Seven Tips For Surviving Cold And Flu Season

Being that we are in the throws of cold and flu season, I thought I would share a few of my best tips for caring for a sick sad face. a.k.a your family and yourself when down and out with the flu. Below you will find my best tips for caring for littles, with facts, studies and recommendations for keeping the entire family healthy year round!

1. Resist the urge to reduce a low grade fever.  It's not a coincidence a fever is usually the first sign illness, especially in children. A fever is the body's first line of defense, and should not be treated when below 102 in children. I know it's hard, but when your child has a low grade fever  (anything below 102F), CTFD (Calm the f#ck Down) and let the fever do its job. Below is a recommendation from the Mayo Clinic on how to treat fevers in children:

10 Lessons Learned (The Hard Way!) About Having A Kid In Pre-K.

Now that my little guy has been attending pre-K for nine solid weeks, I think it's time for an update about Pre-K life.

I'm pleased to say, after about three weeks, Ollie fell into the routine of school really well. He LOVES his teachers, and they love him.

When it comes to him adjusting to school life, he's been a champ. As for me... not so much.

The Game Changing Question An Educator Asked Me About My Son

Right after my son turned two, I decided to take him to a 'Mommy's Day Out' program at a nearby church. It turned out to be one of the best things, for both of us! While I was out running errands, he was socializing with other children, doing arts and crafts and learning his numbers, letters and shapes.    

About six-months into Ollie going to the program, the director pulled me aside and asked if I would be opposed to having my son moved up into the three year-old room where there is more structured learning. The director told me that she has been in childhood development for 33-years and in that time a few children like Ollie have passed through her care. She told me son was very bright, and while it was still a little early to say whether or not he was truly "gifted", she was fairly certain he was. Or at the very least, a very bright child with a large capacity for memorization and learning.  

Being a first-time parent, I thought my kid was smart, but I didn't know what exactly "gifted" meant.  Sure, at two and a half, Ollie knew his numbers to 10, alphabet and could also recognize upper-case letters and he knew his shapes and colors.  But, I thought all kids did. 

He LOVES this book. Every night before bed we do a few pages.

It turns out, Ollie was ahead of the curve.

Why I Won't Take One More Second With My Son For Granted...

I have spent the last few days debating whether or not to write this post. Two things have been holding me back.

1. It's horrible for me to relive.
2. It's morbid, and awful, and I try very hard to avoid writing about both things on this blog.

However, I have been profoundly effected by my nightmare, and feel it is my duty to write about it...

A few nights ago, I had the nightmare of nightmares. You know, the one where you're praying in your dream that's it's just a dream, and when you wake up, you nearly breakout in tears when you realize all is Ok, and audibly thank God.

That was me at 3:30am on Sunday morning.

When I woke from my dream to find Ollie laying next to me in my bed, I scooped him up and held him tight, and with tears in my eyes, thanked God he was there next to me.

I'm sorry I can't say anymore, but the nightmare itself is too difficult to think about. Plus, It's not not what I want to tell you about. I want to tell you how the horrible emptiness I felt and the now deeply rooted fear of losing my son is completely changing the way I am parenting him.

Since waking up from that nightmare, I have spent every possible moment paying attention to him, holding him, and telling him I love him. I have a newfound joy in being his mother, and want to make the most out of every single moment I have with him.

Prior to the dream, when he would say, "Hey, mommy, watch this", or, "look at my toy", I would only briefly look up from what I was doing.  I would watch, smile and cheer him on, then go back to what I was doing.  Now, when he asks for my attention, I give it to him. When he wants to watch a TV show, rather then turn it on, and walk away, I put him in my lap and watch the show with him.

My little guy is a true miracle, and the light and joy of my life. He is funny, and smart and talented and silly, and millions of other wonderful things. I sit and marvel at him, and how wonderful he is. I'm so incredibly blessed to be a mother, and to such a wonderful boy.

It's such a shame that it took a horrifying nightmare to get me to take a step back and realize just how blessed I am. Every second I have with my son is a gift. A gift I can no longer consciously take for granted.

I'm sorry to deviate from my normally humors posts, but I just had to tell you about this profound change in the way I approach my blessing of motherhood and beautiful son. While I hate that I had the nightmare, and can still feel the deep pain I felt, I'm thankful that I have this newfound love for being a parent.  I'm thankful that I now enjoy every moment I have with my son. Even the trying ones, because I will happily take toddler terrorizing, over nothing at all.

Please, the next chance you get, hold your child close, whisper, "I love you so much," and cherish that closeness, because without a doubt, it's the greatest blessing of your life.

Bedtime Battle Update: Controlling The Chaos

Last week, when I posted my frustration about how my toddler was completely controlling bedtime, and how I completely sucked for letting it happen, I nearly died when in less than two hours the post had 300 views. My Facebook page lit up with shares and comments about how it was like I was writing about their life.  (If you need to catch up, the first Bedtime Battle post is, here.)

It turns out, when I said:

 "I'm just going to come right out and say it, I have created a bedtime monster. I play into every bedtime whim my evil genius toddler can think up. I just wanted him to go to sleep! I kept thinking if one more book, or sip of water, or trip to the potty, or hug and kiss, or handstand while balancing the cat on my foot was going to get my kid to go to sleep, I'd try it."

My community was shouting, ME TOO!

While, I'm not so happy that other parents are lying next to their child and "pretty much play dead for 20-45 minutes while my toddler does everything he can to drive me nuts." I am relieved to know I'm not alone.

So, for those of you who were shouting ME TOO!  I thought I would let you know how I was doing at controlling the bedtime chaos and the lessons about myself and my toddler I have learned.

First and foremost, I realized that my toddler had complete control of bedtime. From dragging his feet to the bath, to stalling with books and stories about his day, to flipping and flopping for thirty minutes before going to bed, my toddler was playing me like a dumbass drum. This was actually the turning point for me. Realizing I had no control over bedtime was, in one word, unacceptable.

I was determined to gain control. Which, meant toughening up. I realized that I let my toddler get away with the books, stories and flip-flopping, because I didn't want to rock the boat. I just wanted him to go to sleep, without a huge freaking meltdown.

Oh, what a fool I was.

Now, there are two books, and lights out! While he protests, its very short lived. He knows when the lights go out, they stay out.

The next thing I learned was that I actually like laying there, for the first five minutes. I really like the quiet time cuddles and listening to his silly thoughts and bad jokes. So now, every night when I turn off the light, I soak up the quiet and sweet cuddles. And then when I've had enough, I let the battle begin; I give him one more kiss and hug and get up and walk out.

I wish I could say after seven days it's as easy as getting up and walking out, but it's still a battle. Albeit, not a horrendous 30-minute struggle. We're at about 15-minutes now.

The kid still crawls out of bed at least twice, and each time tries to pull at my heart strings with something along the lines of, "I'm scared up there all alone." Being the sucker that I am, I go back and lay down a few minutes. Even still, just knowing I am moving in the right direction is enough.

Toddlers are fickle little creatures. It takes time and patience to parent them. Especially, when you are trying to fix a fail you created!

Top Ten Tuesday: Family Themed Halloween Costumes.

It's that time of year again, Halloween! Time to spend an obnoxious amount of money on pre-made plastic crap costumes.  Or, if you are one of those crafty bitches out there... then well, yeah, I'll need a costume for me FTD and the Man-child too.  

If you are still undecided, then good news...  Here are 10, both store bought and homemade, family themed halloween costumes ideas to inspire you.