Wanted: Sleep.

The baby of our family, Little A, is now over a year old. No, I didn’t post about her birthday. I apologize. There will be a cute birthday post soon. For now, there are more pressing matters. My one year-old has an addiction.

To my boobs.

No, I’m kidding. She isn’t addicted. I know some of you pro-breastfeeding mamas out there are freaking out because it’s the best nourishment for Little A and I’m making a joke of it. I’m just ready to wean her from nursing, but she just wont give it up!

Now, before anyone freaks out and starts yelling at your computer screen about her not being ready, or I shouldn’t be selfish and make her stop, shut up and listen. Or read, rather.

I am extremely proud of us for making it past the one year mark with breastfeeding. I didn’t make it two months with Middle A. Looking back, I’m sure I gave up too easily. I wish I had fought harder, but I was an exhausted first-time mom. Had I known the amazing bond it creates between mother and baby, I would have fought harder for it. That being said, I do not want to breastfeed my kids forever. I don’t even want to breastfeed them for two years. One year is plenty for me. And since I’m the decision maker for my children, one year is plenty for Little A as well.

Little A eats all of her meals with the family. She also drinks very well from sippy cups and straws. The kid devours a grilled cheese sandwich faster than her sisters. We have no problems getting her to eat. The only time she doesn’t eat well is if there’s a lot of commotion distracting her.

She’s a comfort nurser. She likes to nurse before naptime, bedtime, and still wakes up in the middle of the night to nurse. The last is the point that kills me. The child wants to nurse all.night.long! My back hurts and I’m tired. That turns me into one cranky and short-tempered mama. I don’t think I’ve slept more than 2 nights all the way through since Little A was born.

I want to reclaim my bed.

I want to actually sleep next to my husband instead of a child.

And I want my boobs back!
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What’s your best advice about weaning a baby from the breast, or even bottles at bedtime?

Share your child’s bedtime routine with us!

Toddlers and the Concept of Time

     Last night, while riding in the car on the way home from Grammy & Papa’s house, Middle A asked us if Christmas was tomorrow. Would Santa be coming to our house? D and I explained to her that the Christmas holiday is over for now, but we’ll do it again next year.  Middle A is almost 3. The girl has no concept of time. She uses the words yesterday, last week, tomorrow, and next week interchangeably. She was confused, but at least understood that Christmas wasn’t happening again for a while.
     She was upset by this news, so I tried to put a fun twist on it. I told her we still had lots of birthdays and Valentine’s Day, and Easter, and summertime....at which point she interrupted with a one-word question: “Summertime?”
     Of course, I explained to her that that’s when it’s hot outside and we get to do fun things like going to the lake, and to the beach, and the water park. Then she got excited. I was under the impression that she was satisfied with this explanation, but I was wrong. She had discovered something new to look forward to.....the beach.
     Fast-forward to today. Middle A has asked me no less than 372 times when we’re going to the beach. I explained to her that we had to wait until it’s hot outside. Her reply? “Mommy, the sun is shining!” So I told her we had to wait until there are lots of green leaves on the trees. Her reply? (While looking at the pine trees outside the window), “There are lots of green leaves over there!”  I tried to tell her how cold she would be outside in her swimsuit. She told me she could wear a coat. The problem is, she isn’t 100% wrong about any of these, but we simply cannot go to the beach in January.

     She’s walking around the house dressed like this:

Yes, that is a swimsuit. Yes, it is cold here. 

She doesn’t seem to mind. 

     She is still asking me when we get to go to the beach. I keep telling her we can go in the summer when it’s hot. She just isn’t getting it. I decided as a consolation I would at least give the poor girl a pedicure since she’s walking around the house in flip flops. 

At least her toes are cute. Right? 

So parents, how did you get your 2 & 3 year-olds to understand the concept of time? Do you do fun time-telling activities? Do you have posters or charts to teach them days/months/seasons, etc..? I taught 2 year-olds in daycare before I became a mom, so I always did a circle-time to teach these things to my class. Is it ridiculous to do that at home, too? What do you think?

P.S. Now Middle A wants to go to the park. It’s a step closer to home, and a drier one at that....but NO THANKS! 

Book Review: The Lonely Christmas Tree

       

The Lonely Christmas Tree


by Brent A. Marthaller

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Publisher: Tate Publishing

Page Count: 24 Pages

Genre: Children's, Inspirational, Motivational, Spiritual

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Book Synopsis

The Lonely Christmas Tree is born with a purpose to be cherished by someone at Christmas. When the tree is the last one remaining in the lot, the tree starts to believe that all hope is lost.  A bright light comes along restoring faith in dreams and encourages the spirit to persevere. The tree is small and limp but has the spirit to find love and acceptance. This story demonstrates that all of us have that spark within us to find what we long for. Persistence and fortitude can lead us out of despair to the light that shines for all of us. 

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My Review

The Lonely Christmas Tree is an adorable story about a tree that wants so badly to become a family’s Christmas tree. The poor little tree doesn’t realize that he’s not quite what the ‘ideal’ Christmas tree looks like. He watches all the other trees get chosen and taken to homes for the special holiday until he’s the only one left. 

I read this story to Middle A, who is 2 years old. She loved it so much we had to read it again immediately. It’s such a wonderful and touching story to share with your children. There are quite a few lessons that can be learned from this little tree. This will definitely be one to read every year at Christmas time! 

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Author Bio

Brent Marthaller lives in West Fargo, ND, and has written music and lyrics since 1978. During the 1980’s and 1990’s he was a member of several bands which performed throughout the area and at local venues. While those days of performing are in the past, he continues to write whenever he can. He also enjoys introducing his grandchildren to all varieties of music.

Purchase Links:

Tate Publishing:

http://www.tatepublishing.com/bookstore/book.php?w=978-1-61739-100-2

http://www.tatepublishing.com/bookstore/book.php?w=978-1-61346-168-6

Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/Lonely-Christmas-Tree-Brent-Marthaller/dp/161739100X/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1355776048&sr=8-3&keywords=The+Lonely+Christmas+Tree

Barnes & Noble

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/lonely-christmas-tree-brent-a-marthaller/1101384282

Author’s Website - www.thelonelychristmastree.com

Exclusive Hardcover versions may be purchased for $11.99 directly from the author website!

DIY Headband Holder

You know that song “Little Girls” that Miss Hannigan sings in the musical ‘Annie’? Sometimes I find myself humming that song. Having 3 girls, our house is covered in little girl things. I step on a hair clippy at least 10 times a week. Moms of boys think Legos hurt?! I stepped on my share of legos when I was younger. Legos got nothin’ on those little claw-shaped hair clips. OUCH! Along with those hair clips, we have about 10 bajillion hair bows and headbands. The tiny drawer in the bathroom can’t hold them all. Headbands were breaking and bows were getting smashed. I know a hair bow board will solve the smashed hair bow problem. I’m going to take care of that soon. I needed to figure out how to get all those headbands in one place.

This is the answer:

An oatmeal canister is the perfect size to put headbands around!

I trimmed two pieces of scrapbook paper to fit around the can and hot glued them.

Then, I hot glued a ribbon down each side where the paper overlapped so no edges were showing.

Last, I glued a cardboard circle that is about an inch wider than the base of the canister to the bottom.

Middle A insists on wearing a headband every single day, so it’s great having them all right there where she can choose which one she wants. It’s also handy for teaching her to put them where they belong. She is doing a great job keeping up with her headbands since they’re all displayed on her dresser now. 

Here are Middle A’s headbands on her headband holder:

Book Review: Here Among Us

   

Here Among Us

Maggie Harryman

Print Length: 304 pages

Publisher: Straight On True (October 1, 2012)

Genre: Literary Fiction

Website: www.maggieharryman.com

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Book Synopsis:

When unemployed San Francisco attorney, Flynn O’Shea, and her teenaged daughter, Didi, are summoned to New Jersey for the Thanksgiving holiday by Flynn’s socialite sister, Maeve, she expects a fight.

After all, she has been battling Maeve most of her life. Disagreeing about the extent of their Irish mother’s creeping dementia and the fate of the family’s thriving restaurant business, named for their beloved, long dead father, Paddy, is surely a recipe for a world-class brawl.

What Flynn doesn’t expect is the fragile truce the sisters forge to save O’Shea’s from the clutches of Maeve’s scheming husband, Jeffrey. Flynn and Maeve are reluctantly aided by their forty-four-year-old brother, Osheen, a handsome Peter Pan still cruising the Jersey shore, getting high and dodging responsibility.

And while Didi tries to convince her mother that “everything is as it should be,” just when Flynn is sure she’s gained the upper hand on Jeffrey, her own mother’s shocking confession sends her into a wine-soaked tailspin and forces her to deal once and for all with the ghosts of her past. Devastated, Flynn must choose to save O’Shea’s or risk losing forever all she has left of her father.

In Here Among Us, the O’Sheas find themselves dealing with the very timely issue of Alzheimer’s, a disease that strips the victim's identity and wreaks havoc on the family left to pick up the pieces. But Flynn, Osheen and Maeve’s troubles began long before their mother started to “slip.” For the O’Sheas, much of their shared angst is rooted in the single most devastating event of their lives—the death of their father when they were young children. The novel explores not only how deep wounds can seem impossible to heal, but how refusing to let go of the stories the O'Sheas desperately cling to about who they are, threatens to hasten their demise.

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    Here Among Us was a fun read with a great balance of family drama, crime, blackmail, with a dash of romance. Flynn is that relative that every family has who keeps her distance to avoid the drama. This particular year, she gets sucked into visiting for Thanksgiving. She expects to find drama waiting for her, but what she doesn’t expect is to be sucked into a giant whirlwind of secrets, scheming, and drama. 

    Flynn's mother’s memory is failing her. Her sister, Maeve, has a whopper of a secret to share with the family. Not to mention the fact that Maeve’s husband is trying to finagle the family business out from under all of them. Secrets that have been kept for decades are exposed, and Flynn has to absorb the shock. 

    I couldn’t wait to get to the end of this book. I kept reading and reading to find out what happened next. Of course when I reached the end, I hoped for more. Harryman did a great job bringing her characters to life. I would love to see more from the O’Sheas. 

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About the Author

Maggie Harryman was born in New Jersey and moved to San Francisco soon after college. She received an MA in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University and spent the ensuing years working as a copywriter in various industries including healthcare, tech and real estate/finance.

Maggie lives in Northern California in the heart of wine country, has two wonderful children in college and an old, faithful dog named, Humphrey.

Here Among Us is her debut novel. She also has two short stories on Amazon; Jesus, Mary and Joseph Michael Duffy Has Arisen and Cleaning Naked.

You can purchase Here Among Us for $7.99 on Amazon. 

Homemade Halloween

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. I always loved dressing up and going trick or treating when I was a kid. Now I love watching my kids do the same thing. I haven’t dressed up in quite a while, but I think there might be some family costumes in our future. I just love seeing whole families participate in the festivities of the holiday! 

I like seeing creative costumes, especially homemade ones! 

I had some great friends share their homemade costumes with me, so I could share them with you!

This is my great friend KellyAnn, her husband Scott, and their kiddos!
She got the fabric for her daughter’s Dorothy costume from Wal-Mart.
Her husband’s costume is a sweatsuit purchased from Wal-Mart as well.
They bought a funnel, spray painted it silver, and added the heart on his chest
to complete the tin-man ensemble!
KellyAnn had all of the components of her costume on hand already, and
her son’s courageous lion costume was store-bought.

This is my sister-in-law, Elizabeth. She was Twitter for Halloween
last year! I thought it was a very clever costume. She found the
dress at a local clothing store, added a matching feather boa around the
bottom hem, and stuck some feathers in her hair.
She wore the dry erase board around her neck with her
twitter handle on it so people could ‘tweet’. 

These are our friends Steve, Debbie, and their children.
Debbie did an amazing job creating these costumes for her family this year.
She didn’t tell me the details about how she made them.
(Maybe it’s a lego ninja secret).
I would imagine there were lots of cardboard boxes, duct tape,
and paint involved!

I love hearing from my readers! 

Did you make your costume this year? Share it on my Facebook page! 

Weekend Wrap-Up

We had quite an eventful weekend!
It was packed full of fun Halloween activities.

We started with carving pumpkins. Big A did a great job, but she had a hard time getting the carving knife all the way through the pumpkin. I had to help her shape things up a little bit in the end, but the end result was not bad for an 8-year-old.

D carved the top pumpkin.
Big A carved the bottom pumpkin. 

Of course, you can’t carve pumpkins without roasting the seeds afterward!

We visited our church for the annual Trunk or Treat. My brother-in-law, his wife, and the kiddos joined us there for some fun!

Big A, Middle A & Little A with their cousins. 

Last year, our neighborhood held Trick or Treating on the Saturday before Halloween. We didn’t participate because we had other activities going on. Evidently it was decided that the turnout for weekend trick or treating was better than on Halloween, so they held it on the weekend again this year. We took the kids  around the neighborhood to score some more candy.

Middle A, Big A, and her bestie warmed up with hot chocolate! 

Also, over the weekend I came to the realization that my baby is about to turn a year old in just 2 weeks! She was such a big girl, going right up to people and holding up her bucket. When they would put candy in her hand, she would drop it right into her bucket. It was so cute, but it makes me sad to think that a whole year has passed already. 

ROOOOAAAARRR!!!!

I’m going to feature homemade Halloween costumes on Wednesday, so if you would like for me to include your homemade costumes, please email them to anorris21 [at] gmail [dot] com. I love hearing from my readers, and sharing crafty things they’ve done!