10 Things I Do Every Day for Amanda

I have 3 girls. My eldest, Jessica, is 14. My second daughter, Samantha, is almost 12. My youngest, Amanda, is 4. Jessica has hair like mine, brown, thick and wavy. Samantha is blond and has straight hair. Amanda is also blond and has lovely curly hair. I have a lot of fun taking pictures of Amanda’s hair.

I’ve already done a few posts about hair with cute photos of Amanda. They are listed here:

• Some Things Just Take Time
• Girls and Hair
• Knots in My Hair
• Blame It on the Fairies

So, I thought to do something a little different. What do I do as a mom of a 4-year-old?

10 Things I do every day for Amanda:

1. I dress her every morning. (She is able to put on some of her clothes without help.)

2. I brush her hair every morning and tie it up to keep it out of her face.

3. I have her wash her hands before meals and right after coming home from preschool.

4. I bath her every day, usually after preschool and just before her nap time. (Sometimes her sister, Samantha, does this for me when I can’t.)

5. Every afternoon I put her down for a nap. (Again, her sister sometimes does this for me.)

6. I make sure she drinks water even when she doesn’t feel like it (or juice mixed with water).

7. I make sure she eats balanced meals and treats are allowed, but in moderation.

8. I tell her how special she is and that I love her.

9. I brush her teeth every night before bed. (She can’t do it properly yet, so I do it for her to protect her baby teeth from cavities.)

10. Every night, before I go to bed, I pick my sleeping girl up and take her for one last pee. (If, on the rare occasion, I go to bed early, then her dad will do it.)

5 Things I do often for Amanda:

1. I wash her hair.

2. I cut her nails.

3. I read to her.

4. I do Pinterest with her. (This is a new hobby of hers and she even has her own board.)

5. I go shopping with her. (She loves going to the mall and the grocery store.)

Yesterday, Amanda wrote some of the letters of the alphabet on paper. She did such a neat job that I thought to scan her work and share it with you. The “A” is her favorite letter, because it’s the first letter in her name.

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Reading Time

When my first three children were younger, I used to read to them in the evenings. It wasn’t always a regular occurrence, but over time I managed to finish entire books including the Narnia series by C.S. Lewis.

With Amanda, our reading time is usually at naptime. Not only is reading to her a valuable part of her development, but it’s also good quality time for just the two of us.

“I have never known any distress that an hour’s reading did not relieve.” ― Charles-Louis De Secondat Montesquieu

“If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales.” – Einstein

"You're never too old, too wacky, too wild, to pick up a book and read to a child." – Dr. Seuss

When do you read to your child?

Don’t forget to follow me on Pinterest where you can read more great quotes that I’ve pinned and other cool stuff.

I also recommend that you read my post Introducing Your Child to the World of Books.

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Choosing a Name for this Blog

Once I decided that my daughter, Amanda, would be enough of a topic to keep me blogging for a long time, I needed to decide on a blog name.

The idea came to me one afternoon when Amanda and I were lying down for a nap. Her routine at naptime and bedtime is to take books and dolls or stuffed animals to bed with her. She asked me to read to her from one of her chosen books. I wanted to tell her no, that I was too tired, but then I decided that one book couldn’t take too long. It was a toddler’s book after all. Of course, this made her so happy that it was worth it.

If I was going to write a blog about Amanda, then I’d have to write about the things that are important to her – hence the name, “Amanda’s Books and More!”

In this photo Amanda has just turned 2 years old. She's opening up her birthday presents and is holding her new book, Barney: My First Book of Colours.

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