Toddler Sleep… Wish I could solve the mystery.

I don’t know about anyone else but things at my house have been pretty crazy. Both of my girls (Peanut will be 4 in September and Mushy turned 2 in April) don’t take naps anymore. I have been noticing some aggression, moodiness and down-right grumpiness from them lately. I chatted with my sister-in-law about this and she mentioned that it might be because they are not getting enough sleep.

So, I looked at the sleep requirements on the National Sleep Foundations website and sure enough they were not getting the amount of sleep that they say the girls need at their ages.

According to them 1-3 year olds need 12-14 hours of sleep in a 24 hours period and 3-5 year olds need 11-13 hours (information can be found at http://sleepfoundation.org/sleep-topics/children-and-sleep). My kids come no where near that amount! On a good day they will both go to sleep around 9pm and get up around 7:30-8am. Whenever my little Mushy gets a nap in (no matter how long or short the nap is) she ends up staying up longer. A good example: Yesterday she actually fell asleep on the couch and took an hour nap. Then when it came time for bed she didn’t fall asleep until almost 10:30pm which is 1.5 hours after we put them to bed. Even though she went to bed that much later, she still got up at her normal time.

So, with this kind of thing happening how do you get her to sleep longer so that her attitude isn’t horrendous anymore? Right now I am working on “quiet time” after lunch. When they are done eating they get cleaned up and then head upstairs to their room. I then put the gate up and explain to them that it is “quiet time” and they should lay down and relax while reading a book or playing with their lace-up cards. Of course I hope that they take a nap but that never happens. Instead they usually just end up fighting and bickering… the usual “sisters that share a room” stuff I guess.

The only good thing that comes out of that one hour of “quiet time” is that I get to “recharge”, make phone calls if I have to, do laundry, empty the dishwasher… you know get all of the wifey stuff done.

Do you have any advise on how to solve this kind of problem? Are you dealing with this kind of stuff? I like to hope that I am not the only one that has to deal with this kind of thing. If I figure any of this stuff out I will be sure to share the info with you!

Happy Mother’s Day Collection

Happy Mother’s Day to all of the Mothers out there!
To celebrate I am going to share with you a bunch of sales and deals from some of my favorite shops. Most of these things will be over by the end of the day so, you have to hurry and check out the deals!!

Deal One: Shutterfly Pick a Deal!

With this deal you can choose one of three options: 12 Free Thank You cards, 24 Free address labels or a Free fridge magnet! All you have to do is use to coupon code: GOODPICKS
Use this link to take you to the offers! Shutterfly Deal

Deal Two: Melody’s Makings Free Headband pattern!

Melody has this adorable heart headband available today in both knit and crochet!
Just click the link to take you to her post!

Deal Three: One Free Pattern from Unravel Me Designs!

Unravel Me Designs is offering everyone one FREE pattern from her Ravelry shop all you have to do is choose your pattern and insert the code : MOMROCKS

Just click on the image above to go directly to her Ravelry Shop!

Deal Four: Buy 1 Get 1 at Sweet Potato 3 Patterns!

Sweet Pototao 3 is offering Buy 1 Get 1 in her Ravelry shop! All you have to do is use the coupon code: Mom2014f

Like the other offers, all you have to do is click the image to be taken to the deal!

Hope everyone enjoys these deals and have a wonderful day with your families!

Felt Tetris Board

So, I am a huge geek that still loves everything from my childhood. That could be why my girls watch My Little Pony (even though I like the way they used to look better), Care Bears and Smurfs. But that is not were my geeky side ends, that is why I started working on my newest project. Peanut (my oldest) already knows all over her colors and shapes but Mushy (my littlest) doesn’t know them yet. So, I wanted to make them something new to play with that will challenge both of them…. FELT TETRIS! It can help Mushy learn her colors and shapes while Peanut works on her puzzle skills (which she happens to LOVE).

First I started with a bunch of felt. I picked black for the general shape of the game. I kept it the regular size that the felt sheets come in. I then picked a couple of fun bright colors to make the shapes in. There are five shapes so I picked the colors Yellow, Green, Red, Blue & Orange.

Once you have all of the colors picked out it’s time to start measuring for the different pieces. To make it easier for me to figure out, I used a 1 inch square to build the five different shapes. I cut them out of paper first so that I could have a good pattern before making the shapes out of the felt.

I wasn’t sure how  many of each shape I should cut out of the felt but I thought that 8 pieces for each of the colors/shapes would be a good amount to give both kids a choice of what to use. You can always cut more if you feel you need more.

After I had everything all cut out I set up the boards on the table and let the girls try it out… I have to say it was a success! Peanut just loves to work with the shapes and fit them all together. She even figure out how to use the shapes to cover the whole board without any of them sticking off the edge! I love how the felt sticks to itself and also separates when it’s time to take apart and start over.

The girls both give this project a thumbs up!

Robin

Family Journal

So, my Aunt recently posted on Facebook about how she used to write in a journal when her kids were younger and how great it is to read through now that they are both in college.
I decided to take her advice on creating a journal for my family. They kids are constantly doing/saying amazing things that I will eventually not be able to remember.
This is such a great way to keep the memories around a little bit longer not only for me but for my kids when they get older too.
I feel that as parents we are always taking pictures, but since everything is digital now, most people don’t make things like scrapbooks/albums of family vacations and holidays.
So, this little journal will replace that little void and be a great keepsake for many years to come. I’ve already made three entries in it and can’t wait to add many more.
I highly suggest that everyone with kids does this! You will thank me later! 🙂

Toddler Shoe Tip

My kids are pretty independent when it comes to a lot of things. One thing that they really want to do on their own all the time is put on their shoes. Of course that means that there is a 50/50 chance that they will put them on the correct feet, most of the time that is not the case. So, I had to figure out a way to make it easier for them to tell which shoe went on the correct foot.

This is when I started with the stickers. Originally I was going to put a sticker in just the shoes that go on the right foot. But that could still lead to some confusion. So, I decided the best thing to do would be to cut the sticker in half and make it into a “puzzle”. My oldest loves doing puzzles so this worked perfectly! She no longer gets her shoes mixed up!

That’s a win for this Mommy! 🙂