Arkansas 2015: Painting cookies

Whenever we visit Arkansas, I try to bring some sort of fun little activity to do with the kids.  Usually something crafty, as, well, I like to do that kind of stuff.  Ben is finally getting old enough to participate, and this year I brought something new he could do with us.  A local mom from my Mothers and More group bakes cookies and cakes for special occasions.  She also does a really fun type of cookie- the paint your own cookie.  It is so cute.  It's basically a sugar cookie with frosting, and on that frosting is an outline of a picture.  Attached to the cookie is another one that looks like a little paint palate you would find with a water color book.  The special part is that the 'paint' is also frosting.  You use water on the extra frosting and paint your cookie.  Then you can eat all of it!  So cute and fun.

I picked a Mickey Mouse design for the kids to paint.  I used Ben's birthday as an excuse to get his favorite.  They loved it!  We painted the cookies after nap time, then the kids got to eat them for dessert after dinner.  It was fun, cute, easy to clean, and a big hit.  If anyone wants the info on how to get the cookies, send me an email.  I'll pass it on!

The eating is the best part!

The cookies are sold by the half dozen, so the adults got to participate a bit as well.  I was so happy the cookies survived the long drive as well.  I may have to make these an Arkansas tradition!

-Kim

Arkansas 2015: Fun City

We're back!  We just got back from our summer trip to visit the family in Arkansas!  We had so much fun.  It just gets better and better when we go because Ben can participate more and more with his cousins.  And boy, did he.  He kept up with them as much as he could!  It was great for Pat and me, because it meant he slept hard every night.  

Our days followed pretty much the same pattern.  Once everyone was up and ready for the day, we took the kids to fun activity in the morning.  Then we had some lunch, and everyone had naps.  (And yes, sometimes it was everyone, not just the kids;) )  Evenings were spent having yummy dinners and playing with the kids some more.  One night we even let Ben stay up late with the kids to watch Big Hero 6.  I know, we're cool parents. :)  (By the way, good movie!  The adults liked it too!)

Our first full day we went to Fun City Pizza so the kids could play in the climbing area and play games.  Oh, and eat pizza.  (We ate a lot of pizza on this trip.)  Ben really enjoyed watching his cousins run through the play zone, even if he wasn't quite ready to get in it himself.  He also quickly learned how to put tokens into games.  He preferred the ones in which he got to throw balls.  One has to be careful with him around skeeball though.  He doesn't always throw it down the alley, and those balls are hard!  Charlotte was a sweetheart and kept Ben supplied with tokens.  He loved playing games with her.

All the kids had a blast running around like crazy.  It was a great way to hang out on our first day there!

It was hard to get Ben to sit for pictures

Love these kids!

Charlotte helping Ben explore

Joe and Ella playing hard

Ben spent some fun time with Daddy

Playing basketball!

The kids loved all the junk food we got to eat. :)

Charlotte, Joe, and Ella were all so great with Ben.  They shared their toys and included him in everything they did.  For his part Ben was great about sharing his toys.  We are still working on taking turns with him, but in his defense he really hasn't had a ton of chances to practice.  He is usually the only kid around.  It was good practice for him and his cousins took good care of him to make sure he was always having fun.  I loved seeing Ben do so well with the other kids, I think he is going to be a great big brother!

-Kim

Fun times...

...have been happening!  I'll post more in a few days when I get more time.  But here is a preview of what we have been up to!

Cousin!

Fun times with these kiddos!!

-Kim

Toddlers and cats

Once again, Dagger and Ben have shown me that toddlers and cats are practically the same.  Okay, maybe not the same, but more similar than you might think.

This past weekend I was doing laundry, as usual.  I had left the laundry basket down in the basement on the machine, but I was upstairs to get a new load.  Not wanting to walk up and down the stairs more than necessary (is it too early to blame the babies for that?), I simply grabbed the hamper and brought the whole thing downstairs.  Ben found the hamper (once the clothes were out of it), and started playing with it.  He put toys in, took them out.  It's the type of hamper that can compress down in size to save space, so he enjoyed pressing it down and watching it bounce back up.  (Incidentally, it is the hamper Meo and Omi got me when I went to college.  Look guys- something you invested wisely in!  I still have it!;) )

After playing around the hamper a little bit, Ben pulled it over to me and tapped it while lifting up his arms.  Yes, he wanted to be in the hamper.  Well, being the good mom that I am, I of course put my child right in there.  And he loved it.  He wanted to get in and out.  He brought toys in with him.  He sat and giggled at us.  It was the best toy ever for a bit.

I'm sorry they aren't the best pictures.  But Ben and I were both giggling, and he just doesn't hold still much anymore.

Well, Ben had his fun and we went about our evening.  After we put Ben to bed, the hamper was still sitting in the living room.  Dagger always comes down at night to hang out with us.  I saw her come down, but then didn't see her for a little bit.  Well it was easy to find her.  Yep, in the hamper, as happy as can be.

Dagger hung out in the basket for almost an hour.

I know some people think getting a pet isn't real practice for having a kid.  It's true, they aren't the same thing.  But perhaps having a cat isn't always that different from having a toddler...

-Kim

Ben's big wheel

Our church put together a huge garage sale, and Omi was a big help in getting it off the ground.  So on Friday he took Ben and me over to check it out!  There was a ton of stuff, but we weren't actually looking to buy too much.  Pat and I are holding out a little longer on buying things for the babies.  As for Ben, well, Ben has a lot of toys.  He really doesn't need much.

We still had a lot of fun!  There was a whole room full of kids toys, and we let Ben just run around and play for a bit.  He was in heaven.  As I said, we weren't planning on buying him anything, but he became really attached to a big wheel there.  He pushed it all around the place.  When he couldn't push it (because I didn't want him running into anything with it) he made me carry it around.  He really fell in love with this thing.  It was funny, because he didn't want to sit on it, he just wanted to push it around.  Well obviously Omi couldn't let Ben walk out of there without that big wheel.  He got it for Ben, and Ben is so happy.

It is currently sitting in our living room, which won't last for too long.  I am a big believer in outdoor toys being outdoors.  He mainly likes to push it around, so I don't mind too much right now.  He does like to sit on it, and it working on figuring out the pedals!  I'm sure he'll pick up on it quick, then watch out!  I don't think I'll be able to keep up with him!

You can see him sitting on his awesome big wheel here.

Who's eating my dust?

Looking so grown up!

Watch out on the sidewalks, Ben will be coming through soon!

-Kim

BFBN Blog Week: Friday

Today is our last day blogging about the wonderful world of sleep.  (And as Ben is napping, and I wish I was napping, sleep does indeed seem wonderful right now:) ) I have really enjoyed learning and hearing from all the other ladies about the many aspects of sleep in children and infants.  What can I say, I really like sleep!

First up today is Elaine from Faithfully Infertile.  She is blogging about prioritizing sleep.  I know this whole week is about the importance of sleep, but she really drives home some good points.  It can be hard to plan around naps.  Real life keeps happening despite having a baby.  But I personally think it is so worth making that sacrifice to build the framework for good sleep.  Check out what Elaine has to say on the subject.

Finally we have Claire at My Devising.  She is talking about dropping the morning nap.  I know I was not looking forward to this with Ben.  Since he comes to work with me, that morning nap time was important work time!  But Claire has some good points that dropping the nap means more freedom.  We are able to adjust our mornings as needed now.  We can run errands on the weekends, have more time to go on family outings, and participate in morning library programs.  True, it meant more time to fill up in the morning, but it worked out pretty well.  Ben was able to really get back to independent play time instead.  This is perfect for us, as I get a chance to get work done, and he gets valuable time playing himself.  Plus, he has the option to fall asleep during that time.  Ben has always needed a decent amount of sleep, so he sometimes needs a power nap during this time.  Claire goes step by step through how to handle dropping the morning nap and embracing the freedom that comes with it.

This is it for my first BFBN Blog week!  I am still so thankful to be a part of this great group of women.  I have learned a lot from all their posts and hope other people have too.  

More Ben pictures starting tomorrow!

-Kim

Monday: Valerie at Chronicles of a Babywise Mom

Tuesday: Shea at The Moses Home

Tuesday: Stephanie at Giving It Grace

Wednesday: Brooke at Apffel a Day

Wednesday: Kimberly at Team Cartwright

Thursday: Carrie at Wiley Adventures

Thursday: Emily at The Journey of Parenthood

Friday: Claire at My Devising

Friday: Elaine at Faithfully Infertile

BFBN Blog Week: Thursday

Thursday of sleep week!  We have two more great blogs to read today on sleep.  The first is from Carrie at Wiley Adventures.  She is talking about conquering the 45 minute nap.  I didn't get Ben into a really good schedule until about 5 months, so I don't remember if we dealt a ton with the 45 minute nap, or just rolled with it.  But I have read a lot about it and I like what Carrie has to say.  She has a great point about staying consistent.  I know when Ben had a hard time sleeping I would change something, and if it didn't work right away I would change something else.  That doesn't work!  The scientist in me knows to change one thing at a time so you know what is causing the effect you see!  I think the hardest thing can be giving a technique a real chance to work before jumping to the next idea.  Carrie has some great points in her post.

Today we also have Emily from Journey of Parenthood.  She has written out a really great post about infant sleep in general.  I know as a new mom I was surprised by how much sleep babies really need!  I mean, I knew they slept a lot, but it is really a lot!  (Ben rivaled Dagger for a while, and Dagger is a champion sleeper!)  I think one of the most helpful things I learned with Babywise is to have a wake time to start your day.  Emily talks about that as one of her first points.  Every day is not going to go according to plan with a baby, but the knowledge that at least each day will start the same gave me a lot of comfort.  It is hard to get too wildly off schedule when you always start at the same time, and it gave me a feeling of control that I really needed during a hectic time of life.  The rest of the post is full of great tips, and I know I'll be referring back to it when the twins are here!

One more day of sleep tips tomorrow!  I know I am loving having all this helpful info and will be going back over it in the coming months.  Then after this week we return to the regular Ben hi-jinks that fill up the blog most of the time.  :)

-Kim

Monday: Valerie at Chronicles of a Babywise Mom

Tuesday: Shea at The Moses Home

Tuesday: Stephanie at Giving It Grace

Wednesday: Brooke at Apffel a Day

Wednesday: Kimberly at Team Cartwright

Thursday: Carrie at Wiley Adventures

Thursday: Emily at The Journey of Parenthood

Friday: Claire at My Devising

Friday: Elaine at Faithfully Infertile