Five ways to not say "no" to your kids.

Just read a good article today on "ways to avoid saying no" to your toddler. Ah, much needed advice. I often stop and think about the fact that I find myself saying "no" more than I'd like. I don't want to be a naysayer to my little guy, I just want him to be safe and sound.

But with a toddler who loves to explore and touch and feel and try everything, I'm finding myself saying no, no and no more than I care to do.

So this is a great read, and I actually found that I follow some of these tips already, mainly, #2 and #4.

I've listed the five tips and some examples below. And here is the link to the full article.

1. Steering Clear of a Difficult Situation
Anticipate; bring along stickers, crayons, etc. when going to a restaurant and move the knife away!

2. Distraction
Hey, let's line up the Sesame Street characters (instead of trying to climb atop the table).

3. Teach Them What They Can Do
If you want to hold the fork, we'll have to point it downwards and not near your eyes. 

4. Give Choices
You can hold my hand across the street or I can carry you --- let me know which you want. 

5. Use Danger Words
Stop! Too hot! Don't touch!

And, two personal add-ons;

1. Finger Wag
Sometimes, when I'm trying to teach the little guy something not to do and it's something that will come up on a regular basis, shaking my finger and showing him that it's a "no, no, no" often does help - said in a nice, sincere, calm tone.

He actually then repeats it -- just this morning, I let him walk next to me on the sidewalk, but when he wanted to get close to the curb, I did a finger wag, shaking my finger, "no, no, no, we can't go close to the cars, it's dangerous".  And then he repeated, shaking his little finger, no, no, no.

2. Stop & Ask Yourself
If you find yourself about to say "no", stop and think; "is it really a big deal?"  Sometimes, you may just realize that it's not a big deal if your kiddo is doing something or exploring.  It really just might be better to overlook and let them be!

How to entertain a toddler on an airplane.

This post is a combo of both a recommendation and my p.52 photo challenge. 

First, the photo challenge portion....kaboom is the theme (subtitle: fireworks) for this week (week 27).  Yikes I say (I do not have any pictures of fireworks).

Okay - what do I have from the 4th of July? Well, we just returned home from a fantastic trip to San Diego, and we left on the 4th of July. Which also happened to be Buddy's 22nd month birthday.  

So, a photo of Buddy on the 4th of July. En route to San Diego. Enthralled in an episode of Thomas and wearing his own special earphones, which he loved. 














Which leads me to my recommendation of how to entertain a toddler on an airplane.  Forget little toys, forget books -- too many tchatchkes and hard to bring them all along and not drop them.  One item needed. 

Portable Media Device. 

Plus, kid-friendly earphones.  I recommend Kidz Gear Wired Headphones for Kids.  

And your little one's favorite shows burned onto your media player.  Sesame Street. Thomas. Dora. Muppets. Arthur. Calliou. Toy Story. Any or all of the above.

We brought several episodes of Sesame Street and Thomas the Train along on our "portable media device" and it kept the little boy entertained almost the entire flight - there and home!  That's eight hours total.  

So, I want to write more about our trip to San Diego, but I'll keep this post shorter, since it's for the photo challenge too. Sorry my pic doesn't scream Kaboom - but it's as close to the theme as I got! 

And on a related note, the fireworks in San Diego happened to all go Kaboom at once. Twenty minutes worth of fireworks all went off at the same instant.  And it was right outside our hotel window - check it out.

Hope you all had a great 4th! 

Toddler meal idea: a smorgasboard.

I've been trying to come up with new meal ideas for Buddy and on Monday, I remembered something I had pinned to my "good ideas" Pinterest board a few months back.

Toddler Buffet

The creator called it a "toddler buffet".  The idea - quite simple and quite fun.

1. Search your kitchen for a variety of healthy, fun and colorful foods

2. Fill each tray with the different food items 
     -make sure everything is bite sized!
     -if you can't think of (or don't have 18 different items, feel free to repeat!

 3. Present delightful meal to your child!

So, I thought I'd give it a try.  I named mine the "Smorgasboard".  Take a look:

My Smorgasboard

And here's a list of the items I included (I repeated some items a few times, as I could not come up with 18 bite sized items that are toddler friendly).

1. goldfish crackers
2. raspberries
3. blackberries
4. Joes O's from Trader Joe's
5. cheddar cheese
6. peas
7. tomatoes
Buddy liked it (see pic below)!

Buddy with his Smorgasboard

It was fun for both of us - a bit of a scavenger hunt for me to find food to fill the tray and fun for Buddy. 

(But I must be honest; he only ate three of the items - the raspberries, blackberries and tomatoes. But he's eaten and likes all of the items in there. Maybe he was just in the mood for fruit (tomato is technically a fruit I believe).

I definitely recommend this as a great option when you're out of options! Or just looking for a fun meal.

After the sippy cup. What comes next?

Today, since all of the sippys (?) sippies (?) were in the dishwasher and it was time for Buddy's milk, I had to improvise.  So I poured his milk into a big plastic cup and straw.  Worked well (but then again, he is very used to the sippy cups with straws).

Anyways, I'm thinking I ought to try a regular cup more often.  I've been giving Buddy sips from regular cups for some time now (either from my cup, or when we're at Trader Joe's and they're passing out free juice samples in little Dixie cups). And he loves it.

Maybe it is time to take the next step.

After all, Buddy did transition very easily from the bottle to the sippy.  And he is pretty darn good with the sippy.  Check this out:

double fisting sippy cups

Anyways, it got me wondering;
-When are you supposed to stop the sippy cup?
-What comes next?
-Is is straight to a regular cup?
-Is there a transition cup between sippy and regular?
-How do you teach using the regular cup without having spills all the time? 

So I did a little research on the good old world wide web of ours.  I found a good suggestion on the Distinguished Dr. Gregory Gordon's blog.  I'm joking - I have no idea who he is, but his website says he is a pediatrician and father of seven. Sounds like he knows what he's talking about. 

His suggestion is to set out two small cups, one empty and one with a few ounces of milk. Give your child the empty cup and keep the second cup with you.  Throughout the meal, pour single swallow servings into your child's cup for him (or her) to drink.  That way you limit the mess and they get used to using the cup.

Good idea Dr. G! 

It seems like once you start adding more into the cup at one time you'd end up with some major spills, but, I'm not a pediatrician with seven kids.  So I think I'll try Dr. Gordon's advice.

And, I found a good cup on Playtex's website, the spoutless Lil Gripper. 

It has a lid like a coffee cup with a little opening for the drink to come out.
 

<--- see little opening





I shall buy one tonight! Hopefully they have other colors besides pink & purple. 

And, if you have any other suggestions on transitioning or any good "first regular cup" suggestions, please do share! I'd love to hear them.