What to Do - sparkleshinylove

Roxymandy March 2, 2015

Why I’m Not Rushing My Son to Grow Up

As a mother of an only child, I am very aware that many of my son’s stages in life are not only precious, but the only time I will get to experience them.

As my son gets older, I do try to take a moment and reflect on the fact that many of his “firsts” will also be our families “lasts” time at the same time as well.

It’s not something that really makes me sad. Is that weird? I hear lots of mom’s talk about how they cried when this or that happened, and I start thinking oh, was I supposed to be sad?

I appreciate each moment, and sometimes it makes me feel a bit melancholy to think about putting away my son’s tiny clothes or toys, but it really makes me happy to see when he’s hit a new milestone. It all also makes me realize I need to slow down a bit more and stop pushing him forward so quickly through life.

What’s rush? I feel like as I moved through each stage of his infant life, it was a race to get to the next milestone. Great, he was starting to eat baby food – once that official milestone was hit it was time to move to solids right away. Once solids were mastered it was time to teach him how to hold his spoon immediately.

Stages like those were more tied to development, so I suppose moving him forward very quickly wasn’t a bad thing. It really got me to thinking about the things that I really shouldn’t have rushed, and instead enjoyed more.

A silly one was his clothing! Why was I in such a rush to dress my little infant like a little man? Ok, I know why, babies look really cute dressed up in “grown-up” clothing. I sort of rushed him out of the onesie phase, and I regret moving him into those cute little jeans and pants so quickly. No more onesies for him now, and I sort of wish I didn’t rush him out of that cute and comfy stage since we can’t turn back.

Now that my son is older the milestones seem a little less rigid, but still I find myself in a way defending his progress in areas like potty training, speaking, dressing himself, and sleeping habits. At what age are these things no longer a major talking point or a thing I need to keep buying books on so we can just go ahead and live our lives? I am really asking because I have absolutely no idea, but I look forward to that day!

Sometimes it all feels like a competition on who’s child makes it faster to the next milestone. I really love those mom’s who are much more easygoing about the whole thing and throw up their hands and say their kids just aren’t ready! It much more fun to have a conversation with that mom rather than the one who spends the whole conversation talking about how quickly their child learned to do everything under the sun before yours did.

I spent a lot of my son’s early-life pushing him forward. This wasn’t because I was trying to be tough on him – I just wanted his development to match all of the charts and figures that a “normal” child development should progress. I realize now, when he’s 18 does it really matter if he learned how to use a fork a couple months later than his peers? Is it really going to matter if he was potty trained at age 2 or 3? Some people would say yes, this matters, but honestly along the way I have learned that pushing him forward may not be what is best for him.

What so fun about growing up fast anyway? Do I really want him to get to the age when he’s embarrassed to hug me in front of his friends, or when it’s not cool to have a milk mustache that we laugh about on Saturday mornings? Once he is grown up I am sure I would give anything to get back to these days of fun, so I’m sorry but we are just going to enjoy his exact age for a while.

Roxymandy February 27, 2015

Toddler Adventures at Crock a Doodle

I know it may sound crazy to bring a group of toddlers to a place where beautiful pottery pieces are painted, but as it turns out it was a great spot to spend a morning!

Just before the holidays I mentioned that while I was vacationing at the Westin Trillium House, Blue Mountain, in the village there was a fun-looking pottery studio that I was hoping my son would want to check out. It turned out he wasn’t in the mood that day (but suddenly was on the way home, about an hour into our trip home!), but luckily there was a Crock a Doodle location in our hometown!

I rounded up 9 of his friends who happened to be around on a Friday morning, and we headed into the studio to do some paining!

The kids walked to the back of the studio and hung up their jackets, and found a seat at one of the many paining stations.

At Crock a Doodle, you don’t need a reservation – you can just pop in to paint! Because there were so many of us, I called in advance to let them know what time we would all arrive to check things out.

Since it was close to Easter, we decided to all do an egg painting activity, and the lovely ladies at Crock a Doodle arranged to read an Easter-themed story to the kids as well! We pre-arranged this part as well as the studio was doing something similar for Valentine’s Day.

The kids started off with a cute Clifford story about Easter eggs (perfect theming!), and once the story was over it was time to paint.

Normally a person could choose a piece of pottery on the wall that they would like to paint, and they could find the price of each item listed on the bottom of the piece. In this case the kids knew they were painting eggs, so at this point they just needed to choose their paint colors.

The kids were shown how to clean their paintbrushes so they could choose another color to paint with, and then they were given free creative control!

Once the eggs were complete, us parents were given the opportunity to write our childs name on the egg so it could be identified later, and then it was whisked off to be professionally glazed and kiln-fired.

After all this hard work, the kids were treated with a cookie which was a big hit. The kids all did a great job! A few days later we received the call that we could pick up our finished egg. Our son was so happy to have his egg back! It looked great, and it’s a really cute keepsake.

Crock a Doodle Whitby is located at 30 Broadleaf Ave, but you can check out their website here to see where the closest location is to you!

The Whitby location was bright, clean, and the staff were very patient with our children. That says a lot considering how many toddlers were there! You can find the Crock a Doodle Whitby Facebook page here! Check out their page to see all of the great activities they have coming up!

Roxymandy February 25, 2015

AdventureMania Inflatables Free Bouncy Castle Rental Giveaway!

With each passing year I get a little stressed out about my son’s birthday party. Should I have a big bash? What can I do that is different and fun?

Pinterest idea’s aside, sometimes you need something with a wow factor to set your party apart from the rest.

AdventureMania Inflatables is located in Milton, Ontario, and they basically have everything you need to elevate your party.

What sets them apart from other rental companies? They sanitize each and every one of their products after use. I am pretty sure this rarely happens in the rental business, so this is impressive to me. They also guarantee to beat any written quote from competitors.

They have jumping castles that would work great with a character-themed party such as Monster High, Disney Princesses, Mickey Mouse, and Frozen to name a few.

They also have obstacle courses, slides, games, and even a paddle boat ride that could be set up in your backyard. There are some pretty amazing items in their catalogue!

I really love this idea of a bouncy castle that doubles as a theatre to watch movies. I have never seen anything like this before.

My son would complete freak out (in a good way) if I rented this train for one of his birthday parties. How amazing is this?

AdventureMania Inflatables also has options for cotton candy, sno cones and popcorn. How cute is this little pink cotton candy machine? I don’t need this for a party, I just need it to be in my life everyday. It would look really cute in my walk-in closet.

Now for the exciting part – an awesome giveaway!

AdventureMania Inflatables is giving one sparkleshinylove reader the chance to win a free Bouncy Castle Rental!

The winner will receive a certificate entitling them to a free Bouncy Castle Rental from AdventureMania Inflatables. The winner may choose a Bouncy Castle priced at $189 or lower, and the prize includes delivery within the GTA (delivery amounting to $200 or less).

The contest is open to residents of Canada, and there is only one entry per person. To enter you must visit the AdventureMania Inflatables Facebook page in the Rafflecopter widget below (and Like their page if you feel so inclined to stay up to date on new products and offers), and after visiting their site click back on the Rafflecopter pop-up that says “I visited their site”, and that’s it – you are entered!

Good luck to everyone who enters!

The winner will be announced on Thursday, March 5th, 2015 on the blog.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Roxymandy February 20, 2015

The Almay Good Beautiful Morning Event Featuring Sweet Potato Chronicles!

This week I attended a fabulous event hosted by Almay.

I was introduced to some pretty amazing products which I will be reviewing on the blog over the next few weeks, and I met some pretty amazing ladies as well.

The event included other women much like myself who juggle careers, blogging, and being a mother. Wait, did I put those three items in the correct order? Maybe I should have led with being a mother! Also, I might have missed something else – what about me!?

The event introduced us to how Almay’s fresh approach to beauty can make a mom’s morning easy. We don’t always have time for ourselves with all of the other things we have going on in our lives. Have you ever got your husband and child ready to head out the door, and then realized you are still in your pyjamas? It’s hard to juggle everything, and still have a moment to yourself.

The ladies behind the Sweet Potato Chronicle blog (Ceri and Laura) were announced at the event as the new spokeswomen for Almay Canada! They have a beautiful commercial launching which we previewed at the event that included thoughts from their children on what makes their mother beautiful. The commercial is really sweet!

They also provided us with some great tips on how to get out of the house in the morning…..with your sanity intact.

Some of them were really helpful! Here were a few of my favourites:

– Get more sleep by making breakfast in the crockpot! Let breakfast simmer overnight and wake up to one thing checked off your list.

– Pack your child’s backpack at night. When you are rushing in the morning you are bound to miss something. Get organized the night before.

– Become a weekend warrior and get some of your baking and cooking done on the weekend. Also, pre-pack your children’s snacks on the weekend as well. If you have a son like mine, you can’t leave the house without a snack. Pre-package the weeks snacks on the weekend so you can just grab-and-go during the week.

– Forget about cereal – make smoothies! You can pack more vitamins and nutrients into them than a bowl of cereal can give them.

I tried out some great Almay products while I was at the event, and I am so excited to see how they work into my everyday routine! Some of the products do the thinking for you by already including things like SPF into their formula, and some of their eye palettes already have complimentary colours organized to minimize the stress of wondering which shades to blend.

Check out the blog over the next few weeks to see what I think of these Almay products, and look out for Almay’s new commercial featuring the ladies from the Sweet Potato Chronicles which you can see on Almay’s Facebook page here.

Roxymandy February 4, 2015

What Do You Do if You Accidentally Curse in Front of your Child?

Let me just start with me acknowledging that that some people are not going to like this post. The more I share on my blog about my mom-fails, the more people comment to me online about how horrible my parenting actually is. I fully recognize that I am not perfect, and in sharing posts like this I am really trying to share my stories of what I have done (right or wrong), and hopefully I can help out other people who are going through the same things. Yes I make mistakes – more often than not! But every day I am trying to be a better parent, so go easy on me – especially after you read this one!

I am not sure if I have always been guilty of cursing a lot, but it sure seems like I do since I have tried to limit myself.

There are the injury-related curses that pop out of my mouth (caused by things like stubbing my toe, banging my knee, or stepping on a monster truck) which are more of a reaction to pain than anything, and there are the I-messed-up-bad curses when I miss a turn when driving through the city, or I totally forgot the most important thing I was supposed to remember. The worst times are when I am re-telling a story or event where cursing was involved and I think my son is in another room out of earshot, and suddenly he pops his head in to remind me of his presence.

If I truly wanted to practice some lady-like behavior then I wouldn’t be cursing at all. It’s not like curse words are part of my every day vocabulary, but when I get hit in the side of the head with a football Marsha-Brady style with no inclement of the football coming my way and my temple explodes in pain, something bad might pop out of my mouth.

I always catch myself and understand that I should not be using words like that in front of my toddler, but lately he has been reminding me why.

My son repeats everything my husband and I say now. We sometimes think he isn’t paying attending at all when we are talking, and he will suddenly pop in from another room to tell us what he thinks about what we are taking about.

It’s like we have just realized there is a real-life person with opinions and great listening skills living in our home.

So what do you do when they repeat the worst things that come out of your mouth?

We had a lot of snow last week, and on the way home my son and I got stuck in the snow. We were on a relatively quiet street so we weren’t in any danger, but I had to find a way to get us out of there since my husband was out of town and I had no one to save me!

Once I actually got stuck, a curse word popped out of my mouth. I actually said “Oh, Sh*$t”. Seconds later my son repeated it. Yikes. I tried to ignore it so it didn’t seem like a big deal. He repeated it anyway.

I tried to reverse the car, and I got us even deeper in the snow. I was starting to get a little worried and it popped out again – “Oh SH*$t.” The kid in the back seat repeated me again.

We were really stuck, and I didn’t know what to do. And to make things worse my son was saying what I had said over and over again.

I tried to tell him that I had actually said “Oh shoot”. He didn’t buy it.

I tried giving him a better explanation and told him he had his hat over his ears so he didn’t hear me properly, and that I actually said “Oh shoot”. He said very clearly to me “No Mommy, that’s not what you said”.

At this point I was officially a potty mouth, and a liar.

Seriously, how was I going to get out of this mess? I was more worried about the curse word slip than the fact that my car was stuck on the side of the road.

Finally I took a big breath and I tried a different approach. A bit of trickery really. As I tried to get un-stuck in the snow, every once in a while I would say “Oh sugar”. I probably did it 4 or 5 times with an Oscar-winning performance attached to it to reinact how I was commenting earlier.

It worked. The whole car ride home I heard “Oh sugar” from him.

My son spent the next day saying “sugar”, until finally he seemed to forget the the unfortunate slang I had inadvertently taught him.

I’ve felt pretty rotten about the whole situation ever since. Not only is cursing bad in general anyway, I just cannot do it in front of my son. He’s too smart now! He wants to be just like his parents, but I’d really rather he didn’t take after his potty-mouthed mother.

To recover from my future slip-ups (if I drop a bowling ball on my foot I’m pretty sure something not nice will be popping out), I have at least learned I will need to be a little crafty with with how I cover up what I have said until he is older and I can explain that he shouldn’t repeat it. My main goal is to try to avoid cursing in front of him all together, and I’m hoping I can do it!