Category Archives: kids

Texas State Fair Visit

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The Texas State Fair is one of my favorite events in the world. It’s absolutely ridiculous I know, but the atmosphere, energy and excitement of it all is what makes it great. (Plus Fletchers Corny Dogs 😉)

We took our 4 year old and our 5 month old. We had to leave the 2 year old home with grandma because he wouldn’t have lasted more than 15 minutes. He would have just wanted to run. Those crowds would have been terrible with him.

I wasn’t sure how our 4 year old would do but I was pleasantly surprised. He was a little ornery at first but it was because he was hungry. Once we got food in him we were good to go! We spent almost 4 1/2 hours walking around playing games, riding rides, eating, etc. I’ve honestly never gone to the fair and played a game or ridden a ride! I’ve always just watched shows and eaten food. So this was a new experience for me too and I loved it. Yes “carny” games are a bit of a waste of money but I can’t say it wasn’t a bit fun!

When it came to the games, it was a little difficult for my 4 year old to understand that you don’t win something every time. Some games despite not “winning” you still got a small prize. While others you got nothing. So it was hard for him to understand why sometimes he got a prize and others he didnt. That’s honestly hard to explain to a 4 year old. But honestly he took it better than I expected!

Overall it was a great day. The fair never disappoints. We definitely had a few things we didn’t get to do that we wanted to but we ran short on time. But this was our first year to take a child who could walk. Thanks to covid, we missed last year and the year before, Ryder sat in a stroller the whole time. So it was a learning experience for us all. Next year we will probably make a full day of it and plan better than we did. That way we can visit the attractions we want to and still allow for rest times and more food tastings!

Taking your pants off at the pool….

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The other day at the pool, after playing in the sun for an hour, I look over at my 4 year old and his swim shorts were at his ankles. Literally bare butt out to everyone. I of course panicked, ran over to him and quickly pulled his pants up. I asked him why his pants were down. He said he was done wearing them. So we had to have the discussion, if you want dry clothes on, ask don’t just take off your clothes.

Honestly, I was super glad that his pants were down for a reason like he wanted to change and not that he took them down to pee in public. Because that was the first thing that came to mind. I really feared he dropped pants to pee in the pool. 😳

Part of me sort of always assumes kids are born with an inkling of knowing what’s appropriate and what’s not. Then something like this happens and I remember it has to be taught. Kids are literally little balls of clay that need to be molded.

Morning person

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I’ve never been a morning person. I don’t like getting up early. Don’t get me wrong, I can! I have no problem waking up early, getting dressed, getting my kids ready and fed, etc. Getting up isn’t the problem. It’s that I don’t WANT to get up early. 😂

On the weekends, before kids, I slept in till 9am. During the week when I worked in marketing, I slept till 7am and was in the office around 8/8:30am. I changed jobs, became a teacher and I somehow got the “lucky” school that started classes at 7:30am. So I had to be to school around 6:15am. That meant a 5am wake up, because it wasn’t a close drive like my previous job. 😳

I think god was preparing me for children of my own when he brought me the early morning teaching job. Because I now have children who get up between 5-6am ready to play! I’m still not a morning person, and I would love to be able to sleep in every once in a while. But I wouldn’t trade it for a minute with my little ones. I love getting up and starting my morning playing with them. 💙

Living with mom after 30 😳

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Living with mom after 30….. Ok it’s not exactly as sad and pitiful as it sounds. 😂 We are building a house. In order to get our old house ready and on the market, we moved out of it.

We are redoing the kitchen floors and refinishing the downstairs hardwoods since the dogs nails destroyed them. We would have to be out for a week while all this got done, so we just moved into my moms house. Rather than move back and have to gather up both kids and two large dogs every time someone wanted to come view the house, we figured staying at my moms during the selling process was just easier. The idea of having to scramble to clean up a million toys and the mass amounts of dog hair before someone comes to see the house (possible multiple times a day) just gives me anxiety. Not to mention, with all this Coronavirus stuff still flying around, I don’t want to have to disinfect everything each time after someone views it.

So yup, I’m living with my mom after 30! But not in a sad and pitiful way! 😂 Do say a prayer that we don’t drive her crazy before the house is built. The boys and I are a lot to handle. Their toys alone have pretty much swallowed up every bit of free space the house had.🤷🏼‍♀️

Well behaved kids

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My father-in-law gave me the biggest compliment the other day. He said my kids were the most well behaved kids he’s ever met. This might not seem like a big deal to most people, but I took it as a major compliment!

I work very hard to help my kids learn to be respectful and kind even at a young age. Don’t get me wrong, we aren’t without our temper tantrums and meltdowns. But those I don’t consider to be completely behavioral. They’re typically related to communication struggles and frustrations in understanding their own emotions. So I consider meltdowns and temper tantrums to be more learning and developmental related vs behavioral. Not to mention, they are starting to become few and far between. A majority of ours were due to my toddlers lack of communication since he was struggling with words. Now that he’s gotten more words, he’s less frustrated and able to voice what he needs. So we saw a significant drop in temper tantrums and meltdowns.

I’ve also worked really hard to change my mindset. I used to get so frustrated with my toddler when he would have a meltdown or temper tantrum. After I learned they were mainly due to his frustration in not being able to communicate, I was able to change my thinking and my actions. When he has a meltdown, I try really hard to talk to him softly, hug him or sometimes just let him be. Sometimes he needs a hug and other times he just needs his space. Same as adults!

Meltdowns and temper tantrums aside, my kids really are pretty well behaved! They listen well (most of the time.) They are good with following directions and doing what’s asked of them. My oldest loves to please people. If you ask him to do something and he does it, he gets so proud of himself. Sometimes I have him do goofy little tasks for me just because I know it makes him so happy and proud to help mommy.

By no means am I saying my kids are better than anyone else’s. I’m just saying how proud I am of them and how I appreciate someone pointing out how well behaved they are. It makes me feel like I’m doing something right and navigating this parenting stuff successfully!

Judging a child by their size

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My mom told me a friend warned her that people assume more of big kids. What that means is, kids large for their age. I didn’t quite understand this at first because I’ve always been a smaller person. People only expected more of me because of my ability not my size.

My 2 year old is in the 98th percentile and has been since he was born. He stands as tall as some 4 year olds. More times than I care to count, I’ve had a mom say to me “he’s not talking in full sentences yet?” When I explain that he’s only 2 and has a handful of words, they get a shocked look on their face and say “oh I thought he was older than that.” I just sort of nod my head and smile.

I understand now what my moms friend meant. I try not to get frustrated with it or let it make me think my kid needs to be further ahead than he is. He’s only 2! And, every child is different. Ryder has always done things at his own pace but he’s always hit the milestones.

It’s hard ignoring people and their comments but when it comes to him I try really hard. Every kid is different. That’s what I keep telling myself 💙

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Independence

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Did you know that as a child becomes more independent, sometimes a mother will non-consciously look for issues to feel more needed?

Mind you, this does not happen to every mother. But it is a very common thing to have happen. It’s understandable that it does. It’s human nature to like to feel needed and wanted. Especially when you’ve had someone like a child, who was so dependent on you for so long, go from heavy dependence to independence. I can understand how it’s a hard switch for the parent.

Sadly this is something that doesn’t just happen once. It’s something that happens often over a child’s life. A baby goes from needing to be carried everywhere, to learning to crawl and eventually walk. Toddlers move into a stage where they start to learn how to do things on their own, so they want to do EVERYTHING on their own. And this need for independence continues through the tween, teen and early adult years.

I can understand why being a mom is hard now. Going from being needed, to not being needed as much or at all is a hard transition. It definitely can take a toll on you emotionally! 🙁

Christmas with kids

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I thought Christmas was exciting as a child, but no one told me how much fun it is when you have a child. Seeing the excitement of the holidays on their face just melts your heart!

My oldest is obsessed with Christmas lights. He gets SO excited when he sees them. He loves to look out the window every night at the neighbors lights. You’d think they put up different lights each night by how excited he gets to see them each time. But no, it’s the same lights every night. It’s so cute!

He isn’t 100% sure about Santa but he knows he’s associated with Christmas and points to him anytime he sees something with Santa on it.

My kids are still young so they don’t exactly associate gifts with Christmas. Which is super humbling because here they are getting excited about the lights, decorations, etc, vs the size of the presents or how many there are. Everything with them is so innocent and sweet right now. It makes you just want to freeze time and stay here in this moment forever! ❤️

Life with two young kids

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Life with two young kids….. 👶🏻 👶🏻

Yesterday the day started with one kid peeing ON my pillow. I’m still debating on whether to put it in the wash and bleach it or call it a loss and just throw it away. 🛌

It was then followed by Ryder taking off his shorts and diaper and running naked through the house. He was kind enough to take me by the hand and show me where he peed on the floor during his streaking episode. 🚽

Ryder’s new thing is sticking his hands down his pants…..we knew the day would come as it does with every little boy. However, we have started with the back side of our pants. It took all my energy not to fall over laughing when ryder stuck his hands down into his diaper, only to remember he had just pooped. He pulled his hands out and they were covered with poop. It was HILARIOUS to see the look on his face. Then I realized I had to clean him up. It stopped being funny…… 🧼

That afternoon Ryder decided he wanted to have a party while I was changing Camden’s diaper. He went into the pantry and took out the paper plates and flung them all over the kitchen. He then took out the remaining plastic wine glasses from a previous party and lined them up on the floor. He filled those glasses with animal crackers from his snack bowl. The dog decided to join the party and ate some of the animal crackers. He also took out any boxed food item and stacked them as high as he could. 🐶

During another of Camden’s diaper changes, Ryder thought it would be funny to go in the closet, shut the door and sit quietly giving mommy a heart attack as she ran around the house panicked trying to find him. 🚪

Dinner consisted of 75% of the meal ending up in Ryder’s lap or on the floor. (We are still trying to master our silverware skills.) So of course right before bed he was starving and asking for more food. Guess what I gave him……the remaining animal crackers in the plastic cups! 😂

Would I say this was a bad day? No. It was definitely a battle of a day but not our worst! We are all in one piece still. So I’d say it was just one of our more “busy” days. 🤷🏼‍♀️