Fighting the germs that children ALWAYS pick up!

Wow since the holidays, it seems like we keep battling with germs around here!

My three year old just seems to be getting over, dare I say it out loud (because I am still grossed out), but pin worms. Now, he went to bed today with the sniffles, so I pulled out my bag of tricks to fight this head on, so that we don't have another sleepness nights with a cold. He went to bed with crushed garlic in socks, I took that tip from Dr.Oz, and it worked to fight off a cold I was beginning to get one time.  Then when my son falls asleep I am putting an onion in his room, with the top and bottom cut off, which is said to absorb the toxins. I might even do the onion thing in all our rooms tonight, just in case.

Besides the pin worms, that had made my son get up at night complaining (which is completely understandable), our little six month old is still not sleeping through the night. I am fine with the baby getting up once or twice but what I am feeling bad about (at the moment, as motherhood always seems to have some kind of guilt) is that he got a little cut on his finger that got infected, and after fighting with salt soaks, and a mild cream (from the doctor) we finally had to give him antibiotics. Seriously lately I feel like we have to stay indoors, and only get a little yard time, with no interaction with other children, like at playgroups, sports, and especially not daycare, to insure we aren't sick every other month.

I know kids get sick and our immunity will build (believe me I am trying to build that immunity with the food we eat too), but I just want a full nights rest, no children coughing or complaining in the middle of the night, just good old rest.

I have never been one to call myself a germa-phobe and would just do the regular wash your hands, try to clean the cart handle at the grocery store, use tissues and cough in to your arm type of person, but children and their ability to harbour everything around us, is making me a little more paranoid!

Feeling guilty when they get sick, and helpless is becoming a little second nature to me but I always have to remind myself that I must be doing a lot right, when I see that I have two really happy boys! Man are they ever two happy, always laughing, funny kids, and man am I lucky (ok NOW I don't mind getting up in the middle of the night :) ).

Getting Back to Routines

Holidays are extremely tough on kids, especially if you are like me and have to drive and stay at families' homes during the holidays. Also on my side of the family our custom is to open presents on midnight Christmas Eve, so being tired and cranky is a regular thing for us. We haven't even really gotten our six month old to sleep through the night yet, so the recovery after the holidays is a must.

First I think it will start with our diets, getting back to our regular meal times and items, will be a must. Then also once all the goodies have been eaten (by my husband and I of course) we will start the sugar detox. My personal course of action for this is making homemade baked goods with fruit, and using agave and coconut sugar minimally to help cut down. Now I know getting ride of flour and wheat is a must to really cut out the urge for the sugar, but personally it is hard battle for me, and I always believe moderation is key for me.

Then getting the kids back to some regular exercise activities and a lot of down time, the new lego should help with that. We are really trying to get that down time in, to bring them back down off that Christmas high, so no car rides for now. We desperately had to go grocery shopping, so I sent my husband with the list, while the kids were napping, so that our kids did not have to put in the car, and my husband would not stress with the six month old if I was to go grocery shopping.

Most important step will be to just relax, don't worry about the "To do list" for a while just spend some time with kids because around the corner is another year and more to dos. The kids and especially me need to "veg" out.

Recap of Plan: 

1. Get the meals under control, and get the rich, big meals, or sugar out!

2. Get regular exercise back and get some good down time.

3. Just breath and relax, the house clean up and things to do can wait a little!

I am hopeful that my plan will work for my family.

Sleeping, what is that again?

So today is the second time in a row that I got both my kids to nap at the same time in their beds. I am amazed and also feel like I deserve a reward for this amazing task. Sleeping at night has become the big issues again, with both our kids.

My husband has to deal with the three year old at night and I am on baby duty at night. We get so tired that we sometimes beg with the other one to deal with both kids but we were both screwed the other night when at the exact same time we heard Mateo (three year old) cry and ask for dad and then Harrison (baby) start to cry over the monitor, needless to say our dog decided to sleep in our bed because I guess she thought we didn't need it anyways. Napping and sleeping through the night is not coming easy right now for either of my kids. The 5 month old was sleeping so well and then he turned three months and started to get up every two hours. My three year old keeps waking up crying at least twice a night, and we can't figure out why. He also seems to have a little bit of difficult breathing, yesterdays' nap was the loudest snore (and no he does not have a cold), he is also coughing only when sleeping, and drooling. I have meet one person whose child was diagnosed with sleep apnea but also a friend also suggested checking him for any allergies, that he could be getting from a blanket or pillow. I am bringing him to the doctor and I will write about what we find out.

I wonder too if it could be just as simple as nightmares or wanting attention still because of the younger brother and hearing us get up with the baby at night. Whatever the case we are eliminating all possibilities so if your three year old had these same problems let me know how you dealt with it and what you came up with.

Believe it or not I even make sure to get a banana into my three year old close to night time because I learned through Dr.Oz it helps to quite the mind/or relax...yes I will try anything for sleep.

We have always had a calming bath, reading routine as well so I don't think relaxation is the problem though.

This is to be continued as I work on this with the kids. I will share what I have learned and what has worked (yes I have faith in sleeping before retirement).

Getting through the age of three

Thank heavens, my three year old is starting to calm down and behaving in group activities. The terrible threes are still upon us for a long time but we are both not being brought to tears :)

I have been practicing a lot of patience and I am always talking to my three year old before we leave to do any activity like playgroup or gymnastics about the rules and what is not acceptable behaviour and slowly but surly it is working. Actually we began with a mantra of "No hitting, kicking, or bitting...use your words", now we were able to move on to listening to the teacher and about sharing. He is actually starting to listen to instructions and doing it on his own without me. I may have aged and gotten more gray hair, but consistent work with him is paying off, so I encourage other mothers to be consistent and really continue to calmly talk with them and learn how to better help them deal with there behaviour and emotions. They are learning on how to react to situations and need to know what is acceptable and what isn't.

Now I am not saying I am an expert (for sure not), but I did actually seek out advice but the biggest thing for me was getting over the feeling of being embarrassed and just learn to deal with the situation and learn what he needs from me.

We are actually at a fun stage of pretend play, where we keep dressing up, so Hallowe'en is really going to be enjoyed this time, as he already dressed up as a superhero, astronaut and then we are going to be a robot on Hallowe'en night. He is also fully aware now that "Trick'or'Treat" means getting candy, which doesn't mean he is going to be able to eat the candy (as I am not really a strong believer of allowing him to eat candy at such an early age) but he is excited and looking forward to it.

My next post will include all our Hallowe'en costumes, and any good stories that came out of the night. Also we are planning to go find Hallowe'en costumes on sales after to have dress up options at home. As I have already found these online sales from WalMart..LIMITED TIME ONLY - 50% OFF Selected Halloween Costumes + FREE Shipping

Have a good Hallowe'en everyone!

Frustrated, disappointed, helpless and sad

Frustrated, disappointed, helpless and sad is everything I have felt with my three year old this week. In playgroup everyone seems to be playing well with others...my kid is just doing his own thing. Everyone is sitting down for snacks, mine is running , everyone is playing parachute, mine is still running.
When I could not find his lego rocket before we had to go to swimming, it was nuclear meltdown time, Then it was complete rebellion in the supermarket, throwing himself on the floor and complete refusal to any of my requests. Then gymnastics...oh gymnastics...something he has been looking forward to for weeks now, since we went to the 1/2 day gymnastics summer camp, but what happens? He wouldn't sit still to wait for his teacher and is running around the waiting room. Then his group is getting called to the mat, he gets a sticker and then starts to cry and wants his mom. Then they go to warm up, he tries to run around where they group is not, so one of the teachers decides to hold his hand and make him walk around with her while he bawls and wants his mom. I convince him to watch the group, and then he wants to go participate again, but as soon as the teacher asks him to do something, like follow the group in a straight line, guess who wants their mom again.

My son seems to want to do his own thing, like run, and do puzzles and build things on his own, but he struggles to stay still with a group activity which involves listening to instructions. He does have great attention to detail to do a puzzle or build lego things. Although if something doesn't work out after awhile, like a lego rocket breaks apart, he gets very frustrated and will bite the lego.

I am trying to understand why I feel a little embarrassed by my son's actions, because I feel like a bad mother or parent, that I do not know how to correct these actions or help him deal with his frustrations or grow. Also I worry that something is wrong. But I realize these feelings are selfish, and just plan dumb, and trying to educate myself and get him in touch with the right people, because I am not admitting failure as a parent (which is my first feelings), but rather I am being a good parent by not trying to hide or brush off things. No one is born a parent which is what I keep telling myself and I have to learn from those before us, go with my heart, and try to educate myself as much as I can.

This week really pushed me to become proactive, I talked to some other people, and got my son an appointment to do a screening to see how he is developing, also I have found a workshop for parents to help there kids deal with emotions and recognize there emotions. The best thing I really did was just come out and ask people, instead of just keeping it to myself because that got me and my son nowhere.

I hope this post really helps others, that may have experienced similar moments and hope they to, talk about it to the right people, so their kid can be the best person they can be, and we as parents help them in every means possible :)

Just learning to be the best mom,

Keeping a three year old busy while having a newborn at home

I have a very active three year old, so being home with a newborn all day is not an option. So I am trying to find at least one new thing a week to try to do, because we already go to the park, and splash pads religiously.

Swimming lessons are once week in the evening with dad because I watch the newborn. But I go to all his lessons with the newborn in tow to cheer him on. Plus when he is having a bad day, mom needs to do some smooth talking to get him in the water and listen to his teacher. But this is an activity that needs a parent to participate in still, so the tricky thing is, finding something that he could do on his own, or we could do while I was pushing a stroller was the challenge.

We tried the gymnastics summer camp once, to see if he was comfortable being there, before we signed it up for once a week lessons in the fall. Of course he loved the large space to run, he thinks he is a gymnastics superstar now, and tries to do summersalts everywhere. This is one of the few sports that he can start at the age of three without me participating, so it is perfect.

Together we visited the Muskoka wildlife centre, and it was rather perfect, a little rough terrain for the stroller but very doable, and perfect trails for my three year old superhero to run around. Also he got to touch a few of the animals like snakes which made a rather unforgettable moment for him. He loved this place, and asked to me to come back next year already.

But of course all of these activities cost money so we can not do them all the time. So we had to come up with a few of our own homemade items:

Homemade paper rockets: just some paint, toilet paper rolls, or plastic bottles, paper, and tape and blast off. Of course these make shift rockets don't last too long in the hands of my toddler, but it made a day of fun...until he ripped it to shreds.

Playing superhero: we used one of those thin baby blankets as a cape and some sunglasses and a superhero was born in his eyes. This is great for me to help him work on learning what "pretend" means, as he has to understand pretend fighting doesn't actually mean physical contact. My son may kill me later for this, but he didn't know what the word "pretend" meant (well this what I am hoping was his reason for doing this) when his four year old friend told him to "pretend" to eat some wood chips around the park, and his friend looked like he was having fun, so what did my kid do...ate some wood chips, all the while laughing alongside his friend; not one of his finest moments.

I don't consider myself one of those uber creative or crafty moms, but I have had to come up with some games, to keep the three year old active all the while watching that three year old. I even came up with one weird game, that has no name but he loved it. I hid three different coloured papers in different rooms of the house, not only did he have to find them, but he had to leave them in the rooms. So he had  to use his memory to remember what room had which coloured paper and we worked on his colours, repeating the colour name in english and spanish (my background is spanish)

So I am really flexing that creative side of my brain this summer, so now let the fall games begin...leaves can be fun right? :)

New mom again

Baby boy number two has arrived!!

Well, I am finally getting around to writing about having baby number two on June 21st and man is it different this time. I remember with baby number one the first six months were a blur and you felt like a walking / milk leaking zombie but man I realize now the baby stage isn't as bad as entertaining a three year old, or as exhausting. I am lucky that baby number 2 sleeps 3-4 hours at a time at night,and no issues with breastfeeding or medical issues, so just the typical fussy periods where they want to be held. The amazing part continues to be realizing what you are capable of when you are dealing with a baby in one arm and trying to help the toddler on the potty in a public toilet.
I never expected to say sure I will play Lego with you or race cars with one kid while I have one hanging off the boob, not weird at all. I really do not know how I or any mother does it but we seem to make it all work.

My three year old loves his baby brother, a little too much and doesn't realize he can't snuggle with him just yet. Also his favourite thing to say is "Oh the baby", kiss his head and then say "I love the baby" or "the baby is so cute". He does worry if the baby is crying and tries to help me when we need to get out the door, so I am very lucky. I guess though we are all a little tired at the end of the day, with the new addition to our family and summer activities

In the next month I am working on finding where I can get a little me time again, at least one night a week to go get some kind of workout in, be it back to my yoga classes or work on a personal goal of mine to building my swimming skills / endurance so I can really feel comfortable get into kayaking. I also need the exercise, in the hope that baby number two didn't leave too many lasting effects on my body.