Tea Time with a Toddler

What do you do when you have lemons?  Make lemonade!  

I *used to* dread babies waking up from their naps.  I know, I know, not exactly "mother of the year" attitude, but there are just so many difficult parts about waking up...grumpiness, sleepies, frustration, hunger, the 'crazy' hour before dinner, survival...okay, I think my point was made.  

So, I decided to do something fun so Harper and I would look forward to waking up from naptime.  We have started having tea time!!  And it is oh so much fun!!  

I put on classical music or an instrumental praise cd and we have a tea party.

I have tea (usually peppermint).  She has juice and water.

Then we have a fun little snack - one day it was nutella on pita bread with a dollop of whip cream.

Another day it was grapes and peanuts.

Another it was chocolate chip cookies and apples.  

I try to make it something fun and something with protein 

(so we don't crash from the sugar in 30 minutes).

 My favorite part is Harpie's little bracelet that she says she *must* wear during 'tea time dah-ing.' (ps hearing a two year old speak with a teensy Brittish accent is about the most hilariously cute thing you have ever heard!!) 

My other favorite part is she doesn't fight naptime anymore because she curls up in her bed and looks at me with her big brown eyes and says, 'Tea time when I wake up?'  And I say, 'of course dah-ling.'  and then we giggle.  And the she goes to sleep.  And then, this is what we do... 

(not every day, but most week days)

I bought this little piggy cup for Harper when she was about 8 months old.  I was not even pregnant with the trio yet.  I wonder if it was foreshadowing at all?!?!  ;-)  

I think we will try to keep this as special mother-daughter time.  Maybe I will do popcorn and race cars or Thomas the Train with the boys when they are bigger.  Something fun for sure!


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Annnd, second of all, how do y'all respond to people's comments?  Is it best to respond to you by finding your blog & commenting, or should I respond on my comments?   What if you don't have a blog?  I want to talk back to you, but don't know how!!  For now, I think I am going to use the first part of my blog for my post and the second part for responding. We'll see how that works!


Comment Response:
Anonymous - Thank you so much for your comments!  After re-thinking bath night, I will not bathe my children all together by myself any more!  It is pure craziness!!

Ashely - what do you do with your kiddos now that they roam?  Is it any easier pre-dinner?!  Or should I expect to keep pack-n-plays around until my children leave for college.  :-)

  SweetPsNaPod- O I have wanted to talk to you so many times, and I cannot for the life of me figure out how to 'find' you!!!  I think we could have so much to share with each other!  :-)  I love the Maxwell books - they are so helpful and informative!  If you go to their website, they have a template in a word document that you can open up.  I then copied & pasted that into an excel template & color coded as I went.  It did take me a while (couple of hours spread out), but I love the outcome!  And I made several different days b/c we have no two days that look exactly alike!  :-)

Tara - yay for Target and Sonic runs!!!  We would be two peas in a pod if lived close by!  I'm sure we would be doing stuff together all the time!!  Next summer for sure!!  :-)  Love you

Okay, well this will work for now!  Feel free to post!  Thanks to my friend, Tara, I have leared the secret of posting several posts in one sitting (thank you Picasa - you have rocked my world!)  I may not check back until later in the week, but I will eventually respond! 

All my love~
Mary Lindsey

Catch Up

We have had a pretty big two weeks here.  Let me sum it up...


Scheduling- I got my two books that I was so excited about from The Maxwells (not John, but Steve & Teri).  Homeschooling with A Meek & Quiet Spirit and Managers of Their Homes.  WOW!  I highly recommend these books!  Especially if you are a stay at home mom!  Much of the info is geared toward homeschooling, but so much is useful even if you aren't "schooling."  They are very intent on creating a schedule for your home.  I've always been one to live by a schedule, but this is like schedule on steroids!  LOL!  Let me see if I can take a snapshot of my schedule...

Everybody who is home has a job/something they are supposed to be doing every hour of the day.  Yes it does seem kind of rigid, but it is completely a guide for what we are 'supposed' to be doing during that hour.  There are so many wonderful things to a schedule: DVD time (to cut down on TV watching), scheduled time that I am 100% with my kids nothing distracting me, and....What has brought the biggest change to our house is Alone Time.  As you know, if you've been reading my blog for sometime, dinner time is CRAZY for us!  No matter what I've done I always feel like someone is pulling at me or whining or it's just not pleasant.  I'm frazzled when Chris walks in the door.  He completely understands, but I am not creating a welcoming environment for him (which is a true desire of my heart).  Here is the solution that we have found works for our family: individual play!  I separate them out - one is in a pack-n-play in my room, one in his crib, one in the playroom (babyproofed!), and Harper is in her room.  They get 1-2 toys or books in their crib/room (except the one in the playroom gets MANY toys to choose from), and complete silence.  I rotate what room they are in each day so it's new.  They don't have that any other time completely alone during the day.  And, guess what?!?  My house is *almost* as peaceful at dinner prep time as it is at naptime.  I serve dinner with a smile and greet Chris with a kiss!  Amazing!!!  There are also so many other incredible tips in there!  Completely worth the purchase!


We Dropped A Nap 
(Edited to add: I wrote this part during the boys *only 1 1/2 hour nap (they are used to sleep 4 hours during the day)....yeah, our day was terrible after they woke up, so we aren't dropping a nap yet.  But I'm leaving this section in here for my sake b/c I know we are in transition to this!)

Well, this isn't a done deal, but I think we are pretty close!  They boys were sleeping from 10-11:30 in the morning and then from 2-4.  I really needed the 2-4 hour to sleep or to do something that I can't do with babies crawling around and needing me.  The last few days they have slept great at the 10am nap & terrible at the 2 nap.  So, I figured we would see how they would do today.  They melted down around 12:30, so I gave in and put them down at 12:45.  I would love to make it to 1, but I'm sure we will work our way there.  Hope they take a good loooooong nap today!  Harper went down early, too, but I still hear her stirring around up there.  It may take a few days to iron out the wrinkles, but I'm looking forward to have a good solid 2 hours back to myself again. :-)
 One Less In Diapers
Harper is doing fantastic on potty training!  I feel like it is safe to say this b/c I'm almost done with the post on how we potty trained her.  I want to remember what i did to refer back to with the boys.  However, I'm sure that they will train completely different than her! :-) 


Took the Kids to Target Like A Big Girl
I have been wanting to do this for a while, but I would always get so nervous!  My biggest fear was getting them in and out of the car.  I didn't even care if they had meltdowns in the store... I figured people would pity me & just understand - lol.  I was scared of the lack of control/ attention I have when I am focusing on strapping one in & leaving the other 3 unattended.  It wasn't nearly as bad as I thought.  They were right there with in arms reach & sat like perfect angels. 

I really wanted to get out of the hosue today.  After the last 2 Wednesdays - one you read about here and the other one last week consisted of begging a child to poop on the potty.  I couldn't really handle the thought of another day inside for so long.  I figured today would be the day!  I got everybody dressed and in the car by 10:15.   I felt silly, but I prayed the Lord would go before us and cover our path at Target.  Do you know that he provided a parking space RIGHT beside a cart stall AND a baby buggy too waiting in that cart stall!?!  I unloaded all 4 babes.  (I had given Harper a good pep talk before we went).  We strolled in with smiles on our faces and went straight to get popcorn and water to keep Harper entertained.  The boys were sooo funny...completely mezmerized by all that was in Target.  Nobody really fussed until we stopped to look at hooks to hang on the bathroom wall for their towels - that was not entertaining at all!  Other than that little fussy, they were angels!  The funniest part was when we drove by all the TVs on the wall.  The boys just stopped and stared with their mouths hanging open.  It was hilarious!  Such boys.  Here is a picture of the gang:

Anyway, after we got home life was going great...I felt together, I had run by Sonic on the way home to get lunch (grilled cheese).  I popped in Yo Gabba Gabba for the kids to watch while I got everything ready.  Everyone ate very well.  I changed diapers & then they started melting down.  I tried to hold them off until 1, but we only made it until 12:40.  So down to sleep they went.  I put Harper down early too, but ya know, it just went too smooth.  Harper never even went to sleep.  She was yelling about 20 minutes into her nap.  Then, the boys woke up yelling at 2:15 - only 1 1/2 hours!  Sheesh!  I was exhausted thinking I couldn't do this again.  We still had such a long afternoon.  They all played together in the playroom while I started going through toys trying to clean out and sort for about an hour.  I fed them dinner around 5 (leftover spaghetti & cut up apples - I have no idea why I'm telling all about the food we've eaten today, but oh well).  They were in major need of a bath, so we went upstairs.  This is where all He** broke loose!  Seriously. They were screaming and crying like people were poking needles in their eyes.  Poor guys were just so incredibly exhausted.  Warner ended up throwing up because he was crying so hard.  I had written this on my facebook wall, and look at all the amazing responses i got in return.  I know the Lord strengthened me tonight. I could NOT have done this without Him.  I was able to remain calm and to comfort each baby as I could get to him or her. 



















After baths, I gave them bottles, Harper a snack (ice cream b/c she helped me calm down the boys!), and swept the kitchen.  Then, it was off to bed...they've been asleep since 7:30!  That means an early morning here, so I'm going off to bed too.  Harper has her first day of preschool ("pretty school" as she calls it) tomorrow!  She is ridiculously excited about it!  Oh, that reminds me, I must go pack her lunch! 


Thank you all for the prayers - they truly give me strength!!!


Love & goodnight~
ML

Wordless Wednesday: Bitten by Brother