Girls and Hair

When Amanda was 1 and 2 years old, she had the curliest head of hair. Even if I washed it and dried it with a hairdryer and hairbrush, making it go straight, within 10 minutes the hair would bounce back into curls like little springs. I loved it. I was a little worried when it came time to her first haircut. I wasn’t sure if we would lose all those lovely curls. A friend, who used to be a hairdresser, came over and did our hair for us. Now, a few years later, Amanda still has curly hair, but it’s heavier than before, so it doesn’t...

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Measuring Up – 2

I asked a question in my previous post “Does your child measure up?” Now, I would like to rephrase that question and ask, “Do you measure your child against other children and for what purpose?” My son, Jeremiah, is my first child. He took his first unaided steps at 9 months of age, which is really young. This happened soon after watching his 3rd cousin, who was 6 months older, walking. (I searched on Google to find out exactly how they were related.) However, sometimes he would wet his bed up until around 6 years of age. He played...

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Measuring Up – 1

Jessica walking Amanda to school. As I was working on my last post “Some Things Take Time,” I began to ponder these next two posts on measuring up. It’s such an important topic that I took my time writing this, wanting to make sure that I communicate it as clearly as possible. Does Your Child Measure Up? Most of us have seen charts that measure a child’s developmental stages from infant to toddler. These charts help us as parents to know when our baby should be rolling over, sitting up on his or her own, crawling and the like....

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Some Things Just Take Time

Purple Play-Dough in Her Hair (18 months old) My previous post was about how parents can help children overcome their fears. I mentioned that using games was a key in helping Amanda overcome her fear of shadows. Today’s post is about a fear that Amanda had that took her two years to finally outgrow. That was the fear of getting water on her head or in her eyes. It started with her very first head-to-toe bath. Amanda was not my first child. I was very used to the routine of checking the temperature of the bath water. I was also...

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How to Handle Fear

When Amanda was younger, she used to be fearful of shadows. It’s easy as an adult to logically understand what causes shadows and to know that they cannot hurt you, but you cannot dispel the fear in a child’s mind using logic alone. I used Amanda’s bedtime to play shadow games with her. I would put on the light and we would cast shadows against the wall with our hands. If trees cast shadows on the window, I’d pick her up, open the window and point out the trees. Also, whenever we took a walk and saw our own shadows, I would encourage...

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Pass on the Love

Big sisters playing with little sister. People who put people down are in themselves insecure. You cannot give to others what you do not have inside of yourself. Yesterday, Samantha (my 11 year-old) came home from a birthday party thoroughly happy and exhausted. I got to hear all about it. She said, “Her mom is the most creative mom! That was the best party ever!” I heard, “Her mom is more creative than you.” Of course, that’s not what she said, but one of my main love languages is praise or “Word’s of Affirmation” from Gary Chapman’s...

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Having fun with Pinterest - Part 2

I shared in my previous post how Amanda and I have been having fun with the paint projects I’ve learned about on Pinterest. I’ve also picked up a few new recipes and even tried one. There seems to be something about almost anything on this site. There can also be a down side to all of it. For example, I’ve been enjoying looking at the many wonderful kids’ rooms concepts over the past few weeks. Amanda shares a room with her sister, Samantha, and posters are the main decoration on their walls. I began to think that their walls don’t...

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Having fun with Pinterest - Part 1

I recently joined the Pinterest community and never guessed how addictive it could be. I love looking at beautiful things and there’s no end to finding stunning places, spaces and scrumptious recipes to name a few. Awesome pins are a feast to my soul. I’ve tried two art projects with Amanda that I learned about through other people’s pins on Pinterest. I've already made shaving cream bath paint twice for her to play with at bath-time. I also made sidewalk paint with corn starch and over a couple of days she painted with it outside on...

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Listen to Your Child

I’m sure that we’ve all heard how important it is to listen to our children. Usually it’s in light of the fact that they will eventually become teenagers and the teen years can be challenging. So, if you haven’t been listening when they were small then they won’t talk to you when they’re big. It’s a good message, but not quite the angle I’m taking today. I’ve already done a couple of posts on the value of listening to your child and I’m sure I’ll be writing more in the future. This time I’m going to share from my own mistakes with Amanda,...

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