Posts Tagged ‘mom tips’

After kiddos everything is a little harder than it used to be.

Going to the dinner or the movies on a whim? Only if the sitter is available!

A weekend trip? Only if you rent a u-haul for all the extra baby gear!

But some things are easier than you think they will be!

Like going to the beach.

When Hot hubby and I were dating/newly married we went to the beach a lot. It was close enough to ride our bikes on weekends or just to  hang out after work. All we needed was sunscreen, our beach towel made for two and a few snacks. We ALWAYS spent the day there after church. Hours of sleeping in the sun, smash ball and bodyboarding!

Then I got preggers (2006). We still went…

After Eli was born everyone said our Sunday tradition would stop (2007). It didn’t…

(side note: Burying your baby in the sand is like the best way to keep them close.)

Then Cora Jane was born and we were still hitting the Sand Sundays (2008)…

(Though Hot Hubby’s bodyboarding time turned into skimboarding so he could be close at hand to watch the kiddos.)

Still going (2009)…

Then I had Cy (2010) in the Summer and we weren’t as consistent. Hot Hubby took the big kiddos while I stayed home with the lil’ leech and we went to our local lagoon or pool on Sundays instead.

This Summer we were determined to get back into the beach groove – and we are down at Salt Creek every Sunday after church. We want our kiddos to {heart} the beach as much as we do. And we can’t expect them to just fall in love with the beach when it’s “easy” for us to go!

Sure, we need to pack a bit more than our beach towels and body boards…

And instead of sleeping on the sand we play in it (or clean it off lil’ hands)…

But going to the beach isn’t as hard as you think it will be.

It’s different. But doable.

Here’s a few things to keep in mind when venturing out of your local park/library comfort zone.

~Keep it simple. Wherever you are going don’t think you have to pack for Armageddon. Sure, it’s nice if you have that one thing you may need that one specific time but stick to the necessities. Otherwise you’ll get so caught up with the I must be prepared for everything mind set that the prep will be too stressful and you won’t want to do it again. For the beach, we pack sand toys, sunscreen, towels, snacks, an umbrella and our camera. No change of clothes or extra anything. Somehow we survive.

~Keep it short. We loved our all day beach sessions years ago but our trips now are about 3 hours. As the kiddos get older we hope to start staying longer.

~Always pack snacks. But again don’t get overwhelmed. Sometimes I just throw in grapes, fruit snacks and goldfish, or we may drive thru somewhere on the way.

~Try again. If things don’t go well the first time reassess, modify and go again. You are a parent. I guarantee you’ll have all the kinks worked out by the next trip!

~Don’t stress about having the “perfect day.” Just relax. Every trip may not be magical but you can make it memorable just by going!

~Kids are kids. Get messy, have fun and know the unexpected will happen. i.e. Your kiddo will eventually stop eating the sand (And if they don’t, why not get them checked for anemia at their next well-check?).

We are passing down memories of beach fun to our kiddos.

What’s the “activity” in your family?

Camping. Morning fishing. Movies. Museums. Theme parks. Hiking.

What’s holding you back from actually doing these things with small kiddos?

If we wait till they are old enough for an easy trip (and really, is it EVER easy??) it may be too late to brainwash encourage them into liking what we like.

Quite a few people asked about my creative dinners after I posted the pictures of our happy face dinner and Christmas Tree dinner.

I regularly create fun formations with the kiddos’ food. I think it’s been key in their awesome food tastes. And the fact that we have a few strict food rules:

#1 We all eat the same thing

#2 You have to try it (as in 3 big bites not a lil’ nibble)

#3 If you don’t eat the meal you won’t get anything else to eat

Did you know it takes about 20 tries before a child may “like” a food? I’m not talking 20 bites, more like 20 knock-down-drag-outs of full meals (or 20 full baby food jars). Another great thing to do is get as many tastes AND textures into those sweet lil’ mouths within the first 2 years. Those first tastes are more important than you’ll ever know. (Check out Dr Alan Greene’s site as well as his book Feeding Baby Green. I’ve chatted with him and he is AMAZING!) 

I thought I would share a few of my other creations!

Dinner…

Pasta w/ cream sauce & veggies, edamame, cucumber and garlic bread.

Spaghetti w/ meatballs, snap peas & cherry tomatoes.

Meatloaf (filled with herbs cheese and veggies), veggie stew (onions, tomatoes, celery & squash) and blueberries.

Pork loin, herb red potatoes and green beans.

Sometimes I’ll start with a salad appetizer. I’ve noticed they eat their veggies faster if the main part of the meal isn’t on the table.

My kiddos will eat salmon, Indian food, and veggies galore. Just make the food fun and you’ll be pleasantly surprised at what they try. But be firm. If our kiddos don’t try a new food with 3 big bites (rule #2), the turned away vittles will be waiting for them to eat first at their next meal. About a year ago Cora Jane didn’t want to try some new herb chicken for dinner. It was waiting for her the next morning for breakfast (refrigerated through the night, of course), but she still turned her nose up at it. She was starving by lunch, and you know what? She ate the chicken. And loved it! It’s not like I’m serving liver and onions!

For lunch I serve more “kid food.” Mostly because I’m lazy and sandwiches are so darn easy (and inexpensive) to make. I don’t even mind taking requests or making PB & J for one and turkey for another. For me it’s no big deal to make different sandwiches (sometimes). It’s not like I’m having to cook two entirely different meals.

I tend to do faces a lot but just setting the food out in a cute way is also effective for my kiddos. I’ll put explanations on my more abstract creations! Sometimes the sillier a scene looks the more the kiddos are engaged. I love making up stories about the shapes or asking them what they see.

PB & J, cheese slices and oranges. (flower)

PB & J sliced turkey and oranges. (mushroom on orange grass)

Turkey melt, goldfish, oranges and cherry tomatoes. (butterfly flying in an orange sky over red and orange flowers)

PB & J, pears and strawberries. (I was just making shapes but Eli thought it was a maze and Cora Jane thought it was a cross)

Turkey & cheese sandwich, oranges and mozzarella cheese. (butterfly flying over orange flowers)

Bagel w/ cream cheese, olives and carrots. (House – bagel roof, carrot door and olive windows. This was right after Easter and we had loads of olives to get rid of!)

Bagel w/ cream cheese, hot dogs and sliced turkey. (I’m so embarrassed by this lunch but I remember our cupboards were bare and I couldn’t get to the store before lunch/naps. But the face is cute!)

PB & J, cheese slice, strawberries and apples. (abstract art… star?… firework?)

PB & J, cucumbers & carrots. (pac man chomping his veggies)

Chicken nuggets, cucumbers and carrots. (sleeping curly haired baby. Note – I had to try to explain who pac man was to the kiddos)

Turkey and cheese sandwich, turkey slice, cheese and crackers. (cracker pirate ship with bread sails)

Turkey and cheese sandwich, tomatoes, carrot and cucumbers. (clown)

Chicken nuggets, hot dog, cucumber and asparagus. (Dinos marching on grassy hills)

Warning: You will start getting requests!! For pictures not food!!

On this particular day Eli wanted a pirate ship sailing in the ocean to an island with a snowy volcano on a sunny day. (PB & J on rolls = the mountain; cheese slices = snow; tomatoes = ocean; snap pea = pirate ship; circle of cheese = sun)

This year I thought I would do Christmas themed days with the kiddos. Yesterday we did Gingerbread Day. (I posted about Christmas Tree day on OC Family last week.)

I got the Gingerbread Village instead of our usual large house and I’m so glad! There were 5 lil’ houses so everybody got to do their own thing. (I got it at Jo-ann’s with a 40% off coupon)

Tip: Hot glue the houses together ahead of time. I’ve found that when you use frosting you have to hold the pieces together a LONG time before they actually stay together. As in, too long for kiddo attention spans.

Eli said he felt like “the Cake Boss,” and I thought that was hysterical.

We also watched this on you tube…

Earlier this month Cora Jane and I had a girls night out making gingerbread houses with the folks from the Taco Bell Discovery Science Center. (Is the Taco Bell thing new or have I just been on planet baby for the last few years!?!?) Check out our house. I had to release my inner perfectionist and just let her work her magic on the house…

Did you know the Discovery Science Center has an awesome exhibit right now called…

There was a fun contest with awesome prizes. You can see all the houses till January 2nd… and you know you are looking for stuff to do this week while the kiddos are home from school!

(Click here to print the coupon!)

Now that you have the coupon you have to go! I mean, check out how fantastical (it’s a word) the exhibit is…

I have never bought paper throwaway plates/cups before… till baby#3’s arrival in June.

(Guilt about excess waste and the environment and all.)

What a sanity saver.

 It saves so much time on clean up at lunch and breakfast.  

REALLY!

AND

The winner of the Discovery Science Center & unlimited rides at the Pumpkin Factory is…

#1 Naomi!!!

If you didn’t win get your coupons here!

Have you seen the Vloggersations at OC Family? They are great and I’m in some of them!

This one is from about 2 months ago. We are giving parenting advice to Jen who is about to have her first baby. The vloggersation is a compilation of a few of us OC Family bloggers. If you only want to see me (Mom) my advice is at 39 seconds, 2:34, 3:19 & 5:30 and Jen says something nice about me at 4:30 (mom, you’ll want to hear it). It has to do with being an only child. (TIME Magazine just did a great write up about only children too!)

And if you don’t feel like clicking over, you can watch my uncut version below. WARNING: I talk about boobs and ugly babies.

Your turn…

What is the best/worst parenting advice you have received or given?