The Chauffeur

I always knew there would be a time in motherhood where my days as a mom would enter a phase full of drop offs and pick-ups. Shuttling my child from one activity to another. Asking her more about what she did that day rather than seeing it unfold with her.

To be honest, I always was excited to have that day come. Free up my time for more activities that I enjoy doing and devote more time to my business. I knew that as kindergarten approached in 2 years,  my time at “mommy and me” activities would drastically diminish. That’s why I decided to cherish these last three summers with Erin. Try to fit in as many activities for us as possible. After all, our suburban life has made impromptu play dates a little bit more tough. I can’t just head off to the park where Erin can play with a random 20 friends while I meet 10 new moms/dads.

Here’s the schedule I ended up with for Erin: Mondays are swim lessons, Wednesdays library class and Thursdays art class. With VBS (vacation bible school) during one of those weeks.

I was really looking forward to these things. I knew I would be on the sidelines for a few activities, but I was excited to ease her into these things without me. Then the week of VBS hit.

I was excited. VBS was going to give me 6 more hours that week without Erin. I planned on getting things done for my business that had been hanging over my head. I could finally knock off a good amount of things on my “to do” list.  It was going to be busy, I knew. Wednesday would be tight with only an hour in between VBS and library class. But I knew we could do it.

We started the week off strong. Monday was swim lessons. Sitting on the side watching her learn a life saving skill. She’s getting pretty good!

Tuesday was VBS day 1. I did the drop off and skipped back to my car ready to conquer 2 uninterrupted hours of work. I was a free person!!! Lesson learned. Don’t go to a place where WiFi is slow!!! Nothing got accomplished! It also took me as much time to drive to my coffee shop that it does to drive home.

Wednesday I deemed “challenge day.” VBS in the morning with an hour to come home scarf down lunch as fast as you can get a toddler to eat and speed off to the library. We made it in time!

Thursday was VBS again. My last day with 2 hours of freedom. I finished my checklist for work that day and felt amazing! Friday we could relax and have fun with Erin’s BFF at the children’s museum followed by her VBS performance in the evening.

As Friday night drew to a close, I felt some things I never expected- exhaustion and wonder. I sat there in bed realizing my major role that week was to drive Erin to and from each of her activities. That was it.  I wasn’t a part of a single activity that week! Here I thought I’d love this freedom, but ended up just as exhausted as she was! And I never expected this chauffeur role to happen so soon!

No one told me mommy and me classes start to fade at 3 years old!!! No one warned me of this coming so soon! I felt like if I knew this was coming, I would have cherished those mommy and me activities more in the past. Instead of enjoying this little bit of freedom I have now, I find it really bittersweet and missing those moments that she learns things without me there.

Today, I have decided to cherish each moment I have with Erin even more, make our moments as special as they can because I know that her activities with me will only become a little bit less each year.

Erin’s VBS performance

The OCD Toddler

It’s been a while since I’ve posted.  Things have gotten so crazy! We are moving to a new state (only 30 minutes away though) and a new house, are home owners for the first time, my Etsy shop is keeping me busy and preparing for the Christmas season seems almost impossible!  What makes this all 1000 times worse is that my toddler is OCD.  I know it’s normal, but it really makes things inconvenient sometimes, especially when we are all stressed out!  Here are a few ways that Erin displays this normal toddler behavior:

1) Now that she can wash her hands without help, she INSISTS on getting off her chair HERSELF, walking to the bathroom HERSELF, turning on the water HERSELF, washing her hands HERSELF, and drying her hands HERSELF.  She also has decided that throwing the towel on the floor rather than giving it to us (she can’t reach the rack to hang it back up HERSELF).  If we mess up this procedure in the exact order described, it’s a major meltdown.  Did I mention that she likes to do all of this with the door closed!?! 

2) Bath time MUST be followed up with a dance party in the living room.  Mommy and Daddy are required to participate and Erin MUST have her towel still on.  If we don’t give her a countdown until jammies…..meltdown.

3) Taking food from mommy and daddy’s plate is perfectly okay to HER, but us taking ANYTHING from her plate is a DISASTER!  Last night, we had macaroni with a sweet potato sauce.  Daddy decided to doctor his up with some Sriracha sauce.  Erin insisted she have some too although we all knew she wouldn’t touch it (it’s really spicy).  Ping puts a SMALL dot on the corner of her plate.  She refuses to eat it when we ask. Towards the end of the meal, I ask Erin if she is going to eat her sauce.  She says no, so I just took a little off her plate for myself. (I wanted to see how it would taste with the macaroni)……MELTDOWN.  I had to laugh at this one because she just insisted that we put some more sauce back on her plate JUST SO SHE COULD HAVE SOME SAUCE ON HER PLATE LIKE DADDY!

4) Since we are packing boxes to move to the new house, Erin likes to help.  Is it helpful….in some ways, yes.  But what she INSISTS on happening is that EVERY box MUST be decorated with HER markers. Once a box is taped shut, she MUST color it!  I sure hope the movers can find the labels on each box!

5) If any one of Erin’s insisted routines is out of order or even starts to become how she DOESN’T want it, she INSISTS on starting it all over again.  This gets really old and frustrating when you are on a time crunch! 

Despite all of this, I do enjoy her independence and development of her own personality.  It’s fun to see her learning new things and wanting to control her own little world in a certain way.  I know this time will only be for a season and that’s okay with us.

   Here’s Erin on Halloween with her friend “Di di.”

Craft on the Go!

I love little kids birthdays!  Especially when I can get my craft on!  Another special little girl just had her 1st birthday.  Isabel is the most awesome little kid I know.  Well, one of them at least. 🙂  I’m usually the one to send a card with a picture of what I will be making the child since I can’t ever seem to get gifts done on time.  This time, I was determined to have the gift finished and wrapped in time for the party!  For Isa, I decided to make her an “Art Book.” I recently discovered the existence of “chalk cloth” and “iron on vinyl.”  Chalk cloth?!?  Yes!  It is was it seems to be….fabric that can be used as a chalkboard! SO COOL, right!?!  And Iron on vinyl- can be used as a dry erase board!  With some fabric and some stabilization and a little personalization, I came up with this:

chalk side

dry erase side

Isn’t is cool!?!  It also includes a pocket to store dry erase markers and chalk as well as a cloth eraser.  🙂

A great gift for a one year old that will grow with her for a long time!  As I was in the process of listing this item for sale in my Etsy Shop, I was having some trouble coming up with more than one name that would be easy to search and find.  I asked for help from my “Etsy Team” members.  I also mentioned that I had a plan for a “Deluxe” version too.

cover of Deluxe in the works

This version will include more pages: one to hold 12 crayons, a page to hold a 5×7 paper pad, a pocket page to store used paper, dry erase page, chalk board page, and a felt art page with felt shapes and items to create pictures!  I’m so excited about this deluxe version as well as the original art book. Here is my sketch draft so you can see some layout.

Here are the completed pages so far:

Pocket Page for Crayons (fits 12 crayons) and Dry Erase Page

Pre-Cut for the boyz!

I’m in the process of making the “Art Book Deluxe” and am finding that it is taking a lot more time than planned!  That’s why I’m writing this post.  If you want the “Art Book” or the “Art Book Deluxe” for your children (or yourself. 😀 ) for Christmas, please, pre-order now.  With moving to a new home in a month and holiday orders, right after Thankgiving, I want to make sure everyone receives their items by Christmas Day.  You can also order any other item in my shop now and have it guaranteed to be there by Christmas.  Remember, all items can be custom made with different fabrics and sizes. Just contact me for more samples 🙂