"I Can Go Anywhere.."

Hello! Happy Tuesday and I hope you all had a nice Memorial Day spending time with loved ones and remember those who have fought for our freedoms and served our country with their very lives. I’m grateful to any of you in the service or who have loved ones in the service. Thank You!

I had 3 days off from work (woot woot) so I got to spend more time than usual with my Lil Toot :) We did some shopping and on the way there and back she talked non stop to her new “pet/friend” (not really sure what to call it). It was pretty cute and I wanted to share it with you. Only after the fact did I think about doing a voice recording of it (since I was you know driving and all... maybe next time ;)

(After seeing some birds flying out the window)

Lil Toot (2 3/4 yrs old):  “Mama?  I want those birdies.” she said cupping her hands holding them out towards the window and the birds. “Come here birdies. I want to hold you.” Pulling her hands together close to her chest, “I will take care of you and give you lubs (loves)... don’t be scared, I’ve got you. Mama? Do you got some birdies too?” 

Me: “Um Yes, I have one too, but only one because I’m driving (that’s smart right?)” 

Lil Toot: “I want some more birdies. Should we look for a big birdie? Do you see one? Can you get it?” holding her hands out once again.

Me: “I got one! I got a big birdie.” I was excited to play along until she changed the rules ;)

Lil Toot: “Um nope, we have to get TINY birdies to hold in my hands... Oh! I got some,” clutching her hands close to her heart again. “I love you tiny birdies. I will keep you safe.  You have to fly now.” She holds her hands out a bit so the birdie can fly off I imagine. “Fly high in the sky, birdie... Oh! you bonked (it’s head) I’m sorry birdie, are you alright birdie? I will take care of you and take you to my home, okay?” 

I’m not sure about the imagining the birdie got hurt just so she could take care of it, but at least she didn’t just hurt it for fun, right? ;)

So this got me thinking a bit about imagination and how not only fun it is, but how important too especially for the young ones. I’m kinda a word freak so of course, I looked it up:

World English Dictionary

imagination  (ɪˌmædʒɪˈneɪʃən)
— n
1	the faculty or action of producing ideas, esp mental images of what is not present or has not been experienced
2	mental creative ability
3	the ability to deal resourcefully with unexpected or unusual problems, circumstances, etc

So then, of course, I looked it up in Wikipedia...

“Imagination helps provide meaning to experience and understanding to knowledge; it is a fundamental faculty through which people make sense of the world,[1][2][3] and it also plays a key role in the learning process.”

“Most famous inventions or entertainment products were developed from the inspiration of someone's imagination.”

And then... I read some articles on BabyCenter (which I won’t bombard you with, but definitely worth a read if your interested there are several. BUT I loved this...

And when you use your imagination with him — "Look, I'm a tiger in the jungle!" "Let's pretend we're going to Grandma's house" — you spur his brain to forge "imagination pathways" of its own. ~~ BabyCenter article “How To Raise An Imaginative Child”

‘Spur his brain to forge IMAGINATION PATHWAYS of its own’... LOVE this!! 

I know we are all busy, but try to make extra ‘imagination time’ with your little ones... to encourage and nurture their imaginations which lead to dreams which can lead to unlimited possibilities after all...

“Most famous inventions or entertainment products were developed from the inspiration of someone's imagination.”  

I love to play imagine with my girlie, maybe because I'm a fantasy writer and love to read I'm geared towards it, but I think it's important either way. What say you?  

I’d love to hear about some of the fantastic imaginations there are out there! Please feel free to share in the comments or email me.

MamaToots!

Made me think of Reading Rainbow:...

Butterfly in the sky
I can go twice as high
Take a look
It's in a book
A Reading Rainbow

I can go anywhere
Friends to know
And ways to grow
A Reading Rainbow

I can be anything
Take a look
It's in a book
A Reading Rainbow
A Reading Rainbow

You Know You're A Mama When...

There are many mushy things I was thinking about writing about Mothers (and perhaps I'll save that for another time), but I was having a hard time wrapping my head around it and finding the right words. So instead, in honor of Mother's Day, I thought it would be fun to do a post similar to "You know you're a child of the 80's if..." I asked for outside participation on this one, so if something sparks a thought, feel free to continue adding them in the comments!


"You Know You're A Mama When..."

In public, sans kids, you catch yourself (hopefully) right before shouting "Bus!" bc you know they get excited when they see one as you drive in the car.

Your out for coffee with another adult (also sans kids) and yet you still cut your banana bread into four's bc, well that's how you like to eat it of course ;)

Looking for your keys in your purse, you pull out diapers, wipes, toys, spoons, etc until you remember that you gave them to your kid to keep them occupied in the car.

You keep watching their cartoons even when your kid got bored and moved on.

You realize that it may or may not have been several days since your last shower and you may or may not be wearing a shirt with spit up and dried God knows what on it for perhaps the second time.

You let your daughter keep pulling the heads off your flowers bc well, she gets so excited to pick them and bring them to you.

You're looking for a napkin in the car and all you can find are diapers.

You start having choppy conversations bc your brain gets use to constantly being interrupted... no? so that's just me then? ;)

You forego the things on your “to-do list” to read a book, play legos, or whatever it is that the little person pulling on your leg to get your attention away from your computer, Iphone, or whatever the case may be to do their bidding.

You realize that you are about to go out the door and you got everyone else ready but your makeup isn’t finished or you forgot to brush your teeth or your hair didn’t get done.

Your heart is so full of a love that you had never known before until you were "Mama".

~~~~~

Your little on is sick and you pray that you could just trade places with him/her ~ Patty M.

You can’t close the door when you go to the bathroom, at least not expectin it to stay closed ~ Kimberly A.L.

You get a snotty, slobbery kiss from your toddler and it doesn't gross you out as much as you thought it would BK (Before Kids). Also, I never drank coffee until I had kids. Now I completely understand the need. ~ Not Just Another Jennifer @MidwestMomments

You start looking at diaper bags the same as you did those awesome leather purses currently hanging in your closet.

You stop caring if people think your house is nice and you just wish they'd think your kids were nice.

You plan your day according to when Sesame Street is on.

You have signed a check with a crayon.

You find Goldfish crackers in the glove box of your car.

You wipe other kids' noses.

You have accidentally brushed your teeth with Desitin.

You leave for a date with your husband carrying a diaper bag instead of your purse.

You know your a mom when the weekend isnt really the end of your week. ~Rachael V.

You go outside in freezing temps to spray poop off of a diaper.

You can't remember when your last shower was but you can remember what the kid had for snack three days ago. ~Catherine S.W.


You bed time is not only quiet time for the kids but for you as well.
Your house is trashed 20 min after you cleaned it.
Your freezer is stocked with chicken nuggets and fries ~ Jodey C. M.

~~~~~

A very dear friend of mine was inspired to write her own blog post to coincide with this topic. Please go check out her post to read more of her hilarious "You know you're a Mama when..." at Improperly Forward. Here are a few of hers:

You're walking through a store and a baby crying six aisles away suddenly has your shirt soaked in milk and you're in a cold sweat. No one else on earth can perform such a trick.

You can distinguish cries by level of importance/emergency.  After a few year's practice you can also pick your kid's cry out of a million others within a three block radius when they crash their bike and skin their knee. Again.

After a day of being whined to, yelled at, and brought to near tears by the offender, as soon as their baby blue eyes close for sleep all is forgiven, and they bring you back to being the luckiest girl in the world.

~~~~~


Thank you to everyone who contributed, it was a lot of fun!!


Happy Mother's Day to all you Mama's out there!
MamaToots




I'm linking up today with Bees With Honey's blog hop click the cute badge for more fun!

The Versatile Blogger Award!!

You guys this is my FIRST online award and I owe it all to the fans!


Well, actually, I owe it all to Bruna from Bees With Honey.  Thank You Bruna! I am honored and truly excited to receive this award and to be listed among those you deemed worthy to receive it.  Thank You!


There are some rules that go along with this:

1. You have to Thank the person who awarded you & link them back in your post.  Thank you Bruna!

2. Tell everyone 7 random facts about yourself.  I love coffee, BOOKS, playing with my toddler, wasting time on twitter, writing my novel, spending time with friends, and traveling.

3. Pass the award on to 10 new bloggers.

4. Contact each blogger and let them know you’ve passed the award on to them, & let the “giver” know you accept the award.

Here are bloggers (and Tweeters) I have recently discovered and/or just simply enjoy:

Keli@ImproperlyForward

Heidi@LittleMommyFooFoo

MamaCrass@TheSassyPieHole

MammyWoo@MissLexyWoo

Katie@SluiterNation

Jen@BuriedWithChildren

Bumbling@BumblingAlong

Natalie@MyCrazyBusyLife

MadsMom@ADiaryofAMadWoman

Julie@3momsin1

Check out these fabulous ladies and their blogs! Please make sure to check out the fabulous Bruna@BeesWithHoney who generously awarded me with The Versatile Blogger Award. 

Thanks and Share the Love!

MamaToots

MamaToots Personal Ramblings- Sillynesses

I had an idea that when I became a mama that I would go to great lengths to make my child smile and laugh, to keep the entertained, to keep them from crying, or stop them from crying. After all, I watched two sisters and multiple friends create all kinds of "sillyness" to accomplish the same thing.

The other day I had a very prominent "sillyness moment" (one of many to be sure).  My daughter is 1 1/2 and I have only on rare occasions been able to get her from the carseat to her bed for nap time without waking her up; or at the very least, being able to get her to go back to sleep.  I go to ridiculous measures to keep her awake when I know we are getting close to nap time and we are out in the car.

This is how it unfolded: We had just left a play time at a friend's house and I could sense -as I am quite intuitive- the quiet blanket of sleepiness start to fall upon her (also known as restlessness, eye rubbing, and yawning).  We were about 15 min away from our destination and hopefully a long satisfying nap.  So, of course, we hit about every red light possible.  And of course, being the good driver that I am, weaving through traffic and taking the most direct routes I can think of ahead of time while still obeying all traffic laws.  All the while trying to entertain my daughter by singing her favorite songs (Itsy Bitsy Spider, Row Row Your Boat, If Your Happy and You Know It Clap Your Hands, ABC's), counting from 1-10 with her, and pointing our every landmark that I think she would find interesting as she pointed at every big truck calling them "tractors" (except for some reason she knew "bus") along with all their colors.  She was close enough behind me in our sedan that I could clap my hands on her feet (safely while driving, of course) and try to keep her excited about life as we approached our destination.  Her eyelids slowly drooping then she would look at me and giggle as if she knew the ploy all along.

Thanks to the suggestion of a friend from a previous conversation on this very matter (the same friend we had just left, in fact) I resorted to my final tactic: window rolling.  I would roll down random windows in the car to let the breeze in -now people, it was 26 DEGREES today so this was a blast of arctic air which led us to the "Oooo's" rising to high pitches then ending with "BURRR, COLD" which she would laugh and say "Cold" (now of course I let the car warm up before I did it again, I'm not cruel ;).  She would then say, "Again! Again!".

It WORKED!  We made it to our destination awake and even more ready for her nap.  Looking back on the event, because it was an EVENT, I wondered what it must have looked like to the car next to us: Sillyness that's what!

To me, these new "sillynesses" (yes, that's a new word I just made up) that I have incorporated into my life are part of what makes life fun.  It's the childlike "sillynesses" and fun that I can enjoy with my little girl that makes me smile and brings joy to my heart.

There are many, MANY "sillynesses" that we as parents do (Don't even deny it, I know you do it too) ;) and this was only one of mine.  Whether it be weird or crazy voices, funny faces, silly dances (I do my fair share of these too), or something of your own creativity we want to know!  What are yours?  Please share with us...

MamaToots!