Category Archives: Family matters

In which we discuss matters of the family.

Family matters

Baby had a bad, bad dream

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Poppy’s been doing much better with the staying-in-bed thing. We made a chart with 10 spaces for stickers on it, and she gets a sticker every morning that she wakes up in her own bed. Once she gets 10 stickers, she’s going to get a trip to Build-a-Bear. And, of course, a bear. She has four stickers so far, but she landed in our bed again this morning at about 5:30. She was shaken, and she told me she had “the bad dream about the popping-out eyes.” That does indeed sound like a bad dream. Once we were up and around this morning, she told me the whole nightmare:

There’s a baby bunny, and it wants to see the whale. It wants to see the whale up close and down deep. The baby bunny’s mommy says, “No! You must not go down deep.” But it goes to see the whale up close, and the baby bunny’s eyes pop out and he falls over.

Yikes. I can’t imagine where she would’ve seen or read anything about the dangers of deep-sea diving, but where else could she have gotten such an idea?

Family matters

In retrospect, rocks and sticks are pretty great

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Works-for-Me WednesdayYoungMe always got the same response when I told my mom I was bored: “Only boring people get bored. When I was a kid, all we had to play with were rocks and sticks, and we were happy that way.” (seriously). Poppy has only recently started telling me that she’s bored, and I have tried very hard not to tell her to go play with rocks and sticks. Instead, I usually tell her that if she’s lost interest in the 10 million toys in her bedroom, I will help her pack them up to take to a child who will enjoy them. The threat usually results in a teen-worthy rolling of the eyes from her, but she does generally find something to do.

I tell you this because today’s theme at Works for Me Wednesday is “Mom, I’m Bored – Summer Edition.” I’m not great at having on-the-fly ideas for entertaining the small folks. Here are a few things, though, that I have turned to in the past:

  • Spoons, cups, small toys and a big bowl of water. I haven’t actually done this in awhile, but it’s a nice diversion for a hot day.
  • Art time. The kids love art of all kinds. The simplest for me is setting them loose on their chalkboard, but their favorite is probably painting.
  • Story time. We usually have a chapter book in progress, and Poppy is almost always willing to cuddle up for some reading.

    • I’ve focused on Poppy here, because Pete is 2 and a half. That means he doesn’t have time to be bored. He’s far too busy scrappin’ and yellin’ and mixin’ it up.

    In other news, I have a problem. It is almost entirely of my own making, and I’m not sure how to fix it. Your input would be appreciated. Please click here to read all about my (in the scheme of things, rather insignificant) plight.