Nothing but the Girls!

I have been out of the blogging world for the last week or so because my 4 year old daughter and I took our first girls trip. We flew out to San Francisco to see a friend’s new baby. I also must tell you that I left my 2 year old son with my husband for a week of male bonding.



This was a trip I was not only was excited about but I also needed for a mental health break from the home front. Overall the trip was wonderful! The baby is super sweet and my daughter had a blast.

Here are a few things I have learned about taking a girls trip with a 4 year old and leaving your son and husband on their own for the week.
- Take a lot of little snacks for the plane ride. I say little because it keeps things interesting if they can have many different snacks instead of just a big bag of chips or something.
- Apologize to the person that is sitting in front and on the side of your child at the beginning of the flight. No matter how much I told my daughter not to kick the seat or yell, she still did it. Now I must say she was pretty good, but there were still some moments.
- Buy some new little toys or games for the plane. Since these were all things she had never seen or played with just getting them out of the package and open was an adventure. (and took up time)
- When leaving your husband and your 2 yr old son to fend for themselves make sure there is a lot of easily prepared foods that are nutritious… or they will just live off of Hardees.
- Do not expect to come home to a clean house. Just be happy that everyone is safe. However I must tell you.. when we walked in the house I immediately smelled gas. I ran to the kitchen to find the knob on the stove top turned. My husband then comments …’Oh that is where that smell is coming from, I thought I smelled gas when I woke up’ OMG!!! I am so thankful that my house did not blow up or that the dogs didn't take a nap and never wake up!

Wellp, we are back and look forward to getting back to the normal daily routine!

My Web Site – http://www.kidsinstl.com/

Added a bunch of activities to the calendar. Trying to get it pumped up with activities for spring and summer. Go to the site http://www.kidsinstl.com/ and check it out!!

Here is a preview of what is on our Recommended Toys Page:

RECOMMENDED TOYS FOR THE YOUNG CHILD - 24-36 MONTHS
SPORTS:
Little Tikes TotSports T-Ball Set
Mini Gertie Ball
TENTS/TUNNELS:

Thomas the Tank Engine

Find Me Multicolor Play Tunnel
ALPHABET:

LeapFrog Fridge Farm Magnetic Animal Set
SENSORY:

Little Tikes Bubble Bellies Bubble Saurus

Wordless Wed - Birthdays are Never your Own, Once you have kids

Dance Party With Dr Seuss

Yesterday my kids school celebrated Dr Seuss’s 102nd Birthday. What a guy that Dr Seuss and what a wonderful author. Everyone has a favorite Dr Seuss book, mine has to be ‘A Fly Went By’. My son’s favorite is ‘Go Dog Go’ and my daughter likes ‘Inside your Outside’.

It is sort of funny if you really look at the books each of us likes, ‘A Fly Went By’ has a part about the little boy getting a switch and whipping the fox chasing the pig and that always makes me chuckle because now a days a children’s author would never write something so non-PC in a book.

My Son likes the ‘Go Dog Go’ book simply because he digs doggies. The thing I find funny is he always inquires why the dogs are blue and green, not why are the dogs driving cars. Just shows what is important in his little mind.

Now my daughter just turned 4 so she is a little sponge for knowledge, which is why ‘Inside your Outside’ is her favorite. She just loves to ask questions about red and while blood cells and other body stuff the book talks about. I often have to go to the internet to find the answers to her questions.

The school went all out with crafts, story time, dancing and specials guests like – Clifford, The Cat in The Hat and Mother Goose. It was a great day and we had a blast. What a wonderful way to pay tribute to a guy we forget played such a big role in many of our young lives.

Here is a little clip of my daughter dancing at the party. This clip is a little over 2 mins long, but I promise you will be smiling by the end.

My Web Site – http://www.kidsinstl.com/

Added a bunch of activities to the calendar. Trying to get it pumped up with activities for spring and summer. Here is a list of some of the activities going on around St Louis the next couple of days. Go to the site http://www.kidsinstl.com/ for more detail.

Monday Mar 17th
9 AM - 10 AMInfant Play Cooper Ella
9 AM - 1 PMEASTER BUNNY HUTCH
10 AM - 11:30 AM'It's Easy Finding Green' Hike
10:30 AM - 11:30 AMRocking Chair Story Time

Tuesday Mar 18th
9:15 AM - 10:15 AMCreation Station Museum of Transportation
10 AM - 10:30 AMStory Time at Pottery Barn
2:15 PM - 3:15 PMShoemaker And The Elves - Kramer's Marionette Theater
4 PM - 5 PMClub Read: Xbox 360 - Got Game?

Hey for all of you that are not in St Louis, I want to share one of the many other parts of my site that can be used by anyone regardless of where they live. Here is a partial list of some of the books we recommend for children. From the home page click on the Recommended Books button– To see the whole list check out our site. http://www.kidsinstl.com/
BOOKS RECOMMENDED FOR THE YOUNG CHILD (24-36 MONTHS)
COUNTING: Baby Buddies: Can You Count (Baby Buddies)
INTRODUCTION TO SPANISH: My First Spanish Word Book / Mi Primer Libro De Palabras En Español
INTERACTIVE/PROPS: Hide-And-Seek With Leo: A Hand-Puppet Book
RHYMING/SONG: Baby Beluga (Raffi Songs to Read)
ANIMAL CHARACTERISTICS: My Jungle Pop-up Book
SELF-ESTEEM: The Mixed-Up Chameleon

FACT or FICTION ...........Make it stop!

With my crazy kid schedule and the closing in holiday I have not had much time to get on the computer. However, many things have happened in the last few days to give me plenty of data for this little blog I will call Fact or Fiction.

1) When you sit on a ball of Silly Putty and smash it all over your living room chair and pants – both are ruined forever. FICTION
~ Actually Silly Putty rubs off pretty easily, you just have to take your time. However, I was still pretty mad and threw the Putty away.

2) Markers that claim to be ‘washable’ will not stain the white fur of a dog when the kids decide to color him. FICTION
~ Boy my poor doggie … the kids colored his legs and part of his back. Now this may be a Fact if I would have gave him an intense scrub down, but it is winter here so I was only able to wipe him with wash rags and soap. He is still a bit pink and green.

3) With a determination a 2 year old can actually put on his own diaper. FACT
~ I refused to put a diaper on my little guy until he at least tried to pee pee on the potty. He walked into his room, shut the door…then walked out with a diaper that was put on totally correct. Wellp, I guess we will try potty training again in a couple months.

4) If you eat a handful of sand it will come out the looking almost the same as it went in. FACT
~ A little nice weather makes the kids go crazy. After a long winter, I let the kids go out in the yard on a day it warmed up. I stepped inside to get some drinks and in that short time my little guy ate at least one huge handful of sand. Ick.. that can’t taste good. (Side note – I did call poison control and the only real hazard with sand is chocking.) Well the next morning I changed a diaper full of poopy sand. Yuck!

5) Finger Nail Polish remover will eat the polish on a wood table almost immediately. FACT
~ My little girl wanted her nail painted for her 4 yr pics. So we had to take of the old stuff. I walked to the counter to get a napkin (4 seconds) came back to see my daughter squeezing the cotton ball with the remover in it on the table. Well I quickly wiped it off, but there is still 3 circle marks on my table…bummer.

6) The Easter Bunny will know where to bring your basket, even if you are not at home on Easter Morning. FACT
~ My little girl verified this with the Easter Bunny today when she sat on his lap today. We are doing a girl’s trip to San Francisco…. Can’t wait!

Check out my web site - www.kidsinstl.com
It is a wonderful resource for anyone with kids! It is jam packed with fun things to do with the kids while on spring break.

Open up and Say ....Ahhhhhhh

Today my (almost 4 yr) daughter Soph went to the dentist for the time. I have been prepping her for this day for the last 2 weeks and the main reason for this is because I HATE the dentist. For unknown reasons I have always feared dentist visits. I have great teeth, only a couple fillings and never had braces. So, for the last couple weeks I told my daughter how great the dentist is and how much her teeth will sparkle when he is done cleaning them. Soph did great! She kept her mouth open the whole time and let them check and polish her teeth. The rough part of the appointment was when I told the dentist Soph sucked her thumb. Boy was she mad at me. This is her security secret. She never sucks her thumb in public or around her friends. The dentist explained to her that it will hurt her teeth, then pulled out some pictures of kids with messed up teeth. This hit home with Soph, she is very girly and likes to be pretty.

Tonight at bed time when I saw her with her thumb in her mouth I reminded her to take it out. Boy what a tough situation. I can see it in her eyes she is already struggling with this. She wants to stop but the thumb is a big night time security.

We will see how it goes. Anybody have any good suggestions out there? I could use some help.

My Web Site – http://www.kidsinstl.com/Added a bunch of activities to the calendar. Trying to get it pumped up with activities for spring and summer. Here is a list of some of the activities going on around St Louis the next couple of days. Go to the site http://www.kidsinstl.com/ for more detail.

March 1st
10 AM - 11:30 AMFossil Hunt for Kids
10 AM - 5 PMTales of Ireland Magic House
10:30 AM - 12 PMFamily Workshop Art From Africa
11 AM - 12:30 PMPiwacket Theatre Rumpelstiltskin
3:30 PM - 4:30 PMMetro Theater Company's Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!
7:30 PM - 9:30 PMWolf Sanctuary Campfire Program

March 2nd

11:30 AM - 5 PMTales of Ireland Magic House
12 PM - 4 PMREI Climbing Pinnacle
1 PM - 4 PMFamily sunday - Quilting Bee
3:30 PM - 4:30 PMMetro Theater Company's Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!

Hey for all of you that are not in St Louis, I want to share one of the many other parts of my site that can be used by anyone regardless of where they live. Here is one of the recipes from the Kid Sensory Recipes section of the site. From the home page click on the Kid Sensory Recipes button– To see the whole list check out our site. WWW.kidsinstl.com

Sensory Activities & Recipes for Kids
CINNAMON CLAY

1 ½ Cup Cinnamon1 Cup Applesauce1/3 Cup White Glue
Mix cinnamon, applesauce and glue together in bowl. Knead the mixture until it turns to firm clay. Let it sit for 30 minutes. Best at room temperature. If it gets sticky dust with cinnamon.

Wordless Wednesday - A couple hours late

Sleep Tight Sweet Baby Girl

Shrinky My Dinky.... Oh What Fun

What a rainy, cold and yucky day! Tuesday’s are ‘no school’ days so I usually try to set up a play date or take the kids somewhere. However, when I saw the gloomy weather… I told the kids it was crafty day! A my daughter loves crafts, my lil’ guy does just enough to appease me and moves on.

I pulled out an oldie but a goodie craft – SHRINKY DINKS! I did this great craft when I was a kid. If you are not familiar with Shrinky Dinks this is the scoop. You get these sheets of plastic and you can draw with pencils or markers anything you want on them. Cut it out the pop it in the oven…and watch in amazement. Within 2 minutes the Dink will curl up, shrink, and then lay flat again. Then you take them out of the oven and they cool super fast. You end up with a very hard little piece of plastic that you can use for jewelry, sun catchers, mobiles, etc. My daughter and I did Shrinky Dinks for a couple hours. Here is the mobile we made and here are a few of my favorite ones we made. My son kind of colored on one, then gave up and played with cars.

After the Shrinky Dink fun my daughter wanted to move on to the next craft. I told her that Mommy had to make lunch and that she was on her own. So she asked if she could do her most favorite ‘Grown-up’ thing to do…. take pictures with my camera. She loves doing this so much that I have sort of made art of the pics she takes. She has the great frame in her room that holds 7 pics. Each month I put new pictures that she took into the frame. She is very proud of this ‘work of art’ and it is always the first thing she shows her friends. Here is a sample of the pictures she took today.

My Web Site – http://www.kidsinstl.com/

Added a bunch of activities to the calendar. Trying to get it pumped up with activities for spring and summer. Here is a list of some of the activities going on around St Louis the next couple of days. Go to the site http://www.kidsinstl.com/ for more detail.

Feb 28th
9:45 AM - 10:30 AMWhere Art and Play Go Hand in Hand
10 AM - 11 AMtoddler Storytime Sachs Branch
10:30 AM - 11:30 AMCreation Station - Transport Museum Association
10:30 AM - 12 PMPiwacket Theatre Emperor's New Clothes
4 PM - 5 PMDuct Tape Extravaganza - Weber Library
6 PM - 8 PMREI Climbing Pinnacle
6:30 PM - 8:30 PMEndangered Species Near You

Feb 29th
10:30 AM - 11:30 AMStory time Fun Baby Moon Boutique
11 AM - 11:45 AMWhere Art and Play Go Hand in Hand
11:15 AM - 12 PMDrop in Play Date Baby Moon Boutique
6:30 PM - 7:30 PMDon't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!
7 PM - 8:30 PMTeen Afterhours: Chocolate Fever! - Sachs Library

Hey for all of you that are not in St Louis, I want to share one of the many other parts of my site that can be used by anyone regardless of where they live. Here are some of our favorite tips we recommend for children. From the home page click on the Parent Resource & Tips then go to 12-24 months button– To see the whole list check out our site. http://www.kidsinstl.com/
Parent Resources & Tips
12-24 months
Nutrition Tips/Strategies for Picky Eaters:

*For non-veggie eaters, blend the vegetables in a stock to make a hearty soup or grind the vegetables and blend it into meat e.g., meat patties

*For non-fruit eaters - make a fruit smoothie (fruit, milk and or ice-cream). Introduce it unfrozen or if you choose to freeze it, make Popsicles in containers.