Recently we took a trip to Dallas to see some friends. While we were there we took the kids to Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Gardens for their Fall Festival. It was truly amazing to see all the different pumpkins and gourds! I have never seen so many in one condensed area. However, it was truly magical. I wanted to share some of the pictures we took along the way!
Could my kid be any cuter?! I think not, ha! If your in Dallas go check this out, you won’t be sorry!!
Good Afternoon! I’ve got a fun and easy sensory bin idea for you today. I did this a lot while I taught preschool and finally had the chance to do it with Noah! He had a blast checking out the rice.
What you’ll need:
-Small/medium sized bin
-Uncooked rice
-Kitchen utensils (measuring cups, spins, whisks, etc)
All you need to do is simply put the rice and utensils in the bin and let your little one explore!
Noah tried a little bit of the rice but spit it back out. I wouldn’t recommend they eat it but if they try a few it will be okay.
I told Noah to smile and this is the face I got!
The rice will get on the floor and stick to diapers! But it’s so much fun!
To take this sensory bin one step further you can dye the rice different colors! All you need to do is take one cup distilled white vinegar and one teaspoon of food coloring and mix it with the rice. It’s easiest if you put it in a gallon ziplock bag and mix all together. Then put the rice on a tray or on tin foil and let dry (about 24 hours). Make sure to mix the rice once in a while to make sure all sides of the rice dry.
*As a reminder never leave children alone with the rice.
I hope you have some may fun with your little one!!
Savanna
Good afternoon! Now, if you know me you might be confused by this title some I don’t eat or cook meat, usually. However, times have changed my friends! Since Noah still can’t handle dairy in his diet I’ve been expanding what I cook. Most of my vegetarian recipes have cheese in them and they are very hard to replace. Vegan cheese can replace cheese in some recipes but in others it just doesn’t work. I always wanted Noah to have the option to eat meat, if he wants to I’ll support that. And boy does he ever! So, I’ve started with some simple recipes that don’t require too much work and I always wear gloves which helps me feel less grossed out by the raw meat.
These Meatballs are great work pasta, in a sandwich and they freeze well! Enjoy!
Ingredients:
-1lb beef
-2 eggs
-1/2 cup milk (udder what you normally drink. Almond, coconut, rice, regular,etc)
-1 cup breadcrumbs
-1 small white or yellow onion
-2-3 cloves garlic
-1/2 top oregano
-1 top salt
-1 TBSP parsley
– Salt and pepper
First, whisk the eggs and milk together.
Then grate the onion and the garlic. I used a cheese grater and a zester.
Then mix all ingredients into a bowl. It’s easiest to mix by using your hands.
Once all ingredients are mixed take small portions and roll out into a ball.
Put the balls onto a baking sheet
Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.
I hope you enjoy these! Noah sure does!
Savanna
The original recipe is found here.
Today, I have a fun activity for you that’s great for a really hot day. We’ve been having some really hot days where I live so Noah and I try to beat the heat by playing with water!
One activity that I would do in my classroom when I taught preschool was sink and float. Where you find objects around the house/classroom and put them into a body of water. Then you can see, did the object sink to the bottom or did it float on top? This is a great activity for all ages!
What you’ll need:
Bucket/bin/water table (Something to hold water)
Objects (Find anything around your house that you don’t mind getting wet!) We did this activity while at my parents house and my dad found random objects in his shed. We also used rocks, sprinklers, plastic gutters and an old cell phone holder
Noah had so much fun with this activity! It’s a fun and easy way to be the summer heat!
Have fun!
Savanna
*As a reminder, never leave children alone with water as it can be drowning hazard.
I can’t believe it’s been a whole year since Noah was born. How did that happen??! This year has truly been the best year of my life and I can’t wait to see Noah grow up! I say this all the time and I know I will never stop, but I’m so lucky to be his Mama.
My mom brought over to empty tissues boxes for Noah to play with the other day. It’s been so fun coming up with some different ways to play with them! This is great (cheap) entertainment for little ones!
Here’s what I came up with :
-Put scarves in the tissue box and let them take out the scarves
-Use them as drums
-Put mystery items in there and let them pick them out
-Put musical instruments (bells) in there and shake them
Can you think if anything else to do with tissue boxes?
By the way, Noah thinks it’s very fun to pull out tissues from the box. But Mommy doesn’t think that’s so fun!
Savanna
One of my favorite things to do with Noah is creating fun sensory messes! Ha! This fun and easy Fingerpaints experience is a great way for your little one to discover new or different textures. Noah puts just about everything in his mouth. I once tried finger paints that I bought from the store and it was a disaster. He kept putting them into his mouth and would get upset with me when I told him no thank you. So I looked to pinterest to find an easy make yourself finger paints. I found some Fingerpaints that you make out of corn starch but I still didn’t want him eating food dyes. Then my mom suggested using pudding to paint with, however with Noahs dairy allergy I didn’t want him to consume any. But I started thinking about foods I could use to paint with. I thought blueberries, strawberries and bananas would be perfect!
What you’ll need :
– Fruit (and that you have on hand. I used blueberries, strawberries and bananas)
-Blender
-Mat for the floor
-Paint brushes (optional)
-card stock (white works best)
This will be messy but it’s so easy and fun! Just blend up fruits, put into a bowl and let your little one explore! Have fun!
Savanna
Hello! Wow, its been awhile since I last blogged. Life has gotten busy and I’ve had no time to sit down and write. But today I’ve got a simple sensory bin for babies who are 8 months or older. Or for babies who can sit unassisted.
I’ve been trying to think of some things to do with Noah when it’s rainy or too hot to go outside. But he’s still at the stage where everything goes in the mouth. I knew I wanted to create a sensory bin for him, so I looked through the kitchen cabinets to see what I could find. I saw the oatmeal and knew it would be perfect!
Just as a warning this is a messy project. Oatmeal will get all over your little one and the floor. But that’s whats fun about it! (I can just see my mother cringing at this mess! Sorry mom! :D).
What you’ll need :
-Oatmeal (enough to create about an inch deep in your bin)
-Plastic bin
-Tools to play with the oatmeal
For the tools is really up to you! I took out some measuring cups and spoons. For older kids you could put in small manipulatives, such as buttons, small animals, etc.
If your little one is hesitant, try playing with the oatmeal yourself. It’s okay if you show them how to play at first. Show them how to pour the oatmeal from the measuring cups. Or how to swirl it in your hands! Have fun with it!
Malakhai enjoyed the pieces that came out of the bin!
Try pouring the oatmeal over their feet and legs. This helps them to become aware of those areas and provides them with new textures!
Noah pouring the oatmeal.
Tasting the oatmeal. Mmmmm!
Helping cleaning up! This is a messy but fun sensory bin!
I hope you had some messy fun with your little one!
Savanna
As I have mentioned before Noah has decided he doesn’t like to sleep, EVER. He’s especially not sleeping in his crib. We can set him down in his crib ever so gently and BAM! just like that he wakes himself up. I don’t know how he does it! Why is getting a baby to sleep so hard?!
(This is proof he can sleep in his crib, just chooses not to!)
Our usual bedtime routine is giving Noah a bath around 6:30. Afterwards we either play downstairs for a while or if he’s tired we go into our bedroom (his crib is in our room for now) and read a few stories while playing soft music. We dim the lights and read in a low voice to let him know it’s time for sleep. Then I usually nurse him to sleep. Which had been working for us, but as of lately Noah has been needing me to get him back to sleep throughout the night. I think it’s because I’ve been nursing him to sleep and he associates nursing with falling asleep. So after many sleepless nights Anthony and I decided we had to sleep train. But, I was really nervous about it. I feel like nursing him to sleep is such a special time for just him and I. Plus that’s the only time I can get some cuddles in J. I researched different methods online and found that I really did not want to try the cry it out method. It seems so cruel and as my friend put it: if we can make them happy why not, we know what they need and crying it out seems so mean.
I found a method called the Pick –Up (PU) /Put-Down (PD) Method. Where you place the baby in the crib while they are drowsy but not asleep. When they start to cry you pick them up for 30 seconds max to reassure them. Then when the stop crying you put them down. That seemed logical to me. This way there was minimal crying and he could learn to fall asleep on his own. Perfect—I thought!
Finally, I decided to try it after weeks of putting it off and not really wanting my cuddle time to end. Noah and I started our system of PU and PD, but he figured it out! As SOON as I would pick him up off of his mattress he would stop crying. Then when I’d put him down again he’d start crying once more. He knew if he cried that I would pick him up. I tried for an hour and a half of this method. NO GOOD. He cried and cried and was at that point not going to fall asleep on his own. I stopped for the day and decided to try again the next. I did and the same thing happened. He would not fall asleep by himself. FAIL!
I decided to take a break from sleep training and research different methods. Finally I found an in-between the PU and PD Method and crying it out. The Book is called Sleep Easy. The routine is to put baby in the crib awake and you tell them goodnight and give them a kiss and then you leave the room for 5 minutes. When you return you do not touch baby you just reassure them. You only stay for 30 minutes at max and then leave. But this time you leave for 10 minutes. Then repeat the routine. Next for 15 minutes and then 20 minutes thereafter until baby falls asleep. Okay, I thought I can do this, right?! We had the plan for about two or three weeks before I finally said okay lets try. But when the time came I just couldn’t do it! I don’t want to make my baby cry! So my mom suggested a system that she did with me when I was Noah’s age. You sit next the crib and reassure baby while they try to fall asleep. It is a cry it out method but at least your next to the baby and reassure them that everything is okay. I tried it first thing in the morning. My heart broke hearing him cry. I felt like an awful mother. Who lets their baby cry like this?? It took him 40 minutes to fall asleep and he slept for an hour! Then the next nap came around and he cried for 45 minutes and slept for 50 minutes. Then the last nap, he cried for an hour and would not fall asleep. I couldn’t take it anymore and I picked him up and nursed him to sleep.
Then bedtime rolled around. I was giving myself pep-talks to prepare for more crying. So we do our normal bedtime routine except when he was done nursing I put him in the crib. I closed my eyes as I placed him in there bracing myself for the crying to begin. But to my surprise he rolled over and went right to sleep! Could this really be? Did he just fall asleep on his own?! He slept for an hour and then woke up. I took that as a small victory. I nursed him and again set him in the crib. He cried for 20 minutes and fell asleep. This time he only slept for 15 minutes before waking again. Once again I nursed him and then put him in his crib but this time his crying was different. It was an upset cry. It was a whole body shaking, lungs fully screaming bloody murder kind of cry. I tried to reassure him over his loud shrieks. My own eyes tearing up from guilt. You can do this, I kept saying to myself. He cried for an hour and half like this. I cried right along with him. It. Was. Awful.
Anthony had slept down on the couch because he had to go to work the next day. After the hour and a half I came down to him crying. I couldn’t take it anymore. I asked him what I should do. He said it was okay to take him out. He HAD fallen asleep by himself a few times throughout the day. That in itself was great! But I felt like an awful human being. Who lets their precious little six-month-old baby cry like that? I tossed and turned the rest of the night. Noah slept with us for the rest of the night. I couldn’t let him go…I was a bad mom.
The next day, I got up (sleep deprived) and almost cried at the thought of trying again to get him to sleep on his own. But I knew I had to. Right? This was the right thing to do, wasn’t it?? Yes, yes, I thought. The first nap came around and I almost cried putting him in his crib. What a mean mom I am. He started crying right away. The same cry as the night before (Whole body cries). Again, I cried with him. I only last 45 minutes. I couldn’t take it any more. The next nap I only let him cry for 15 minutes before I took him out and nursed him to sleep. I felt deep down in my core that this was not the right thing to do. This was not how I should be doing this. When Anthony got home that night I burst into tears. I know that he needs to sleep more at night and I know that Noah should be sleeping more in his crib. But this just wasn’t working. Luckily, I’m married to the greatest guy in the world. He told me it’s okay that we can try again later and that if it’s not right, it’s not right. So there you have it- yet another sleep training FAIL!
I have no idea what our next step will be. But I do know that this wasn’t the right way for our family. Sleep training is hard. There is no good way to do it. It seems like babies should sleep more, but the fact is maybe they need us during the night. I mean, he is only 6 months old! So for now I take the sleepless nights and hold my baby a little tighter knowing that I’m a good mom.
Thanks for everyone who has been voting for me on the Top Mommy Blogs! I truly appreciate it!
BUT, I’ve been informed that WordPress is changing their format (from https to http) and the Top Mommy Blogs cannot track how many votes we’re getting right now. Once WordPress has finished changing formats, the Top Mommy Blogs are going to work on a new version for WordPress blogs that can track how many votes we receive.
I’m going to leave the button on my page but it will not count for anything at the moment.
Thanks again to all those who have voted! I will let you know when you can start voting again!!
Love,
Savanna
Discovering Natural Motherhood 