No Money for a DS? No Problem.

So, my niece and nephew recently each received their own Nintendo DS gaming system. My daughter (who's 4), has seen them use them and has requested one of her own. She will not be getting one, for various reasons that I won't get into because, you don't want to hear that rant. So, she used her creative little brain today to get her hands on her own DS (which she referred to as a "CBS" and stated to her little brother, "No one's allowed to touch my CBS").

Thank goodness for cardboard, markers, and pencils (there's a little hole that holds the pencil that she presses the buttons with). Oh, and she's obviously still in her 'make a face for the camera' phase.

Kill 2 Birds with One Stone OR How To Get Your Kids to Do Your Dirty Work

Here's an activity that benefits both you and your children. It not only keeps you children occupied and feeling important, but gets your BBQ clean for the first time in 2 years! 

Here are your needed supplies:

Dishsoap

Water

2 Empty plastic containers (good time to recycle here and feel good about yourself)

2 scrub brushes

1 dirty BBQ

2 Eager children 

An alternative activity for you, such as cleaning the kitchen, phoning a friend, or reading People magazine

Steps:

1. Lay out all supplies beside filthy dirty bbq

2. Begin to scrub

3. Let them come to you. Trust me. They will come.

4. Show them what to do

5. Now, walk away to your alternative activity

Here's a picture in case you're not sure of the steps

Note in the picture that this can be done on a semi-rainy day. Children don't melt when rained on.

How to Fight Evening Exhaustion

Note to self

When feeling extremely drained after the supper hour, plus depressed about the massive mess that surrounds you, here's what you do (as experienced this very evening):

Announce to the children that Mommy needs to lay down.

Lay on the couch.

When the children begin to climb on you, announce (loud enough for your husband to hear):

"I'm going to my bedroom, because I have a feeling this is not going to end well."

Turn a 30 minute movie on for the kids (or just walk upstairs and let your husband to do it, because he's tired too and just wants to veg on the computer).

***By no means are you to feel guilty that they are watching (another) show, as they'll (probably) still turn out fine when grown-up.***

Lay down in your room for 15 minutes. Maybe even lightly snooze for 5 minutes. This ensures you won't have that icky heavy-tired-groggy feeling from sleeping too long that only serves to make you crankier. 

When you wake (because your husband barges in and lays down beside you and begins to immediately snore), make yourself a tea. But ensure you sneak to the kitchen so the kids don't know you're 'awake' yet.

While drinking your tea (or maybe wine if you have any just laying around, since it's faster than tea), think about all the things you did right today. Here are mine:

When my 2 year old was having a massive, over-the-top, sorta-kinda-scary toddler tantrum, I calmly told him to go to his room. When he said no, I calmy put him in his bed with his blankie and closed the door. While listening to his screams, I said to myself, "Be the one in control." And I was. I entered the room 5 minutes later and told him he could leave his room when he was done crying. He decided he was done crying when he heard that. And we concluded the moment with Mommy not joining his tantrum!

Or there's this:

We made polka dot wrapping paper for my niece. And it turned into polka dot water painting on the deck! 

Okay, confession. We didn't actually do this activity today. We did it two weeks ago. But it was a good moment. So it's okay to reflect on it two weeks later.

We try to make all of our own wrapping paper. We got a roll of paper from the local paper mill (it's called a "Butt." True story). It pays to know people who work there. And then we cut strips off and paint it any way we like. Super cheap. Super personal! Super fun!

We like to paint the deck with water using regular paintbrushes too. I use my no spill paint pots so my 2 year old doesn't promptly dump it out. This is PERFECT when trying to accomplish something in the kitchen. 

Okay. Where was I. Oh! Right. 15 minute rest and reflextion.

By this point, you will be 100%!!!

You will have enough energy to put the children in the tub, in bed (hair braided), clean kitchen, sweep floors vacuume rug and even blog!

How to survive Motherhood: Always revert to the 15 minute rest in the evenings!!!

Getting your child to bed without a fuss

Want to get your child to bed without a fuss?

Then transform their room into a hotel, and they'll be begging to go to bed!!!

This post is based on ACTUAL events:

Tonight, Rachel requested a hotel in her room. I asked her how we were going to do that. She indicated all we needed were some chairs, her snow white (snowman) blankie, her 'real' blankie, and that was all! I suggested we add a TV, so she drew on a shoebox. She told me that we needed a remote, so we taped together some popsicle sticks and she added the buttons with her marker. 

 

When her hotel bed was created, she asked enthusiastically, 20 minutes before it was even time to get ready for bed, "Mommy, can I please go to bed RIGHT NOW!?!?!?" Sometimes it's just so hard to say no *sigh.* I told her she could only go to bed if she paid me money, because it costs a lot of money to stay at a hotel. She dug out all her pennies and handed them over happily. She was so excited to go to sleep, she actually forgot all about watching tv and left her tv on the kitchen table!

 This was the nice pose. 

And then . . . 

 This was the silly face pose, 

which she has recently become so fond of. 

Here are some more examples of her fondness of it, just for fun!

This is my fave'! We actually have a progression of photos of her making various silly faces in this moment, and it is very entertaining to flip through them quickly! Cheap entertainment baby!

Keepin' Lunch Time Fresh and Fun!

Is your child tired of boring old sandwiches? 

No longer interested in lunch? 

Then try . . . 

"The Circle Lunch!"

This lunch can then be followed by a delicious round cookie!

Rice Krispies Re-Created

My daughter wanted to make Rice Krispie Squares this weekend. It occurred to me that someone out there has probably re-invented the rice krispie square to make it healthier. I love making my baked goods have some nutritional value and lower sugar content if possible. Thanks to nutritionist Joy McCarthy who posted her version here, we were able to do just that! 

I modified the recipe slightly by mixing in half a cup of sunflower seeds, as well half a cup of wheat bran. I'll probably add more of each next time. I sprinkled ground flax on top, then added sprinkles on top because when you're 3, everything needs sprinkles. 

These Rice Krispies were DELICIOUS, and hard to resist.

I'm thinking this is a great birthday party treat, and honestly, with sprinkles on top, what kid is going to know that these are actually a source of protein and are low in refined sugars?????

Hope your family gives this healthy twist a try together!!!!

Feature!

My last post was featured on:

Check out Best Toys for Toddlers for more great ideas!

Building with recyclables

Who needs blocks?  

A staff member at school, who's husband hates to throw anything out, brought in boxes of extra large empty peanut butter jars, as well as coffee cans, for us to build with at preschool. We replaced our standard wooden blocks with this alternative for a month and a half. The possibility of what to do with multiple sized containers that stack, roll, open and close are absolutely endless. These are a MUST HAVE resource if you teach preschoolers OR have a toddler at home! 

Eventually, we switched back to our standard blocks. We don't have any room at school to store these, so I decided to store them at home in my storage room. But first, I let Micah at them, who is now 21 months. He's been having a blast stacking them, and knocking them over. 

The same affect can be accomplished with empty ice cream containers or large mayonnaise jars. 

Yay for recycling! 
Now all you need to do is find your local hoarder/environmentalist who can't throw anything out, and you'll be set!

Homemade Mop

So mopping can be a challenge when you have an 18 month old (he's actually 19 months, but I don't like to say that). He just gets in the way, and tries to take the mop from you. 

So thankfully Daddy had a pile of old white t-shirts that I could tear into strips, then tie together with an elastic. I tied the bundle onto the stick with elastics too. 

He stayed occupied until I was done mopping. Then his sister mopped after him. SO, my floors were the cleanest they've ever been!

What to do on a snow day

We had a snow day here in New Brunswick (well actually, more like a rain day - freezing rain and messy roads). So what to do with a whole day ahead of you, where you can spend time together instead of being at preschool? Well, you can . . .

 *Play Restaurant. Take an order. 'Write' it down. Pay your money. Eat a delicious lunch!

* Skate on Cake Pans. 'Nuf said.

*Make puppets out of toilet paper rolls. Then destroy them an hour later (if you're Rachel)

*Play catch with a cold pack (and laugh hysterically for unknown reasons while doing it)

*Make a double batch of granola bars, and lick the spoons when you're done. These are a staple in our house. I always freeze a batch for later (or my husband will inhale them). We add ground flax, pumpkin seeds, and a variety of nuts to ours. And don't drizzle chocolate on top, because chocolate's not allowed at preschool.

*Practice your Picasa skills for work (Mommy)

Now we're going to make rhubarb crisp to go with homemade hamburgers for supper, just to stick our tongue out at the winter weather. And I might read a few chapters from my current book (Orange is the New Black by Piper Kerman). And throw a load of laundry into the mix, just to make my day complete :o)