Nummies says, “We asked moms if they could go back to before their first baby, what would they tell themselves. These are their answers. Everyone in the video is a mom.”

Read the article “2011 Lesson #2:  Don’t Carpe Diem” and then come back here to “discuss” it (I shared this post on Facebook, but I’m reposting it here for my readers who don’t follow Nix9t05 on FB.)

Done?  Okay . . .

I wouldn’t trade being a mommy for anything, but there are times when it’s really, really hard.   I have never begrudged anyone who told me to “enjoy this time,” because I don’t take it as “enjoy trying to manhandle your alternately limp and completely rigid child into a carseat.”  I take it more as enjoying “time” in the Kairos sense of the word.  I take it a support that, if can just make it through trying to get an overtired and whining to stop fighting his nap and for-the-love-of-Pete-go-to-sleep-already, there is a silver lining awaiting me.  A cherished Kairos time.

However, there are times when I feel very, very guilty about not enjoying every single minute.  I know women who have lost their pregnancies, lost their babies, lost their young children, or never even had the opportunity to have children, and I think, “What she wouldn’t give to be scrubbing dried spaghetti sauce off the floor.  Again,” or “She would be more than thrilled to be reading the really poorly written dump truck book over and over and over and . . .”  And I feel so guilty.

But let’s be real.  Even these women who would give anything to have a baby, or to have their baby back, wouldn’t just love every moment.  They wouldn’t be tickled pink to see their children lying right down and throwing a slobbering fit in the shoe aisle at Target because the Cowboy Woody shoes aren’t available in the needed size, and mommy can’t just INVENT the right size, now, can she?

No.  They would give anything for the Kairos.  That beautiful, blissful time that makes all the other stuff worthwhile.

It does go fast.  Except for those moments that seem to last forever–when your patience is insufficient to meet the current demand and your child’s tantrum has exceeded your capacity for tolerating whining.  But this too shall pass.

Hang in there, mommas.  If you can make it through this meal, this fit, this mess, this embarrassment, this endless playlist of Cedarmont Kids, you’ve got a little Kairos coming your way.

It’s hard.  But it’s so worth it.

But I’ve been derailed by a two-year-old with a gambling problem.

That’s right.  You heard me.

I was taking a few minutes to look at Facebook, and a friend posted a beautiful video made by her sister, the mother of a beautiful little girl with the happiest smile . . . and with Down Syndrome.  Jamie made the video in honor of her daughter’s second birthday and all the accomplishments little Maddox has made in just two short years.  If you work with children with special needs . . . and especially if you don’t . . . take a minute to watch this video.

Wait–go get some tissues first.  I’ll wait.

Okay.  Now:

Wow.  Just . . . wow.  I mean, could there possibly be any more love in that room?  That right there is a mommy who is fighting for her daughter in a way that many of us will never have to.  So maybe those of us who don’t have to fight for our own children like this should help fight for Maddox and girls and boys like her.  Down Syndrome, autism, Asperger’s, Pediatric Multiple Sclerosis, Muscular Dystrophy, Cerebral Palsy, Spina Bifida, Cystic Fibrosis, and on and on and on.  There are so many juvenile illnesses and disabilities and disorders that it’s really a miracle when our children are born healthy and remain healthy.

Let’s not hold children back . . . let’s encourage them to be their best whatever their needs or abilities.  Let’s teach them to be kind and loving and accepting.  And the best way to teach them how to be kind and loving and accepting is to show them by being kind and loving and accepting ourselves.

Happy birthday, little Maddox.  Even though it’s your birthday, you’ve given all of us a wonderful gift.

To find out more about Jamie and Maddox, to read their story, and to learn more about living with and dealing with Down Syndrome, visit The McClintic Family blog.

“Um, celery, and noodles, and spaghetti.  And eggs.  And tortillas and crumbled up crackers.”

Deeee-lish!

As I was in the beginning stages of planning the Advent activities, Bear’s Beela told me about an Advent Calendar she bought for him.  It’s PERFECT.  Once I saw it, I knew that I was definitely going to go through with the Activity Advent:

Precious, no?

Here’s how we’re implementing this tradition.

Behind each door, I’m putting a Hershey’s Kiss and a slip of paper with that day’s Advent activity (or “Abbent attibity” if you ask Bear).  The activities range from so-simple-it’s-ridiculous to a little  more involved and time consuming.  However, the activities which require the most planning are things we were going to do anyway–I just plugged them into the calendar.

My first thought was to fully “stock” the train compartments, making sure to put each activity slip in the proper door.  Then I realized that (1) that takes a lot of planning and (2) I’d probably get my days all mixed up and create a fiasco.  I decided that I wouldn’t put anything behind a door until the night before.  This had an added benefit:  When Bear pitches a fit asks nicely to get the following day’s candy or activity, I can just open the other drawers and tell him  nothing is there until the day we open it.  Just a little bit of Christmas magic.

On Day 1, the “activity” was simply to unwrap a new ornament and put it on the Christmas tree.

For Day 2, we did a penguin ornament craft that I picked up at Target for $2.00.  The felt penguins had precut adhesive felt, so there was no cutting and no gluing involved.    The package said it was for ages 6 and up, but I found it to be just about perfect for a toddler’s skill level and attention span:

Day 3 was a big activity–breakfast with Santa and Bear’s beautiful cousins at a local church.  This is something we were going to do anyway, but I refrained from telling Bear about it, and instead made it an Abbent Attibity:

In case you are trying to come up with ideas for how to do this kind of Christmas countdown with your child, here are some of the other activities we’re doing (in no certain order, with links where appropriate).  Some of these ideas are local, but your community will have something similar.

• Watch Frosty the Snowman (Bear’s fave) and make Frosty cookies (slice ‘n’ bake)
• Make and drink hot chocolate
• Have a pizza picnic in the living room and watch a Christmas movie
• Drive around to look at Christmas lights
• Go to the North Pole Adventure (local event)
• Go ice skating at an outside rink with the cousins
• Visit Santa at the mall
• Make a Borax crystal snowflake
• Make applesauce ornaments
• Make a footprint Christmas tree
• Attend a cousin’s Christmas concert
• Decorate a gingerbread house (pre-assembled kit–I think from Walmart, but I wouldn’t swear to it)
• Christmas tree lacing craft (another cheap craft kit from Target)
• Paper plate snowman lacing craft
• Make salt dough ornaments
• Paint frost paint on the windows
• Attend “The Real Story of Christmas”–a Christmas event for preschoolers at a local church
• Make a puffy snowman painting
• Make and eat snowman pizza
• Make an edible Christmas tree
• Make and decorate cookies for Santa

The Amazing Amanda judges the success of any kids’ craft project or activity by whether or not the span of time during which the kids were entertained exceeds the amount of time she spent setting it up.  By that criteria, most of my projects with Bear are a Great Big Fail.  We do have fun–it’s just that I usually spend forever getting it ready and finding the materials, and he is entertained for approximately 37 seconds.  I get pretty excited about any project that gives us, as Amazing Amanda calls it, “Minutes and Minutes of Fun.”

This super-easy “stained glass” project was one that was a huge success.  Bear stayed busy and was having fun for quite a while.  I think his enjoyment had a lot to do with the fact that he got to rip things up without getting in trouble.

For this project you need:

• Construction paper
• Clear contact paper
• Tissue paper

Easy, entertaining, and I had everything on hand to make this project.  If you try it, let me know how it goes for you!

And now he’s three.  And I have to contend with forces like gravity and velocity.  And pee.  Lots and lots of pee.

That teeny tiny helpless baby can count, recognize his letters, spell his name, and know that only Tyrannosaurus has two fingers.

For his birthday, Bear wanted a Godzilla cake, which is fitting, since he shares Godzilla’s birthday.  I’m an inexperienced cake decorator, but I figured I’d give it my best shot.  Knowing that the mini panda cake for his first birthday took me hours upon hours, I figured I was in for a huge challenge, but I guess I’ve improved some since then.  It still took forever, but not as long and it turned out okay.

The first thing I had to decide was whether to try to sculpt a cake or get a molded pan.  It wasn’t much of a decision.  I bought this dinosaur pan from Wilton:

Bear didn’t even try to tell me it wasn’t Godzilla because of the number of fingers or spinal plates or whatever.

I figured using a molded pan would make decorating the cake much easier as I just followed the instructions and the features on the cake.  Unfortunately, step one of decorating the cake is to “frost the entire cake white.”

So much for features.

I then placed the pan liner alongside the cake for a visual and began following the directions, trying to get from White Blob to this:

Here’s my Godzilla cake step-by-step:

Look!  He even breathes fire!

“What do you think of your Godzilla cake, Bear?”

“I think pretty good.”

Happy birthday, sweet Bear!

Bear loves Godzilla, an obsession which was handed down from his father, Hot Husband.  It just so happens that Bear even has the same birthday as Godzilla, and while this fact is very exciting to Hot Husband, I can assure you that it was NOT planned that way.  In fact, Bear was supposed to share MY birthday–he was due on my birthday, but came a few days before so that I could keep my own he could have his own.  But this isn’t the birthday post so I’ll move on.

Bear decided to be Godzilla for Halloween.  Of course, they don’t make Godzilla costumes for almost-three-year-olds–at least, not that I’ve ever seen–but they do make dinosaur costumes.  We found a great T-Rex costume and put it on Bear and told him it was Godzilla.

He said, “This isn’t Godzilla.  It only has two-fingers.  It’s a Tyrannosaurus.”

Seriously?  My toddler can tell the difference?  I thought I’d have at least a few more years of “close enough,” but there’s  no fooling this kid.

From thenceforth, he told everyone who asked that he was going to be “Two-Finger Godzilla” for Halloween.

And without further ado, here’s Two-Finger Godzilla:

Before the MDO Fall Festival

Ready to Trick or Treat

Trick or Treating

Trick or Treating at Beela's

And just for fun, here’s Bear singing the theme song to the Godzilla cartoon from the 1970′s:

But today is a happy day – aside from my weird hormonal meltdown – to celebrate Super D making it to the ripe old age of 3.  This year he got to pick his own party theme, and he chose a “’struction truck” party.  I’ve already done the dirt cake in the back of a dump truck for both boys’ 2^nd birthdays so I couldn’t do that again.  (And it turns out Super D doesn’t like chocolate, so a strawberry cake wouldn’t look much like dirt anyway. )  So I just went with plain strawberry cupcakes – which if you overcook them slightly (oops) actually have a slight orange tint, which works well with a yellow/orange/black theme.  Also in my favor, Super D was born a mere 2 weeks before Halloween, so orange and black party supplies are easy to find.

I took out the boys’ trucks and washed them thoroughly and used them for serving dishes.  I made cupcake picks from the “Boys Will Be Boys” Cricut cartridge, with the help of my mom.  (I had tried to find printables or something in stores, but couldn’t find anything I liked.)  I even got my hubby to borrow a few cones for me to use for decoration.

But my favorite part of the party, I think, was the party favors.  I lucked out at the Target dollar spot and found hard hats and tools.  I painted the hats with paint pens to make them more party-esque, and sent one home with each child.  I put a couple of tools and a Dum dum inside each balloon*, blew it up, tied it, and strung it up.  Before the children left the party, they lined up and one-at-a-time, got to pop a balloon with a pin to get their prizes.  This was a pretty big hit, as far as I could tell.  (My boys are asking me to make more for them to pop.)  I’ll definitely do this for future parties.

For school favor bags, I’m sending “Being 3 ROCKS” bags with yogurt raisins for “rocks”.  It’s just something small, but really, that’s enough for a class of young’ns, in my opinion.

I hope these pictures will help give you some ideas to make a construction truck party of your own.  It’s big fun for little boys, and is a super-easy theme for parents to work with!

Note from Nicci:  I told you she’s amazing.  To see all of the fantastic details, click each picture for a larger view.  Also, check out Amanda’s train birthday cake and tractor birthday cake that she made for her boys’ other birthdays.  I’ll see if I can talk her into sending me pictures of her fishbowl cake and any other amazing cakes as well.