Advent Update: Week 1

After a long and tiresome day at the office last Monday (returning from a 4 day weekend is never fun), I was more than happy to get home, put on some cozy jammies, and kick off the first night of our advent calendar. I instructed Taylor approximately fifteen times to pull the white piece of paper out of the first stocking, but she thought that meant rip the entire calendar off the wall. (Guess we need to work on that.)

Eventually, everything was back in order and I was able to give her the first treat - Minnie Mouse bubble bath, which she promptly pulled the head off of and stuck in her mouth. Awesome. Apparently instead of making Santa beards in the bath tub, Day 1 should have been: Call Poison Control. She ended up having a stellar time in the tub and only consumed a couple hand fulls of bubbles. This activity was so fun that we have proceeded to do it every night since. Who says an activity has to be limited to just one day?

Day 2's activity was supposed to be watch "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" (classic cartoon version, of course) and paint our nails green, but as soon as I turned on the movie on Taylor wanted nothing to do with it. So, I quickly painted our nails then turned on Little Baby Bum and we had a dance party in the living room instead. For those of you who haven't discovered this YouTube channel, it's a lifesaver. I'm not sure what kind of child psychologist genius thought this up, but these videos will hold Taylor's attention longer than anything else we've tried. She dances, claps, and sings along to these videos as if they're the greatest thing on the planet. Credit totally goes to Jake for discovering these works of art. Kuddos, babe.

The activity for Day 3 was making mini Christmas pizzas for dinner. Our shapes of choice were Christmas trees and Santa heads (although the Santa heads are kind of hard to make out). As per usual, Tay screamed while I prepped the dough, but she had a blast dipping her fingers in the tomato sauce and eating pepperonis. Since this was her first time ever eating pizza (what?! I know...), I was excited to see her reaction. She took a bite, grinned from ear to ear, and proceeded to gobble up the entire plate. Overall, this was a quick and fun activity that could be recreated for any holiday. I must warn you that my kitchen was covered in flour and pizza toppings by the time we were finished, so create at your own risk.

Since December is a busy birthday month in our family (thanks to Valentine's Day, I'm sure), our activity for Day 4 was to make birthday cards for Granny, Aunt Stacey, and cousin Natalie. What I thought would be a super fun activity for a girl who colors every day at day care ended up being a tot covered in stickers with a mouth full of markers and my craft room a complete disaster. We managed to make it through 2 cards before deciding to throw in the towel. I finished the third card after I put Tay to bed. I'm guessing our babysitter is the true artist behind those pictures hanging on our fridge.

Day 5 was by far the best Advent Day to date! We got home Friday evening, had a quick dinner/bath, then snuggled up on the couch with a pouch of cotton candy and the best holiday movie ever - ELF! As soon as I opened the cotton candy, Tay grabbed a handful and shoved it in her mouth. She looked at me, grinning from ear to ear, and then clapped and squealed! Best. Reaction. Ever. She looked so grown  up sitting on the couch, eating her candy, and watching the movie (which held her attention for a solid 45 minutes). Huge success. This girl obviously has great taste in flicks.

Thankfully, the next day was Saturday which meant a lazy morning lounging in bed snacking on Cheerios and watching cartoons. That afternoon, we met Jake for lunch then headed over to Bass Pro for a visit with Santa Clause. Last year, Taylor was a mere 3 months old when she met the bearded man so her reaction this year was a bit different. She was perfectly fine as she walked up to him (and she loved the mechanical reindeer surrounding him), but she went ballistic as soon as he picked her up. Girlfriend twisted and contorted her body every which way until she was able to break free from his arms. She simply wasn't having it. And since I ended up having to hold her while standing next to Santa, I am not posting a copy of our actual photo. After our Santa adventure, we sent Jake back to work and headed off to do more shopping. Taylor had me rolling with these raccoon earmuffs that we found at Michael's. She refused to take them off and kept waving at everyone we passed in the store. She's so easily entertained.

That brings us to Day 7, the end of our first week of fun. While Sunday's activity was supposed to be Bake Christmas Cookies, it turned into a second lunch date with Daddy followed by more shopping (it turns out there were a few people on my Christmas list that I forgot to buy for). So, we made the most of it and decided to pick out a new ornament for Taylor's tree. Her tree has remained bare ever since she Hulk-smashed 2 of my ornaments on the kitchen floor, so we decided to go with something non-breakable and chose this stuffed fox. Here she is shoving hanging it on her tree. Five seconds later, she threw it down the hall. Glad we chose something tot-friendly.

Seven days down, 18 more to go. This week I've learned which activities work and which just...don't. Unfortunately, she's still too little for some things. But most importantly, we've had a lot of fun in the process, and our days without Daddy are rolling by! 

Now it's on to week 2...

14 Months

After my last monthly post, I'm happy to report that Taylor has finally returned to her sweet self. While the word "no" is still used entirely too often in our house, the tot is finally learning some limits as to what she can and cannot get away with. And this happened just in time, because I'm extremely tired of her and the dog getting into the trash can. The tantrums have decreased and the hugs and smooches have increased. Perhaps it's the magic in the air surrounding the holiday season or maybe she just realized that I was at my wit's end. Whatever the cause, this month has been a total win. So glad to have my happy, smiling girl back!

With the holidays approaching, our weekends have been spent out and about buying our usual weekly groceries and hunting for Christmas gifts. I gotta give the tot props, because she does so well when we go shopping. She proudly rides in the cart looking and waving at everyone we pass by. So many people stop to comment on how well-behaved or cute she is, and she gladly eats up their attention. Usually, we try to find a toy or stuffed animal that she can play with while in the store (but rarely do they ever get to come home with us). This keeps her occupied while I circle the home goods section for the 20th time.

Last weekend while out to lunch, I decided to give Taylor a bit of my pickle spear. She wasn't sure at first, but after her second bite she was clapping and smiling from ear to ear. The kid loved it and went on to devour the entire thing. Jake was sitting across the table gagging the entire time due to his extreme aversion to pickles, but I was elated. Pickles are one of my favorite snacks (in fact, I ate them on the regular throughout my pregnancy), so I'm glad the tot enjoys them as well!

While Taylor still enjoys trying new foods, she hates the fact that I have to take my attention away from her for 5 seconds in order to actually cook them. In order to alleviate unnecessary tantrums, I let her sit on the counter next to me while I prep the food and let her help stir things. I've learned that it's better for both of us if I just let her help rather than trying to cook while she has a meltdown at my feet. After all, she's just curious and wants the do everything that I do, and I can't be mad about that. Once the food is prepped and in the oven, I turn the oven light on in so that she can check in on it as it's cooking. I'm not sure what's so mesmerizing about a casserole, but she will sit and stare at the oven for minutes at a time. Trust me, that's a long time in toddler world.

Aside from her love of food, our girl still loves, loves, loves to read. In fact, the first thing she does as soon as we get home is head to her room and grab a book. By the time I change out of my dress clothes, half of her body is completely buried in books. (Clearly, pulling every single one off the shelves is part of the fun.) She also loves to empty out the basket of toys and books that we keep in the living room. She pulls each object out one by one, grabs a book, then climbs in and reads. It may be the funniest yet messiest sight ever. But thankfully, this month she has also learned how to pick up her things. If I tell her to put her dirty clothes in the hamper or to pick up her toys, she does it. The first it happened, I nearly fell over. Obviously, a major parenting win. Tay learns some responsibility and I don't have to spend all of my free time picking up her crap.

Overall, this kid is a true delight to be around, and with each passing month we all learn something new. I know I say this every month, but this stage is oh so fun. She's finally playing well with others (learning to share has been an ongoing battle), has mastered all of her toys (thankfully Christmas is just around the corner), and is one smart cookie (thanks to all of that reading). She's friendly and sweet to everyone we meet and always offers a hug and kiss after she's been scolded. She is such a doll, and I'm so very thankful to call her ours.

Advent Activities

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...maybe not outside, but it certainly is around our house! While I refrained from putting out all of the decorations this past weekend, I decided to go ahead and assemble the 9" tree in our upstairs living room while Taylor napped for three and a half hours on Sunday. (That's 210 glorious minutes for anyone who's counting.) Talk about an early Christmas present - it was magical! When she awoke, I carried her into the living room anxiously awaiting the look on her face as she caught the first glimpse of the tree. She smiled and clapped as if it were the most fabulous thing she had ever seen, then she immediately ran down the stairs to touch it. Later that evening, we put a little 4" tree in her bedroom. I was clearly out of my mind caught up in the Christmas spirit when I decided to put ornaments on her tree, because I spent the rest of the night telling her "no, don't touch." Needless to say, the ornaments only lasted until Monday night.

That night when Jake got home from work, we put the tot to bed and went to work on her advent calendar. After reading this post last year, I was super inspired to recreate something similar for our tot this year. (Seriously, if you all don't follow Little Baby Garvin you are missing out. No joke.) We wanted to find a space where we could hang the calendar at Taylor's height and in a place that she went past every day (because with kids, if it's out of sight it's most definitely out of mind). So, we chose the hallway that leads from our bedrooms to the kitchen (which she travels up and down 50 times a day).

After we hung the calendar, we stuffed each stocking with a piece of paper that has an activity written on it. These activities include everything from making Santa beards in the bath tub, watching Rudolph and painting our nails red, surprising Daddy at work with coffee, and making cinnamon ornaments to decorating Christmas cookies, visiting Santa Clause, making red and green play dough, visiting the Magic Tree, decorating a gingerbread house, and making Christmas cards. Each activity has a small treat that goes along with it, most of which were dug out of the Target dollar bins. Sweets and treats, what's not to love?

Technically, I jumped the gun a bit since we can't actually start for another week, but after the long holiday weekend (which is sure to be full of food, shopping, and decorating) I know we'll be more than ready to start in on our Christmas fun come Monday. Maybe it's just the kid in me, but I cannot wait to do all of these fun activities with the tot. And with Jake practically living at work until Christmas Eve, I thought this would be a nice distraction from his absence. I'm all about making the countdown to Christmas just as exciting as the actual day itself. I mean, why limit the fun to just one day when you can celebrate an entire month?!

The Life of a Working Mother

I have been drafting this post for a while but have been hesitant about posting it. Such controversy lies within the topic of working moms versus stay at home moms, although I'm not sure why. Both are equally challenging in their own right, and both are equally unappreciated, in my opinion. And while I completely understand and respect the difficulties that come with being a stay at home mom, I can only write according to what I know - and what I know is the struggle that comes with being a working mother. So here are my two cents on the topic.

When I was little, I remember my mother constantly juggling a thousand different things. She would substitute teach during the day and attend night classes at a not-so-local college all while raising two young daughters and maintaining a household. My mother was very particular about when and how things were to be done. I used to think that she was crazy. What I didn't realize then was that my mom maintained such a tight schedule because that was the only way she could fit everything in. As a working mom myself, I understand the method to her madness. On a typical workday, I'm out of the house by 7:30 and lucky if I'm back in the door by 5:30. Then there's dinner to cook (accompanied by a hungry little mouth reminding me just how famished she is), then bath time, story time, and bedtime for the tot. Once she is asleep, it's off to pick up the house, do the dishes, fold the laundry, and finally bathe myself. After all of that is accomplished, it's 10:00 and I'm exhausted. Another day is done and my to-do list hasn't been touched.

Looking back now, I understand why my mother insisted that we spend time on the weekends doing chores and preparing for the work week. When every single second of Monday-Friday is completely consumed, there's no other option but to utilize Saturday and Sunday for the other necessary tasks that need to be done. And even though there just aren't enough hours in the day to get it all done, life still goes on. The struggle to raise children, maintain a happy household, and hold down a 9-5 is exhausting. Most days, I do my best just to keep up with everything (and my desk/purse/calendar are full of post-it notes to prove it). And even though our time together is limited throughout the week, I still try to do extra-special things for our tot, because I know that this time with her is precious and will be gone before I know it. She is only little once, and I want to ensure that her childhood is full of happy memories that she will look back on one day and smile.

On occasions when the daycare is closed, I am able to get a small taste of what life would be like if I were a stay at home mom. While it's a welcomed change of pace at the time, I'm not sure it's something I could swing full-time. Some days are wonderful - the tot is well behaved, she naps on schedule, and we laugh and play all day long. As most moms out there know, these days are few and far in between. Other days are a complete disaster that leave me pulling my hair out and begging to return to work. It's a never ending struggle. When I'm at work, I just want to be with her, but after too many days of tears and tantrums, I'm more than ready to return to the office. I realize this is a relief that most stay at home moms never get, and it makes me grateful that I have the option to do both.

But that constant feeling of being pulled in two different directions is always present. On one hand, I love spending time with my girl. I love going on long afternoon walks and having picnics in the middle of the living room floor. I love seeing the look on her face as she experiences something for the first time. I love when she crawls into my lap asking me to read her a book or when she holds on to a hug just a little longer because she needs that extra snuggle. But I also love watching her interact with the kids at daycare. I love how strong and independent she is, completely unafraid and always eager to play with anyone who is willing. I love how much she adores her sitter as well as the other kids and their parents. I love that she is able to make decisions on her own without Jake or I there to hold her hand. Unfortunately, this back and forth is a daily struggle that has yet to get any easier.

And even though I miss our girl all day every day, I know that being a working mom helps me to be a better mom. I enjoy feeling that sense of accomplishment after completing a labor-intensive project, but I also love seeing Tay's sweet face after a rough day. Being away from her throughout the week helps me to fully appreciate the time that I do get to spend with her. And although I am constantly wondering what she's doing or if she's happy, it comforts me to know that she is in good hands. It's never easy trusting someone else to care for your child, but I know it's also good for her to be content away from our home and around other people. An act that I know is easier for her than it will ever be for me.

At the end of the day, I just want what all parents do - I want my child to be happy, healthy, well-mannered, and well cared for. It just so happens that this is the route best suited for our family. If/when baby no. 2 comes along, well...that could be a different story!