Encouraging Mamas . Educating Littles
Lifestyle Blog
Life as a mom of two little ones is constantly changing and keeping me on my toes. Currently, I have one buddy learning the art of the meltdown and another who has gotten very good at verbally disagreeing when the word, "no" is thrown around. We were having a lot of different talks about being a good listener and not a lot of success when I found this book.
Read MoreI am so excited to share Pintsize with you! Pintsize is an online children's clothing shop, specifically designed for children with sensory needs. All of the clothing is handmade by moms who run their own etsy shops and are created with incredibly soft fabric and without tags, zippers, buttons, snaps or ties. All of the clothing is reversible and most pieces can be worn forward or backward! All of these features respect sensory needs and foster independence. Even with my own children, getting ready and out the door can be a daunting task. My three-year-old was able to put on her pink tunic from Pintsize without assistance. My 18 month old has shown aversion to tags and itchy seams (who doesn't?!) and was so comfortable in his hoodie and joggers!
Read MoreBefore becoming a mama, I worked as a Special Education teacher. Every student I taught had some sort of speech need or delay and received services from a Speech-Language Pathologist. I was able to co-teach a lot of the therapy sessions and majority of my days were spent working on speech and language development. Now that I am a mom, I have found the importance of working on those language skills starting with board and picture books!
Read MoreWe are having so much fun this fall! It feels like the first season that we are able to embrace all of the festive activities and outings as a family of four! I decided it would be fun to make a few fall/Halloween treats with the kids using our Re-Play Recycled plates and snack cups. Working in the kitchen with the kids takes all my patience, but it really is worth it!
Read MoreNow that E has turned three, I have been trying to think of a creative way for her work on being responsible. We typically ask her to do things like clean up her toys or bring her dishes to the sink but I was constantly reminding, nagging and bribing. I finally decided that giving her special, 'jobs' might increase her independence in doing little things around the house! A few of these jobs needed to be taught and we are still practicing doing them together. I am realizing that a lot of the time I can get these things done faster and more efficiently on my own, but I also know how important it is to teach her to be responsible and independent!
Read MoreI am so excited to be a part of October's book box collaboration. These moms are so creative and have some amazing ideas to go along with the story as well! This month, they have chosen Room On The Broom, by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler. I will link the other four blogs at the end of this post for you to check out as well!
Read MoreMy baby is THREE! She is sweet and spunky and was so much fun to celebrate! Between the two kiddos, we have hosted five parties and this was our smallest one yet. We had our parents and siblings over for dinner and dessert with a lot of floral and a little Minnie Mouse on the side ;) I am planning to use all the decorations from the party for E's big girl room makeover!
Read MoreIf Starbucks can get away with pumpkin spice in September, then we can start our "pumpkin everything" craze too! This slime was so easy to make with E helping me and kept both kids entertained for awhile!
Read MoreBefore I had my sweet babies, I worked as a Special Education teacher for children with emotional and behavioral disabilities. I spent a lot of time co-teaching with our amazing social worker and this was a version of one of the lessons we did! My hope for for this lesson, is to help littles understand the importance of inclusion and the impact kindness has on others.
Read MoreWe have gone through a lot of playdough since E has been old enough to play with it! In an effort save some money we tried to make our own.
Read MoreWell here we are again friends, it's been awhile since my first confession post. I wasn't necessarily waiting for more embarrassing things to happen to me, I was simply mustering up the courage to share some things that have happened since adding baby number two.
Read MoreOh this play theme has been so much fun and has stirred up a lot of great conversations with Emma. She is really getting to the age where she can identify her feelings but still needs help managing them ;) I think the person who came up with the phrase 'all the feels' had a toddler because we really experience all the feels in a thirty seconds or less. These books and activities have been a great way to encourage both of my babes and their very different personalities.
Read MoreMy favorite part about our play themes (here, here & here) is switching out our books. I wanted to make some simple shelves that would display our themed books with the covers facing out and be within reach of the kids! I had no idea what to get or where to start so I had my handy husband teach me everything he knows
Read MoreBreakfast has always been the hardest meal to find something filling for him to eat. I decided to adapt a traditional banana bread recipe, and it turned out really well! He loves it and I feel comfortable giving it to him and Emma.
Read MoreAfter Henry's first birthday, we had a lot of new toys to fill our playroom! I wanted to really clean it out with as few things as possible to make our play time more intentional and clean-up easier. This made me want to change our artwork up on a budget of course. When I worked at Giant Steps during college, we would do a similar activity with the amazing art therapist. We would use huge pieces of paper and let the kids paint it with badminton rackets and paint. SO MUCH FUN. This is a scaled down version for my two-year-old but proved to be just as fun!
Read MoreI know that everyone says this, but I just can't believe my buddy is ONE! We got off to a rough start with our guy, but it was so perfect to celebrate his birthday and how far he has come. I decided on a buffalo plaid/camping theme for the party.
Read MoreI put play-doh in the bottom of each plastic cup and labeled them with number stickers. Emma was able to count and sort her flowers into each cup. I got the flowers at the dollar store and each stem had multiple flowers on it so I just cut them apart and sprayed them with a little perfume for fun!
Read MoreIn the past three years, I have gained eighty pounds and lost about seventy. It's safe to say that it has taken a toll on my body as well as my mind. Although I eat fairly healthy and make it a priority (most weeks) to work out during nap time, there are some things that will never be the same.
Read MoreWe were thrilled to open up our box of goodies from Mudpuppy Kids! Their products are created for children ages 1-6+ including games, puzzles, crafts & books. They incorporate illustrations from well-known artists and classic children's book characters. We loved each item we received!
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