One of my favorite things about being a parent is the opportunity I have to create memories for our kids. I am a sucker for fun family activities and my sole purpose in life is for these kids to grow up thinking they had the best mother ever, who did lots of fun things with them. I know that might not be a realistic goal, but it doesn’t hurt to try! One thing I’ve noticed with our oldest child, who is almost 6, is the fantastic memory he has. He is constantly talking about the fun things we’ve done or that he’s done with other friends or family. He loves to reminisce about old times! It’s rather cute, since his old times are only a few years in the making.

Creating memories is a rather easy thing to do, and quite simply doesn’t cost a dime. Sometimes we feel that we have to go on huge elaborate trips or spend a ton to do fun things, and that simply is not the case. The little things you do go a long way, and most likely, will be remembered more. I know I’ve mentioned it before, but my favorite part about my childhood was the food coloring my mother used during the various holidays to make things fun. There is a plethora of simple things you can do with your children that they will enjoy. This evening we decided to go for a drive, but the car was running on empty. We stopped to get gas, and got a deal on a car wash. My husband, who loves to detail our cars at home, thought it would be fun to take the kids through a car wash, since it had probably been a year since we had done so. You would have thought we took the kids to Disneyland. They were so excited. Our baby, who will be 1 next week, didn’t know what to expect. When the water started his eyes instantly got huge and then he giggled through the whole wash. The other two kids asked questions about what all was happening and had a ball. It was such a simple little experience, but they talked about it the whole time we were on our drive. What made the experience more enjoyable was the fact that we hadn’t done it in such a long time. So, don’t feel like you have to create these memories everyday. Continued

This winter has been full of sickness here at our household. It’s also the first winter of having a child in school. One of the random illnesses that he brought home was pink eye. We took him into our pediatrician and got him an eye drop, but I also did some sleuthing on the internet to find some over-the-counter ways to handle the issues that come along with the nasty little virus. Here’s what I found.

Conjunctivitis, also called “pink eye,” is inflammation of the lining that covers the inside of the eyelid and surface of the eye (conjunctiva). Symptoms include red, weepy, itchy, or painful eyes. In many cases there is a clear or creamy discharge from the eye. The most common causes of conjunctivitis are bacteria, viruses, or an allergy to dust, mold, or pollen. Continued

Here’s a fun coloring page for your Leap Year festivities! Click for it here.

Our oldest son is in kindergarten and is always full of questions regarding the holidays and why we have certain things on our calendar. This week the topic has been leap year. He couldn’t quite understand why every four years, February has an extra day. He’s not one for simple answers, so we did some research to explain it better. This was what we came up with.

A leap year (or intercalary year) is a year containing one or more extra days (or, in case of lunisolar calendars, an extra month) in order to keep the calendar year synchronised with the astronomical or seasonal year. For example, February would have 29 days in a leap year instead of the usual 28. Seasons and astronomical events do not repeat at an exact number of full days, so a calendar which had the same number of days in each year would over time drift with respect to the event it was supposed to track. By occasionally inserting (or intercalating) an additional day or month into the year, the drift can be corrected. A year which is not a leap year is called a common year. The Gregorian calendar, the current standard calendar in most of the world, most years that are divisible by 4 are leap years. In a leap year, the month of February has 29 days instead of 28. Adding an extra day to the calendar every four years compensates for the fact that a solar year is almost 6 hours longer than 365 days. The calendar we use, only requires an extra day once every four years. Other calendars, used elsewhere, do indeed have an extra month every few years.

We had a fun time finding out the scientific reasons for our extra day. He loves learning about science and now he says he wishes his birthday was on the 29th of February, for fun! Take a few moments, and talk to your kids about our special extra day this week!

Spring is almost here, but here’s one more fun way to make a winter scene.

Here’s what you need:

• Construction paper (blue works well)
• Crayons
• Epsom Salt
• Water
• Paintbrush

Have the children color a winter scene on the paper.  Mix the Epsom salt with some water.  Using a paint brush, paint the Salt and water mixture over the winter scene on the paper.  When the picture is dry you will have what appear to be  little snowflakes all over your paper.

This is something totally new since I had an infant, and our daughter is only two years old! In most homes, where there’s a baby there’s a swing. I remember the days of the swing and all the batteries we would burn through.

Newer swings are now coming out with the option to plug into the wall. For those who have babies that love the swing this is a lifesaver when it comes to batteries. The “plug in swing” simply plugs into the wall for hours of swinging without ever needing to be wound up or have the batteries replaced. However they can be used by battery power if there is not an accessible outlet. Some of the swings also have a quick release feature to avoid being tripped over.

I’ve seen them in several places, including Amazon.com. They are getting pretty good ratings and seem to be comparable in price to others on the market.

I think if I had to do it over again I would consider the plug in swing.

I loved the Mr. Men and Little Miss books as a kid.  They were always full of great stories and left us with something to think about.  My favorite was always Mr. Tickle.  Our son was given some of the books for his birthday this past year, so we now have a few on the bookshelf.

There is now a T.V. show called the Mr. Men show, found on Cartoon Network.  It’s about  30 minutes long and our kids love it.  All the characters are hard at work on the screen.  I must admit that I haven’t sat through an entire episode, but I’m sure it’s worth checking out.

My infants and toddlers have always seemed to love frozen peas, and they like them even more when they’re teething.  I learned this tip from my sister one day.  I was curious when she grabbed a bag of frozen peas from my freezer and poured a few out for my son.  He gobbled them up and they were great for his painful gums.  I’ve been giving them away like “treats” ever since.

*Something tragic happened when our middle child stopped teething, he also stopped eating the peas. Maybe one day he’ll rediscover them.

We just signed our kids up to play baseball and T-ball this spring.  We started our kids early with team sports (age 3).  Our older one loved the idea and has been playing ever since.  Our second son played one season of soccer and hasn’t had the desire to do anything else until now.

Parenting.com has an article with some things to think about when it comes to kids and sports.  It points out some questions to ask yourself before you sign them up.  You can read the article to find all the details, but here’s a summary of the main points.

•  Will it be fun?  If the child does not want to do it, don’t force them. There’s nothing harder than dragging a child to a practice or game that they really don’t want to be at. Continued
  Tags: Activities, kids, Sports

I found this tip over at the parent hacks website and thought it was worth passing on.  A toothbrush holder can double as a baby spoon holder in the diaper bag.  Now there’s no more searching for a spoon that always seems to fall to the bottom of the bag.  And when you’re finished using it, you have a nice place to put the spoon until it can be washed.