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The Many Ways that Toddlers Play

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Toddlers are very interested in exploring their world. They haven’t yet developed the social skills that preschools use to play with other kids. Parents might wonder what their toddler is thinking when he or she starts playing with “boring” household objects. Here is some insight about what’s going on. Parallel Play One of the earliest ways for toddlers to be social with each other is through parallel play. One toddler sits on the floor next to a huge pile of cars and trucks. She selects one, and starts rolling it back and forth on the floor in front of her. … Continue reading →

Why Your Pre-Teen Quit Playing Sports

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One way to encourage your child to get a healthy amount of exercise is to make it fun. Sports offer kids the ability to exercise while having fun, the chance to learn how to play as a team, and a good way to develop athletic skills. Despite these benefits, 70% of kids quit sports by the age of 13. Here are some reasons why that happens. It stopped being fun. Have you ever watched kindergartners play soccer against another team of kindergarteners? What happens is both adorable and amusing. They sit down when they get tired, and start playing with … Continue reading →

Bedtime for Devices

I was always one of those parents who had a bag full of “nevers.”  You know what I mean.  “I will never allow my child to…”  Fill in the blank. It’s so easy before you have children to say what you will never do.  And it’s just as easy when they are young to say what you will never do when they get older. Sure, some of my “nevers” I have stuck to.  But there have been a few I tossed to the side.  And in all honesty, at times it was a matter of not wanting to battle. One … Continue reading →

The Bath Time Circus

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Giving my kids baths has always been a fun experience when they are babies. They love to splash and kick, the warm water soothes them, and my babies have all loved bath time. But, recently my little guy has become Trouble with a capital “T” at bath time. It is driving me a little crazy. Gone are the days when he would just lay in the water, kick his legs and smile up at me happily. Now, he is a crazy man all over the place. He wants toys to entertain him (understandable since he sees his older siblings with them) … Continue reading →

A Playdate for the Girls Part II

After the initial tumbling introductions, the girls begin to play… but not with each other. The girls were all clad in cute girly attire and new shoes. My sister’s daughter, who is the oldest at fourteen months, just got her first pair of sparkly tennis shoes two weeks prior to our playdate. By now she is a very accomplished walker even though she did not start to walk until after her first birthday. With her advanced walking skills she kind of assumed the role of queen bee. My husband’s sister-in-law’s daughter had also recently gotten a new pair of shoes … Continue reading →

Oh The Ways That They Play

As your toddler grows, he or she can learn to play in different and more challenging ways. Teaching toddlers basic games like tag or hide and seek is a fun way to play together and help your toddler learn new things. The other day, I laughed so hard as I started teaching Dylan how to play hide and seek. First of all, it is so cute to hear him counting, even though the numbers are not quite in the right order. Also, since it takes time to learn how to play a new game, he was having a little trouble … Continue reading →

10 Mistakes I Made As a First-Time Mom-Part III

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I hope maybe one person might learn from my mistakes. But, the truth is that we all have to make our own as we become first-time Moms. So, maybe you won’t take my advice, and that’s OK. Because by NOT taking my advice, you took it, in a way. Remember what I said in part II of this series about trusting YOUR gut? And, for the first 4 tidbits in this series you can go here. Well, last, but certainly not least, are my final three things I learned from my mistakes as a first-time Mom. 8. Don’t buy a … Continue reading →

A Playdate with Exercise

As the summer heats up, we have been scheduling our play dates earlier in the day if they involve being outside in the heat. This past week the temperatures reached highs of just over one hundred degrees but we were able to avoid the discomfort of such high temperatures by going out early in the morning. On one of our recent playdates we made plans to go to the only lake within the city’s limit. This lake has a lot of nice features. It has a beach for swimming and sand for playing as well as a good sized playground. … Continue reading →

Taking Time To Connect

When you are the parent of an infant and a toddler, you may sometimes feel like your toddler does not get enough one on one time with you. For that matter, you may also wonder whether your infant notices that he does not get much one on one time with you and how he might feel about that. I know that I have struggled with these feelings since Blake was born a couple of months ago. Over the past couple of weeks, I have developed a strategy for spending some “alone” time with each of the boys while I am … Continue reading →

Give Yourself Some Girl Time

Between Logan and school my schedule is pretty tight right now. I don’t have a lot of time outside of my normal motherly duties to spend with my girlfriends, but I was reminded again today of just how important that time is. After a particularly difficult weekend I got a text from one of my good friends that said how much she would love for a couple of us to get together and go out to lunch this week. I immediately text back to find out when and where. I desperately needed some time out with the girls. We laughed … Continue reading →