Beating the Winter Blues

Is anyone else's kids going a bit stir crazy?  All this cold weather is getting to Parker I think.  He doesn't get outside much, and I know I should take him out more but I hate the snow and the cold! But when he is inside, he just wants to watch Paw Patrol all the time, which I hate!  So here are a few things that I do to try to keep Parker occupied.

Change Location
He often plays upstairs, so just by saying let's play downstairs, it sometimes gets him excited to play with different toys. 

Put Toys Out of Reach
Certain toys I put away and only get out when he needs a suggestion for an activity.  I do this with puzzles, games and his Melissa & Doug fishing set.  Then, he doesn't lose all of the pieces amongst his other toys and he's excited to play with it when I do get them out.

Get Creative
I like to get Parker's paint set out or a colouring book when he's bored.  To be honest it's not a long activity usually, but it gives him something different to do.  And because it's not something he does a lot he really enjoys it.  As he gets older we will likely start doing more specific creative activities and crafts!

Learning Activities
I love getting out the paint set or some other learning activity for him to occupy his time. Education.com is a great website to find a variety of worksheets that will keep your kids occupied while they are learning something!  They have so many worksheets, games, colouring pages.  I find that if I give Parker something productive to do he is entertained and so much happier.  I think some of their items might be too tricky for Parker yet, but there were also a ton of preschool worksheets that could get him started with tracing shapes, colouring and writing letters.  

Education.com has provided my readers with a free word search that you can get my clicking the link below.  The answer key is there too in case you can't figure it out!  You can find more resources that help with specific things such as spelling here.  I was a huge nerd in school and I think I would of loved if my mom had of printed out worksheets like this.  There are still kids out there like me, right?

Word Search 

Answer Key

Do you have any other ideas for fun ways to keep kids occupied when it's cold outside?

Sleep Issues with Kiddos

I remember when it felt like I would never get a full nights sleep.  Parker slept through the night from about 4-8 months old, and then stopped until a few months ago.  Cooper, as you may recall, was nursing up to 4 times a night until he was 11 months old.  I didn't know how to night wean him and couldn't imagine that he would ever sleep well.

I considered going to a sleep consultant because I was so overwhelmed with the idea of getting him to sleep.  Parker had always slept fairly well, and just woke once a night, drank some milk and went back easily.  But Cooper was obsessed with eating all night long!

But I knew what a sleep consultant would say.  Put them to bed earlier (like 6:30pm early).  Have a routine.  Give them a bath before bed, read 47 stories.  Make sure nap times are consistent.  And that's not us.  I value sleep, I don't want my kids over tired or cranky, but I also enjoy our flexibility.  I don't want our entire lives to revolve around sleep.

I'm not here to give advice at all.  I don't really have any.  And I'm not here to knock sleep consultants, as I think what they do is amazing if you are willing to follow the sleep rules!  My kids just magically started sleeping better.  Once I weaned Cooper he actually became an incredible sleeper and only wakes up in the night once every few weeks. But I kind of hate all this sleep advice that's out there.  I find that with your kids, you have to find what works for you.  And maybe that means that you don't get great sleep for the first year of their life.  (Which I know sounds crazy).  But I also recently read some advice that said there is no reason for a baby to eat during the night after 5 months.  First of all, I don't believe that's entirely true with breastfed babies.  But secondly, I also read something that once said that we have been given a gift with the ability to soothe our babies by feeding them.  It really resonated with me.  And so as annoying as it was that Cooper ate 4 times a night, it was easier for me to nurse him for 10 minutes, than to wean him.  And that's the choice that I made.

Everyone will make different choices.  Some will co-sleep, some will sleep train, some will night wean.  It's all ok, if it works for you and your family and allows you to function.

So if you are going through a rough sleep stage, I hope it isn't long lasting and I hope you find what works for you, your family and your kids! 

Validation

I have a friend who is constantly telling me that she's jealous that I'm such an amazing mom.  She says it's so great that we are always out and busy, camping and doing activities.  The thing is, half the time, when it comes to our activities, I feel like a below average mom.  I'm not great at getting down on the floor and playing with my kids, we don't get outside and go to the park every day, and I don't read them nearly enough stories.

I look at this same mom and think that she's unbelievable.  She's in the lake with her kids, she goes on walks to the playground twice a day.  With a two week old, she was still taking her two year old to activities on a daily basis.  

I have another friend who potty trained her son before he was two.  It was a long road, but she took the time to sit with him in the washroom.  To constantly ask him if he had to go potty and stop what she was doing to take him throughout the day.  And I think, she's amazing!  I don't have the time or patience to do that yet with Parker.

I think that we are all looking for validation that we are good moms.  We see what other moms do and think that they are doing it better than us.  I want to take my kids to the park twice a day too!  But then the day happens and the park doesn't.  But there are things that I'm doing that other moms wish they could do.  But the lucky part of this is, that our kids don't really know the difference.  They love us for what we do actually do with them.  Parker might not have memories of tons of playground visits (although this summer I'm making a huge effort to make millions of memories), but he will remember all of our camping and cottage trips every weekend.  

And at the end of the day, when we are looking at the other moms highlight reels of their days, they probably had a time in their morning when their two year old just cried for no reason, they were cleaning up spilled cheerios and milk and they were exhausted because their eight month old has suddenly decided to wake up every two hours throughout the night.  Just because you don't see it doesn't mean it's not there.  None of us are perfect, but we are all doing our best.

I'm Old Fashioned

I have a feeling that my kids are going to think that I'm a huge loser.  Because while all of the other kids are out playing with their ipads, my kids are going to be getting things like this for Chistmas:

Which by the way they still do actually sell in stores.  Not only do kids today rarely know what a home phone is, but a rotary phone?  They must be so confused.... And yet at playgroup they have one and the kids do actually play with it...

Anyways, for Christmas or his birthday Parker is getting this:

Because I had one as a kid and I remember playing with it and get all nostalgic when I see it.  So I just had to buy it for him.  Remember how it moos when you open the barn doors?  Or is it just me who remembers that.

So I'm sorry Parker, while your other baby friends are playing with their new tablets, you have to deal with old fashioned farms that don't really do anything.  So I really hope you have a good imagination.

He's been playing with his stacking rings for a couple of months now and hasn't gotten bored so I'm thinking we will be ok.