Category Archives: preschooler

Gingerbread Architects in the Making

We’ve never made a gingerbread house before, so we decided to start out small and easy and I picked a super easy one up from Trader Joe’s. Okay… we once attempted to make an enormous gingerbread creation years ago, but that was a huge mistake for multiple reasons. The first was that I had never even made gingerbread before, and mid-baking we realized that the oven we had was too small for our largest cookie sheets, and it was at that point I threw my hands up in the air and admitted defeat. So, perhaps next year we’ll attempt something homemade, but from a box worked just fine this time around.

The kids also had Hot Cocoa cookies to eat since they wouldn’t get to eat the gingerbread house and asking children this small to not eat something made of cookies, frosting and candy is a pretty tall order.

It was a lot of messy fun and the kids thoroughly enjoyed themselves. It’s always fun to watch the kids be creative and this was no different. They started out just randomly sticking pieces on the house, but then Enzo especially would start to look at it more critically and slowly place his candies. Until he realized Phoebe was just putting on as many as possible and then he had to hurry to make sure he got as many on there as she did.

Another project to cross off our “Bucket” List.

Crafting with Kids

Confession time… no, scratch that. A confession makes me sound guilty, and I don’t deserve that guilt. Let’s start over.

As a mom who works full-time, it’s not always easy to find time or energy to do a lot of crafts with my kids in the very short amounts of time we have together in the evenings or on the often busy weekends. Also, day care usually comes up with better ideas than I do and I’m okay if they want to do all of the Pinterest projects that involve paint and glue and glitter. We learned the hard way that Phoebe cannot be trusted with glitter when we attempted to make snow globes that I very poorly planned out.

I figured another easy December “craft” we could do was to cut out snowflakes and hang them up around the house. We weren’t getting any actual snow outside and it was a relatively quick and craft, which is also important when working with small children. Generally they last maybe 10-15 minutes, if that.

Enzo has used scissors before, so he got to work right away while we tried to give him a few pointers on how to get fun designs. Phoebe, however, has never worked with scissors, and probably won’t for a while. She had a moment of interest in cutting paper and then wanted to cut everything else in sight. I am very thankful for dull child safety scissors. I’m also fairly certain that she will be the child who one day gives herself a very avant garde haircut.

So, while Enzo took it very seriously, Phoebe preferred to dance around in her robe causing havoc. Needless to say, we should probably do more crafts together.

Those imaginations!

Both kids have such great imaginations, and I love sneakily watching/listening to them as they pretend. Enzo is a little harder to get pictures of lately as he tends to notice the camera more and doesn’t always want his picture taken (which I completely respect). Phoebe, however, is still at that age where it’s very easy to just quietly watch her.

Lately she has been enjoying all of the typical games you associate with young girls. She has a baby doll she carries around as well as a purse, but she also loves playing with various toy houses. When Enzo was this age he had a great imagination as well, but he always tended to be more active whereas Phoebe channels her imagination differently. I love seeing their differences and similarities in all aspects – it’s so much fun.

Enzo always enjoys sending cars crashing off ledges or superhero/villian scenarios where someone needs saving, and while Phoebe also enjoys similar play she’s a bigger fan of playing “house.” She has a little Minnie and Mickey house and also a bigger Minnie play house (she really can’t get enough Minnie and Mickey) and I’ll watch her as she pretends to put Figaro in the bath or tuck them all in their beds. She was majorly stalling at bedtime last night and mostly because she couldn’t find all the beds for everyone in Minnie’s house.

I confess, I’m kind of thrilled that she gets such a kick out of playing with dollhouses and the like because if it keeps up I will probably end up getting her the dollhouse I always dreamed of having as a kid. The hardest part will be actually letting her play with it. Ha ha. I know, I know, one should never live vicariously through their children. I can’t help it if there are some really fun toys out there today that I can finally afford, though. 😉

Constantly Busy

The weekend was busy and once again I’m reminded that children are way more easily affected by lack of routine and sleep then I’d sometimes like to think. They were up a bit late Friday night, which wouldn’t have been so bad except for the fact that Enzo didn’t want to take a nap on Saturday and even though Phoebe did, she was a tad more clingy than usual. We’re also learning that we really, really need to limit all screen time and come up with some household rules because it is becoming apparent that too much screen time is making children (and I think occasionally the adults) more prone to crankiness. It was still a fairly productive weekend with some fun mixed in, though. It’s funny how different Enzo and Phoebe are and how it becomes more obvious as they get older. For instance, if I announce we’re going to get of the house and go shopping, Phoebe will get excited and want to leave immediately. Enzo, on the other hand will immediately say, “I don’t want to go shopping.”

He’d much rather stay at home with his Dad and snack and play video games or watch TV. I knew that there had been too much time in the house, though, and made the executive decision to take us all to the mall. It probably serves me right that the kids were full of energy and completely uncooperative and into everything. Thankfully most people were in a great mood and didn’t mind when our circus crossed their path. We had one mom with teenagers laughing because she remembered those days (as I chased Phoebe down an aisle while Enzo went the opposite direction), and a couple of young girls were laughing at Phoebe’s antics as she attempted to outrun me a second time. You’ve also go to love the limp noodle when you try to pick them up and suddenly you have a toddler laying on the floor at your feet. At that point I had to laugh because we must have looked like a complete and total joke and like the most inept parents unable to control two small children. There are just those days, though, you know?

Thankfully it isn’t always like herding cats when we take them out, so I suppose we’ll keep allowing them out of the house. 😉

Toddler Talk

Mondays after a long weekend are the worst, aren’t they? We had a very productive, but also fun weekend. Got to see family we don’t see very often and we rearranged the house a bit, did some decorating and tried to fit in some fun as well. That being said, I don’t have much in the way of motivation today, so how about some fun with what the kids have been saying/doing lately? I need to keep better track because they crack me up.

Enzo

He says “What the heck?” a lot. Apparently so do I.

“Last morning.”

Me: Enzo, do you need to go to the bathroom? (He was squirming).

Enzo: No… my underwear is just in my butt.

This weekend, I also got a text from Josh while I was out with Phoebe doing a little shopping and apparently Enzo had been asking for a treat so Josh told him he had to eat some blueberries and grapes first. He didn’t want to and said, “My mom will be so mad if you don’t give me a candy.” Ha ha, nice try!

Phoebe

Says “Um” a lot. Not sure where she picked that up… hopefully not me?

“Mies from Morrowland!” (Miles from Tomorrowland).

Still sings everything, especially her favorite theme songs. She’s really using a lot more gestures and facial expressions lately, though, which can be hysterical at times.

The other day Josh was trying to change her and she was not cooperating at all. Finally I walked in to see what was happening and she was being a total goofball, so I said, “Phoebe, can you please let Daddy change you?” The stinker stopped moving and said, “Ok.” Hahaha.

Love, love, love their personalities. The awesome little moments make it all worthwhile.

Dino and Bunnies

Every day adventures