How to Make Books Their Favorite Toy

 

      I LOVE to read. Before Cutes Patoots was born it was not uncommon for me to finish 4-5 books a week in addition to my school work. I'm not talking 100 page novels either. I would swallow 4-5 400 plus page books in a week. Since her birth there hasn't been less reading. It is just changed to parenting articles on the computer, cookbooks, or comic books I can easily put down because lets face it I can't spend an entire day swallowing a novel anymore. Though I did manage to read the entire Hunger Games series in a little less than a week. Lots of late nights there. I just couldn't put them down (who needs sleep? I'll sleep when she's married...maybe.) Anyway the point here is I am an avid reader. As such it should come as no surprise that I want my daughter to have the same love of books. Books open whole worlds and encourage imagination as well as build language skills. To people who aren't avid readers they often don't quite grasp how words on a page can become real to people who truly love them. I want Cutes Patoots to join me on these fantastic adventures.  

 

     BUT I had no idea how to do this when I found out I was pregnant and yes between worrying about having no clue how to put a diaper on a baby, what on earth does a newborn really need, and "OH MY GOD WHERE DID MY FEET GO! They were JUST there!!!!!" I was thinking about books. Papasaurusrex and I both agreed when we found out I was preggo that we would start her library immediately by buying her one book a month. We have faithfully kept with this for almost 3 years. Every month she gets at least one book, sometimes more from us. We told our friends and family about this and all the grandmas have been on board the build the baby a library train and purchased books for her, some by the paper box full. And I LOVE it, but more importantly SHE loves it! We always have something to read. Do we occasionally get hung up on a particular book? Yes. Please don't ask me Who Is Huckle (thank you Wendy's for that) and if you ask me to recite Llama Llama I will start by asking you which book, but there are always new books to read together and old books to enjoy again (and again. AND again).

     Has all of this helped? Well at 2 years old she is beginning to recognize certain words and telling her own stories. It is not uncommon in our house for her to walk away from a cartoon and start bringing over book after book for one of us to read with her. We used to have the hardest time getting her to brush her teeth. Until we started reading books about teeth. When the problems brushing re-emerged because she wanted to do it we started reading her a book to keep her brushing long enough (yes this works). Our biggest bedtime problem? She wants us to read another story (we cap her at 3). After we leave the room she wants a light left on so she can look at her books until she falls asleep. She even 'reads' to our cat and dog. I am not telling you this to brag about how amazing our child is. In terms of actual reading skill she has about 4 words I know she recognizes consistently. So if you are reading this article hoping to turn your kidlet into a reading prodigy by one years old I got nothing for that. If however you want to engender a love of books in your little one I do have some advice on that.

Start Early! It's never too early to start. I remember reading my text books out loud while I was pregnant, reading with Cutes Patoots in the middle of the night before she could even hold her head up. I remember laying on the floor reading with her during tummy time. I also remember feeling incredibly silly because "what is she getting out of this exactly?" The answer was apparently way more than I thought. I was particularly glad for having built a library at this stage because I wasn't limited on reading material.

Build a Personal Library! If you are pregnant and reading this start your little ones library now. Have a newborn? Start their library now! Infant? I think you get the point. If you have a toddler it's not too late to build their personal library up. Make a commitment to buy one book a month. It doesn't even have to be a new book. You can buy books at thrift stores, yard sales, used book stores, Amazon has a great used book program. Some libraries even sell old library books and bonus that money is put back into the library. Speaking of....

Go to the Library! Pick a day every week that you go to the library. If your library has a story time that works with your schedule go to that. The kids get to hang out with other kids and hear stories. At our library they also get to do a free craft and sing silly songs. The most awesome thing about this? It's free. We go every week. Partially because we have already read all the books from the previous week but also because this give us time to read together and pick out books together while having zero stress about what I 'should' be doing. When I am at the library with Cutes Patoots I am doing exactly what I should be according to the weekly routine. We like to go to story time early to pick out books and read together while everyone else arrives. More than once I have had other kids come over to sit with us while we wait for the librarian.

Create a Space for Reading! Cutes Patoots has several places in the house where she has books. She has some of her more advanced books we keep in the office, in her bedroom is a small collection of board and bedtime specific books, but in her playroom I have a nook that is set up just for her to enjoy her books in. She has a 3 shelf book case and a chair. Papasaurusrex bought her 2 IKEA LOVA bed canopies for Christmas that we used to turn the area into a cozy little jungle nook for reading. I often find her sitting in either her elephant chair or a wicker rocking chair that was mine as a child with books scattered about as she finds the story she wants. She loves to lounge in this space and look through her books. She 'reads' herself stories based on the pictures and what she knows of the books by heart. It is one of her favorite spaces in her playroom.

  
Read Together! This one I can not stress enough. If they bring you a book, barring things that truly cannot wait, read it with them. I cannot tell you the number of books I have read with Cutes Patoots while sitting on the toilet (TMI I know, but you're a parent or going to be soon. Babies and toddlers aren't so good with the personal space and time thing.) I almost never refuse to read with her. I have stopped doing homework, I have ended unimportant phone calls, read her stories while on the phone with my mom, paused movies, or totally missed favorite TV shows.  Does it sometimes get aggravating? Meh, sometimes. But it has sent the message to her loud and clear that books are important. One night she brought me 30 different books. We would read a book and she'd go get another one. Over and over. We read every book she brought despite having a ton of homework. That night when bedtime came she still got her teeth brushing story and you better believe she got all 3 bedtime stories. Enjoy this time. Yes there are dishes that need done, laundry that needs folded, homework to do, but kids will pick up on whether or not you enjoy reading with them.

Read WITH Them! Have you noticed  the use of the word 'with.' I have read a lot of articles that talk about reading TO your children, once I get into the meat of the article what they really mean is to read WITH them. There is a difference. Reading TO them means you read the words on the page. Reading WITH them means you ask questions and involve them in the story. Things like "What color is the truck?" "What sound does the cow make?" "What do you think is going to happen?" Cutes Patoots has a book called Little Tiger Picks Up. In the story Little Tiger roars twice. I let Cutes make the sound and praise her for her fierce roar. This is reading WITH her. She is not a passive observer but an active participant. And don't think that reading with them has to wait until they can talk. You can ask questions and involve them in the story from day one. Simply ask the question and wait for them to wave that cute little newborn fist or make a cooing sound. Then say something like "Exactly the fire truck is red." or pretend they got the answer wrong. Have fun with it. Initially yes, you will be answering the question. The idea though at this point is to start teaching them the give and take as well as giving you practice for the toddler years when you say "what color is the fire truck," and they respond with "color is purple fire. Punzel on fire." and Rapunzel isn't even in the story.

Make Reading Part of YOUR Routine! This reading thing goes deeper than just reading with your child. You also need to let them see you reading. By reading for yourself you reinforce the idea that reading is important. You don't have to read literary classics or 1000 page novels. It can be magazines, cookbooks, or comic books. Hey even blog posts but let them see you reading. Kids notice what you do (and don't do). As cliche as it sounds actions really do speak louder than words, especially when you are dealing with kids. They are learning how to be a person by observing everything that is going on around them: what they see on tv, at the park, at school, from friends. But far and away the ultimate example of how to be and act starts with mom and dad.

Hopefully with these tips you can make books your little one's favorite toy and make going to a book store more exciting than Toys R Us. Next week I will talk more about how to go about building a personal library for your little one and some of our favorite books. (Spoiler Alert we love Llama Llama or as she says Llam-Llam.)

Family Field Trips: Bonding Time for the Family

   The family and I had a wonderful adventure at The Oasis Camel Dairy recently . Yes you heard me correctly we went to a camel dairy.  It is a relatively small operation here in Southern California. We had a chance to ride a camel, get up close and pet them. There were horses and sheep, and a whole menagerie of birds and we got to learn all about the animals from the farms owners. It was a very interesting day for all of us and I think we all learned something new and I am all about educational experiences not only for Cutes Patoots but also myself and Papasaurusrex. (Just because we are adults doesn't mean we know everything despite what we tell her.) If you live anywhere near I highly recommend joining their email list to find out when they are having a public tour date (as I said this is a smaller operation and it is an actual WORKING camel dairy, not just a tourist spot. So they are only open for public tours on select days.)

     This is not our first family field trip.We frequently go to zoos, marine parks, aquariums, and museums.  I love to take her to these places. Some people probably think I am a little crazy because what are the chances she will remember any of this? Honestly slim and I know it, however I feel that by exposing her to these things early she is much more predisposed to enjoy them later. You know during those teenage years when kids hate everything? I am hoping that by instilling a love of these field trips now we can still bond over them later. We use these family field trips as a chance to unwind from the daily grind but they are also amazing family bonding time. We are not focused on work, school, the never ending list of chores, but instead we are focused on each other and enjoying something interesting and new together. At the end of the day we ask questions like "what was your favorite part of the day?" "Did you learn anything you didn't know?" While Cutes is too young to really answer most of these questions with any sort of depth she often replies with one or two words or a whole slew of rapid fire toddler verbiage we struggle to keep up with. Our field trips end up sparking some rather interesting conversations and help us reconnect.

     Something we like to do that encourages conversastion for days afterwards is to pay for some of the "upgrades" at these various places. I know I lost half of you right there as you think about the hundreds of dollars that must cost. I promise you it doesn't have to. When we went to the San Diego Zoo recently I did some research in advance and found out that for $10 you can feed the giraffes. Get in line early to buy a ticket to feed them though as they only sell a very limited number of tickets. At Sea World we like to feed the rays. When we went to the camel dairy this weekend I paid the $15 for me and Cutes to ride the camel. It doesn't always take a lot of extra money to add something special to a trip. It does however require a bit of research in advance. Usually when you get to a park or zoo they really promote their most expensive packages. I always like to visit our destinations website and use their "Plan You Trip" tools.Generally speaking the parks have some sort of experience that is under $20 if you look for it. Are they necessary to have a good time? No. We have been to plenty of places and not paid for upgrades as well but I have never been disappointed when we have had that little extra. I think with a toddler it also makes the experience more exciting than just looking at a bunch of stuff. They can look at stuff in their own yard. They don't get to do things like feed giraffes. Toddlers are a hands on bunch and being allowed to touch and interact makes the whole trip more real in their minds. Weeks later and Cutes is still cuddling her "camoo" and still "wikes camoos."
   
     Overall the camel dairy was a great day. We got to experience the camels and then drove up a little ways and got pie and cider while we basked in the afterglow of the day. I really love where we live because their are so many options for cultural, social, and other educational experiences. But you don't have to live in a big city to find stuff like this. A simple Google search for "things to do with kinds in (your town)" will reveal the various offering in and around your area. With a little planning and a little research you can have your own family field trips with lasting memories.

    

Cooking With Two Year Olds

     Yes can it be done! It is actually fast becoming a 'thing' in our house. It really started months ago. Cutes Patoots has a play kitchen  I set up so I could keep an eye on her while I was cooking in the kitchen. Any time I was in the kitchen cooking she began "cooking" in hers. It was darling. Then a few weeks ago I was making falafel. It's kind of a lengthy process so I started working on dinner as soon as Cutes woke up from her nap. She came into the kitchen and started trying to push buttons on my food processor and saying "I help." It dawned on me then that she was ready. So I got her a chair to stand on (we have since moved to a much safer step stool), but I was unprepared and taken a bit off guard. Despite not really being ready with a toddler friendly recipe I thought it was a great opportunity to get her involved. She was thrilled and that night pleased as punch to have helped make dinner. After a first fairly successful venture I set out to make cooking with mommy easier, safer, and more involved.


Here are some tips for making it possible (fun AND educational).

5 Tips for Cooking with Toddlers

1) Simplicity. A simple recipe is far more likely to keep a two year olds' attention than something complex that takes an hour to prepare and another 45 minutes to cook. I went to my local library's website and looked for kid's cookbooks. I found this one which has a Disney Princess theme. I really like this one. It has some interesting recipes including hummus, a curry, muffins, and a few things like scrambled eggs that you don't really NEED a recipe for but the book seems to make it feel more special to Cutes. So I will be buying this cookbook. The princess theme also makes it fun. I do encourage you though to checkout a book through your local library first. That way you can look over the recipes and see if it is something you and your little one enjoy. Think of it as a test drive. Keep in mind also that simple doesn't have to mean taste-less. If need be you can add a little extra flavor. When we made hummus we added a touch of paprika and fresh garlic.

2) Preparation. Gather your ingredients and tools BEFORE you invite your little one into the kitchen. When you are setting up a sensory activity you prep everything before you invite them to play. Same rule applies to cooking. Two year olds have limited attention spans. Do all of your prep first and you are much less likely to have to finish the cooking by your lonesome. This is another reason simplicity is key. You don't want to have your counters so full of ingredients and tools you can't actually cook. This is also where I tend to do all of my chopping so there aren't knives near small fingers. She knows it's time to come to the kitchen when I bring in the step ladder.

3) Talk. Talk about what you are doing and what you are having them do. Does the recipe call for a 1/2 cup of milk? Then say to your tot "and now we are measuring a 1/2 c of milk." Show them the 1/2 c mark on your measuring cup. Ask them "can you pour the 1/2 c of milk into the mixing bowl?" Just keep chattering. Chances are even if they don't say most of these words they do have a general understanding of what you are saying. This is a great chance to talk to your toddler and demonstrate some math concepts. I have a full set of cup measures but I would tell her things like we need 1 c of flour. Let's use 2 1/2 cups and that will make a whole cup. Does she completely get the concept now? No, but I am laying those foundations early. Cooking can be about more than just the food. It can teach children to follow directions, new vocabulary, math and motor skills as well as how to make tasty food and build their self confidence.

4)  Let Them Do It. While obviously you don't just want chaos in your kitchen and a two year old should not be allowed to do the cutting or operate the stove. There are a lot of things your two year old CAN do in the kitchen. Maybe you do the measuring but let them pour the ingredients. Let them push the buttons on the food processor, or stand mixer. If something doesn't require an exact measurement let them 'measure' it out. The idea is for them to help you in the kitchen so let them actually help you. Give them guidance by telling them what you want, demonstrate the task if they seem unsure but let them do the bulk of the tasks. This is why simplicity matters most. Two year olds are smarter than we often give them credit for. They will know if they are truly getting to participate or if you are placating them. Trust me. I tried that and it didn't work. Cutes Patoots wasn't happy until she was actually having a hand in the process.

5) Have Extras! Okay so this isn't always important but it very much can be. Whatever recipe you are making make sure you have a little extra on the tastier ingredients. Toddlers love to experience the world and it wasn't so long ago that most of that 'experience' was done via the mouth. Let them taste the individual ingredients that are safe for raw consumption. Not only does this take care of snack time but it also gives them a chance to see what everything tastes like separate and then later what it tastes like together. How the tastes change when heat is applied and how the texture changes. There are a lot of things that occur during the cooking process we don't think about as adults that are fascinating to kids.

6) Keep it fun. As with a lot of things with toddlers it is more about the process for them than the results. So have fun. If they lose interest in the actual cooking and just finish up but continue to offer them tasks. The look on their face when they taste their creation is worth any extra mess or 'misstep.'

8 Tips for Remodeling (Fairly) Painlessly with a Toddler

Excuse the phone pictures.

     We recently bought a house and absolutely love it. Well, most of it. We aren't sure what the previous owners were thinking when they installed fake saltillo tile with fake chicken prints
throughout the main living areas. It really baffles the mind. We knew the floors would be the first major remodel we would do. (Painting Cutes bedroom purple and installing new base boards was the first interior change we would make.) Tax time came and we bought the flooring and waited for the bamboo to acclimate. Papasaurusrex and I were really excited about getting rid of the old tile and having new beautiful bamboo floors (gorgeous, durable, and sustainable YAY!!). Papasaurusrex was even excited about the process of the remodel. He could barely contain his excitement about busting up that hideous, improperly installed tile. I on the other hand had extreme reservations. Toddlers are very much creatures of habit (and so am I).  This was going to put an extremely large kink in our routine. She is used to being able to get up and watch some cartoons while she eats breakfast and wakes up the rest of the way. She runs around and plays with her toys a good portion of the day. Stopping for lunch and a nap around noon. These things just did not seem possible during a major undertaking like removing and installing new floors. Not to mention it was finals week for me and I had enormous amounts of work to do. While I couldn't wait to HAVE the new floors the process of installing them had me sweating bullets.

See? Ugly tile.

     We made it though and honestly it wasn't nearly as painful as I thought it would be. Yes there were some abbreviated naps and the first night Cutes slept in our bed because she was so freaked out by all the changes she didn't want to be alone. But all in all it worked out and after the first night she realized it was all going to be okay. (Seriously it took the dog longer to figure out we were not moving. I am still not convinced he doesn't think we are moving.) There were a couple of things we did that I think made it easier on all of us. remodeling in general is stressful. Add in a toddler who doesn't understand what's happening and it can easily become a nightmare and a dangerous one at that.


  
Tips:
1) Move the furniture at night. We moved the furniture at night after she had gone to bed. Yes, we had to do it as quietly as possible and yes, we were tired the next day. However this made it so the changes seemed to happen by magic and Cutes just accepted them. Truth be told at first she was excited and singing "happy day-o" at all the room for activities when she got up on demo day. The other benefit of doing it this way is you don't have a toddler under foot trying to be helpful. This helps protects them and you from injury.

Toddler 'helping'

2) Set up a 'Safe Zone.' We knew we were going to need somewhere to put Cutes that would be safe and help her maintain a modicum of normalcy. In light of this we turned our office into a pseudo-living room. We already have a couch in there but if we didn't we would have put one in there.  We also moved the entertainment center in there and hooked up the tv so she could still have her cartoons. When she got up on demo day we picked a few toys and put those in there as well. This gave us an area we could go to get away from the chaos that was indoors. I simply shut the door and tucked myself and Cutes in the room to keep away from the dust and danger that was in our living areas. At night when Papasaurusrex was done with working for the day or just needed a break the 'safe zone' was a nice respite from the construction zone. Having this one room allowed us to relax which kept us from being at each others throats.

3) Ask for help. We took any offer of help busting up tiles or installing floor boards. This made it so I could watch Cutes and keep her out of trouble without Papasaurusrex doing all of the work. Even with the power tools I don't know that he could have gotten the job done as quickly as he did without help. So don't be afraid to ask. If you have a friend that is going to be doing some remodeling soon offer to help them in exchange for helping you. If there are older teenagers or young adults in the family offer to pay them for their help. But whatever you do Ask. For. Help. Remodels are big jobs. Even what seems like a small job can turn into a 2 day affair. Painting Cutes bedroom took 2 days because once we got the new paint in we didn't want to put the old yucky base boards in.

4) Spend time outside. We spent a good deal of time during the remodel outside. It got Cutes and I out of the small room and into the fresh air. It also got us away from some of the jackhammer noise and gave me some time to look over and take care of our garden. Cutes had lots of time to play "basketball." And we got some much needed sunshine to de-stress. As our kitchen floor also needed replaced we had to do all of our cooking outside and also ate most of our meals out there. I am not saying I want to live like that all the time but it was nice. And again it was a nice break from the chaos and gave us time to be a family and remember why we were going through all the chaos.

5) Be Prepared for surprises and accidents. Watch some DIY home shows before you undertake your remodel. In every show during the remodel SOMETHING goes wrong. This isn't a case of dramatization it happens no matter how small a remodel you are doing something will go wrong. See may statement about painting Cutes Patoots bedroom. We had not originally planned to replace those base boards. The floor remodel was no different. In the course of breaking out the saltillo Papasaurusrex accidentally broke a tile on the riser that we weren't planning to take out. We also realized we needed more quarter round for the kitchen. We decided to change out the base boards because the ones that were in here were already in rough shape and they were also not installed properly. Once we did that suddenly the door casing to the master bedroom needed done too because it's in the center of a major living room wall. Small things we hadn't thought of. It happens but instead of stressing out about it we simply came up with a plan and did what needed done. We knew unexpected things were going to happen and while we were not sure what would happen we had extra money and patience on hand to deal with it. So be prepared for the unexpected and plan for more days than you think you need.

More 'helping'

6) Cook or Don't. I had all of these grand plans that we wouldn't eat out while we took care of the floors. Haha! Haha! Ha! Ha! I am still laughing at myself. While we didn't eat out the entire time we did a fair share of eating out. For one our stove was outside and the kitchen was covered in tile dust. Two we were both tired at the end of the day and quite frankly until we had all the old tile out making lunch was impossible. Tile dust is not good eats and cooking on the grill with a toddler is hard without a second person to keep Cutes out of trouble. Eating out happens. Just plan that you will eat some meals out. However keep in mind you don't have to eat all of your meals out. We grilled pizza, made chili dogs, sandwiches and a crockpot soup. Just check out Pinterest and look for grilling and crock pot meals. The crockpot is you friend. You can plug it up outside if you need to and the grill is a fabulous cooking tool. The grilled pizzas were awesome.

7)  Maintain Your Routine. No you are not going to be able to completely maintain your routine. It just isn't possible, but try to stick to it

as closely as possible. One thing we did that was helpful was whenever there was an errand I would run it around nap time. This gave Cutes a chance to rest during the days the jack hammer was going in the house. This may or may not be practical for you depending on how far you live from where the errands take you. We live a little ways away from most of the places I needed to go. A 15-20 minute nap is better than no nap. Not optimal but better. Once the jack hammer work was done we kept to her routine as much as possible and put Cutes down in her bed at nap time. We also made sure she went to all of her classes and activities just like any other week (well as much as we could. It was spring break so dance class was cancelled and there was no story time at the library. Though we still went to the library.) This helped mitigate the impact it had on Cutes and kept
her from losing her mind.

8) Remember you love each other. This might be the most important tip. I had a heavy homework load and I handle routine disruption with the grace of a two year old. I was stressed out, Papasaurusrex was stressed out, and Cutes was too. The thing that I think really got us through the whole process was  remembering we love each other even when we snapped or snarked at each other. We tried to help each other out when it was possible and stay out of each others ways when that was what was called for.

     Did we have a flawless remodel and never snap at each other? Did we completely avoid any toddler melt downs and insecurities? No. However I think the whole process went far better than I had imagined. The floors are beautiful and I would do it all again knowing the result we would get. Our next big remodel plan is for the kitchen though that is a ways off. I am far less nervous about that undertaking now than I was before. There is little you can do during a remodeling project to maintain a completely normal routine, but hopefully these tips will help it go more smoothly for you and your family.

Okay she was helpful here.

It was all worth it for these beautiful floors!