Stepping Into Stepmom-Dom: Ripping Off the Bandaid

T is obsessed with wearing bandaids now. And not just while there is a scab. He continues to wear a bandaid on the area until the scar has faded! Want my advice?! Go buy stock in Bandaid brand. I'll single-handedly drive up the stock value just from the amount of Bandaids I buy for this kid. I understand the fear associated with taking a bandaid off while a scab is still in place. What if it hurts? What if it bleeds? As a 4 year old, I can see where that could be scary. What I don't get is the fact that he insists a bandaid stays on once the scab is gone. Anyways, we've been working with him on taking off bandaids for bath time. Can you say "lead balloon?" He's not too thrilled with us, and he generally whimpers and whines through bath time. Then he insists on a new bandaid after he is out of the bath. Frus. Trating.

It did make me stop and think the other night about something, though. As adults, we don't generally apply bandaids to our physical wounds (unless they are really bad). We generally have more emotional scars or wounds - that we don't often deal with. We sweep them under the rug and ignore them, saving the problems and monsters in our closet for another day when we have time to deal with them. We do this without realizing what effect this has on our family, our kids, or even our co-workers. We think we can shove emotion down into the corners of our lives and everyone in our life will be none the wiser. Think again. Kids are incredibly intuitive. I have seen many situations personally where children act like their parents are acting - without the parent even realizing it! When T's mom was uncomfortable around me, T picked up on it. And when I was with J during pick-up or drop-off, T was shy and almost anxious or afraid around me. His mom was never outwardly rude to me, but he sensed her discomfort and mimicked it.

Remember: just because you think you have it under control doesn't mean someone else isn't noticing what you are doing. So please, as a parent, friend, coworker, rip the emotional bandaid off. Take some time. Maybe it's after your kids go to bed one night. Forego the laundry or the dishes or whatever else is on your to-do list, and rip the bandaid off. Then let it go (sing with me now, Frozen fans!). You'll be amazed at how much less stressed you will feel. Isn't it amazing what our kids can teach us?

Stepping in to Stepmom-Dom: A Child-Like Disposition

World's Cutest Pilot.

Today is definitely one of those yucky, rainy Saturdays. We live in a town that literally lives on the lake nearby. Seriously. Even our church has a dock for members who want to boat to church when the weather is nice. So finding something to do on such a nasty day is difficult, especially when we have an energetic 4 year old boy on our hands. Enter INK, or Interactive Network for Kids. This is an incredible place with different "settings" for kids to pretend and play in: hospital, vet's office, fire trucks, barns, police cars, airplanes, lemonade stands, trains, grocery store...the list is endless. T had so much fun running around the different areas and playing with different items. He was all over the place at first, trying to decide what he wanted to do, but he quickly found where he wanted to be (and go next). We spent over 2 hours in there, with T running around (and us trying to keep up!) from place to place.

We wrapped up at INK (after 2+ hours of fun) around 12:45, and all three of us were starving. Enter something quick and easy on a rainy day - Chick-fil-a (or as T calls it, "Cow"). We were surprised that it wasn't more packed than it was during peak lunch hours, but we weren't complaining (and we figured it was due to the weather). We sat down to eat our meal, and as J and I were about to take our first bites, T pipes up: "Guys! We have to say the blessing first." This was a proud moment for J and I as we have been really working with T on saying the blessing before we eat at meals. So I followed up his statement with "OK. So who's going to say the blessing?" He points to me. Gulp. I have always been overly sensitive about not doing things in public that could be portrayed as forcing my religion on someone, whether it's as simple as praying or something as big as pushing flyers into people's hands. That's just not me. And now, here I was with the eyes of the most adorable 4 year old staring at me, waiting on me to say the blessing. Well, what's a girl to do?! You know what we did! We all folded our hands, bowed our heads, and I (yes, me!) said the blessing. It was brief and to the point, but nevertheless, I said it.

This got me thinking over lunch about things. How is it that as children, we are so carefree and mindless to what others think of us or our actions? To T, saying the blessing was what we are "supposed to do," whether at home or in public. What is it about today's society that makes us so aware and afraid of what others will think? It made me wish I could go back to that age, just to have that mindset of "I don't care what other people think I am going to wear my tutu to the grocery store!" It certainly was a nice reminder for me that we need to be ourselves fully without being afraid of what others will say or think. Because being me without fear is....nice! So thank you, T for reminding me to have a child-like disposition and opinion of the people around me. Love, Mer.

A "Pinteresting" Life: Making Space

T's room in its most recent state is an atrosity, monstrosity, eye-sore...you get it. I am almost embarrassed to even post a picture, but I feel a before and after is a must in this case.  I cringe every time I walk by. It's disorganized, constantly cluttered, and there's very little floor room for him to play in, which means my living room floor is constantly cluttered with matchbox cars and legos (which do NOT feel good when stepped on).

Cue Pinterest. I found an adorable picture on Pinterest not too long ago and got inspired. As you can see from T's before picture he has the staples to making this set up work, particularly the bed (kind of a staple) and the cube shelves. Now, I know the title of the blog this photo was taken from was "Decorating Ideas for a 3-year-old Girl's Room," BUT I am only using it for layout inspiration. And this layout is kind of the bomb.

My Inspiration: http://www.tinyoranges.com/2012/11
/07/decorating-ideas-for-a-3-year-old-girls-room/

So I started by decluttering the room. Literally, I emptied out all the toys into the very tiny space that is our upstairs hallway. I would highly recommend warning your spouse if you do this. I didn't think to mention anything to J, and he about killed himself trying to navigate the mess that was me tossing toys into the hall. Whoops. Once that was done, I moved the biggest piece of furniture first. In this case, that was the bed...and I totally should've asked for some help. And maybe made the bed up first (minus the pillows). With some struggling, I got the bed into the corner of the room and made back up.  I then moved the tiny bedside table out of the way and replaced it with the 3x2 cube shelves.

Once I got the spacing like I wanted it, I put the table lamp onto the shelves to get it out of the hallway and out of the way! I then shifted the 3x3 cube shelving unit so that it was centered under the "You are my Sunshine" canvas. This has a particularly special meaning to us as it was the first song that J would sing to sing T to sleep. 

Once the shelves were set up, I sorted through the toys and formed 3 piles: organize, give away, throw away. Throw away toys were generally happy meal toys from various fast food restaurants that T never plays with. I then took the toys in the "Organize" pile and started to organize them into bins. The toys that had smaller pieces were placed in a little Thirty-One bag to keep them from being lost in the organizing chaos. Matchbox cars were tossed into an old-school metal lunch box with T's name on it (Bought from Sarah + Abraham).

After getting the furniture situated like I wanted it, I was able to add in the toys and books that J and I agreed we would keep for T. After the toys were put away, we were able to lay down an adorable rug that was given to T by J's mom, which is a little town where T can drive all his cars around! Adorable! And plenty of room for little T to play with his "Basketball Arcade" now, too!

J and I are so happy with how little T's room turned out once it was re-arranged! There is plenty of room for him to play on his town rug or open up the tee-pee tent my mom made him for Christmas - without the need to clutter my living room floor with toys, tents, and rugs. I love how we didn't have to change out or buy new furniture to make plenty of room for T to play! It's so uplifting that we were able to make space (well, more space) for T without having to spend any money. Here's a quick comparison of the before and after set-up (Sorry some of the pictures are a little dark!).

Before (*Cringe!*) 

After (YAY!).

A "Pinteresting" Life: Tilapia Fish Tacos

We made a trip to Sam's last weekend to stock up on seafood.  I love seafood.  It's a problem.  Actually, it'd be a problem if I was allergic to seafood - tragic, even! I would probably eat it and just have an epi pen handy (terrible, I know)...We found some amazing-looking tilapia and so I grabbed some (in addition to some gorgeous salmon and darling little shrimp - see?! I do have a problem...I describe seafood as gorgeous and darling...).

Of course, I raided my Pinterest account looking for some new ways to cook up said seafood.  We decided to throw in some tilapia into our weekly meal plan, and incorporate it in a way that Little Man would like, which limits us to: mexican-style food and something with the word "nugget" in it.  Tilapia nuggets didn't sound all that delicious, so I searched for some fish taco recipes.  Boy did I hit the jackpot! I found this recipe on Right @ Home. We tweaked some things a bit, as we knew that certain items/ingredients wouldn't be appreciated by the finer palettes that reside in the house...The tacos are supposed to be served with strawberry-tomato salsa, but to me regular salsa is a perfectly good "taco topping," so why switch it up? Especially with a picky 3 year old on board?

I must admit, I wasn't thrilled about the idea of chowing down on fish tacos tonight.  It just wasn't appealing to my inner diva at the moment. I am most certainly glad that J ignored my childish diva moment and proceeded with the menu as planned.  These were BY FAR some of the best tacos I've ever had, let alone one of the best meals I've had in a while!

Little Man chowing down on taco #2!

We didn't tell Little Man what exactly we were eating at first. He dove right in and promptly chowed down on his first fish taco, then proceeded to ask for a SECOND! When we asked him if he liked the Tilapia (Or the Till-a-peel-a, as he says it), he nodded vigorously! VICTORY! He dipped his second taco into some regular salsa, while J and I enjoyed ours with avocado slices, cole slaw, lime juice, and some cilantro (Yum!).  The recipe was rather simple to make when there's someone to keep the 3 year old from clinging to your leg!

Below is OUR version of the recipe.  For the original version (including the strawberry-tomato salsa recipe) see the link above, included earlier in the blog!

Ingredients:
4 tilapia filets, approximately ¼ pound each
1 teaspoon of your favorite taco seasoning
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
8 6-8-inch flour or corn tortillas, heated according to the package directions
1 avocado, sliced
1 cup shredded lettuce or green cabbage
1 lime, cut into small wedges

Directions:
1. Prepare coleslaw. Set in fridge to chill.
2. Dry the filets with a paper towel.  Sprinkle with taco seasoning and set on a plate.  Heat a non-stick skillet over medium-high heat.  Pour in olive oil.  when the oil is hot, gently add the fish to the pan, cooking for approximately 5 minutes and turning once.
3. Remove fish from the pan and break each filet into 2 pieces. Serve in tortilla, topped with coleslaw and avocado slices. Drizzle lime juice and sprinkle cilantro on top!

I hope you and your family enjoy this as much as ours did! This was a great recipe and didn't taste extremely and/or overwhelmingly "fishy." Give it a try, and let me know what you think! 

Stepping In To Stepmom-Dom: Small Victories

Another weekend with T, another lesson learned.  This lesson is rather small, but sometimes it's the

Little T rockin' a Clemson Tigers ski hat for my
sister, his "Aunt T."

small things that add up to be the biggest parts of life, right?!

We are constantly struggling to make sure that T gets balanced nutrition while he is with us.  While we cannot control what he eats at his mom's house, we can certainly control what we let him eat when he is with us.  He is certainly one of the pickiest children I've ever met.  He'll eat chicken, but doesn't like red meat (or likes it less than chicken), or pork.  He'll eat his body weight in bacon or sausage, but don't even attempt to give him pork tenderloin.  He (until recently) refused to let new food items sit on his plate, particularly if they were green.  If it was "new," it was taken off his plate and placed onto the (cringe!) glass-top kitchen table.  He'll eat carrots (raw only), but don't give him any green veggies.  *Sigh*  I think you get my drift.  While I'm all for a multi-vitamin (Flinstone's, anyone?!), I am a big proponent of getting the majority of your nutrition through your meals!  I've even pureed cauliflower into "mashed potatoes."

We have gotten into the habit of placing all food items we are eating for dinner on T's plate.  We do not offer him an alternative meal - what we eat is what he eats.  I spoke with a pediatrician at length about the best "plan of attack" for getting kids to try new things.  His response was simple, but oh-so-brilliant:  "Do not force him to try anything new or to eat anything in particular. Do not fix him an alternative meal. Simply feed him what you are eating for that particular meal. Do not introduce many things at one meal. Simply add one new item each dinner time. If he is hungry, he will eat. Kids have a wonderfully ingrained mechanism that won't let them starve. If he is hungry enough, he will try something new."

So while it has been extremely hard, we have followed his advice.  Low and behold, Thomas has been (slowly) adapting and even asking to try new things.  Recently, he has asked to try green beans (which promptly received a disgusted face), cantaloupe (which he promptly spit out after a few chews), hummus (which he devoured like it was his last meal), and mango (which he ate a few bites of but didn't seem too thrilled)...While it seems like a small thing (and to some it may be. Aren't you lucky to have a child that will eat whatever you put in front of them?! I envy you!), these moments have been a huge victory for us!  T has been not only willing to try new foods, but he's also been ASKING to try new foods!

Small Victory this weekend: T asking to try new foods! HUGE success for us! And a GREAT reminder that it's the smallest parts of life that make it so great!