Barley is (almost) 4 months old and let me tell ya…having a 3 year old toddler and 4 month old puppy is NOT for the faint of heart. I find myself wondering who got into the toilet paper, who broke the crayon to pieces on the living room floor, who took the laundry out of the laundry basket, etc. IT IS A LOT OF WORK. Why did we decide together a puppy you might ask?!?
Bake some treats for your neighbors
This has to be my favorite–and one we will definitely be doing again this year. Last year, Little Girl and I baked banana bread for our neighbors, but this year I think we may make an assortment of treats, like pumpkin spice donut holes, healthy chocolate peanut butter fudge, coconut-cranberry peanut butter truffles and my triple chocolate peanut butter truffles from the Healthy Holidays eBook. We like to attach a Bible verse proclaiming Christ’s birth.
Last year, we delivered the bread on a rare white Christmas morning, and it was a blast getting to know our neighbors (most of whom invited us inside!).
I don’t want to think that we will be in a lockdown yet again, but with the COVID cases rising, the election going a bit crazy and everyone a bit on edge about this virus, I feel like it may just happen. With that being said, if you have littles this is something you may dread. The last lockdown left us with little imagination to make the lockdown “fun” and interesting anymore. We executed some pretty amazing plans to keep the littles busy and did that for many months only to now have no ideas left. I thought I’d help a momma, daddy, grandma, grandpa, aunt, uncle, caretaker out and get some new, fresh ideas out there in case we are quarantined once again.
I don’t know about you, but my toddler has become a picky eater these days and it drives me CRAZY! She doesn’t like veggies, won’t eat meat, and wants to snack all day long. What is a desperate momma to do? I will tell ya! Head to the internet and grab some ideas on how to stop your picky eater from turning his/her nose up at everything they are offered, that’s what!
Times are strange these days. 2020 has proven to throw curveball after curveball, including in our education system, making it difficult to maintain “normalcy.” So what is a parent to do when trying to get their little one to learn without the ability to drop him/her off to an actual location?
Let’s talk about the child safety harness. I have three girls and have been in situations where I feel like they are all 3 going in different directions and I am COMPLETELY overwhelmed and in over my head…and a child harness would be ideal. But on the other hand, sometimes the thought of one makes me uneasy. Talking about child leashes is like talking about political parties. Parents are either strongly for or strongly against them.
As we start getting ready to return to a new type of “norm” at school, it is smart to prepare your child for what things may be like. If you are anything like the school districts around Ohio, then you know that each district has its own plan in place. Some schools are going back as normal with the use of masks, some schools are on a hybrid of 1/2 remote learning and 1/2 attending the physical location, and some schools are solely remote learning.
Alright my mommas out there who have been dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic (Ahem…that is ALL of us)…Are you going stir crazy like myself? We have literally done every art activity I can fathom.
Your two-year-old is being complimented by your neighbor and when they have given the compliment, your child sticks their tongue out at them. Or how about this one…Your three-year-old is at the dinner table and doesn’t like dinner so s/he throws their plate of food on the floor. If either of these sound remotely familiar, you are not alone and the light can be seen at the end of the tunnel if you just look for it.
The quarantine has got me in a different jive than I’m used to these days and getting creative is starting to wear thin in my household. Sometimes you just need a good ole educational app on your devices to keep the kiddos entertained.