Guest Post: The Small Things

Today I have a special guest post from wonderful Mama of 3, Nicole G. Please welcome her as she shares from her own experiences that I know we all can relate to as "Mama".

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Sometimes as moms and dads we are so wrapped up in making sure that everything is “done”. We get up early to make sure the lunches are made and the hair is fixed and breakfast is eaten. We rush around yelling and screaming and grabbing last night’s homework and buckling in the car so we’re not late for school. Then we either go on our way to work or back home to a mountain of laundry that awaits us. We try to fit in our daily workouts and remember to take out the frozen meat for tonight’s dinner. Dinner, baths and bedtime are a blur…and it’s a great night when we don’t get woken up a couple times for drinks or potty time. We do it all day after day. Week after week. Month after month. It’s like a well oiled machine…But there are those times in our lives when we feel like we may have run out of oil. The machine is not running so smoothly and it all needs a quick trip to the mechanic. In those times when everything is falling apart that’s when I remember the little things that mean so much to me, the small miracles that make me smile.

When I’ve hit the snooze button too many times and now we’re all running around and screaming at each other like crazy chickens, I think of the way my three babies smelled last night after their baths. There is nothing like the smell of baby lotion on clean babies. Nothing. 

When I’ve realized that I left a wet load of laundry in the washing machine for three days and now it all smells like a wet dog. I think of the sound of my kids giggling while their dad wrestles with them on the living room floor. That little child like giggle that makes you think that all is right in the world. Where they laugh so hard, you’re sure they’re either gonna throw up or pee their pants. Then they beg him to stop tickling them, only to say, “Do it again, Papi”. 

When I’ve had “one of those days”, and I’ve yelled at my two year old so much that my throat hurts and Sesame Street isn’t even over yet. I think of the way it feels when he falls asleep in bed with me. When I can hear his still small breath and feel his heart beating next to mine, and know that he’s dreaming of dump trucks, superman costumes and Toy Story fruit snacks. 

When I get the urge to be brave and try something new for dinner. I rush to the store, work for hours, only to find out that none of my family liked it, I throw it all away and end up crying while I’m doing the dishes. I think of the way my daughter looked after school as she ran to the car when I picked her up. How she had the biggest smile on her face and waved at me from across the parking lot like I was her most favorite person in the world and she’d been dying to see me. 

When I finally get my kids’ jammies on and teeth brushed and they’re in bed, and I feel like this day was never going to end, I pray with them. And I hear their sweet little innocent voices saying, “We love you Jesus, Amen” I realize that this is why I do it. This is why I get up in the middle of the night when someone is thirsty. This is why I gave up sorority parties and college dorm room experiences. This is why I choose to forgo luxurious things in exchange for diapers, nursing bras, and footie pajamas. 

I am a mom. Things aren’t always going to be smooth and easy. I will have my fair share of bad days. But everything will be alright as long as I remember the little things that make me get up in the morning and want to do it all over again.

What are the little things in your life that make you smile? 

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Thank you Nicole! It's so important to remember 'the small things'. I often find myself getting caught up in the "to do's" for the day or in the "how I think things should go" which usually don't, but then I take a deep breath and look at the "bigger picture" or in my case my Lil Toot. Even now as I'm trying to get this post ready she's pulling at me to go play, trying to sit in my lap, and wanting to "help" type. So I took some time to play. Yes, it took me longer to get this out, but her shriek of excitement made it worth it :)

Please give Nicole some feedback in the comments.

MamaToots

Tips&Tricks~ Thinking Outside the Box... Even with Laundry!

This is a special guest post from a mom of 3 who has some great practical and creative ways of simplifying the daily pain in the you-know-what chores that must get done.  Especially, when we have little ones running around making everything a little more complicated or taking a little more time than it would have sans kiddos. She is a special friend of mine. She likes to think outside the box to come up with creative and resourceful ways of doing even the more mundane things to help make life more practical and simple enabling her to have more focused family time.  Please meet Nicole A! You can find her over at ThingsOnlyParentsSay...

Exaggeration! (not really Nicole's laundry problem,
but obviously somebody's)

My solution to our Laundry problem:

Laundry is not my favorite chore. Yet, I was keeping up with it well enough until I got pregnant with our 3rd child. First, you should know that our laundry room is in the basement, while all of our bedrooms are on the second level of our house. Secondly, I was a new stay at home mom with a 3 1/2 year old, a 4 monthold and PREGNANT! We were shocked to say the least. (I am one of those not-so-lucky ladies that throws up for all 9 months of pregnancy too.) Well, once the sheer shock and slight terror wore off a bit, I took a look at a few things in my life. I realized pretty quickly, that some changes needed to be made in order to accommodate where we were at in life. I needed to simplify and mainstream as many things as possible.  

One of the biggest frustrations I was having was laundry - it felt like it was everywhere. Some was in our closets and dressers, dirty laundry was on the floor in all of our rooms, we had baskets of clean clothes on the floor in our rooms as well.  Of course, we had clothes in the laundry room too - some dirty in piles, others clean but unfolded, etc. Getting myself dressed in the morning was a chore (running up and down the stairs searching for different items) - let alone trying to get the kids all dressed. I was finding myself more & more frustrated by the day. I felt like I could never find ANYTHING! 

So, one day I asked myself why I was continuing the lunacy. What I was doing wasn't working - that much was clear. So, I needed to think outside the box. I finally came up with something that would work for me and my family. I didn't have a name for it for a long time, but over the years, I've come to realize that I am not the only one out there to do this. This crazy thing that I decided to do is called a 'family closet'. 

I decided to have all of our clothes stay in the laundry room. I set up dirty laundry baskets on one side. Then on the other side of the laundry room by the dryer, I set up a series of baskets for our clean laundry - every person in our family got their own basket (or baskets for those of us adults with more clothes). I set these baskets on a table like thing, so the clean clothes stay off the ground & to give the opportunity to utilize the space under the table. We also have a closet for hanging clothes. (I call our set up the ghetto version…if you google 'family closet' you will see some pretty sweet set ups, but you can do it on the cheap & just make it functional too.) I  also decided to hang bags (like grocery bag size) off the outer edge of each basket for everyone's socks & underwear. There are containers you could buy for this kind of stuff too…but mine was built out of desperation, so I used whatever I could find. I also quickly realized that I needed a separate bin for the clothes the kids have grown out of. (I find myself going through that bin about ever 4 to 6 months - to separate out by gender and donation vs. keep, etc.) 

Here's the beauty to this set up: 

1. I can go down to the laundry room and get clothes for myself & all of my children in one fell swoop. 

2. It made it way easier to fold laundry right away & set it in each person's basket and be done with it. 

3. When my hubby wakes up to go to work - he doesn't wake me up by bumping around our room. Now, he can just wake up and go down to the laundry room to get dressed. 

4. He can also just toss his dirty laundry in the appropriate baskets right away. Which makes doing laundry easier because I rarely have to go around to each room gathering huge piles. (I occasionally have to gather socks from rooms, but even that is really is not all that often.)

5. The grow out bin is nice to have right there, because I can toss the freshly laundered & folded clothes right into it, and I don't have to do a grand sorting - I can just do it easily while doing laundry. 

6. Even as our kids get a little bit older, their rooms don't get messy with clothes & dirty laundry. 

Examples from LotsofKids.com

Here's the weaknesses of this set up (full disclosure):

1. Clothes in the baskets can become messed up pretty easily (especially when in a hurry), so I do need to take a little bit of time every once in a while to re-organize each persons area. 

2. When life is really crazy, I sometimes settle for draping each persons clothes in their baskets or areas rather than folding them…not as organized looking, but still functional. 

3. You don't really have room for other seasonal clothing, so when the seasons change, you have to do some swapping out.

Overall, the positives SO far outweigh the negatives. ESPECIALLY early on. Even though, it's not the traditional way…it really is a system that works for us. It instantly lowered my stress level in that department. Now, it's hard to imagine doing anything else. Laundry is just so streamlined, that changing it to be more 'normal' feels like an act of stupidity and making our life more complicated. 

I guess more than anything - this is me encouraging you to give yourself permission to think outside of the box and do what works for you and your family. :-)

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Thank You Nicole for sharing with us one of your tips & tricks! If this inspired you, or you have a tip that has simplified your life with kids (if it's short go ahead and leave it in the comments, but if it's longer submit it for a post similar to this one), please share it with us.

Enjoy your weekend,

MamaToots! 

Guest Post ~ Day At the Zoo Through the Eyes of a 3yo

I have been thinking about how fun it would be to do some posts from a child’s perspective and I cam across this post of a 3yo’s commentary on her day at the Zoo.  I LOVE this! I also love how she captured it with her pics! 

Please meet Amelia via her mom, Julie.  Julie is a part-time WAHM sharing how she is learning to balance work, life, and adventurous 3 year old Amelia over at her blog: 3Momsin1.   Enjoy!...

 A Zoo-riffic Adventure!

After more than a month of cold temperatures and gray skies, the SUN CAME OUT!

The forecast predicted a high temperature of 64. They were wrong... it ended up reaching 70 degrees! What a wonderful, gorgeous day.

The Atlanta area doesn't get much bad winter weather (our January snowpocalypse was shocking!), but our months are very gray. Clearly, the sun has a winter home in south Florida. After weeks of depression-inducing weather blahs, when that first sunny day hits Atlanta, the people head outdoors. The nearby parks were so crowded, it looked like ants pouring out of an anthill.

We knew we had to relish the incredible day as well. We took Amelia on her very first trip to the zoo! This was a huge event for such an animal lover. And she was at a perfect age. She kept her eyes wide with wonder and a spring in her step as we discovered meerkats and lemurs, snakes and gila monsters, panda bears and lions.

In true Amelia fashion (and with typical loud preschooler volume), she kept the commentary running the entire time.



"Woah, those are the biggest I've ever seen!"



"He was scratching his bum! What's his name? Oh, Ivan! Hi Ivan! You have an itch on your bum!?!"

 

"Panda bear! Snacktime for panda bear! Hey, Mommy! She said he is three! When it's my birthday party, I will be three! Hey bear... Amelia is three too!!!"



"He's so funny! It's a tired sleepy day! Hey kangaroo... WAKE UP!!!!"

"It's OK baby elephant... your daddy isn't here? Oh, he's at work. He will be home soon! Shhh, baby elephant. It's OK. You'll be fine. Shhhh, shhhh."

And a silent Amelia in the middle of the path. She did not want to go home.

Thank You Julie over at 3Momsin1 for sharing this post with us! Please show her some love and visit her site.  Another of her posts you might enjoy is her finale to her Potty Training with Amelia, it's funny and has some great tips. Congrats Amelia!

If you enjoyed today's post, please let us know in the comments!

Thanks for visiting today!  If your little ones are non-stop commentators or have a funny conversation with you, please send it in HERE or straight to our ToddleToots email.  I think there is something healthy, not to mention just down right cute and sometimes hilarious, to view things from a child’s perspective.  

MamaToots

Guest Post ~ Story Time with Mama B.

One of the fun parts about being a Mama for me, is hearing experiences from others and the things they love about being “Mama”.  We have a special guest post from a Mama who combined 2 of my favorite things: snuggle time and reading.  * Love *

Meet Bruna. She is an elementary school teacher in Vancouver, BC where she lives with her husband and 3 daughters.  She has a blog Bees With Honey

“I took up blogging because I enjoy writing and blogging provides me a venue through which I can share my journey through life. I love to share what inspires me, what I enjoy, what I’m up to ~ at the same time ~ also sharing the challenges I face trying to balance a career and a home life.”

Please Welcome Bruna!  

 As a mother and a teacher, I love any time I spend reading stories to children. I love books and have been collecting my favourites since I began my Teacher Education training many years ago.

At home, I love it how my girls get as excited about books as I do. We can never go to bed at night without having Story Time. No way!  They will run to our “quiet room” (a room for just sitting, socializing or reading) and go through our mini-library to choose the books they want to read with either their Dad or myself. Sometimes, big sister B sits and reads with them too and they really *love* it!

My favourite part of the whole Story Time experience is how the girls sit one on each side of me and cuddle into me as closely as possible. They love to snuggle when we read books and so do I.  Sometimes, I will even read an extra book just to keep them snuggled up to me for a few minutes longer.

Now, being a teacher, I always do Story Time the same way whether I’m reading to my students or my own children. Habit, I guess.  I want to make sure they’re getting the most out of their reading experience.

So I’m dedicating this post to all of my Mommy friends and readers out there who read with their children on a daily basis. I want to share with you the steps I follow when reading with my girls. Keep in mind that my girls are 2 and 4 years old. I might vary what I do with older children but the framework remains the same.

I hope you find this helpful!...

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Making Story Time Meaningful

1. We look at the front cover of the book and we read the title of the story and the name of the author and illustrator. It’s important to point these things out to children. They need to know how a book works and understand that a book is written and illustrated by people who have names. We might talk about how you open a book, hold it and how you turn the pages, specifically how we go from left to right.

2. Before commencing our reading, I will always draw the girls attention to the front cover of the book and ask them to look at the illustration. I will then ask them to guess what the story inside the book might be about. The girls love to share their predictions and in doing this, I’m getting them thinking and wondering and igniting their imaginations.

3. I always use my finger to track the words when I read so that the girls know that each word I touch on the book represents a word I say aloud. By doing this, they will  see that my finger goes from left to right and back again and repeats this pattern as I read. They will eventually learn that a letter represents a sound, a collection of letters represent a word and a collection of words represent a sentence, all of which are concepts of print.

4. While reading, I will always draw attention to the illustration on the page and ask the girls to point things out to me. Where is the kitten? Can you see the little mouse? By doing this, I’m showing the girls that the illustrations offer a lot of valuable information that we should also pay attention to. When kids begin reading themselves, the illustrations are often where the kids will look to for clues when unable to read a word. We teach this strategy in school. By encouraging them to engage in the books’ illustrations at a young age, we’re equipping them with a useful reading strategy that they will most definitely come to use over and over again once they begin learning how to read on their own.

5. At different places in the book, I will often stop reading and half-way close the book. I will then ask my girls a few questions like, ” What do you think will happen next? Will Bear find his way home or be lost forever? What would you do if you were Bear and were lost?”.  By asking these types of questions, I’m inviting the girls to engage and connect with the characters and to relate to them by drawing on their own personal experiences.  It’s amazing how much learning we do as people simply by relating to things based on our own personal experiences. By asking children questions, we are better able to assess their overall understanding.

6. Once we’ve finished reading our story, I will usually encourage the girls to share with me their favourite parts. Each of us will take turns sharing our thoughts.  I sometimes will ask them to re-tell what happened in the story along with listing me the names of the characters. My 4 year-old *loves* re-telling any story in her own words. This gets everyone talking about the book so that I’m able to see just how much each of the girls understood the story’s main elements.

7. Before we move on to our next story, I always ask the girls to rate the book according to how much they like or disliked it. Two thumbs up means they loved it. Two thumbs down means they didn’t like it. Two thumbs turned side-ways towards each other means the book was just “okay”. I think it’s important for children to voice their opinions about books they read and it also provides me with a better idea of the types of books I should be looking to buy or borrow from the library.  We always need more books!

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If we’re reading a story during the day, I may ask the girls to draw me a picture of their favourite part of a story once we’re done reading. They love doing this and it gets them using words we’ve learned from reading.

This Mama will do anything to turn an activity into an educational experience.
It’s a gift, I know.

Or maybe, it’s just the teacher in me that never goes away:)

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I LOVE this post and am INSPIRED to try new reading techniques with my daughter.  Thank You Bruna!  Please show some love and visit Bruna’s site Bees With Honey to see her original post Story Time with Mama B. and much more.  You can find her at her blog, Facebook, and Twitter by clicking on her cute “button”.

Please share your comments with us, what did you think? Do you have any reading rituals or techniques?