Tag: family

One Boy’s Valentine Banner

Posted on February 6, 2014January 14, 2016 by Mama

Yesterday I told you that my three-year-old son and I spent part of our snow day creating a cute little Valentine project, so today I thought I would share our kid-friendly craft with all of you (especially if you’re still stuck inside from this week’s storm). I came up with this quick banner idea by combining a couple of Pinterest projects with some of my son’s favorite things — paint and glue.

To create your own Valentine banner you will need:

brown paper lunch bags
empty toilet paper/paper towel roll
red washable paint
scissors
glue
string

To begin the project, cut a paper bag right above the bottom fold. Then cute along the two outside edges to give you two rectangular banner pieces. If you want, you can cut a triangle out of each of those pieces or just leave them square on the bottom. Cut as many bags as you desire for your project. If your child is old enough to handle the scissors, great but make sure an adult supervises this task (I let my three year old, cut on some scrap pieces, but he wasn’t up for the first part of this project).

Next, shape the empty toilet paper roll into a heart. I started by creasing the top inward, being carefully not to make creases in the rounded parts of the heart, and then I creased the bottom point of the heart. After you have the shape to your liking, pour some washable paint on a paper plate. Have your child grasp the TP heart roll around the middle to hold its shape, dip an end into the paint and stamp it onto each banner piece. Your child can redip as necessary.

After the paint dries, flip over each banner piece and run a bead of glue along the top of each one. My son loved doing this and it really didn’t matter that he got a little sloppy (you might want to cover your work space before this step). Meanwhile, I cut string long enough to span each banner with a small gap between and extra for tying off at the ends. After the glue was in place, I came along and pushed the string into each bead of glue. We let it dry over night and by the next day we had a truly heart-warming Valentine banner to hang about the house.

If watching your youngest glue paper bags to his fingers, the table and the cat is not your idea of a good time, you might try one of these alternative methods. 1) Punch a hole at the top of each side of your banner pieces and run the string through the holes to create your finished banner. 2) Fold the top of each banner piece over the piece of string and staple the flap in place to create your finished banner. Which ever finishing touch your choose, pick one that works best with your child’s taste and strengths (and your mama mess index).

You are What You Watch?

Posted on January 13, 2014February 28, 2015 by Mama

Our three-year-old son loves minions. He has never seen Despicable Me, but who doesn’t love a little yellow guy with funny eyes, a bald head and crazy manners. Plus, when McDonald’s offers free toys it’s amazing how well acquainted a toddler can become. So last week when Despicable Me 2 arrived on video, I decided to rent it for the family (after all, my husband and I had been waiting for this day for quite some time).

While it wasn’t as good as the first movie, that meant nothing to my son. He enjoyed watching the minions in action and asked all sorts of questions, especially when these little good guys went bad. I could tell he was a bit disturbed at the craziness of the purple minions, but he seemed okay with everything as all was set right in movie land.

Unfortunately, three days later my little guy came down with some bug and up shot his fever. For a child prone to ear infections, taking fever reducers is nothing new and our son is a champ in this department. But Friday afternoon, he sobbed and cried and insisted that he didn’t want to take his medicine. I finally coaxed (okay, forced) him into downing the syringe full of good stuff, but he was still distraught. After he calmed down a bit he fessed up to his angst against the meds, his reason being, “I didn’t want to turn into a purple minion.”

So there you have it. . . And why shouldn’t he be afraid of turning into a purple minion? One syringe full of gel was all it took in the movie so why not real life? We did explain to him the difference between pretend (“pretwin” in his lingo) and reality; and we also assured him that we would never ever think of turning him into a mean purple minion. (He can manage that on his own some days.)

That being said, it’s moments like these that make me mindful of what I put in front of my child’s eyes, ears and mind. This was a great reminder of how differently children view the world and that we should strive to keep our little ones innocent as long as possible.

I Found a Head of Lettuce on My Kitchen Floor

Posted on December 17, 2013March 11, 2015 by Mama

Okay, so I admit it. December is kicking my tail. It’s not necessarily the Christmas of it all, but the shopping, wrapping, festivefying and merry-making have definitely taken priority over most other daily activities like cleaning, doing laundry and feeding my family. If it weren’t for popcorn chicken in a bag or peanut butter and bread, we would be doing take-out every night of the week.

As for cleaning, my house hasn’t had more than a spot shine here and there since Thanksgiving. In fact, the fall festiveness is still lying atop the basement bar waiting to be stuffed into the appropriate tubs until next year. Today I found a head of lettuce on my kitchen floor. Okay, so it was plastic lettuce from my son’s pint-sized shopping cart, but still it’s place is not under the dishwasher (across from the tomato I sleepily kicked while searching for a morning cup of coffee).

My husband just promised not to reveal that he’s actually doing most of the laundry, and as much as I want to protest I just can’t, especially when he wanders in looking for clean socks or underwear to go to work in the mornings. Gee, he can be so needy. . . But don’t worry, there is usually a forgotten load of whites left in the dryer because I had some sort of gift wrapping going on in another part of the house. Aw, if it all gets too wrinkled, I’ll just throw in a wet towel and push it through another dry cycle — now there’s a good use of the world’s resources. (Who am I kidding. . . I’m prone to do just that on any given day of the year.)

Yes, I distinctly remember mocking the month and explaining that I was planning not to panic, but Plan B is now in place and anything goes. If we have to feast on the Bell four nights a week and eat pot pies the other, I’ll make it to Christmas with merry music blaring, a glazed smile on my face and my undies turned inside out.

photo credit: Muffet via photopin cc

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