Toddler Activities To Try Today

If you are anything like me, you are constantly on the lookout for new activities to do with your child. I lack the creativity to come up with my own ideas. Thankfully, Pinterest, Facebook, and other social media sites offer me a helping hand.

This cold weather has us going stir crazy and I've been trying tons of new indoor activities. Here are some of the things my toddler is loving:

Ball Pits

The best $10 we have spent was on about 600 ball pit balls (a Craigslist find). I do not have a ball pit, but that hasn't stopped us! Just about anything can become a ball pit, but we have been using our summer kid pool and pack&play. Our toddler loves playing in the ball pit!

Painting in the Tub

I ran across someone on Facebook who introduced me to painting in the tub and for the life of me I can't remember or find that information! It's the easiest recipe though, which I'm all about. You take cornstarch, water, and food coloring and mix them all together (just estimate amounts until you get a consistency that works for you). The clean up is even easier as you just wash it off. I found giving my toddler a bath right after makes for the easiest clean up. 

Payton loved this activity! She seriously played for about an hour.

Mess-Free Painting

I mentioned last week that we had done this and it was definitely a great way to keep a toddler busy for a bit. You just put paint in a ziploc bag, seal, and then tape to a window, wall, or hard surface floor. Your child can then paint and draw in the paint for hours at a time.

Moon Sand

I wrote about this Pinterest fail previously, but my first round of making moon sand is still holding out. Payton still asks to play with it 2-3 times per week. 

These are a few activities keeping us busy while we are stuck indoors. What activities has your little one been up to lately?

This post has been linked up with Mommy Moments at The Life of Faith blog.

Friday Favorites

TGIF! This has been a long week at our house. I think the week felt so long because we are still stuck indoors! We got snow on Wednesday, which is so pretty to look at, but I've definitely got spring fever! Here are some of the things on my mind this week that I'm pretty excited about:

1. Halfway Through My Pregnancy

We just hit 20 weeks and are now officially halfway there! We are getting so excited (and nervous) about meeting baby #2!

2. Mess-free Painting

Pinterest did it again! Oh how Pinterest makes my life easier! Earlier this week we tried mess-free painting and it went great (I have a post coming on this for you with more information).

3. Extra Money Paid on Debt

It's tax refund time and I was so thankful to get a refund this year after many years of paying in. If you have followed this blog at all, you would know we have a spender and a saver at this house. We compromised and half of the refund is going towards paying off debt while the other half is to be spent on new electronics for our media room (we are in the process of building this room). It's a good feeling turning over a check to the bank that equals almost 2 mortgage payments!

4. Tub Painting

Another easy kid activity that I found (on Facebook this time) calls for painting in the bath tub and it worked out great for us! I will give you all the info and details in a post coming very soon, I promise. 

5. The Promise of Warm Weather

 

I have definitely been feeling the winter blues so I couldn't be more excited to hear we may get some warm weather next week! I need to be out in the sun!

I hope you are having a great week! Cheers to the weekend! Do you have any big plans for this weekend?

The Toddler That Gave Up Nap Time Too Soon

If you were to ask me 6 months ago when a child will stop taking daytime naps I would have shown you sleep charts indicating a child would be at least 3 years of age before they dropped their last nap. Today, I can say that, through personal experience, I learned the hard way that nap time is not a given for every child.

Although my child is only 22 months, she now rarely takes a nap during the day. Before you get concerned about how she must be lacking in sleep, let me reassure you that she does still meet the sleep requirement for total hours of sleep. She has always been an excellent sleeper at night and most nights will sleep 12.5-13 total hours. 

It took me about 3 weeks to accept that naps may be over. During those 3 weeks, I spent about 1.5 hours every day trying to get my toddler to sleep only for her to end up taking a 20-40 minute nap. I finally took to Facebook to find out if nap time has ever become a battle like this for anyone else. I had been wondering if it was time to drop the daytime nap, but I had been really resistant to accepting this idea. My facebook friends overwhelmingly responded it was time to drop this nap. 

Looking back, it was the best decision for us. I wish we still had a nap time, but it just isn't worth the battle. Here are a few things I learned through this:

1. Allow for everyone to adjust to the transition.

Dropping this nap was hardest on myself as I was used to using this time to catch up or nap myself. Dropping this nap also smashed my dreams of possibly napping sometimes when baby #2 gets here and naps happen to align for everyone. Wishful thinking I guess! 

Our toddler also got very tired and cranky in the evening as she adjusted to her new schedule. We had to consider daily f she needed to go to bed at night a bit earlier than normal or stick with the normal time. Know that these issues didn't last forever and with time these drawbacks will work themselves out.

2. Have quiet time.

We all still needed a rest, regardless f we sleep or not. Find a new routine that works for you and your little one. We close the curtains, turn the lights down, and either read books or watch a few shows. We call this time: quiet time. Nap time seems to be a hard word for my toddler to hear lately so I rarely use it.

3. Know you aren't the only one.

It's been very reassuring to me to know I am not the only person in the world to have a toddler drop their nap time so early. So, if you are going through this, I can assure you that you are not alone. Reach out and I am sure you will find several others who have gone through this or are going through this early transition as well.

Sometimes I get lucky and she gives in to a nap. I now treasure those precious moments.

How has your child been sleeping lately?

This post was linked up with Mommy Moments at The Life of Faith blog.

Friday Favorites

Thank goodness it's Friday! The weather has been so cold here that we are all going a little stir crazy and are wishing for warmer days. Unfortunately, it may snow this weekend! I'm hoping we get out a bit today for some fresh air even if it's only long enough to run an errand or two. Before kicking off this weekend, I wanted to share a few things I'm loving from this week:

1. Moon Sand

This was actually a Pinterest fail for me when I used this recipe, but has worked out so well for our toddler anyways! The sand is supposed to be green but instead just has green chunks after I put food coloring in instead of powder paint (I found a few blogs that said it worked for them). Oh well!

Payton continues to ask to play with this almost daily and it's been over a week since I first made it. She plays in the moon sand anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour at a time. It's been a great way to get a few minutes to make a meal or load/unload the dishwasher.

2. Good Food

It could just be pregnancy but I am really loving home cooked food lately! An extra slice of chocolate cake also has a way of soothing a troubled mind! Am I right?

My husband whipped out some homemade tortillas earlier this week and we have been enjoying them as breakfast burritos, PB&J rollups, and quesadillas. I also made some choke cherry jelly a few months ago and am loving it on toast, waffles... just about anything at the moment!

3. Small Towns

I read this post about small towns on BuzzFeed and, as a Midwest girl, can so relate! Small towns are great for many reasons! #13 talks about having an egg guy and I have the funniest story in regards to that this week. 

I just got eggs from our egg guy for free yesterday as a thank you for my hubby giving him an old grinder. I went to use my first egg and it was very hard. This scared me a bit (what if it was fertilized), so I set it aside and went to the next egg. It was hard as well. After peeling back some shell I learned it was hard boiled. Our egg guy accidentally sent us the wrong eggs. We ended up with 6 regular eggs and 6 hard boiled eggs! It gave us quite the laugh!

4. Library Story Time

Our local library has a toddler story time every Tuesday morning. I am so thankful for this free activity as it has become a great way to get us out of the house and break up our weekly routine. Our child has become such a huge fan of playing ring around that rosy there that she is constantly trying to hold everyone's hand and get the song started! It's actually the cutest thing to witness!

5. Dreaming Big About Early Retirement
One of my favorite financial bloggers posted this article this week regarding a formula for estimating your own early retirement. I was tempted not to open the Excel spreadsheet to see where my husband and I stood, but decided to give it a shot. I am really hoping that we can retire early!

After completing both spreadsheets created, our results came in that we could retire at about the age of 50. We are so excited! Who knows where life will take us, but it's good to know that we might be on the right path.

Another week down! This weekend the hubby and I celebrate our 6 year wedding anniversary. Where has the time gone?

Tell me, how has your week been? 

Weekend Recap

We had a quiet weekend in an attempt to slow down life. My hubby is trying to finish our basement before baby #2 gets here in July, so he stayed busy this weekend.

On Saturday, I picked up my Bountiful Baskets order. If you have never tried Bountiful Baskets, you should! I just started this month and am loving keeping stocked up on fruits and veggies. If my math is right, the food you get costs less than what you would pay in the grocery store. 

With our bountiful basket we got a box (about 28 pounds) of green beans. we then spent most of Saturday canning and/or freezing all the beans. If my calculations are right, we should have beans to last us for about 6 months.

The rest of our cold weekend was spent playing with our child, reading her lots of books, eating good home cooked meals, and lounging!

 Isn't that last one so cute? I couldn't help but giggle when Payton crawled into her toy tote and started reading books.

Now, it's on to another busy week!

How was your weekend?

*This post is not a sponsored post. All thoughts and opinions are my own. 

My Extra Long Vacation From My Blog

It has been a very long time since I last blogged. I can't pin down any particular reason for this, but multiple events that have lead to my delay. There are many draft posts sitting idle in my account and I don't have much to say except I'm very sorry for my absence. I hope to change that.

A few life events have happened at our house and I wanted to share them with you:

1. Number 2 is on the way!

Payton is preparing to become a big sister this July! Our family couldn't be more excited about this news! We are hoping to find out the gender within the next few months.

2. Payton potty trained at 18 months!

I still can't believe this child. After a weekend with her older cousin, Payton started asking to use the toilet. She had no idea what came next but I rolled with her interest. Within a week (a long, hard week for me) Payton was officially potty trained during the day. She still wears diapers at night and will for the time being.

3. I'm slowing waaay down.

Part of my delay in posting has been due to my life getting so incredibly busy I had to drop anything that wasn't a priority. I tried to continue with all I could but then with a few pregnancy scares already with #2, I have no choice but to slow down. 

Slowing down is extremely difficult for me. My days are very busy and very full but I am cutting back as much as I can. This will be a learning process for me.

I'm hoping this post will mark the end of my absence as I plan to blog weekly again! 

Happy New Year and the Best of 2014

Happy New Year! We didn't do much for the holiday but hung around the house in our pjs, which happens to be exactly how I prefer it! We told our 20 month old she could stay up if she wanted and she proceeded to make it a whole 20 minutes past her normal bedtime! It was a treat to her!

I am slowly taking down Christmas decorations and am so sad this year to see the holidays come to an end. The hubby had 1 1/2 weeks off over Christmas and New Years and I'm sure going to miss having 24/7 access to him! We made no resolutions this year as we just want to enjoy the year as it comes.

2014 will be hard to top. I continued to learn about all the trials and tribulations that come with being a mommy. An unexpected, surprise move landed me in possibly my forever home (at least I hope there is no more moving). I also started the year as a full time working mom and ended the year as a part time (work from home) mom. I am so blessed to be able to focus on raising my child and don't take this time for granted (at least I try not to). Yes, it's hard and sometimes lonely, but so very rewarding!

I took a look at my top viewed blog posts (giving gifts must be something we all struggle with) and wanted to share those with you. Thank you so much for reading my blog and allowing me to share my journey with you. You mean more to me than words can express!

1. Birthday Gifts for the Hubby

2. One Evening + $40 Materials= DIY Tote Storage Rack

3. 30 Gifts for Turning 30

Let's bring on 2015! Do you have any resolutions?