There is no doubt that Miss G and I miss our Canadian mama and munchkin friends terribly despite being very happy here in the desert. Two of those pairs include Tairalyn of Little Miss Mama and her little lady, Sofia Marie, and Hillary of Hillary with two Ls (please) and her petit monsieur, Grady. Gracen sees both of her little friends via Instagram photos and videos, and I stalk both mamas via all of their social media outlets to make sure I don’t miss out on a single thing. Last month, when Tairalyn posted about a naughty recipe full of white flour, butter, Velveeta, and cream cheese, a crazy fun idea came together. You see, the three of us mamas all love to cook and bake. The only difference is that our approaches vary quite widely. Hillary loves to play with ingredients and try to find healthy(ish) alternatives to traditional ingredients, but despite her daily green juices and veggie-packed dinners, she’s a butter lover at heart. Tairalyn, on the other hand, unapologetically cooks up indulgent recipes in their full sugary, buttery glory, and spares nothing when it comes to taste.
…And then there’s me. Yes, lame-o ‘I bet I could make that sugar-free and wholewheat and butter-less, and, and, and…’ me. I once attempted to make a banana healthier. Enough said.
On Wednesday afternoons, Miss G and I are lucky enough to have one of her little friends join us for some afternoon play. While they happily engage in their own games and play for part of the time, I also like having a couple of fun invitations to play and / or create out for them to explore if the choose to. When I asked Grae if she had any activity ideas for our play date, she suggested that we play with the ocean items we collected at the beach last weekend. That was that – an ocean-themed day it was!
Last year’s Christmas tree decorating creative table just may be Gracen’s most talked about activity of all time. She’s literally talked about it multiple times each month for a year straight now. I’m not sure what has made that particular activity so loved, but we’ll definitely be doing it again this year. In the meantime, I decided we’d try something similar, but not exactly the same… This time, a snowman building creative table!
Well, it’s official… At 3 years and 3 months, Gracen is completely done with napping. Truthfully, I’ve dreaded the arrival of this milestone. I know it sounds dramatic, but I feel like two hours of nap time each afternoon has been key to my being able to be an engaged, {somewhat} organized and on top of things mama during Miss G’s awake hours. It was my time to tidy up the house, come up with a plan for dinner, make phone calls and return emails, set up an activity for the afternoon, and sneak in a little time for myself. And when the naps stopped happening, I was a little panicked. I’m not going to lie… The transition period has not been easy, but I do feel like we’ve sort of fallen into a routine that is working well for both of us, now several weeks later.
The whole thing started about 6 weeks ago or so… I’d put Grae down as usual, she’d lay there for her normal two hours, and simply not fall asleep. Soon it became two hours of her calling me to her room repeatedly to make all sorts of requests and tell me she didn’t want to nap. Afternoons after “nap time” were hard. She was tired and frantic and needy and without some time to myself, I wasn’t at my best patience-wise. We’d fumble our way to a very early bedtime, and she’d immediately crash {and I’d want nothing more than to sit on the couch and enjoy some silence, but couldn’t because I had catching up to do from the crazy day that had just come to a close}. Most afternoons, our only saving grace was being outdoors. After the attempted nap, we’d head downstairs to our courtyard and stay there until dinnertime (I swear that fresh air – and water – have magical powers over tired, cranky, out of sorts kids). At this point, I really didn’t want to give up on naps all together, because a couple of times a week she’d actually fall asleep when put down, and those afternoons were GLORIOUS. After a sleep, she’d be happy, easy to reason with, and calm for the rest of the evening. Dinner wasn’t rushed, and bedtime routines were calm and slow. Those days were lovely.
Several weeks later, the couple of naps that were happening a week, stopped. I knew I had to make a change, but I wasn’t sure what the best plan was. Based on her afternoon demeanour, I honestly felt like Grae still needed a nap, but afternoons were becoming a little less frantic and cranky, and a little more manageable. I figured that as long as we both had some time to ourselves to rest and recharge, our afternoons would continue getting easier.
Enter the timer / rest / quiet play time combo – our new afternoon routine that is {*knock on wood*} working really well so far. After lunch, we get ready for nap time as usual. Miss G puts on some jammies, picks a couple of books and stuffed animals, and we snuggle and chat about our morning. I tuck her into her bed, and before leaving, set her timer for one hour. For that hour, she lays in her darkened room playing with her animals, singing songs, chatting, and reading her books with her glowing night light in hand. She knows that for that hour, she doesn’t have to sleep, but she does have to lay and rest her body. Having the timer there seems to have alleviated the problem of her calling me back to her room repeatedly and we both get to enjoy a little downtime to relax and recharge for the afternoon ahead.
Once the timer goes off, she pops up out of bed, turns on her light, and calls me. I bring her a little drink and snack, set the timer for another hour, and quiet play time begins. This is one of her favourite times of the day. She begins hauling out building blocks, dress-up clothes, and toy animals from her drawers and our only rule is that she plays in her room quietly for the full time without coming out. Most days, it’s no issue at all. In fact, sometimes the timer goes off and she pops her head out to tell me that she’s not done playing yet and she’d like some more time. The best part is that the play that happens during this hour is pretty amazing – it’s imaginative, often quite elaborate, and completely independent. I’ll fully admit that sometimes I eavesdrop to what see what sort of play scene is unfolding behind that closed door.
Today, once the timer had gone, she popped out into the hallway just vibrating with pride and excitement. “Mama! I know it’s time to clean up now, but just come and see what I made first! It’s a coffee shop! A Duplo one! And I’m using the little tiny cute cup I got when we got milk the other day. Come see! Come see!” I went into her room and amidst a sea of toys and clothes was this…
A coffee counter made of Duplo, just as she’d told me, complete with a barista and a customer.
I’ve been dreading today since we first decided we were moving back to Kuwait… The day when we had to go for Gracen’s residency visa “medical”. There are so many things I truly enjoy about living in Kuwait, but dealing with any sort of government clinic process is simply not on the list. The facilities are dingy, the nurses are brash, and there’s no effort made to explain anything to either the parent or the child. It’s not lovely to say the least. Luckily, I’ve done this once before and knew exactly what to expect. I had all of my ducks in a row before going and prepped myself to speak up and not be pushed around last night.
Ever since moving back to Kuwait, Miss G has seen other kids strolling around The Avenues with elaborately painted faces done at Baroue. By far, her favourite has been the full-face Hello Kitty design. Until today, I’d slyly been putting it off, but when she asked this morning during breakfast, I agreed to go at least go and check it out. Lo and behold, we arrived to find not a single person in line, so today was the day {oy}. I sort of cringed as I watched her entire face being covered in paint, but it was fast, the face painter was excellent, and she was so thrilled with the outcome that I couldn’t help but be thrilled for her. Plus, I’ll admit that she does make a pretty cute Hello Gracen. ☺
Cloud dough is an old favourite of ours. We started experimenting with it when Miss G was about 19 months old and she’s loved it ever since. If you’ve not played with it before, you must. It’s soft and silky and powdery, but mouldable at the same time, which is loads of fun. Pair it with some scoops, spoons, and small containers, and you’ll have some very happy kiddos.
Miss G and I have been collecting toilet paper rolls since moving to Kuwait with a certain project in mind (yes, it seems I’ve gotten over my phobia of crafting with something that once was housed in the washroom – phew!) With 30+ rolls now in our collection, we sat down to finally begin our project, and somehow, we ended up doing something completely different. I’m not quite sure what happened… Our paints were out, we were raring to go, and then Miss G mentioned reindeers. The rest is history. Before long, we had this cute little paper roll handprint reindeer, and absolutely no start on our much anticipated project. I guess that’s what happens when you try your best to follow the interests of your child – wonderful unexpected projects! Now I’m not going to lie and say that this is an open-ended project that inspires a ton of creativity – it’s not. Buuut, Miss G is all about ‘making decorations’ for the holidays, and she absolutely loved the process, despite it being quite structured. I figure as long as we’re doing a lot of open-ended creativity-inducing activities, the odd cutesy craft here and there is just fine!
Goodness gracious, has it ever been storming today! We’re loving the rain, but I’m not so sure Grae loves the thunder that’s so loud our windows vibrate.
Very rarely does Brad ever make meal / recipe suggestions, but this summer he came home from volleyball all jazzed up about trying a new pancake recipe after hearing about it from one of his teammates. They did sound really interesting – they were flour-free, made of whole foods, and totally Miss G friendly, but for some reason or another {most likely the fact that we were packing up our house and moving overseas with a 2 year old in tow at the time}, we didn’t get around to making them.
This was a totally impromptu activity that started when Miss G was digging through one of our craft bins and discovered a brand new package of plasticine. Gracen really enjoyed it and it ended up incorporating several great skills – which makes it a win-win in my books. ☺
Miss G and I go to Fahaheel often in the mornings and always see two bouncy castles, side-by-side, laying deflated on the ground. She asks about them constantly during our visits – why they’re there, who they belong to, when they’ll be up – and I never have the answers because there is no one around to ask. Today, however, when we went with friends a little later than usual, we were very surprised to see them inflated and just waiting for little jumpers. Can you tell how thrilled she was?!
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Now I know it’s good for kids to learn that they don’t always get something when someone else does, but I still really enjoy bringing a small and simple ‘sibling gift’ when Miss G and I attend one of her friends’ birthday parties. Most of the time it’s something handmade and useful or consumable – meaning not just another little plastic toy to add to the heap – so I don’t feel bad about gifting it.
Perhaps she’ll follow in the footsteps of her Gido and Uncle Gary? Though if I have a say in it, she’ll be on a sport bike instead of a cruiser. Watch out, Papa… Your worst nightmare may just come true! ☺
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Cloud dough is an old favourite of ours. We started experimenting with it when Miss G was about 19 months old and she’s loved it ever since. If you’ve not played with it before, you must. It’s soft and silky and powdery, but mouldable at the same time, which is loads of fun. Pair it with some scoops, spoons, and small containers, and you’ll have some very happy kiddos. 
