Park time/ Family time

So today we spent a little time at one of the local parks here. It was a blast!!! My son Sam chased daddy around the playground equipment and even climbed up and down the stairs on one of the structures. I don't know why but he is absolutely fascinated by stairs. It was a fun outing and a rare one for us.  My husband is currently looking for jobs in his field during the day and working nights to pay the bills and I will soon be returning to work to help pay the bills as well, so this was a very special treat for us all. I love being with my three guys having fun.  I feel it is very important to try and do something as a family at least once a week. Once a day would be preferable, but we can't always do that. We do however read as a family at least once a day for at least 5 minutes, which is nice to have in our hectic lives. Do you ever feel like there isn't enough time in the day to spend with your family?
     I see lots of families struggling with this: either one or both of the parents work and a lot of times they are either bringing their work home with them or they are exhausted and just want to sit down and do nothing. If you suffer from this, as I do, try and take one evening a week dedicated completely to the family. Say, for about 2 hours, and if possible try to have the whole family there. You can play games, read stories, watch movies or just go for a walk in you neighborhood.  It doesn't have to be something huge. I can tell you from my experience that it helps you get through the rest of the week and as your children get older they will remember those memories and cherish them. If you have really young kids, like me, try to find activities you can get them involved with like finger painting pictures to decorate the fridge with, visiting an older family friend or visiting an older member of your church. As your children get older you can add treats and goals to family night and even assign things for each member of the family to do to help make each family night special.
      I will post more fun ideas for family activities but I also want to hear some of your ideas.

Tear drop drama

I don't know if you are like me, but if you are, you try to keep your kiddo's as happy as can be. It's not always easy. I know with my Sam sometimes he will cry and cry and cry.
        One night last month he woke up in the middle of the night just screaming. So my husband got up to take care of him (lovely little agreement, I take care of our new born, he takes care of our toddler, at night at least : D). Anyway, he changed our sons diaper, gave him a new bottle full of water (our son doesn't drink a lot of milk anymore cause of another problem we had with him I will post more on later). So Sam still was crying Mark (my awesome husband) then took Sam out to his highchair as he hadn't eaten a lot earlier in that day, not for our lack of trying. Nope, no food. So my husband takes our son into the living room to play because he can not figure out what is wrong with our son. For those of you who know Sam you know he is usually a pretty well behaved munchkin. Nope no playing. he just crawls up on my husbands lap and continues to cry. I should have pointed out that this was about 3 in the morning and my husband usually wakes up at 8 or 9 am after getting off of work at midnight so he was really beat. Poor daddy!! This is when I come out worried that something terrible has happened I take Sam as he leaves daddies lap and comes running over to me almost blinded by his crocodile tears. I picked him up then went through the check list with my husband about the usually culprits that make our son cry. Check,check, check "wait did you check his teeth?" He hadn't since our son has all of his teeth except his two year molars and wouldn't you know it that is what it was. They were doing their first round of coming down. Many experience mothers I'm sure have dealt with the elevator teeth that you think are in and then they go right back up.  Ahhh! As if kids cutting teeth wasn't hard enough.
          So the advise I want to give from this story is sometimes you kids will cry, cry, cry, and there is nothing you can do about it and other times its a simple fix.
          Do you have any tear drop drama stories???

Bath Time Fun and then some

So my 22 month old Sam loves bath time. Well, he has now decided that the tub is his swimming pool, he will lay on his tummy and frog swim. It is too funny and cute. The not so cute part of bath time is that one of his other favorite things to do is to put water in his mouth and spit it out at the water spout and mommy. Oh what joys. He has also figured out if you slap the surface of the water it splashes. Hello wet floor and slipping hazard (in comes mat and lots of extra towels). I am just so happy for shower curtains!! They protect me and my bathroom floor (for the most part)... One thing I am finding with bath time is I either have to do it with my husband around or when my 2 month old is asleep. Which can be hard on Sam cause he loves to stay in the tub for long periods of times and it doesn't always work out like that. Oh well I guess he will have to get used to it.