family Archives – Page 3 of 15 – The Pinterested Parent

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Sun
15 ^th

Fingerprint Cherry Blossoms

Posted by Pinparent — 8 Comments

As many of you know my daughter Mai is named after my mother. I get questioned on her name all the time.

“That’s an unusual name.”

“How do you say it? May?”

“How did you come up with that name?”

Typically, when I am asked what her name is, it comes out in one giant run-on sentence. Inhale & go…”Her name is Mai. Like a Mai Tai, but that isn’t why I named her that. She is named after my mother. It is Vietnamese. It means cherry blossom.” Exhale. Mai must have heard this story many times because she has begun referring to herself as Cherry Blossom, Princess Cherry Blossom to be accurate.

The princess & I were snowbound again for the weekend, so took advantage of our time with some arts & crafts inspired by her lovely name.

Fingerprint Cherry Blossom

Draw a branch for your cherry blossoms with a marker or paint.

Mix a few different shades of pink.

Have your child dip their finger in the paint & press onto the branches.

Switch shades of pink & keep dabbing.

A flower as pretty as my little girl.

Mon
09 ^th

7 Fun Cleaning Day Activities For Kids

Posted by Pinparent — 30 Comments

When you have a toddler, cleaning your home is not always the easiest thing to do. Having an only child, I am in charge of my daughter’s entertainment, so when I am busy, she wants my attention. Today our house needed a good cleaning, but Mai wanted to play.

On Cleaning Day, there is a lot of potential for fun. Here are some fun activities for your kiddos while you clean.

1. Cushion Mountain- Is it time to clean your sofa cushion covers? While they are in the washer, pile up your cushions in a safe, clear area & let them have some fun.

2. Let Them Help Out- We may not like our chores, but give a kid a broom and they are tickled pink. There are many chores your child can help you with, sweeping, dishes or wiping down tables.

3. Loose Parts Play- Cleaning out a junk drawer or throwing out other odds & ends around the house? Give them to your child to play with, provided that they are clean & safe. Playing with loose parts is a fabulous way for a child to work their imaginations.

4. Sheet Forts- Are you stripping your bed to make way for clean sheets? Use your dirty sheets to make a monster sheet fort.

5. Laundry Basket Or Hamper Fun- Laundry day is always fun for our daughter. Kids love to jump into an empty laundry basket. Our daughter has a pink collapsible hamper. When it is empty she likes to pretend that she is Sheriff Callie & ride it like a horse. “Giddy up, Sparky!”

6. Obstacle Course- If you clean the house anything like me, you tear it apart & trash it before you put it back together. With all the moved tables & chairs, cushions & laundry baskets lying around, it is a great opportunity to build an obstacle course. Climb over the ottoman, jump over a broom, crawl under the play table and climb your cushion mountain to victory.

7. Imaginary Beach- Before you throw those sheets and blankets in the washing machine, lay them down on the floor for some imagination play. We placed a blanket down for our water & a sheet for our sand. We broke out a few shovels & beach toys and our daughter’s mind did the rest. Lunchtime? Let them have a beach picnic.

You don’t need to wait for cleaning day to enjoy these activities. These are fun on any day. I have to admit that I stopped cleaning to join in on some of the fun too. Before we put our couches back together, we let our princess do one more thing. The princess did not feel the pea on her royal bed, but then again I had just swept the floor. Happy cleaning.

Thank you as always for stopping by. Please follow us on Facebook as well.

Sun
08 ^th

Paint Scrape Art

Posted by Pinparent — 6 Comments

One of my favorite things about my daughter is her creativity & her imagination. I love her ability to think outside of the box. Give her a box of random odds & ends and she can turn it into hours of fun. We have a container full of plastic forks & spoons that have become her most recent source of fun. A while back she traded in her paint brush for the day & attempted to paint a picture with a fork. While the fork did not quite do the job that she wanted, it did create a nice textured effect. So when Mai asked me to do a project a few days later, I thought we would pull out those forks again & create a pretty craft.

You can of course create a figure of your choosing, but for our purposes we chose a flower & peacock.
Using several different colors of construction paper, cut out different colored shapes for the petals, leaves, stem & center of your flower as shown below.

Paint over one shape each at a time.

Mai works ahead of me on the peacock, while mommy does the flower.

Before the paint dries, use your plastic fork & drag it across the paint to scrape off some of the paint & reveal the under color. Do this for all shapes & let dry.

Mai’s little hands are hard at work, scraping the paint off in various designs.

Glue your pieces into place on top of a piece of paper.

Let dry & proudly display your artwork.

For the peacock, we used the same method. We cut out different colored construction paper, 9 teardrop shapes for the feathers, 3 hook shapes for the head feathers & one the shape of an eggplant for the body. All steps were followed as above & then googly eyes & a construction paper beak & legs were added at the end.

Thank you as always for stopping by. Please follow us on Facebook as well.

Sat
07 ^th

Do You Kiss Your Child On The Lips?

Posted by Pinparent — 30 Comments

There was a lot of controversy this week regarding a photo that was released of Bill Belichick kissing his grown daughter on the lips after the Superbowl. I saw all of the jokes on social media & the jabs at him from news outlets. Jokes of incest and words of disgust were aimed at this family over what people perceived as inappropriate.

I have heard this topic debated often. Should we kiss our children on the lips?

I am not sure if you can put a yes or no answer to this question. This is for each parent to decide. Who are we to judge how a parent kisses their child? Why is this so taboo? Why does it make on-lookers so squeamish? What makes it so weird?

I come from a family of mouth kissers. At 40 years old, I still kiss my father on the lips. I also kiss my aunts & uncles in a similar fashion. When my husband & I kiss our daughter, it is sometimes on the head, it is sometimes on the cheek & often times, yes, it is on the lips. There is nothing sexual about these kisses. They are not perverse. They are quick, close lipped smooches with our child.

For those that are looking at me with appall, I look back at you with equal appall. It disgusts me that a symbol of affection such as a kiss with my daughter could be viewed as anything but. It sickens me to think that a kiss from my father could be construed as passionate & not paternal. We all were raised in different households, with different family cultures. Every family is different. For me, I don’t know any other way. It is as natural for me to kiss my family on the mouth, as it is for others to give a peck on the cheek. While you may not understand it or agree with it, please respect it.

Mon
02 ^nd

Some Day My Prince Will Come

Posted by Pinparent — 36 Comments

Like many young girls, my daughter is caught up in the fairy tale world of princesses and princes. She parades around our home in her princess dresses and tiaras almost every day. “Princesses don’t wear pants, mama.” They do however, wear gowns & sneakers like it is their job.

Lately, she has been bringing her father into her world of make believe.
“Prince, prince, where are you prince?”
“Prince, please get me some juice.”

Her prince is always happy to oblige.

I think about this fairy tale world that she lives in right now. In these stories the prince is always dashing and handsome with great hair, a sparkling smile and the ability to slay dragons. It is love at first sight. True love is portrayed with song and dance routines and of course everyone always lives happily ever after.

In the real world if you went around singing & dancing, they might have you committed. Love is seldom at first sight & that dashing prince might be a wise cracking bald guy. Not every relationship is a whirlwind romance, but that does not mean that it is not a great love story. The man that wins your heart might not be handsome or dashing, but he makes your heart skip a beat. In a real fairy tale the prince & princess have their ups & downs. They fight, they make up. You might not get a happy ending. You might get left with a broken heart. Life is not a fairy tale.

I hope that as you get older, you realize that real love is not what you read in your story books or see in the movies. There are no big dramatic gestures. John Cusack will not be outside of your window holding up a boom box. There will not be a mail box full of love letters from Ryan Gosling. Real love is flawed, it takes work. It requires communication, patience & understanding.

Real princes are men like your father. They clean off your car when it snows outside. They make supper when you are running late. They get up in the middle of the night to change poopy diapers and they are great fathers. Prince Charming may have slayed a dragon, but he never slept on the floor at the foot of his sick daughter’s bed. That’s a real prince.

Mon
26 ^th

Egg Carton Flower Bouquet

Posted by Pinparent — 11 Comments

Sat
24 ^th

Foam Tub Clings

Posted by Pinparent — 8 Comments

If you have a toddler or a small child, you know the importance of routines. We have had the same bedtime routine with our daughter for the majority of her young life. Somewhere around 7:30 she brushes her teeth, takes a bath & gets in her jammies. We read some books, rock & then tuck her in for bed. As she has gotten older she has made some subtle adjustments to her routine.

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In lieu of books, she now prefers to be read Highlights magazines, lots of them. At the end of every magazine there are usually games, activities & recipes for the kids to do. In a recent edition, I came across a great idea.

Did you know that foam will stick to the side of a tub when it is wet? I did not either. We work with foam sheets for crafting all the time, so I had plenty of it to experiment with. I cut out different colored shapes & showed my daughter how to dip it in the water & stick it to the side of the tub. She let her imagination go from there. She sent me out of the bathroom a few times to cut more foam. She had special requests for certain shapes so that she could finish her masterpieces.

Mai made a sideways & colorful snowman, a man in a hat & scarf and just a square.

Here she created a princess castle & a Minnie Mouse.

She had so much fun with the shapes that I could not get her out of the tub. I had a pruny footed toddler at bedtime, but she sure did have fun.
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Thu
15 ^th

Why 40 Is Not The New 20

Posted by Pinparent — 47 Comments

Something happened today. I went to the eye doctor. I have been having problems focusing on things directly in front of me lately, so I went to have some tests done. After a number of exams, the doctor informed me that I might want to start wearing reading glasses & that over the next year or two that I would probably need to wear them regularly. He went on to explain that this is common in women “my age”.

“My age”? Did I just hear him correctly? While it is no surprise that this mother hen is no longer a spring chicken, this still did give me a jolt of reality. It is true that I am getting older.

They say that 40 is the new 20, but I disagree & here is why.

At 20… I hoped & prayed not to get carded when I ordered a drink out. “Please, don’t ask for ID. Please don’t ask for ID.”
At 40…If I get asked for my license, I am so excited that I need to text everyone I ever met, update my Facebook status & Tweet about it after I finish doing a back flip.

At 20…I was called Miss
At 40..I am referred to as Ma’am like it is a dirty word.

At 20…My jeans were low rise & my breasts were up to my neck
At 40…My breasts are low rise & my jeans are up to my neck.

At 20…my nights out started at 10 o’clock.
At 40…my nights out end with me passed out on the couch by 10 o’clock with the Big Bang Theory playing in the background.

At 20…I slathered on a pound of make-up to try to cover a pin-head sized pimple & continued to try to block it with my hands all day.
At 40…I shamelessly display my crow’s feet, stretch marks, gray hairs & every other imperfection without blinking an eye.

At 20…I would drink all night & wake in the morning without a feeling hung-over.
At 40…I can wake up feeling hung-over when I haven’t had a drink in months.

At 20…My medicine cabinet held a few bottles of cheap nail polish & cosmetics.
At 40…It is filled with prescription medication & hemorrhoid cream.

At 20…A hot and sweaty night might mean that you had a good date.
At 40…It means your peri-menopausal.

At 20…You hope that you are never like your mother.
At 40…You realize you are your mother and proud of it.

Mon
12 ^th

Play-Doh Birthday

Posted by Pinparent — 65 Comments

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Picking a theme for Mai’s 3rd birthday was an easy decision. You have all heard me talk about our daughter’s love for Play-Doh. It only made sense to celebrate her special day with her favorite activity.

Wed
07 ^th