My life as Mommy

Oh how life has changed with two little ones...

Free time = the 30 minute train ride to work (If I'm not dead tired from the night before. Then it's nap time)

Time with the hubby = on the phone with Hubs while pumping at work

Normal day at work = Emails, meeting, PUMP, meeting, process paperwork, PUMP and Lunch, phone call, more emails, PUMP, run to catch train to pick up son before 6 ~ repeat tomorrow

Weekday evening = pick up kids, eat/make dinner, one bath (me, toddler, or infant - usually not me), infant to sleep, toddler to bed, wash pump and bottle stuff, eat snack to replenish energy ~ repeat tomorrow

Dinner = whatever is available (frozen or at Mom's), in between making Mac n Cheese or grill cheese or meat and rice for toddler

Exciting evening = Grey's Anatomy (only the part that's left after kids are asleep)- oooh drama!

Glass of wine after long day = glass of water (with a side of Fenugreek and a prenatal vitamin)

Good night's rest = a 3 hr block of sleep between feedings

What doesn't kill you makes you stronger...and probably adds more stress wrinkles to my aging face.

Oh, last one:

Smiling, toothless infant
Loving, funny, smart toddler
=
Worth every minute

Le sigh.

It's Play-Doh Sunday!

It's a great day to have a play date with my 3-year-old Andrew. With his new baby brother in the house, me and my older son don't get much play time together. So I'm really glad I had the opportunity to share a fun Sunday afternoon with him.

Thank goodness for resources like the Play-Doh play dates website! There were all these ideas for a complete play time. There are ideas for Play-Doh pieces to make, print-outs for paper goods to create to supplement the theme, and even an easy-to-make snack related to what we were making with Play-Doh. Go to http://www.hasbro.com/playdoh/en_US/Play-Dates.cfm to check it out!


We started with the pizza shop theme. Andrew loves pizza and was happy to get started making "Andrew's pizza" as he called it. The Play-Doh case of colors we bought didn't have the light brown color so we improvised with an orange crust. He helped make and put on the olives. Then as we were putting on the green peppers, he decided to make and place his own green "parts" onto the pizza. And the portions of Play-Doh we rolled and set aside to make our toppings- Andrew decides he wants to put the big pieces on the pizza. "It's so big!" he told me.

We then moved on to the ice cream cone with sprinkles. Again no light brown, thus an orange cone with mint and strawberry ice cream scoops along with multi-colored sprinkles. Andrew enjoyed adding the sprinkles most of all.

After the ice cream, we decided to make other favorite foods in Play-Doh. I asked him what his favorite food was and he immediately replied- Mac n Cheese! So I made him some. He didn't quite get it, but instead told me he was making me a lollipop. It was an interesting looking lollipop, but he had fun playing with the different colors and attempting to make shapes.

After cleaning up the Play-Doh, it was time for some food. I prepared the ingredients for the pizza. We laid out the English muffins and poured the sauce on together. Then I told him to put on the cheese- as much as he wanted.
He looked really excited to see pizzas his size. These were so easy to make!! We popped them in the oven for 10 minutes and he gobbled them up!

Overall, this is the kind of site that gives great ideas for kid-friendly activities for my tired mommy brain. The snacks are perfect to really make sense of the things we've created with our Play-Doh. Most of all, it gives my 3-year-old a starting point for creative play. After we tried the pizza and ice cream activities, he decided to keep making things related to his favorites. It was also a great way to review and reinforce shapes and colors. I also liked the idea of a themed play event. It helps my son recognize concepts related to one another which is very important for things like understanding stories.

Above all, it was so much fun engaging with my son with such little time and preparation. I would definitely come to this site again the next time me and Andrew have play time!


Disclosure: This post is part of a SocialMoms product evaluation, for which I’ve been selected. I’ve been compensated for my time with 8,000 My SocialMoms Rewards Points. The opinions expressed in this post are mine and don’t necessarily reflect the opinions of SocialMoms or Play-Doh.