go for a few hours in the morning, two days a week.  

I love that we have options like this to help our children in addition to what we do at home. The school standards have changed so much and they expect so much from kids right off the bat. It can be scary for them and for us. Many school districts have preschool programs and we have the transitional kindergarten as well but it's nice to have a smaller setting that incorporates those Christian values that I want my kids to grow up with. Are there any other pro-preschool mamas out there??

-Randi

Biggest Challenges as Mom and Wife

Happy Monday All!

I decided last night to ask a couple mommy friends what they liked to read about on blogs to get an idea of what to write about today. One of our readers and soon to be occasional writer, Jamie, gave me this great topic! I have a feeling she'll give us some good blog posts in the future!

After pondering a bit what I think my biggest challenges for both being a mom and a wife were, I realized that these two things together are my biggest struggle. When am I a mom, when a wife, how do I balance these two things and how do I know if I am doing enough for each? Daily, I feel like I'm being pulled a million different directions. Am I doing everything (moms know this word carries a lot of weight)  I need to for Jase, am I showing my husband that I love him as much as I should be (as much as I do), am I keeping the house together, ect.

If I break down my day with titles it looks like this: Mom, Wife/Mom and then Wife. Can you guess my day, usually? When I'm with Jase, he's my main focus, when Scott gets home from work I carry both titles and when Jase is in bed I am focusing on my wife duties. Of course we all know it's not always that simple, the lines blur together everyday. This is where it becomes hard to tell if I'm doing enough for each. There are days when I wish I could just be mommy and days I could just be a wife, but life just isn't that easy.

I really don't have an answer on how to balance the two, but here are the things that help me juggle both. On weekends, when my husband is home, I feel the most accomplished. I think having Jase and Scott around makes me focus on both of my titles as equally as I can. I also feel better when I separate time for each, willingly. For instance when I take Jase somewhere special just him or when Scott and I can get away together alone without Jase. The second is much harder to come by so sometimes we have to take advantage of Jase being in bed and us having quiet alone time.

What are our biggest challenges as a Mom and Wife?

<3 Lindsey

Baby #2

I have had serious baby fever for at least the last year! Who is with me?? My daughter is now 17 months and she does such a good job anytime we're around other babies. She loves having her cousins over to play and especially loves having a playmate. I'm not gonna lie, it's nice for me too ;) If I were to get pregnant now they'd be about 2 years apart which is perfect for me!

As some of you may know, I had a miscarriage over the summer so for a little while I was scared of getting pregnant again. But it's been 5 months and I'm ready. Part of my problem is we're planning a huge family vacation for summer 2016 so I feel like if I don't get pregnant now I'll end up pregnant on a boat in the middle of the ocean and I'm so not about that. So I've given myself until May to get pregnant. 

For you mama's with two babies, how do you like it? How far apart are your babies? Really, my only "fear" with having two babies is how am I going to work and have two kids? My plan is to cut back my hours and my days so I'm only working three days a week, 5 hours a day. Do you think that's doable? 

At this point, I don't even care! My daughter has been a horrible sleeper from day one so I figure we might as well add to the family while I'm already sleep deprived. Sleep is overrated anyways, right? 

How to deal with Growing Up

Maybe it's the Holidays or maybe it's that time of month, either way I'm super emotional about Jase growing up. I know I'm not the only one who feels this way from time to time. Moms who have been moms before me warned me a million time "it goes so fast, enjoy it" and other similar words. BUT seriously... IT GOES WAY TO FAST!

My husband and I took Jase to see Santa in our downtown today and I just kept thinking, here is my big kid, my toddler, where on earth did the last year go. I can remember it like it was yesterday taking Jase to see Santa for the first time. I remember his cute little outfit and the silly face he made for his picture. Like most kids his age he had the "why am I sitting on this mans lap face". Not crying, but not smiling. This year he pouted a little and basically gave us a similar look after that but a little more pissed looking. How in a year, though, does he look so much older?!

At the same time I'm missing my little baby, I'm also so grateful to be at the stage we are with him now. Seeing his eyes like up when he sees the Christmas lights, enjoying meals with him when he talks back to us and seeing him grow and learn everyday is nothing short of amazing.

What I find hard is how to enjoy the now without missing the back then. I think theres a place in our momma hearts for both, but where's the line? Is there one?

<3 Lindsey

Raising Humble Kids

With the holiday season comes lots and lots of gifts, especially when you have only one kid. From the minute we found out we were pregnant, my husband and I agreed that we'd raise kids who were grateful for what they had and didn't expect anything from anyone. It's kinda hard to do that when she's the only grandkid/niece on one side of the family. 

My family doesn't over spoil her, but because she's the only kid she definitely gets more than she should. My husband and I decided, like Lindsey, that we'd do one big gift and then some smaller gifts. We don't want to over spend on her just because she's our only baby but it's definitely hard not to go buy every cute toy I see!

 How do you make sure your kids don't just expect lots of gifts? I know she's only 17 months and doesn't really understand yet but I want to start her young! Do I have her say thank you for each gift? Should I start having her "pick out" toys to donate? What are some things that work for you? 

Christmas Time

Happy Monday and Happy December! Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Fall and Winter time is always so busy with all the Holidays, it seems one is over and another is quickly following! I can't believe Christmas is about 3 weeks away.

Christmas time is so special with kid(s) around. I love the music, the food, my new favorite drink at Starbucks (Chestnut Praline Latte... you should try it, it's amazing) and more family time. Another thing Christmas time brings is gift giving and trying not to lose sight of the really meaning behind Christmas and why we celebrate.

My husband and I want to make sure that our children know why we celebrate Christmas. We want them to know it's about Jesus' birth and how he is our greatest gift. We also want our kids to celebrate the other part of Christmas which includes Santa, the North Pole and how it feels good to give. What we're still trying to figure out is how to do both.

The only way right now that I have figured out to tell Jase about the meaning of Christmas at his young age is to, well, tell him. I'm kind of taking the same approach with Santa as well. I figure some how our kids know who Santa is, right? It's got to be because we talk about Santa at Christmas and also show pictures of Santa.

Gifts are another area we are trying to figure out. Last year Santa got Jase one bigger gift and filled his stocking. My husband and I gave him something he wanted (we guessed, he was only 8 months old), something he needed, something to wear and something to read. We plan on doing the same thing this year as well to keep the out of control-ness in control. If I didn't limit myself, I'd go crazy and buy him everything I thought he needed and we'd be broke and Jase would be spoiled (even more then he is :-)).

I'd love to hear how you keep the meaning of Christmas alive in your family and how you go about gift giving with your kids! Like I said, we're still trying to figure it out!

<3 Lindsey