Wordless Wednesdays

Toddler Tuesday: Happy Valentine's Day!

With it being Valentine’s Day I wanted to make sure this Toddler Tuesday post was in line with the holiday. And so London and I set out last week to make Valentine’s Day cards for her Grandparents and Daddy. While the gifts haven’t been received yet (the cards are in the mail) Cameron watched this process unfold so he won’t be too surprised when I get London to hand him his card from her tonight and the grandparents who read this will have something to look forward to in the mail soon.

 I first started out looking for cute sayings online that could be written inside each card. For the Grandparents, I found:

Blowing Kisses Your Way this Valentine’s Day

This saying instantly made me think of Xs and Os and thus the idea behind the card design was born. London loves tearing things up, particularly magazine pages, so I gathered up some spare tissue paper I had lying around that were appropriate in color – pink and purple. I also added in a sheet of yellow as it added a little something extra to the color combination. And then I let London go crazy:


Once we had shredded the tissue paper into small pieces, I sat London down at the table with a piece of printer paper, the tissue, Elmer’s Glue and a painting sponge. I started her off with the glue and showed her how to use the sponge with glue on it to glue down the tissue.

This lasted for about 10 minutes before she decided she wanted to eat the glue off the sponge. Good thing for non-toxic glue!

I finished up for London by getting the tissue paper even more glued down and adding the Xs and Os. I just took the two fridge magnets and traced them onto a few sheets of spare scrapbooking paper.

After cutting each letter out, I glued them to the tissue paper sheet and cut that sheet into 4 card fronts.

Using two sheets of spare blue scrapbook paper, cut in half and folded in half again, I glued a piece of the tissue paper sheet to each. And that made up the card. Then I put in my amended saying:


Blowing Kisses (and Hugs) Your Way this Valentine’s Day. Love, London.

So yes, I did a lot of the work, but London was involved in the fun parts and as she gets older she will be able to do more and more herself. I did try to get her to draw on some white paper in purple, pink and yellow crayons one day to include on the inside, but she wasn’t feeling very artistic at the time and was more interested in re-arranging her Disney DVDs. In the end, London had a blast ripping up the tissue paper and gluing it down and the grandparents (and Daddy) get a little something from her today (or tomorrow).

~Sarah

Motherhood Mondays: Too Much Moo

We have a battle raging in our house right now. A battle of wills. Cameron and I versus London. The litte girl wasn't feeling well Thursday night and by Friday morning was suffering from a fever. She refused to eat much and only wanted her moo (read: milk - in our house its called moo because that's what London calls it). By the end of the day, we'd realized she'd barely eaten but had probably drank half a gallon of moo. At first we assumed she wanted to drink more because her throat hurt like ours had last week, but by the end of the day it was just too much even for a sore throat.

Saturday we couldn't do too much about this as we had plans that involved London spending most of the day with her Grammy who did try to feed her. The report back was that much of any food offered ended up on the floor. Which meant we spent yesterday battling with London. We would only give her moo after a meal or before a nap or bed. And we succeeded, for the most part, but it made for a very looooong, whiny day. We were exhausted by the time we crawled into bed last night.

Of course, that's when London woke up. And proceeded to whine and whine. First, I went in to rock her. As soon as I closed the door she was crying again. And we tried to let her soothe herself. But Cameron couldn't resist any longer when we heard London cry "Mommy, Daddy". How could he not? This is a child who usually says Mama and Dada - not the words mommy and daddy. And she is soooo cute the way she placed emphasis on the mee and dee parts. So he rocked her. London lasted 10 minutes after Cameron came back to bed. So finally I hoofed it downstairs and filled a sippy 1/3 full of moo. And that was all she needed. Slept like a baby the rest of the night.

Cameron and I hatched a new plan of attack for our moo war as we fell asleep. First, we need to invest in some new sippy cups that have straws versus the sipping function - its too close to the bottle which London definitely used as a soothing mechism. And hopefully we can get her to consume water more often this way. I'll even offer her a little juice. Although so far she isn't a fan of juices (we know this is a blessing).

But any suggestions out there we might be able to steal on getting her to eat more and drink less moo? I know it's a weird problem to have but it's one we are faced with currently.

~Sarah

Cocktail Friday: Blueberry Lemonade Vokda

Happy Friday! Here's what you need to get for this recipe. FYI - there is a little prep.

Ingredients:

1 cup Fresh Blueberries

Vodka

1/2 cup frozen blueberries

Sugar

Lemonade

The night before you want this drink, you'll need to make the blueberry-infused vodka. Get a jar, place the fresh blueberries in it, and then pour vodka over them. Mash up the blueberries a little, then close the jar and place it in the fridge for at least 12 hours.

Now, when you want the drink:

Sugar the rim of a pint glass. Then roll the frozen berries in sugar. Place the berries and some ice in the glass. Strain 1 part blueberry vodka with 2 parts lemonade into the glass and stir.

I used a lemonade spritzer when I made this one instead of straight lemonade. It wasn't overly sweet, which I think made this drink better. All in all, it was a very refreshing drink and perfect for the warm summer months ahead of us.

Enjoy!

~Sarah



Tulley Pregnancy Photos

As mentioned, Tulley is getting bigger day by day. Thought I'd share some pictures with you.

~Sarah