Tag Archives: toddler approved

The Unwritten Milestone

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To say I wasn’t prepared for Mila’s new and unwritten milestone would be a complete understatement. Not only did it come out of no where, it completely took me off guard.

Usually, Wednesdays are to tell you all about their weird things Mila does. It’s one of the things I look forward to sharing most about. They make me laugh to think about and I know other parents can connect to them too. I’m pretty sure all our kids are somewhat weird.

Anyways, I couldn’t even call what she did yesterday weird. It was more like… touching, heartwarming, and inspiring.

She absolutely made my heart grow with one little sentence.

Here’s what happened.

As I was leaving to go back to work after lunch, Mila did her normal goodbye routine. She has to give whoever a hug and kiss, at least two times. Then tells them she loves them and to have a good day. Just when you’re about to walk out the door, she’ll yell, “I need a hug and kiss!” Then run up to you.

Well, this lunch period was a little different. She ended up walking me out of the house, instead of watching me go. When I bent down to give her a hug and kiss, she said something new. Something no one prepared me about: the unwritten milestone.

You’re the best, Mom.

She has never, ever said that before; especially when I’m about to leave her for a few hours.

As she said it to me, she gave me a big squeeze. Then, she flashed her smile and walked back to the door. She waved and told me to have a good day.

In that big moment, I had to take a deep breath and get back to real life.

On the inside, I melted. I swear if it was any other time, I probably would have cried. With all the leaving her lately, I wonder how she thinks of me. That statement let me know everything I was doing was right.

It might sound silly to cherish this one unwritten rule, but no one told me what that one little saying would feel like when they said it.

There’s a high chance I’m not the best mom in the entire world, but I’m the best mom to MIla and that feels pretty good. One day she’ll learn the power in her words and how I’ll always think she’s the best girl.

For now, I’m celebrating this victory in motherhood and the unwritten milestone.

Toddler Activity: Snipped Paper Shamrock Collage

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With St. Patrick’s Day right around the corner, I thought it’d be fun to work on Mila’s scissor skills and do some more process art. This Shamrock Collage is a fun way to teach them about a ton of different things, while they’re having fun.

Mila is so interested in scissors. Whenever I use mine, she asks for her and tries to cut different things. Although she’s still into using both hands to cut, I challenge her to try and use one hand.

If you didn’t know, toddlers Mila’s age shouldn’t really be cutting paper. They should practice on play-doh or something similar, which Mila does. But, I like seeing how she’s progressed. When she practices on paper, I try to cut strips for her so she can do short cuts.

Anyways, let’s get back to this project. Here’s all the supplies you’ll need:

  • Scrap paper
  • Scissors
  • Market
  • White paper

I’m going to go on about scissor skills (sorry!). If you want to age this activity up, use the green paper as a template. This is too old for Mila’s age and for most toddler-aged kids.

Anyways, I found extra scrapbook paper in the playroom. We don’t use a ton of green for crafts, so I actually had a good bit of it. To make the shamrock, I followed this pin. I cut long strips for her to make small cuts too.

She practiced holding the scissors and the paper.

Eventually, I ended up holding the paper for her to help out. She got a little bit frustrated with it, but she cut a good amount.

I ended up getting out play-doh and those scissors so she could continue cutting. Then I cut some extra squares and triangles so she had enough to do the collage. We sort of sham-rock team work. Okay, that was a lame joke, but it was festive.

Next, I placed the cut pieces in a bowl and covered all the white area of the clover in glue. Then, I instructed her to make a collage.

Specifically, I told her to cover all the white with green pieces.

She had a blast picking out the best pieces to put on her shamrock. We found some Irish music to listen to and it all came together pretty quickly.

One thing I would suggest is have a wet washcloth with you.

I think Mila’s going through something about sticky things. Every time her hand accidentally touched the glue, she immediately needed it wiped off. That took some time to do, but we had so much fun.

When she was done placing the paper, she wanted to draw around the sides. I think she just loves using markers.

Honestly, I loved the way it turned out.

It’s so festive and I feel like it’s a project that I can do with her through the years. For now, it’s hanging up on my fridge, waiting for the leprechauns to see!

Let me know what you think about this activity and if you try it out, I’d love to see what you and your little came up with.

3 Ingredient Lucky Charm Bars

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If you’re looking to make St. Patrick’s Day magical or just want a tasty treat, try these Lucky Charm Bars. They’re just like Rice Krispy treats, but with the taste of Lucky Charms.

The best part is there are only 3 ingredients! Here’s what you’ll need:

  • 6 cups of Lucky Charms
  • 1 stick of unsalted butter
  • 16 oz of marshmallows

The process to making this treat can be a little messy, but it’s fairly easy to do.

First, start off melting the butter and marshmallows together. I used medium heat so it didn’t get too hot to burn the marshmallows. It took a little bit of time, but I made sure to stir to break them down too.

When it’s melted, take off the heat and add the Lucky Charms to it. Make sure it all gets coated. This can get messy quick!

Then, spray a nonstick spray to a baking pan.

Spread the mix evenly across the pan. Again, this is a little tricky to do because it is so sticky! Keep at it and it’ll work.

Before letting it cool, I picked out marshmallows from the bag, even though I tell Mila not to… oops. I thought it’d look cute to have some extra on top of the Lucky Charm Bars. If it’s not a leprechaun trap, it’s definitely a toddler trap!

After around 40 minutes, your bars will be cooled and set to take pictures.

Cut them into bars or try using cookie cutters for fun shapes. After they’re cut up, you can enjoy your Lucky Charms Bars!

To store them, keep them in an air tight container on the counter. If you put them in the fridge, they’ll just harden up and loose their chewy appeal.

As always, let me know if the comments what you think of this recipe or if you try it out!

Want more St. Patrick’s Day food and snacks? Check out these ideas:

Always Blow the Bubbles.

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In a month, Mila will be three.

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…

Always blow the bubbles.

What advice would you give to toddler moms?

Toddler Activity: Pi Day Matching Game

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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!

Weird Things My Toddler Does: Part 14

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Mila and I cook a lot.

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!

Toddler Activity: St. Patrick’s Day ‘Clover’ Painting

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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.

To get Mila ready for next week’s fun holiday, we read Pete the Cat: The Great Leprechaun Chase.

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.

The supplies you’ll need:

Yes, you read that right. We’re using a bell pepper to paint!

I guess I just really wanted to play with my food as a child since I’m constantly letting Mila play with hers.

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!

Also, I’m looking to expand Mila’s Easter/Spring books. Do you have an Easter/Spring childrens book recommendation?

Toddler Activity: Rainbow Bubble Wrap Painting

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In our house, rainbows hold a special meaning.

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.

Weird Things My Toddler Does: Part 13

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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.

Toddlers are just weird.

Read Across America Day: 3 Books that Cultivate Compassion

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Today is National Read Across America Day. What better way to celebrate with your child than a new book and activity?

As I was picking out books for the day, Mila’s Little Bookish Wardrobe box came in. I thought it fit perfectly in the NEA’s theme this month: cultivating compassion.

The Unbudgeable Curmudgeon by Matthew Burgess is a book all about feelings and helping someone out who’s in a bad mood. We all get in bad moods, but this book helps cultivate compassion by thinking what will help your child’s sibling, parent, or friend in a nice way.

Mila loved the images in the book and it was a great way to talk about emotions. It also opened us up to talking about what makes her mad. Honestly, hearing her talk about being angry was a learning moment.

When we normalize feelings and having different ones, we can learn so much about our kids and selves.

In the box, we always received a red wig (that Mila is wearing in the first picture), a rainbow sweater, and a slippers activity. Every thing in the box goes right along with the story. It’s always fun to explore.

This months activity was drawing on slippers. In the book, they paint to feel better and the Curmudgeon has big, furry feet. They sort of look like slippers.

So, Mila drew her different colored lines on the slippers. She’s so proud of them.

I think it might be a good learning tool for when she’s mad or having big emotions. It might be something she wears if she’s feeling overwhelmed. It’ll let me know there’s something going on if she can’t express it.

Two other books that we have that cultivate diversity that I think you guys would love are these.

Love Makes a Family by Sophie Beer

I absolutely love this book. It talks about a wide range of diverse families. There’s families of all backgrounds and sexualities. For us, it talks about single parenthood too. All in a compassionate way!

The Sloth Who Slowed Us Down by Margaret Wild

Another great story that promoted compassion is this little story. It’s literally about the title. It’s such a cute story that talks about family time and slowing down for each other.

No matter what you read today or anytime with your child, you’re giving them a gift they’ll always be thankful for.

Even if you put them in a red wig.

Check out these other bloggers who are celebrating Read Across America Day too!