Learning with Mama: Shapes & Colors

Yet another segment that I hope to do weekly or bi-monthly - Learning with Mama.

Sami goes to a daycare that has a school setting to it.  They teach various things, have monthly themes and as far as I can tell, it's had a major impact on Sami's social and mental development.

While it's been a huge bonus for our family, educating my daughter, teaching her things, is something I want to be very intentional about, and it's been something I've worked at since her birth.  Knowing the education she's getting at daycare, I could easily say that I don't need to supplement it.  But I love learning, and I want to share that thirst for knowledge with my little girl.  If I'm not learning something new, I get really antsy.  Luckily with motherhood, I'm always learning something new. :)

In this segment, I plan to share my strategies, if they can be called that, in strengthening what my daughter is learning at daycare.

For this first Leaning with Mama post, I thought I'd share something I feel like she mastered pretty early.  By 21 months, Sami knew most of her colors and could name them with some toddlerisms such as "bu" for blue.

I constantly talk and explain things to Sami, and I've done so since she was an infant.  I'd name her body parts as I washed them and as I put lotion on afterwards.  Things you can now hear me say while I'm changing her:  "Let's put these pretty pink pants on you", "What color is Mama's shirt?"  You get the idea.  The repetition of the colors, and pointing to them has really helped.

I have to admit, I think I also got a little help from "Little Baby Bum".   For the first year of her life, screen time isn't something Sami got a lot of.  Most of it consisted of "Baby Einstein" videos streamed through YouTube.  We would watch them sometimes to help her wind down for the night, or in the middle of the night if she was having a rough one.  It soothed her.  She basically only watched two of the videos.  The one with the bee (First Sounds) and the one with the Tiger (Numbers).  I tell you, that bee could put a smile on her face like no other when her first teeth were coming in.  It was like magic.

Every now and then, we'd use these videos to keep her entertained if we were at the restaurant.  Remember, this girl does not like to sit still!  The videos did the trick.  Eventually though, Mama and Dada got a little tired of the bee and the tiger and tried to branch out.  We found "Ruff Ruff Tweet and Dave" on Hulu which she liked to a certain degree.  It was a very colorful show and I'm sure it helped with her learning colors.  I do try to be interactive with her when watching a show, so I would try to often tell her "Ruff Ruff is red" and "Tweet is yellow" and "Dave (the panda) is blue".

One day, "Little Baby Bum" (LBB) showed up as a suggestion on YouTube from having watched Baby Einstein.  This was an instant hit with Sami - and if you have a Toddler and are familiar with it, I can feel you nodding your head.

LBB is a series of videos of nursery rhymes and children's songs, as well as some that they have made up, with very well animated (3D) with recurring characters.  I won't lie, Super Pig is my favorite.  It was created by a couple in the UK and they continue to release new songs or renditions.  I believe some of their "Wheels on the Bus" versions are some of the most watched YouTube videos of all time.

These videos are very colorful, and they even have songs about colors - the Color Train.  Sami loves it.  I'm sure exposure to these types of videos has enhanced her learning to a certain degree.

We went to Hawaii in the fall, and in preparation for the LONG plane ride, I bought a bunch of small little things we could do on the plane.  Flash card sets was one of those things and one of the sets was different colored and sized shapes.  Sami ended up doing beautifully on the airplane and I didn't use the flashcards on the plane ride.

However, I brought them out one afternoon in Hawaii, and made them into a game.   I was so stunned that she already knew some of the shapes my name.  And so I started reinforcing what she already knew and taught her new shapes.  I encouraged her to name the color of the shapes as well.

She’s an expert now.  She already knew what an oval was (that one really surprised me) in Hawaii, but she now even knows what a hexagon is.  I don’t think I knew that until I was in grade school. 

I’m so impressed with Sami and it is encouraging for me as a mom.  It validates that my extracurricular teachings are worth it and that I should keep at it.  At 26 months she can communicate pretty well.  Monday night, during FaceTime, she told my parents what we did Sunday.  I asked her where we went - she told them that we went to the aquarium.  I asked her what we saw, and she said "fishes, and uhhh sharks, and turtles and a tiger!".  Yes, there really was a very real and beautiful tiger.

Below you'll see another game I use to help Sami with her colors and animals in this case.  It's a memory game that I bought at Target a couple years ago.  I was going to give it to her next Christmas, but I gave it to her in January.  We don't play memory, but I have her match the colors and the animals and she does well with it.  She calls it Sami's game.  In toddler fashion, she also enjoys making stacks with them, making a mess with them, and putting them in the box. 

Until next time... :)

My 5am-9pm: Snow, snow, go away...

Another new segment that I will try to bring weekly!  We often hear about having a 9 to 5 job and while that might be true for some individuals, in my experience, a working mom does not have a 9 to 5 job.  Depending on your actual work schedule hours, and what your share of the household/family management is, if you are a working mom, your schedule is probably similar to mine - 5am to 9pm.

I thought I'd give you a general overview of what a normal day/week looks like for me, and then add some struggles or successes that I had.  Going forward, since you'll have a general idea of what my week looks like, I'll write about struggles and successes I've had during the week.

I'll start with the weekends since I see my week as starting on Saturday just because of how I do my meal planning.  The reason I start my week on Saturdays is that I grocery shop on Saturdays, so that makes a lot of sense to me.

Saturdays

My husband has always taken the early shift - with Sami and Preston.  When I stopped breastfeeding, or was pumping and was back at work, he would take care of everything if it was after 2am until I was up.  That's still the case, although we'll trade off if one of us is up 2-3 nights in a row.  That means I get to sleep in on Saturdays... well kind of.  I'm a light sleeper in the morning, and Sami can tend to be loud when she plays.  I'll usually wake up a few times between 5 and 8.  I rarely get up after 9, though it happens.

Sami has swim lessons on Saturdays.  We go to Safe Splash and are enrolled in a class called Parent and Me.  Our class is at 10.  I love it and I think she does too.  We usually have to be out the door by 9:30.  If memory serves, I enrolled her for classes back in August.  It was before we went to Hawaii.  I wanted to have an idea of how she would act in a pool so I wasn't totally unprepared when we took her into a pool or near the ocean.  I found that the class taught her really good skills and we've kept going since.  She's starting to kick with both feet, she can climb out of the pool without assistance, and can "monkey crawl" (hold on to the sides of the pool and hand-crawl alongside).  She can blow bubbles in the water, currently doesn't like to go underwater and is starting to learn how to "scoop" the water (arm strokes).  I love seeing her develop alongside her little friends she's made.  If she wants to continue the classes when she gets older, I'm more than happy to keep her enrolled.  They do a great job.  (No this is not a sponsored post - I have no sponsors.)

After naptime, which is typically around 1pm and can last up to 2 hours, I take Sami with me to do the grocery shopping.

Sundays

I also get to sleep in on Sundays, but again I'm rarely up after 9.  If I'm awake too early, I'll take the opportunity to have some me-time and catch up on some of my favorite TV shows.

We try to plan an activity for Sami on Sundays.  She gets restless if she's stuck in the house all day.  Sometimes, the activity can be as simple as going to Target.  I'm looking forward to nice weather so that we can go to the park.

I've also recently assigned the majority of my meal prep to Sundays.  Works fabulously as Sami is starting to enjoy some independent playtime usually with her kitchen, art or watching one of her shows (subject for another time).

Monday-Friday

I set the alarm for 5, which means I start sleeping restlessly around this time, trying to plan the morning as I toss and turn hoping to get a few more minutes of shut-eye.  Probably not the most restful sleep, or the best way to use my time.  I'm usually up by 5:30, but I've been known to push it a little further if I've had a rough night.  I suppose you could say my day actually starts at 5:30 but 5-9 sounds better, haha!  Ideally 5am would be a better time for me to wake up... I'll aim for it.

Once I'm dressed and have my hair & make-up done, I get Sami's lunch ready (hubby handles the breakfast).  I pack her main lunch, along with sides (always fruit - peaches, or berries - I know she will eat those so I don't try to overthink it - I'll worry about introducing new things at dinner time).  Other sides include cheese, go-gurt or crackers.  I then pack her a couple snacks too - more fruit (usually berries or watermelon) and go-gurt, or applesauce.  I know the daycare provides snacks, but I like to make sure she has fruit every day.

I also pack her 2 cups of milk... which I forgot to do yesterday... it seems to happen at least once a week.  I swear I thought of it three times, and still forgot to do it.  Oh well.  I'm thankful for my husband, because I'm sure he packed it for her.  I leave her lunch and snacks on the counter, labelled "lunch" or "snack" and hubby puts it in her lunchbox & schoolbag.  Yes, she has a school bag and it's the cutest thing... It was even cuter when she first got it - it was way too big for her, but she still wanted to wear it.  It's still too big for her, but doesn't look at funny.

I'm usually out the door by 6:20 so that I can avoid traffic.  I get to work around 7:00ish.  Since I don't have to clock in until 7:30, I usually take it slow in the morning.  I'll get my breakfast ready in the break-room kitchen, or I'll go buy it across the street because they have yummy breakfast burritos.  I'll check a few websites (sports news, regular news, Facebook, etc.) until it's time to clock in and then I get to work.

I have an accounting job and do a lot of auditing.  It requires detailed attention to detail and my attention is often very focused for hours.  That being said, some days are very mentally draining which can make the evenings very interesting.

I usually break for lunch around 11:30, but it can vary depending on time sensitive tasks.  For example, I didn't get to clock out for lunch today until after 12:30.  Makes for a shorter afternoon I guess :)

My work day ends at 4:00, but that is certainly not the end to my day.  After work, I go pick up Sami at daycare.  The commute to the daycare can take anywhere from 45 minutes (woohoo) to over an hour (boohoo).  As of late, it's been close to an hour and a half which is such a bummer.

I pick up Sami from daycare, and we get her schoolbag and any other items we need to bring home that aren't already in her bag.  I usually talk to her teacher for a few minutes and then we head on home.  The commute home is thankfully just about 10 minutes, but can stretch to 15 minutes with local traffic.  I'd say I'm usually home by 5:15.  I think that's a fair average.

I try to have dinner ready by 6:00 since Sami's bedtime routine begins at 7:00.  Depending on when I got home, and what's on the menu, that might mean I get to play with Sami for 15-20 minutes, or I have to get dinner ready minutes after walking in the door.  This is why I like meal prep and easy meals like sheet pan dinners.

At 7:00 it's time to get the bath ready.  By 7:30, we are usually rocking in her rocking chair, with her milk.  We then read 3 books, go brush her teeth and I'll sing her lullabies until she falls asleep.  She's usually out by 8-8:15.

Then it's time to go clean the kitchen!  The day never ends it seems.. ha!  But I'm so close to done by then.  I empty the dishwasher, fill the dishwasher, run the dishwasher.  Every night (unless there's really nothing in the dishwasher, which is rare).  I then hand wash all of Sami's dishes, wipe down the counters and call it a night!  On the off night, I might do a little more meal prep for the next day.  Like last night, my husband cubed up some beef for the slow cooker stew we'll eat tonight.  I then browned the meat and onions.  All he has to do is dump the beef, onions, potatoes, carrots & liquids into the slow cooker and we'll have delicousness tonight!  Woohoo.

After 9:00... depending on how tired I am, we'll usually watch a little TV before bed.  And sometimes, the night calls for a relaxing hot bubble bath with salts...  I think tonight feels like one of those nights.

Last week

My struggles last week were with my commute.  As stated in my post.. snow, snow, go away....  We've had a terribly dry winter.  Hardly any snow.  We got a bit of snow last Monday and it made for an atrociously slow commute into work on Tuesday.  I left around my usual time, maybe as much as 10 minutes late, so let's say 6:30am.  I got to the office at 8:45am.  My usually commute takes 40 minutes.

I feel like it totally threw off my week.  I had taken Monday off because the daycare was closed (also was a bank holiday) so I knew I already would have some catch up work to do.  And then I lost my morning which is usually super quiet because not many people come in before 8:30.  I had to play catch-up on my morning tasks.  And then I got hit with 200+ checks to review.

To top it off, the commute was bad on the way home on a different day - maybe it was Wednesday.  And then I had agreed to work late on Friday, so I got home after 6:00 - I want to say close to 6:30 on Friday.  Thankfully hubby had agreed to pick up Sami at daycare.

In all fairness though, if my biggest issues are a bad commute every now and then, I can't complain too much.  Thankfully I had planned an easy week of meals like spaghetti with sauce from a jar (I did add ground turkey).  And, I believe it was on Friday - we went out to eat just so I had one less thing to do :)

Success for the week?  I don't really think I have something successful to share, but listening to podcasts in the car while stuck in traffic... that made it more enjoyable.  If you have podcasts you enjoy - let me know.  The one I'm currently into is called "The Mom Hour".

Oh maybe a success.  I've started getting Sami to help me clean up her toys before starting the bedtime routine.  She was struggling with helping to clean up at daycare so I doubled my efforts.  Yesterday, I found out she's doing much better!


Have a great week everyone!

#MealPlanMonday: Feb 24-Mar 2

If you've been reading for a while, you know that I don't meal plan every Monday.  I meal plan once a month and it's been a time saver, it's helped relieve stress around "what's for dinner tonight", it's helped save money and assisted me in providing healthy meals to my family.

I know that #MealPlanMonday is a thing on social media, so  I thought I would give it this twist on my blog:

On Monday's, I will try to share my weekly menu for the week which actually starts on Saturdays for me.  I'll share my monthly calendar, since I already have it built, and I'll talk about the meals I plan on making this week. If I've made them before, I'll discuss what I like about them.

I've now been meal planning for 5 or 6 months.  I'm finding that 5 meals is too much for me to do every week.  I either end up with too many left overs, or I'm too tired on a specific day to cook, or we end up other making plans which can mean changing the meal, or going out.  That being said, you'll start seeing me plan for 4 meals rather than 5 on most weeks, unless I know some meals yield no leftovers.

Before, I get into this week's meal plan and my thoughts, I want to share something I did this month with my meal planning that added time saving and more  money savings!!  I meal planned a week of some extremely easy meals that don't require much of a recipe.  Spaghetti using sauce in a jar where I just cooked some ground turkey with seasonings and added it to the sauce.  Beef burritos which is just ground beef with taco seasonings and a few veggies wrapped in a tortilla.  I meal planned for these in the same week, and in the same week that we had pizza, which we made ourselves (minus the crust - we use the StoneFire crusts available at the grocery store).  I saved so much money this week, it was just great!  Look for me to do this again.

A side note, if you don't know the story - we have pizza every 19th of the month.  The short story is that in my mind, it was Preston's favorite food (while I was pregnant) and his birthday is on the 19th, so we make sure to have a special moment for him every month by doing so.

If you are new around here, you'll see that I don't always totally stick when to cook what, but I usually get 3-4 of the meals done every week :)



So what's on the menu this week?  We have:

Sheet Pan Hawaiian Pineapple Chicken
Beef & Potato Stew
Sheet Pan Fajitas
Turkey Tortellini Toss
Sloppie Joes in Peppers

I've made the Sheet Pan Hawaiian Pineapple Chicken before, and I absolutely love it.  The sauce is scrumptiously sweet yet tangy.  I had it slated for Saturday but it's such an easy weeknight dinner that I'll be making it on a weekday.

The beef and potato stew is also really good.  It goes in the crockpot, and I've been making most of my crockpot dinners on Mondays rather than Sundays.  Since my husband works from home, I prep everything and just leave him instructions.  Then I get home, and voila, dinner is served and I didn't lift a finger that day.  #WinnerMom

I've yet to try the sheet pan fajitas, but I'm excited.  I've made a few sheet pan dinners in the past months and they are efficient and flavorful.  Perfect for working moms!  If you ask me, the more of these I can add to my repertoire, the better - assuming they are tasty of course!

I also haven't tried the tortellini dinner.  I added it to my meal plan because it seems like an easy weeknight thing to toss together.  Those are great especially when the commute does not go as planned and you get home with an hour before your little one's bed time.  Yeah, that happened last week... at_least_once...

Finally, while creating my grocery list last week, I decided that I wouldn't make the sloppie joes in peppers.  They are one of my favorites, and while I think they are a healthy substitute for actual sloppie joes, they aren't my husband's favorite (because they involve bell peppers - I know he's crazy :P).  Nonetheless, as I mentioned, I don't seem to get around to making 5 meals a week, and we often have too many leftovers as is it.  So, until next time sloppie joe peppers...

What will you be making for dinner this week? Do you meal plan, or just wing it?

Needing structure

I'm planning on adding some structure to my blog over the next month or so.  Right now, I have so many ideas, and don't know which to pick.  Then I feel like my posts are rushed and missing content.  So many ideas that it almost creates writer's block.

I sat down with my husband last night and we came up with some topic ideas that I wrote down (and of course forgot at home).  Some of them I like so much that I think they will become serials - perhaps every 2 weeks or something like that.

So, look forward to more posts, more structure and hopefully topics that you can benefit from.  I've heard of editorial calendar's and will try to build something like one for myself.  I'm really excited, because I work really well when I am more organized - and I could use more organization.

Some recurring topics to look forward to:

• My nine-to-five  five-to-nine day
• Meal planning & nutrition
• Product reviews (baby products, items helpful for moms, etc.) - to note, I'm trying out Blue Apron in mid-March so I look forward to sharing my experience
• Current struggles

Parenting is hard, and the internet is filled with what you should do versus what you shouldn't do.  I'm here to offer, what I do with the attitude of hopefully this might work for you too, or a variable of it might.  I'm not looking for my way to be the right way.  I'm just here to offer a different perspective in the hopes that it'll help someone, or make someone feel less alone in their struggles with parenthood.  I'm no expert, I'm just me :)

If you ever want a topic covered, or my opinion, I'm always open to sharing it.  Feel free to leave a comment or email me: tsunaze1@gmail.com

#ProudParent and #ParentFail

It feels like forever ago since I wrote a blog on my laptop.  Since Sami became mobile, I can count on my fingers how many times I've actually opened my laptop which feels so odd since it used to be a daily occurrence.  Whether I was blogging on SpreadHappinessForPreston@blogspot.com, or whether I was gaming - playing my priest Tsunaze on World of Warcraft (side note - miss you Tsunaze and all my WoW friends), my laptop was always on.

Perhaps this is a good segue (pronounced seg-way, I had to look it up because I thought it was spelled segway) into my topic for this post.  As parents, we don't have a lot of free time.  We're either spending all our time with our kids, working, or managing the household.  Gone are the days where I have time to play World of Warcraft.  That is, unless I want to stay up until what are now unGodly hours.  What happened to me?? I used to be such a night owl... oh yeah - I had kids! :)

Gone are the days where I could spend hours on a blog post - typing it, editing it, re-editing it and choosing the perfect photograph which had been tinkered around with in Photoshop before being added to a blog post.

Now? I haven't even uploaded Sami's birthday party pictures onto my laptop to share on DropBox with my family - or on this blog.  I hardly ever have a picture on my blog because it would take me double the time to get a post up, and it's hard enough to get one up every week.

I'm writing this post on Thursday evening, because all my lunch breaks have been short this week.  I left early on Valentine's Day to go to Sami's little party at her daycare... only to get there and have Sami want to leave immediately.. despite the fact that 90% of the time when I pick her up from daycare, she runs in the opposite direction, not wanting to go home at all.

And I am going into the office late tomorrow, because I get to do something I hardly ever do - bring Sami to daycare since my husband is at his parent's through tomorrow.  And so, I've made up for some time by taking shorter lunches, which has meant I haven't had time to post anything...

And now I've rambled and totally gotten off point.

Being a parent, is filled with moments that make our hearts want to explode with happiness.  Out of sheer love.  And out of being proud! 

Being a parent, can be overwhelmingly frustrating.  We feel like we are doing the best we can, yet the results aren't what we want them to be.  What we expect them to be.  If you are feeling frustrated, you are not alone.  If you are feeling like you are doing the best you can, you probably are.

I don't like being told "everything is going to be okay".  Perhaps I've said it before.  Things will never be completely okay for me.  So I will not tell you that everything is going to be okay.

Instead, I will share my top #ProudParent moments, as well as some of my top #ParentFail moments.  We all have them, and that's what makes us human.  And the fact that we all have them, hopefully makes you feel like you aren't alone.  I may say #ParentFail, but really, it's just to put a funny twist on it.  While I can't promise that everything will be okay for all of eternity, I will tell you that you will get through it.  Soon these frustrations will be something you laugh about - "remember when you used to..." 

#ProudParent moments for Preston - I have two top proud moment for Preston.  One was the couple milestones he hit.  His smile, and discovering his hands.  I loved that, and I was so proud.  It made me feel like what I was doing to help him develop was working.  My second is how he taught me.  He taught me extreme empathy.  He taught me to share my story to hopefully help others.  And while I'm no longer actively grieving like I was when I blogged about him and grief, the premise of this blog is to help other moms, other parents feel like they aren't alone.  Its to give you a place to talk about your successes as a parent.  With social media it seems like the world has gotten overly sensitive where you can't say anything without being judged.  I'd even go as far as saying, instead of being innocent until proven guilty, we live in a world where you are sentenced before being judged just for having an opinion.  That's not what I want you to find here. 

#ParentFail moment for Preston - Without going to a dark place, which isn't the intent of this, I can't think of one.  And even if I were to go to a dark place, deep down, I know I didn't fail Preston.


#ProudParent moments for Sami - Up there are definitely some of the more major milestones, like rolling over, crawling, and walking.  I think really what has blown me away so much is her vocabulary - it started really expanding at 19-20 months and it's just kept growing since then.  She can count (1-2-3-4-5-6-7-10-7-8-9-10).  She can sing lots of different songs.  She can say her alphabet for the most part.  She knows her name including her last name.  She can form sentences and I understand her 95% of the time.  She knows all her animals and their sounds.  Her newest is the "snap" of a crocodile.  She knows all her colors and shapes.  I'm continually amazed.

#ParentFail moment for Sami - I've discussed it, picky eating has been a struggle though it seems to be petering slowly.  She ate a couple green beans this week!  Defiance is the toughest one.  I feel like I'm totally failing, nothing is working.  I've tried re-directing.  I've tried time-outs.  I've tried getting down to her level to talk to her.  I've tried being stern.  I've tried being gentle.  I've tried addressing her feelings.  I guess it's just something that will take time, but it's definitely a tough one as of right now.

I hope you'll share your proud and "fail" moments.  Wishing you a great night!

The bottle

Having my little girl in a structured daycare system has really helped me figure out when she should be starting things like solid foods, going from 2 naps to 1, and all those things that come with babies growing older.  She's done well with all transitions.

At a rather young age, Sami was able to drink through a straw thanks to a few visits to restaurants where she would sip some water.  She then mastered the sippy cup and daytime bottles went away.

I may get some flack for this, but I still give her a bottle as part of the bedtime process.  She's just over 2 years old.  I don't give it to her to fall asleep on.  We brush her teeth after the bottle is done.

The reasons I still give it to her a twofold.  The main one is that she's still pretty small for her age.  She weighs between 24-25 lbs and is at an incredibly picky stage when it comes to food.  I feel this gives her good calories to round up her day.  Could I probably give it to her in a sippy cup after dinner?  Probably.

But.

This is totally selfish.  I missed out on so much with having lost Preston at such a young age that I'm probably compensating by trying to prolong Sami being a baby.  She's not.  I know that and every day I often feel like I'm being unfair to her.

She likes her bottle.  We enjoy the special cuddling time as she drinks it.  We then read books, brush teeth and rock in her chair signing lullabies.  It's a ritual.

One that needs to be changed up I know.  Maybe just a couple more weeks?