Archiving all the art

A toddler is a daily creative machine of art!

I found a great app to store all the art that's constantly being created!

I really want to keep everything, but it becomes just too much.

It is a good idea to photograph it, but with my artkive I am also able to title and date the photographs and share it from there with friends and family.

And it is stored in an archive of art!
I "Like it!

I do not get paid to say this!

The best: the app is free!

ArtKive

Tinkerbell practise

The perfect dress for the upcoming birthday!!

It is more than two months away, but the promises or threats are being made!
"You can come to my party!"
"Mom/Dad, you won't be allowed to come to my party!"

Her elder sister saw it at A-C-Kermans and bought it, as she knew it is perfect for the party!

It is the last day at pre-primary school before the holidays and the teacher said they could wear their dresses!

She is also wearing her princess shoes, which she kept on through the night. Luckily I could convince her to only put the dress on this morning...

Happy weekend and holidays!

Where are you going?
(We are not going anywhere *jealous*)


Our Pinterest Board for the Tinkerbell Party is here.

Tinkerbell Party ideas on Pinterest

There are great ideas available!

Time for....

Sitting and dreaming next to water
Enjoying the sunsets
Getting out into nature
(Here at Rusty Hook)

Quality time with the Toddler

Gardening

Flowers and plants

Drives to new places
Playing

Braais (barbecues)

Salads and healthy eating
(My favourite salad at the moment: Cranberry & Spinach salad)

I love this time of the year!

Wordless Wednesday #147 - Hopscotch

Sent via my BlackBerry from Vodacom - let your email find you!

The pink house and the little sister

She has her own pink house which is far away. It is a light pink house. (Light pink is the favourite colour!)

Sometimes the house is as far away as London, and we will have to drive and drive and drive to get there...
Sometimes it is in the clouds, but she is adamant it is not like the "Up"-movie house with the balloons...

We are only allowed to come and visit when we are good! Mostly we are threatened that we won't be allowed!

She has a pink car as well, but it is too small for me to ride with her!

She has a little sister who is very small small. A tiny kind of small. She is younger, but it seems she knows stuff! The little sister stays in the pink house.

She has a number of dogs that stays at the house as well!

When she grows up to be in Grade R (the ultimate goal for a three-year old), she will be at University as well (where her sister is now).

Some of the stories that we are being told each day...


I hope her dreams only get bigger!

45 Months

WHAT??

We are just trying to keep up with her!

Not everything she does is our parenting at fault. "Girls playing with girls" is her perception of life at the moment, and we can only help her to to see that not everything is as "pink" and "blue" as she believes it is!

She is becoming her own person more and more.

Humour helps us to negotiate the toddler tantrums. It really works!

Talking and reasoning is becoming much easier, and we haven't seen another Mommy taxi-meltdown after we said enough is enough!

At this very moment I am sitting and drinking an extra coffee before I go to pick her up from after-care. I asked her if she wants to be fetched early, or if she wants to play with her friends.

Guess what? She wants to play with her friends!

And that is all good!

That is how it is supposed to be!

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Not our parenting at fault

We are still struggling with the "girls play with girls" attitude of our Toddler.

Last night was a case in point. They were happily playing on the playground, but the Toddler came back each time to report in tears:

"The boys want to play police!" (Soooo?)

"He bumped into me!"

"He does not want to leave me alone!"

"The boy has a dirty mouth!" (After which his elder sister had to go and fetch a wet wipe to wipe his mouth!)



No matter how many times we tell her that it is totally play to play with boys, she has her own ideas!

The same with colours: pink is for girls, and blue and green for boys.

That blue summer dress is not going to be worn, it seems... (I have attempted to slip it by her a couple of times already, but up until now it has not worked.)


I just want to categorically state that we do not raise her or teach her to be this sexist!



It makes me aware that not everything the little ones reflect are the product of our parenting...

They are born different people!



How do I change these perceptions?

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Wordless Wednesday #146 - Wrong way

Sent via my BlackBerry from Vodacom - let your email find you!

Humour saves us from a full-blown toddler tantrum

Toddlers and tantrums are synonymous! (Heck, yes!)

And by now we have seen all the types and forms and manifestations of the worst of the worst of tantrums!

It is not a pleasant sight!
It does not help the harmonious atmosphere in any home!
And it is extremely embarrassing when out of the family home!

I don't know of how many times I have put on my straight face walking with a screaming toddler when it doesn't help to talk to her or try to calm her down. She gets even more upset! It only helps to pick her up and walk out of a situation at that point in time!

We as parents know when it is starting to build up to one:
- It starts with a whine...
- It starts with a "NO!"
- It starts with a mouth hanging upside down on the ground...
- It starts with a heap of toddler on the floor...
- It starts with a toddler, and no reason whatsoever (or one that we can fathom!)

We know all the signs of a threatening tantrum!

I have found one thing that works almost all of the times!
Making a toddler joke!

For example: When the Toddler is in the car and we are driving and she starts asking for something:
"I want a sweet from the shop!"
"Yes, we will buy a sweet the next time we are at the shops!"
"I want a sweet... (Repeat 50 times with increase in volume and whine!)
"Yes, we will buy next time!" (Repeat 50 times!)
When the pitch starts to change to tantrum mode, I usually ask her if I must stop on the pavement and get a sweet from the pavement / or from the man walking / or from the trees / or from the sky...
She answers with a laugh: "No, it is not there! We must get it in the shops!"
The joke averts the imminent tantrum, and she starts to focus on something else!
(Repeat)

It has helped me to not become too serious, and it also lightens the mood!

Now I only have to come up with funny creative retorts!
Any ideas?

This Dad rocks it!

I had a breakfast date on Saturday, and Hubby took the Toddler with him for breakfast.
(Something I suspect he is quite keen to do, because he gets a lot of attention when he is alone with her.)

He had just ordered the drinks when there was an announcement that the Toddler had an accident in her pants. The stomach bug kind of accident...

Hubby was not fazed at all, but made a makeshift plan with the panties in the toilets. He's not one of those dads who you will find gagging...

They had to hurry along with breakfast, but after a second "explosion" it was time to go...

I found them at home in a good routine of extra panties, and wet wipes (toilet paper is too harsh, apparently!), and glasses of water and cool drinks standing around to keep the hydration up.

And that is how the rest of our weekend went!

We could at least do a breakfast (photo at D'Ouwe Werf in Broadacres) on Sunday and laze around because she did not feel unwell...

Luckily she clutched out at six last night, and this morning she was all well again.

This is the second weekend that has gone by with some sort of bug pestering us!


How was you weekend?

What is wrong with dancing?

Nothing at all!

Our Toddler loves it, and request us to put on some dancing music for her almost every day!

It is fun, and it is good for her!

She also asks us to join her, and Mom and Dad get a bit of exercise as well.



In earlier days there were some of us who were not allowed to dance, except when dancing "for the Lord!" (Strange times! Maybe it is still persistent even today?)

Luckily I did not not have the same restrictions, but I know of people who danced even more because they were not allowed...

It just makes me realise that the more we restrict our children, the more they rebel and do exactly the opposite!

I hope we will do better parenting, and that our "restrictions" are valid!



Were you also forbidden to dance? Did you dance in any case?

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Wordless Wednesday #145 - On the playground with my BFF

Blog directory of healing through storytelling

Kristin Brumm over at Wanderlust is busy compiling a directory of blogs that addresses issues of struggle and trauma.
It is a directory of blogs by people healing through sharing their stories through blogging.

I have written before about her haunting of words as she deals with her own struggle through writing, after a divorce and domestic violence led to the discovery of child pornography in her home, and the subsequent fleeing of her family home to keep her children safe.

Healing through storytelling - Blog Directory

The issues that are being addressed:
- Addiction
- Grief and loss
- General Medical
- Mental Health
- Trauma and abuse

The compilation of these was inspired by the following post:
The healing power of storytelling.

I still sometimes get out my soapbox to raise issues with regards domestic violence, emotional abuse and unfathers, but it is so much part of previous life, that I feel as if it happened to somebody else...

Time and change do make a difference!

I wish I had something like this to consult when I had to go through tough times, but it is nice to know that these are available.

It is always good to know that you are not alone!
Somebody else has dealt with the same issues already!

If you know of  any blogs that can add to this directory, please notify Kristin so that she can add it to the list!

Thanks Kristin!

Millennium Toddler saying

The Toddler was busy singing a song to me, when she all of a sudden stopped and said:

"I have stopped singing the song.
I am busy downloading!"
Sent via my BlackBerry from Vodacom - let your email find you!

Wordless Wednesday #144 - Funny toddler eyes

 

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At a conference

I love going to conferences.

I love the new ideas, different thinking and perspectives, AND the broadening of my own horizons.

Most importantly, the conversations!

Quote from today: "The kind of conversation I'm interested in is one in which you start with a willingness to emerge a slightly different person." - Theodore Zeldin

(David Gurteen at the Knowledge Cafe Workshop at the International Knowledge Management Conference 2012 today)

 

See you at a conference?

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Another adventure for our budding mountaineer

The Harties Cableway at Hartebeespoortdam is a great way to spend a day on a mountain.

Especially since we don't have The Mountain (the Table one), or The Berg (Drakensberge).

But this is definitely not bad, and there is great views all round.

I was the one that hold my breath going up and down. The kids were not fazed at all!

Although the queue was long, it was not a bad wait with the curio shop and restaurant nearby...

 

And we were really glad the cablecars did not look like this anymore

They opened the new cableway in the middle of this year, which is a big improvement on the previous cableway.

(I remember somebody fell out of a cablecar?)

Definitely a great place to take the kids!

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