5 Great Resources For Moms of Toddlers!

Being at home with Mr. Cheeks over the summer has been....interesting.  We are in week three now, and things are running much more smoothly.  Key word: running.  Little man doesn't. stop.  

Because play dough only lasts so long, and rainy days happen, I have been scouring the bloggy world for some great activities for toddlers.  Of course, my fellow bloggers have not let me down.  Hope this helps all of you teacher moms who are new to being a SSAHM (Summer SAHM!), and those of you pros just looking to mix things up a little.

One:

www.playfulearning.com

This former educator has fantastic ideas on encouraging authentic learning at a young age.  A few of my favorites are the videos, alphabet photography, and the playful learning spaces.  


Two:




Next is a fabulous blog called Let's Explore: Simple Ways to Create, Discover, and Play!
Each month Amy has free Monthly Ways To Play Downloads that are great for a few new activities.  Check out her adorable alphabet crayon idea and Count the House (great for those of you with an older child in the mix!)


Three:


One of my absolute favorites (and probably most of yours, too!) is Simple Kids.  This both of the previous bloggers are contributors on this site, and it is FULL of amazing resources.  


Four:


There is a great post this week on My Life Scoop recommending 10 great apps for happy toddlers.  I already use several of them, and was excited to find some new ideas.  Apps are one of my life lines when Mr. Cheeks has to be patient and I need a quick activity to keep him calm.  


Five:


And finally, if there is one thing you CAN count on from day to day, its that your little one will have to eat.  Click on over to Weelicious, the one stop resource for cuisine a la munchkin.  Weelicious is full recipes and videos and is well organized (making meal planning very simple!).  


What are some of your favorite ideas or resources?

The Sunday Scoop & A Recipe!

This morning we had a special breakfast - Monkey Bread!  It was fun to make something new, and I love starting out the day with something sweet.  Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

2 (12 ounce) packages refrigerated biscuit dough            3/4 cup white sugar

3 T ground cinnamon            1 stick of butter or margarine       extra sugar for sprinkiling

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease a bundt pan.  Mix together 3/4 cup of sugar and cinnamon.

2.  Quarter the biscuits with kitchen shears.  (Dip shears into water to prevent them from getting sticky!). Dip biscuits into sugar mixture, and place in a greased bundt pan.  Do this until all biscuits are used.

  

3.  Melt butter.  Pour over biscuits.  Sprinkle with a little sugar.

4.  Bake in the preheated oven at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Here are my finds from around the blogosphere for this week!  Enjoy!

Photography:  Photography Tips (Lots of Great Topics!) | I Heart Faces

Scrapbooking: Make your own rosettes | Scrapbook Update

Organization For the Busy Mom: Wonderful Goal Tracking Tool | 42 Goals

Blogging: Creating and Defining Meaningful Content | Theta Mom

Faith:  Winter Wonder | Jennifer Schmidt for Incourage

Did you write a great post this week?

I would love to feature your post on my Sunday Scoop!  Please send me an email (katiederman@comcast.net) with this information:

Your Name

Name of Your Blog

Post Title and Link to the Post

Category of Your Post

Cooking With Kids

                         

Involving children in the kitchen can be a fantastic bonding experience for both the parent and the child.    I'll admit that it can be difficult for several reasons:

Cooking with children takes much longer.

Children are NOT clean in the kitchen.

Reaching in for a handful of raw eggs and sugar seems like a good idea to a toddler.

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Monday and I'm not at the Schoolhouse!

Snow!

Atlanta had our own Snowpocalypse!  For those of you that are reading this from a land where snow has covered the ground for months, you will find it humorous that school was cancelled before a single flake had fallen!

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Back In Time

We've all had moments in life that we wished would never end.  How can I freeze time, and make what is happening now last forever?

So what if time travel (with or without Michael J. Fox) became possible?  What moment would you choose to go back and relive?

I really didn't have to think.  I would want to relive the birth of Mr. Cheeks.  Ok.  Wait just a second.  Maybe not the birth.  But the moment I first met my son.  Miracle is a strong word, but bringing a child into this world is a true Miracle.

As I step out of my time machine, what would the scene of that magical moment look like?  Here are a few snapshots:

• A sense of peace and calm filled that sterile room after much angst and struggle.  Joy rushed through both Hubby and I.  And....I never thought something that looked so much like a wet hamster could bring tears to my eyes.
• Disbelief.  Is this possible?  Is Mr. Cheeks really looking back at me?  
• Ouch.  The other gift from God (i.e. epidderal) was all of a sudden missing from my life.  Where did you go friend?
• I want to show this baby to everyone!  If they (or my half numb body) would have let me run through all the halls of that Atlanta Hospital and announce this birth, I surely would have.
• Unconditional overwhelming LOVE.  It is truly undescribable the love that you feel when you have a child.  And the coolest thing?  It only grows stronger with time!

This post inspired by Mama Kat's Weekly Writer's Workshop.

Giving Thanks - It Doesn't Have To Stop!

I think that toddlers are thankful all of the time.  As much as we get excited about the actual Thanksgiving Day or Christmas Day, small children probably see it as a day full of new things and happy people (hopefully not far from an ordinary day).  Sure, there are more people surrounding them with love, and certainly more food!

As I reflect on last week's wonderful Thanksgiving holiday, my son has inspires me to see the awe in everything.  Holiday or not, the boy can be excited about everything from an extra crumb of his morning muffin to a School Bus that pulls up next to us in the car. In this picture he was thankful to be able to walk between the inside and out without having to ask permission or help.  To him, this was Heaven on Earth!

I am enjoying all of the wonderful Christmas ideas and shopping tips on the many blogs I read, but I find myself hanging on to all of the sentiments of posts I read last week.  I don't want to forget the importance of Giving Thanks, and hope that I can intertwine it with the Christmas notions of Peace and Joy.

Thinking Back

Question.  Has anyone seen October?  The date on my computer this morning says something about November, but there were 31 days of one of my favorite months that have come and gone in the blink of an eye.  

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Southern Hospitality

Well come right in, y'all!  These were the words that echoed through the rafters of the two beautiful mountain homes that I've visited the past two weekends.  Somehow I've been blessed with the gift of wonderful relaxing time with friends and family, returning to the real world rejuvinated and .... a little bigger.

Along with the amazing Southern Hospitality that I've enjoyed has come platters of the most delicious food you can imagine.  Although my parents aren't natives of the South, we've lived here most of my life, and have adopted some of the cuisine as our own!

 Time spent lingering around a gorgeous dinner table sharing stories old and new, laughing, and sneaking glances at the beautiful lake beyond sure make for some great memories!

Lazy weekend afternoons that are usually filled with the energizer washing machine were spent instead enjoying the quiet beauty of nature.  I'm not a birdwatcher, but quiet time on the porch makes you see the world through a little different lens.

One of the most special parts of this Labor Day was watching Mr. Cheeks enjoy new surroundings and get such joy in the smallest things.  In the middle of running down a path, he'd stop in his tracks to check out a bright colored flower or a tiny bug.  How do kids see these things??

Watching Hubby and Mr. Cheeks brought me so much joy.  The blessing of family and friends who enjoy your child so much is incredible.  I thought that this picture was a great example of how husbands can still get the relaxation in, while being on "baby duty".  Resourceful aren't they?  "Where do we get one of these hammock swings?" was asked more than once!