things I'm loving lately (new shampoo, a playground nearby, and more)

It's been a while since we had some favorites around here, so here's a little list of things I've loved lately. 

1. that cute little face up there. One of the perks of living on one level is being able to toss Piper in my bed at naptime to sleep. She sleeps way more soundly there, and it makes me a much happier mama ;)

2. Maple Holisitics kindy sent me a bottle of their Argan Oil Shampoo to try out, and I love it. It smells fantastic, but it also is super gentle (I can use it on the kiddos), and I love how shiny it gets my hair. Which is saying a lot, since my hair has still to make a recovery since Piper.

It's also available on Amazon with Prime! 

3. see that little flower there to the right? Spring is HERE! The sun has been shining, and we are getting all our Spring rains. Spring is my favorite season, and I'm so happy for warm weather. Long Northeast Winters are no joke. 

4. the week before last sister Sophia came and spent the week with us. We had a blast exploring the town and hanging out!

Piper still walks around the house calling for her in the mornings, and it's adorable.

Another thing to love is living right down the road from a playground. The girls are thrilled about it, and we go every day when it's not raining.

5. we love our new library. It's within walking distance, and they have the most delightful kid's room on a top floor. It's like being in a bird's nest. 

6. I've been watching the PBS version of Little Women (we started watching it yesterday when the sisters were over), and I have mixed feelings. I really like how they included so many elements from the book that never made it to most of the movies versions; however, I'm a die hard 1994 version fan and am having a hard time getting into the show. Did anyone else watch it? Thoughts? Yea? Nay? 

Today it lovely out and we are going to make our way to the playground this afternoon. The weekend is busy, with Easter Sunday (the girls are so excited), and Adam's and my 5th anniversary on Saturday (how can it be FIVE years?).

Have a wonderful Tuesday! 

Ready for the weekend

Is anyone else ready for the weekend? I know that I sure am! This has been a really long week and I'm not even sure why. Maybe we're all just going through withdrawals after having Auntie Sophia leave us on Saturday ;)

Adam has fishing plans this weekend and I'm going to go shopping with the girls and visit my aunt and uncle and see my grandmother. Other than that we're keeping things quiet. 

All these photos pretty much sum up our week and life lately; busy, happy and fun. 

Have a wonderful weekend!  

Excellent Cookbooks For Children

Last week we finally got around to visiting our new library in town and signing up for cards. It's a wonderful library, and the children's favorite part is that there is a whole floor dedicated to the kid section. It's upstairs and it's big and sunny. That, combined with the fact that we can walk there, makes library days extra fun.

Adri has been really into cooking lately so we checked out some child-themed cookbooks for her. The recipes are easy and fun, plus she loves the illustrations. 

The Forest Feast for Kids: Colorful Vegetarian Recipes That Are Simple to Make.

This one is a beautiful book (and there are more of them too!). With lovely pictures and really easy and quick recipes, this is a hit. The only downside is that it does call for items that you probably don't have on hand, so the recipes would have to be planned in advance.

Can I Eat That? 

This little book is really, really wonderful. It's not a cookbook, but it's great just the same. With questions such as, "can you eat an orange? An olive? A sea urchin?" Adri LOVES this book and it's nice and short, while still teaching about foods. We've read it probably 15 times so far. 

The Peanut Butter Cookbook For Kids.

I'm not a huge fan of peanut butter (unless I'm pregnant) but this is a neat little cookbook. It has tons of easy to make recipes and they all have peanut butter in them!  Pretty much everything is made of ingredients that you will already have on hand so this would be a great book to give to a child that is already able to read and follow simple recipes.

Grandpa's Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs Cookbook.

Does anyone else have a child that is obsessed with Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs? Adri's a fan of the book and the movie/s, so of course, we had to grab this cookbook. It's got recipes for all the foods featured in the book/movie and it's fun. The recipes are more for, again, an older child, however, with my help, Adri will be able to make them.

Monday notes.

This past weekend I took the girls and went down to CT for the day to drop oof Sophia (she spent the week with us) and to see the fam. We had a lot of fun, especially since the weather was beautiful and we were able to spend some time at the water. It was a bit windy, but not cold and Adri was able to shed her socks and shoes and splash in the ocean, to her great delight. 

Now we are back home and it's my Tuesday (Adam works Sunday, Monday, Thursday, and Friday). It's a rainy Monday, however, and I've already pulled out all the art supplies to keep the kiddos busy. I also have a Kiwi Co. Crate for Adri to work on later (it's a dinosaur themed one!). 

It's been a while since I've done a round-up of all we've been reading, watching and doing lately (a Notes post) so without any more ado, I give you everything I've currently been loving!

Reading: after watching the PBS Poldark series, I decided it was time to read the books. I've got the first two (Ross Poldark and Demelza) from the library and am planning on diving into book #1 today. I've also been reading a re-telling of Beauty and The Beast, called The Beast Within, and so far it's good!

Watching: is anyone else a fan of Good Girls? I started watching it last week with Sophia and blazed through the first season and all the new episodes of the second. It's funny, but intense, and I love it. 

Trying: out a new thing. I've was listening to Miranda's podcast where she talks about her simple meal plan and I've decided to give it a try. Although I am doing it a bit differently since I'm doing various recipes each night for dinner (otherwise Adam would go crazy) instead of the same meal/same recipes every night. It's basically the same meals every week, so it looks like, Sunday pizza, Monday meatballs/pasta, Tuesday tacos, etc. If it sounds interesting, I could probably put together a post that goes into more detail about how it works. 

Listening: right now I've been listening to Miranda's Live Free podcast. It's inspiring, and I really enjoy it every week  I usually listen on the 2-hour drive to CT. For the girls, they've been loving the Circle Round podcast. Okay, well, I love it too. The episodes are relatively short, so they hold their attention well.

Planning: out our week,. Tomorrow is supposed to be rainy, so I'm taking the girls to a play place here in town. There's tons of art supplies, little kitchen stuff. a wooden ship, a castle, and a ton more. Adri is sooo excited. Wednesday is library day, and after that, I'm not sure how the rest of the week will go. 

Loving: living right down the road from a playground again (the girls love it!), that living in a smaller house means it takes under an hour to clean everything, and that the weather is finally warming up and SPRING is here.

Have a wonderful Monday!

Piper Mae: 19 Months Old

Little Miss is officially headed towards two years old! She's on the move, funny, adorable, and super stubborn. 

Piper is still learning new things every day. It's really amazing how those little minds absorb so much.

At 19 months old Piper can:

+Walk.

+Run.

+Climb.

+Sing (Baby Shark is her all-time FAVORITE song).

+Dance.

+Feed herself.

+Talk. Only a little bit though. However, she does communicate really well, for all her quietness.

Piper loves:

+Bath time.

+Reading books.

+Playing with Adri.

+Eating. Food is her love language ;)

+Playing outside.

+Babies.

+All animals.

+Her family, and a few choice others. Her bubble is still pretty small.

+She still nurses (more than I'd like) every day, and sleeps about 12 hours a night, with one short mid-day nap.

+She has the sweetest little voice and says "Hi" and waves to everyone she sees.

+She's a little chunker, weighing in at 25 lbs. And she has the most beautiful long eyelashes.

We love you, Piper Mae!

7 ways to encourage toddlers to eat better and stay hydrated

I'm not sure about everyone else, but I have two little people that have very different tastes in food. Piper eats any and everything (even non-edibles) and Adri is the world's pickiest child.

Since Adri's been little, I have been working hard to encourage and develop her eating habits, and I attribute Piper's good eating habits to what I've learned with Adri.

Here are some of the things I've learned along the way that I've been applying to encourage both my kiddos to eat a healthy variety of foods and drink lots of water.

1. Keep it small. I've come to realize that my children hate having a ton of food set in front of them at one time. I keep the portions small and then add more as they eat it. This works well for something they don't like. I tell them to try it (usually no more than a mouthful or so) and then there's nothing left for them to have to finish since they already ate it.

2. Appealing. I've found that if I arrange the food or serve it in a way that they like they are more likely to eat it. I have a bunch of little wooden bowls and some small "cow" plates that they eat almost all their food off of. They like them because they are their dishes. I also try to cut veggies and fruit up and make them snack plates for lunch. They like to "graze" while they are playing, and they still eat plenty.

RELATED: How We Grocery Shop and What's Cooking?

3. Don't let them know that it's a food that they "shouldn't" like. I just offer them everything, and if Adri is wary, I encourage her that it tastes good and to try it. That said; my kiddos love veggies, all kinds of eggs, and fruit. This is my go-to cookbook for easy, toddler-friendly food ideas.

4. Teach them. I explained to Adri a few months ago that there where healthy food and "junk" food. She sobbed when she found out that potato chips were junk food ;). It's really helped though in the food department, and she now has a better grasp on why she can't just eat certain foods all the time (potato chips, ice cream, and chocolate).

Hydration:

5. Have water easily accessible. I keep mason jars full of water (we use these) around the house all the time at child level, That way, if they are thirsty they don't have to ask for a drink, they can just help themselves.

6. Make it taste good. While both my kiddos love water if I feel that they haven't bee drinking enough lately I will let them have some watered down juice or sparkling water (we get ours from Aldi) in addition to the water they are already drinking.

7. Always, always have water in the car. When we go on trips, I fill a bottle of water for Piper, as well as several water bottles for Adri and me. I make sure to offer water as often as I can, and never worry about the bathroom stops. It's better to stay hydrated and have to make a quick bathroom detour!

**One thing I've learned about eating habits is not to force it. A lot of Adi's pickiness comes from a texture thing. I learned to pay attention and ask her why she doesn't want a particular food. Often it's that she doesn't like it because it's "spicy," or "gross" (she don't like any meat that has weird stuff or colors on it, like the dark meat of chicken).

Okay, and true confessions, just so no one thinks I have the food thing down by any means.  My kiddos LOVE chicken nuggets and fries with a passion, beg for chocolate every morning, and would eat potato chips by the bag if I let them ;)

after the weekend: trip to connecticut

Saturday was absolutely beautiful. It was the first day that really felt like SPRING. Last week was another busy one (buying a new vehicle, figuring out Adri's meds, and a bunch of work stuff) but by the weekend things slowed down, and I drove to CT with the girls to visit for the day. We took the most wonderful long hike by the ocean, and brought Sophia back with us to spend a week (Adri and Piper are thrilled).
Yesterday rained, however, today is sunny and warm so we are taking the kiddos to the playground and showing Sophia around town.
Happy April 1st! I feel like March flew by (moving house can do that) and we are in Spring now (not that I'm complaining), and it's wonderful.

Have a lovely Monday!