Babies Don't Keep

 Such a goober :)

So my sweet, precious little boy that I lovingly refer to as Monster Boy has lived up to his name today! Lots of fussing, screaming and general tantrum throwing going on today. It seems every time I look at him he's whining at me for something. Usually over nothing, but still the whining continues. The small headache I had when I woke up was a full blown migraine by lunchtime. It was just a bad day. 

And then I realized something. While most people would probably tell me my son is being a brat and playing me, trying to get his own way. He's not. He's feeding off the way I'm feeling. So he's feeling my lack of patience and expressing it the only way he can. He doesn't know how to tell me to relax and be patient with him. That's my job! So instead my baby boy acted the way I wanted to. He stomped his feet, cried and whined. Next time I need to take my cues from him. He knew we were in for a rough day and didn't want to do anything. But I tried to get everything I needed to done, when I should have camped out in the living room and spent the day watching movies and playing with my boy. 

It's a mistake I will not make again. The time I get to spend with my child is far more important than anything I needed to do today (or any other day for that matter). Almost immediately after this realization it was as if I had a completely different child. My sweet little boy is back and I'm keeping him. ;)

My sweet little man <3

Babies Don’t Keep
by Ruth Hulburt Hamilton

Mother, O Mother, come shake out your cloth,
Empty the dustpan, poison the moth,
Hang out the washing, make up the bed,
Sew on a button and butter the bread.

Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?
She’s up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.

Oh, I’ve grown as shiftless as Little Boy Blue,
Lullabye, rockabye, lullabye loo.
Dishes are waiting and bills are past due
Pat-a-cake, darling, and peek, peekaboo

The shopping’s not done and there’s nothing for stew
And out in the yard there’s a hullabaloo
But I’m playing Kanga and this is my Roo
Look! Aren’t his eyes the most wonderful hue?
Lullabye, rockaby lullabye loo.

The cleaning and scrubbing can wait till tomorrow
But children grow up as I’ve learned to my sorrow.
So quiet down cobwebs; Dust go to sleep!
I’m rocking my baby and babies don’t keep.

Glow Beads

Water beads that glow! It can't get much more fun than that! Except that Uncle Nicky showed up just in time to play too! Kadin could have (and would have) played with these for hours, except it was too close to bed time. We had to wait until it was dark outside for it to be dark enough to play with them. 

What we did (and I did most of this ahead of time so he wouldn't have to wait to play): I took the ink pad out of 3 highlighters and got as much to run out into the container as I could. When they stopped leaking I cut the plastic part off of the ink pad and let it soak in about an inch of water at the bottom of the container. Left it for a minute and then picked it up and squeezed as much from it as I could. I then put what was left of the ink pad into a clean bowl of water and left it there to soak and after all the ink was out I added that water to the container as well. I used 3 big highlighters (3 for $1 at the dollar store). I added more water so in total there was 1 1/2 quarts of liquid. I added the water beads and let them sit until they expanded (takes between 4-6 hours. The total cost was $3. This does require a black light. They will not glow on their own. The black light we have I bought at Target for $15. 

This is (one of many) ideas I got from Play At Home Mom. I can't say enough about them. They are amazing! Definitely check out their blog. Some awesome Mama's over there!

We "made" a light box. You can buy them, but I don't have the extra $200+ to spend on one right now (although I would love to have one). We took an under the bed storage container (It's either 34 or 36 quarts, I don't remember) and put the black light and a fluorescent light (Lowe's-$10) in it side by side. I turn on whichever light I want to use and put the cover back on. My wonderful husband is going to drill a hole in it tomorrow for the power cords to come out the side so the cover will fit on tight. Shh don't tell him. It's better to surprise him with the list of things I have for him to do this week while he's on vacation. ;)  In total it cost about $15 ($30 including the black light) and it works great and Kadin loves it. It's also small enough so it's easy to store if we don't want it out. Very easy and makes my wallet much happier. :)

 

Always more fun with Uncle Nicky. 

And another video, because I forgot which was which and I'm tired. ;)

Glow Explosions

The pictures are hard to make out, but this was so much fun! We used tonic and mentos for the explosions. And we added a black light because everything's more fun when it glows in the dark. He was so sure about it the first time, but when we were done he was begging to do more. Such an easy, fun project (and the bathtub makes for easy clean-up ;)). Definitely remembering this one and very excited to try more projects with the black light. 

 

Water Beads

I have looked and looked for these little buggers. They sell them at toy stores, but for $30+ and I didn't want to spend that much. I finally found them for $2 a bag so I bought 3 different colors. They are a huge hit and I'm sure are going to get plenty of use. The best part is they can be used over and over again. If they lose water and shrink back down you just add more water to them and they come in tons of colors. 

From Beginning to Play :)

*They are non toxic, but can pose a choking risk if your child puts everything in their mouths.*

Red Sox Game

Kadin is completely obsessed with baseball. He still calls it hockey about half the time, but is in love with the game. I am having way to much fun feeding a love of the Red Sox into him. Luckily for me he seems to have been born a Sox fan. He had a lot of fun at the game too which was a bonus. Sadly it wasn't a very good game, but any day spent at Fenway is a day well spent in my book. 

Getting ready to ride the train

 

Using his water bottle as a bat (or to smack Daddy's hand ;))

Such a great day spent together <3

 

 

Nature Walks

Now that the weather is starting to cool down it's a great time for us to get out and enjoy the outdoors. As much as I'm going to miss summer, it's much easier to get outside with K now that it's not 100° everyday. There are tons of great trails around us. Kadin loves going out and collecting all kinds of "treasures" which consist of rocks, sticks, flowers and grass. I love watching the joy he gets from the simplest things. It's always a good reminder for me to remember the things that are truly important and to encourage my son to love being little and not push him to grow up to fast.

Peek-a-boo Daddy

 Let Them Be Little by Billy Dean

Puffy Paint

I have been really bad about updating this recently. I deleted a bunch of old posts and decided to use it instead for projects and activities that we do. We tried puffy paint the other day and it was a lot of fun! Kadin really enjoyed it and it was really easy to do. 

The recipe we used was:

1/2 cup flour

2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp salt

food coloring

After you are done painting microwave them for 10-30 seconds (ours took 30) and they will dry hard. 

 

 And some of the finished masterpieces :)