My first parent related heart attack

We live in a place that has several small duck ponds nearby, and I often take my son to go feed the ducks and play in the grassy areas. The bug loves water, and if he can find even a puddle he will be in it before you can blink. Because of this my husband and I often joke that we are counting down the days till we have to fish him out of the pond.

Well that day finally arrived. We were having a picnic with some friends by one of the ponds and guess who supermaned right into the water. I dove right in after him,   and I have never been so thankful for the swimming lessons he took last summer, which helped keep him afloat till I grabbed him. Luckly nothing bad happened, just a few scrapes and a bruise on his back, but it was a very scary moment for us. Once the adrenaline faded I juat sat down and cried for a while, I never want to go through that again.

What scary moments have you had to deal with as a parent?

Product Review: Munchkin Brand Bath Crayons

Bath time is one of my sons favorite activities of the day, which may have something to do with the various toys that never leave the tub. But one of his favorite things to do ever is to color so for Christmas this year we bought Munchkin brand bath crayons to put in his stocking. They were an instant hit, so we bought him another pack for his birthday earleir this month.

Each pack comes with five crayons (red, blue, orange, yellow, and green) and they seem to last a decent amount of time for as much as he colors with them. And I get them at my local Target for only $4 so the price is perfect to. They don't seem to stain my tub or shower walls unless I forget to wipe the doodles off and they sit there for a week. They will however stain the caulking so keep that in mind, haven't tried to destain them yet so no suggestions on what to do.

All of the colors show up very well, even the yellow which was a surprise. They color on skin ok, though the green will sometimes leave a stain if you leave it on for to long. But they wash off well with just a splash or two of water so no deep scrubbing of the baby was needed. Overall I love them and highly recommend them to everyone.

Non-cooperative Toddler

Today was picture day at the Taekwondo school I teach at, and since my son turns 2 tomorrow we thought we'd do some nice pictures of him to give to people. We had done the same thing last year and got some of my favorite pictures from it, so I was excited for this batch of photos. I forgot to factor one very important thing though, that my son is a toddler. I should have known he wasn't going to cooperate, our Santa pictures from this year are of a screaming child so why should these be any different.

He was just fine for the family photo and ones with Daddy, but absolutely refused to sit still for photos with me and the solo pictures quickly desolved into tears. We'll be lucky to get a few good pictures out of the lot, no repeat of last year's bounty that's for sure.

Have you had a well planned event go down in flames and tears because of an uncooperative child? What tricks do you use to milk one more smile out?

The Daily Animal

Pretend play is an important part of early child developement, and can take many different forms. My Bug's favorite version has to be pretending to be different animals. Typically each day is a different animal, such as today was a snake (which made getting up the stairs a slooooow process), yesterday was a frog, and so on. I try to encourage his mimicry by reading him animal stories then asking him questions about each animal. Following along with a movie or tv show can be fun too, but there is only so much Curious George I can handle in a day. Trying to find some fun animal songs, haven't done nearly enough on that end I think.

Encouraging your child to use their imagination should be an important part of your daily routine both for your benefit and theirs. How do you get your little one to participate in pretend play? What tricks do you use to teachnew skills?

Oops....I forgot about this

Oh my word, I actually forgot I had a blog! Got so caught up with being a parent I literally forgot all about this thing. I'm very sorry to whoever is actually reading this, and I plan on making amends and starting this thing back up. My little guy turns 2 next week so I have a LOT to talk about. I think I'll do a once a week update until I get back in the groove of things. Again, very sorry for abandoning you guys and I'm looking forward to getting back on the blogging horse!