Three whole years of learning about and loving her. I’m going to admit, two has been my favorite. It’s a gift that I only have a month more to cherish.
If I could go back to a year ago and talk to myself about parenting, I’d tell myself one thing.
Always blow the bubbles.
When she has her bubble bottle outstretched to you, take that ten minutes and blow them. Even when you’re swamped with work and need to clean, blow the bubbles.
This is the purest time in their lives. The world around them is magical.
With all the worries adults have going on, bubbles are the only thing on a toddler’s mind. That and seeing their favorite smile in the world.
Bubbles are, of course, metaphoric.
They can be singing, or playing, or running, or listening, or dancing. Whatever it may be, when your child asks, try and blow the bubbles.
The years go so fast and in the moments you drop everything, time stands still.
Their laugh is all you can hear. And their smile… well, there hasn’t been a sweeter sight. They’re engrossed in the moment as much as you. All it took was focusing on this second.
Work, a dirty house, and other adults will always be around, but they won’t be little forever.
There will come a time where they don’t want you to blow bubbles. They’ll just do it themselves. The freedom you crave now will come and those toddler cuddles and desires will fade away.
Two and these toddler years are hard, but they go away so soon.
For us, two ends in a month.
If three-year-old Mila’s mom came to talk to me today, I bet she’d tell me the same advice…
Since I’ve been getting ready every morning since August, I’ve definitely used a lot more makeup. It’s also let me experiment too.
When I had the chance the last month to try a few new products, I took it. Honestly, it felt different reviewing beauty products, but I had a ton of fun with it!
Instead of just sitting with these pictures and experiences, I figured I’d share them!
benefit • they’re real! mascara
My favorite type of makeup is mascara. It can completely change someone’s face. For me, I feel like it frames my eyes and just makes my face look more polished.
When I had the opportunity to get this mascara in a VoxBox for free, I took it!
To make myself feel official for the review, I took progress pictures and all. It was intense, but I think I did alright?
As you can see, the mascara is pretty nice. I love the wand and how easily it applies.
One thing that I have noticed with it is the mascara smears off by the end of the day. It’s probably a me thing though. I have oily skin, so that plays a big part in it.
I guess I could flip that negative and say it’s nice to clean up at the end of the day too!
A Facebook friend recently reached out to me to try a color card.
She got a quick assessment of my makeup likes and dislikes. I also let her know I wanted to be adventurous in whatever I tried. Maybe I was feeling a little confident after my mascara review.
After a little mailing hiccup, I got to try a new look!
I followed the instructions on the card and tried new application techniques. Honestly, I think it turned out gorgeous. I only wish I could have showed my lipstick off in person.
After looking at these pictures again, the shades of eyeshadows are beautiful. I love how they all blended together. It was almost creamy, but still powdery too.
There’s some blush on my cheeks too. Just can’t see it as much! Isn’t that what makeups about?
Both looks and products were so much fun to try.
If I learned anything about my week of makeup blogging/testing, it’s to just say yes! Often we don’t want to try new things, but it can be a lot of fun. Maybe you’ll find something you love.
A big THANK YOU to everyone that let me try these products out. It was a blast.
If you liked this blog and have any suggestions of things I should try and review let me know in the comments, please.
Most toddlers probably don’t understand what Pi is or what maths really all about. Heck, I’m not sure I even know either.
But let’s be rational and not talk in circles.
Dah dah dum.
Did you get me one math joke I’ve ever told or no? Either way, it’s Pi Day and I made Mila a fun matching game that includes all different sizes of circles. You can do that same at home with items located in your house, at this very moment.
Not only does it introduce toddlers to what pi looks like and that it deals with circles, this game incorporates color and size matching too.
All you’ll need to make this matching game is a piece of paper, markers, and random lids.
Once you find a few lids, just trace around them on the paper. I did corresponding colors with the varying shapes. This really helped Mila with some of the shapes that are similar in size.
To be a little festive and help her connect circles with pi, I added the symbol inside all of them. She loved identifying the numbers at the top too.
I love being sneaky and adding learning points. She has no idea that she’s doing an educational activity. All she knows is that she’s having fun. It reinforces that learning is FUN.
Before letting her play, I randomly spread out the lids. Then I gave her directions to match them.
For her first match through, I had her focus on the size of the circles.
Mila actually did an amazing job.
She was able to correctly match all the lids. There were only two green ones that gave her a little trouble. With some encouragement, she was able to figure it out though.
When she was done, I cleared them off and had her do it again. This time, I had her focus on the color of the circles.
If you couldn’t have guessed from Mila’s reaction, she matched them up perfectly for the second time. She started stacking them after this time, which worked for me.
This matching game is a fun way to introduce Mila to math concepts that are advanced for her age. But, by just becoming familiar with pi and pairing it with circles, infinitely helps for the future.
Let’s hope she’s a little better at math than me!
I hope you and your toddler will enjoy this activity. It’s one you can create immediately at home.
As always, if you do participate, let me know in the comments!
Like seriously, it’s about five times a week. She’s super comfortable around heat sources, tools, and utensils. Plus, she loves trying new foods and dishes. I think when she has a hand in cooking, she’s more into trying whatever we cook.
Her favorite part is mixing and stirring our food. At first, it went normal. Lately, though, I’ve noticed she’s been doing something a little weird while I cook.
It doesn’t matter how many pots we use, she stirs with every single bamboo utensil. Weirder than that, she only uses the utensil for one stir and then discards it.
Not only is it a strange practice, it calls for a ton of clean up.
I guess toddlers like making a mess too. Maybe it’s about time she starts helping with all the dishes.
Let’s hope that she always loves cooking with me and wants to experiment with her food, but maybe gets a little less messy as time goes by. Even just practicing using one utensil instead of them all.
Toddlers are just weird.
Does anyone else’s toddler have to use every single one of an object? Mila does this with paint brushes too!
When Jensen died, it was the first time I had ever felt that type of grief.
It followed me everywhere. No matter what I did, it felt tangled in my every day life. Honestly, grief is still present. Although it doesn’t control me as it did before, I can feel it deep down. It’s been creeping up lately, so have the tears, as we get closer to his birthday.
When I got pregnant with Mila, I wondered how his death would impact her. We’ve always said his name and she loves seeing his picture. Mila always says how much she loves and misses her Jensen. She’s not been the biggest fan of Jensen bear, but as of lately, she’s been more interested.
For the first time ever, I haven’t had to wonder when the first time she’d bring his loss up.
Before bed, Mila asked, for the first time ever, if Jensen bear could come and sleep with us. She picked him up and didn’t complain about how heavy he was. After she tucked him in beside me, she went and grabbed a book for us to read.
While reading it, she cuddled with Jensen bear and hugged him tight. As the story ended, she looked at me with her big eyes and asked why Jensen wasn’t with us.
I told her he was always in our hearts and when we missed him we could talk to him.
This answer wasn’t the one she wanted. Her mouth turned to a frown and I saw a familiar feeling. The heaviness of grief weighed her down. She misses him and doesn’t understand why she can’t have her brother.
I wish I could tell her why and make it all better, but this is the grieving process.
Instead of telling her it’d eventually be all okay, I held her tight and told her I missed him too. I let her know it was okay to be sad.
This is sibling grief.
I’ve been on this grief journey for almost five years now. It’s changed how I view the world and myself in it. There’s no question on if it’ll do the same to Mila.
It will.
Here’s some ways I’ve helped her grieve the death of her brother. Maybe it can help your child grieve too.
Talk openly about the person.
Let your child know it’s okay to talk about the person that’s not here anymore. By opening up that conversation, they’ll be able to express their feelings and memories about the loss and the person.
Get a physical way they can remember their loved one.
We love our Jensen bear. It’s a great comfort object that can actually help and squeezed. For toddlers and kids, I think a stuffed animal with a loved ones shirt would be perfect. Another idea would be a necklace or piece of jewelry they can keep on them too.
Start a journal with them.
Although Mila is a little young to be journaling, I plan on doing this with her when she starts to write. Sometimes kids don’t want to express their feelings through talking, a journal is a great way to get those feelings out without making them uncomfortable. There are a lot of ways to co-journal with your child too.
Encourage them to express their feelings through art.
Drawing and painting is a great way to have your child show you what they’re feeling. This could be incorporated as a journal or a weekly activity. Let them know there’s no wrong way to feel or express it.
Celebrate your loved ones.
I think one of the hardest things for people to grasp is there is joy in grief. As hard as it is to lose someone, there’s still all that love and happiness they brought too. For Mila, we celebrate Jensen’s birthday every year, we put up his Christmas ornaments, and include him in our family pictures. He is always celebrated with us and is included just as much as if he was actually here.
Let them be sad.
No one can make grief feel better. Sometimes you have to sit with that sadness. This goes the same for kids too. All you can do is listen and be there for your child. They’ll let you know what they need from you. Sadness is a healthy emotion when it can properly be felt.
If your child is depressed make sure to reach out to a therapist to best help their needs.
I’ll never claim to know everything about grief, but a lot of these things have helped Mila and I plan on continuing to incorporate them in our lives for a long time.
Do you have any other ways that can help a child through the loss of a loved one and grief?
Yes. You’re going to change the world. You are powerful.
No matter where life takes you, there are so many opportunities at your fingertips. It doesn’t matter who you want to become or what you want to be. You have the ability to do what you want.
In a world that I’m not so certain of, I am certain of your value and worth. We live in a time where girls can grow up and not be looked down on just because they’re women. Women are superheroes. You, my small, little woman, are a superhero.
As you grow up, I’ll never pressure you to do anything you don’t want. I will, though, show you how much women have overcome throughout the history of the world. It’s important to know that growth. Better yet, to help you realize your strength and importance in the world.
You independent and intelligence is going to get you everything you’ll ever want. When those don’t seem enough (and believe me they are), you have the support of women everywhere.
I don’t know what the world will be like when you’re in your twenties, but I hope it keeps evolving.
It’s my dream that you’ll have a society where there’s equality and justice. I don’t want to ever worry about someone ever hurting you and then getting away with it. I hope there won’t be any threat to your right to choose what you to with your body.
Mila, you’ve been born into a generation full of power and opportunity.
I’m so excited to see you grow into whoever you’ll be. Always know, you’ll have your mom’s support. No matter if you end up becoming a dance teacher or a world leader.
Ever wonder how you can combine listening and creativity? This St. Patrick’s Day activity does it.
My house is already rapidly getting ready for spring. Our plants are growing, we’ve been playing outside, and spring cleaning is in full effect. Just over the weekend, our house has rainbows, spring, and St. Patrick’s Day decor up and hanging.
I thought we could do a painting with it too. When I pre read it, I tried to find repetitive words she wasn’t super familiar with before. Clover is the leprechauns name in the story and is used quite often. So, that’s what I decided on.
To make a regular painting a little more fun, I continued using an unusual painting tool.
Bell peppers make a clover shape when they’re painted and stamped.
She actually wasn’t super fond on just gripping the pepper though. You can stick a fork in the pepper to do the same effect. It looked like she had more control that way too.
All we did for this activity was read the book and stamp the pepper every time Clover was said.
It turns out, Clover was said way more than I remembered when I first read the story. Mila was constantly going back and forth with from paint to canvas.
There were a few times she didn’t do it because she was so interested in the book. Cute right?
Don’t worry. We read it again afterwards.
Honestly, this was such a cute activity.
It proved that my toddler can actually listen (I’m such a jokester) and she’s so creative.
I think my favorite part of the painting is where you can tell Clover was said three times in a page. She just stamped it quickly in the same spot.
We hope you love this activity as much as we did!
It’s a quick one to do with your toddler or older child. You’ll get a new St. Patrick’s Day decor price and the knowledge that kids can listen when they want.
Let me know in the comments if you try it out.
Make sure to check out these great St. Patrick’s Day activities too!
Self love can be a difficult journey, especially during hard months. One way to keep my self care routine in check is by using positive affirmations.
I have a ton of affirmations saved, but this month I needed more than just saved pictures.
Since I’ve been really following the Law of Attraction lately, I figured I needed to physically create March affirmations.
If you don’t know the Law of Attraction it pretty much means you attract whatever you’re focusing on. Affirmations are great for this mindset. I can literally write down what I want to focus on and read it out loud everyday. Those affirmations will find their way back to me.
Or that’s the belief with it.
Anyways, after Mila’s rainbow activity earlier this week, I made prints with the left over paint. All I did was take white sketch paper and pressed it on the bubble wrap.
I knew they would make a cute project for later!
Then, I cut the paper into four rectangles. That way I didn’t have huge pieces of paper for the March affirmations.
Next came the more challenging part: coming up with the affirmations.
I will admit, I did look to Pinterest for some inspiration. Then I searched for some crown chakra affirmations, since mine easily gets blocked.
Eventually I ended up with these.
I love and accept myself.
I am here to make a difference.
I am creating the life of my dreams.
Good things are coming.
The final one I made digitally so I could share with all of you.
All of them are so powerful to remember.
With my anxiety, I have to constantly keep myself in check. My thoughts can race, but these help remind me that anxiety does not run my life.
This next month is going to feel heavy for me; as March usually does. We’re quickly approaching Jensen’s fifth birthday and my grief feels really heavy this year.
I’m hoping with the extra positive energy I’m putting out in the world that it’ll surround me when I need it most.
Mila is my rainbow baby and any time we can incorporate them in our home, we do. So, it felt pretty fitting to make our big canvas painting a rainbow this month.
We’ve done smaller rainbow crafts, but this big painting may be my new favorite.
All the supplies you’ll need are:
Paint (the colors of the rainbow)
Bubble wrap
Canvas
Since Mila was busy with the nice weather, I was able to prep this easily. When she did notice we were painting, she ran over.
We talked about all the different colors. She’s finally able to say ‘orange’ and let me know that her favorite color of all of them was purple.
All I did was put paint in rainbow arches in the correct order.
Then, I helped Mila put the bubble wrap over top of it. When it was there, she pushed on all the paint to spread it out.
It was fun watching her figure out how it all worked. She thought it was pretty cool to see how the paint mixed together and everything. The best part was pulling off the bubble wrap.
We all know my love for using random things to paint, this turned out so different than I expected. It’s textured, but not in bubble wrap’s usual way.
Mila was so proud of her latest artwork. It’s hanging up now, even though I may add a quote above the red arch.
No matter what, this artwork is easy to do with kids of all ages. It can be modified for babies by putting a more secure wrap on the canvas. For older kids, they can pour the paint on too.
I hope that you and your toddler love this activity! If you end up doing it, let me know in the comments.
In all the weird things my toddler does, this one has me the most perplexed.
A few weeks ago, I bought Max, our dog, a new chew toy from chewy.com. This pink bunny would be perfect in distracting him away from all of Mila’s stuffed animals… or so I thought.
When I opened it out of the box, Max wagged his tail so much and was so excited to get a new toy. But, there was someone else who had their eye on it…
She still hasn’t let it go either.
Mila has taken claim to this stuffed bunny. Max isn’t even allowed looking at it without her interjecting. Before we leave the house, she hides it in her closet so he can’t get to it. It’s a cat and mouse game that I don’t quite understand.
Instead of her other stuffed animals being saved from Max’s love of chewing, she has protected this bunny with all of her might.
At least this is one toy that doesn’t go into the bathtub.
So, here’s my daughter with the dog’s her chew toy bunny. In her zoo full of crazy colored stuffed animals, for some weird reason, she’s crazy over this particular one.
Grey Skies & Rainbow Highs 