toddlers – You'll Make it, Mama

Transitioning from the Crib to the Bed

After only 2 years, 2 months, and 3 days in her crib, my daughter has moved on up to the big girl bed. We have had the room set up for a while now with the bedroom set from my own childhood, pretty purple walls, and moved all of her toys and clothes over. Since last night, however, she has been sleeping in the crib that will soon become her sister’s. The transition actually went pretty well, with only an hour or so of tears, talking, and cuddles until our little big girl fell asleep and stayed asleep until 7:30 this morning! So, here are the steps we took to transition our toddler to her big girl bed.

Talk it up. We have been talking about this transition for months. We spent time playing in the room, sometimes pretend sleeping in the bed, and just talking about it during dinner.
Space it out. If you are moving them over to make space in a crib for a second child, like we are doing, make sure you space it out. We didn’t want Aubrey to feel like she was being kicked out of her crib, so we transitioned her last night and are going to wait a few weeks to a month to transition the baby to the crib.
Buy bumpers. Instead of cumbersome and unsightly bed rails, we decided on bumpers that go under the sheet and have non-slip pads on the bottom so that they don’t slip on the mattress, and they worked like a charm. She didn’t fall out of the bed, and she actually used them to cuddle so I think that’s a win-win. Also, the bed is full-size and not a toddler bed, so this step was super important for us. You can purchase these bumpers through THIS LINK.(note, this is an affiliate link and I do receive commission from purchases through this link.
Let your child pick out their bedding. I took Aubrey to Target- one of our favorite places- and let her pick out her sheets and comforter so that she would want to sleep in her big girl bed. She picked out precious sheets with unicorns AND deer on them(two of her favorite animals) and a pretty pink comforter.
Follow your normal routine. Josh normally reads a book to Aubrey before bed and prays with her, so last night he did the same thing but in her bed with her, before saying goodnight. This was tricky though because it was new for her and she did shed some tears.
Give them time. After Josh left the room and the tears started, he waited 5 minutes before going back in to comfort her. Then 10, then 15, and we continued to space it out. We would comfort, tuck back in, and then leave again, which leads me to my 7th point.
DO NOT CAVE. There will be tears. There will be some screaming probably. There will most likely be some getting out of the bed. Do. Not. Cave. If you cave, it will just continue and you are postponing the inevitable. We watched her monitor and wanted to cry with her/crawl in bed with her and sleep there all night, but we would’ve been doing her a disservice.
Congratulate them! After a full night of sleep in her big girl bed, we let Aubrey know how proud we were of her and we were so excited that she slept ALL night in her bed!

Now, I’m not saying these steps will guarantee an easy transition, but they worked for us. If you’ve done something differently, and it’s worked, then that is AWESOME! I would love to hear more tips so that I can mention them to other mothers! I’m always open for suggestions 🙂

Good luck! You’ll make it, mama 🙂

Niki

End of the Week Update

This week has absolutely flown by! I realized I haven’t been able to post in a bit so this is just an update on what’s going on in my life right now. I love writing and putting all of my thoughts into words but lately I’ve been too tired to even think!

Last week, I signed myself up for 4 weeks of boot camp to kick off my weight loss/toning goals. I’m really not concerned about weight as much as I am about how I feel and look. Right now, I’m feeling a little too soft and giggly. That’s just what happens when you have two babies back-to-back. I’ve been to 6 classes so far and I’m really loving it and it feels so good to be using muscles that I haven’t used in a while and did I mention that they provide childcare? It’s AWESOME! So not only do I get to work out, but I get to do so WITHOUT the distraction of kids. And it’s also a really tough workout, hence boot camp, so I feel accomplished when I’m done.

I’ve been eating pretty healthy as well, which is a lot easier when you are on a dairy restriction that affects your baby and not you(I would just suck it up and suffer through it if I wanted some ice cream, but I can’t do that to my sweet girl). I did have a bite of ice cream on July 4th and it went over alright with the babe, but I don’t want to push it. But I can’t have cheese, any of the creams, or a lot of baked goods so it shuts out a lot of the temptation I would normally face. I just find myself craving a lot of bread and sugar still and I’m trying to chug water when I have these cravings(I’ve heard that when you’re thirsty, your mind tricks you into thinking you’re hungry…) But I’ll be honest, I still want some tasty sugar carbs after I chug the water.

I am determined to get this mom bod toned and healthy before this fall full of weddings! I know this body has gone through a lot with housing and birthing two humans, so I’m not going to hate on it. It’s pretty impressive actually. However, I just want to tone it up just in case I have to beat anyone up that looks at my girls the wrong way. Just kidding. Maybe. I couldn’t knock a fly out right now if I wanted to. Today’s workout was upper body and I have jello arms. I’m not looking forward to tomorrow!

In other news, tonight was the first night for Aubrey in her big girl bed! We went to Target yesterday and she got to pick out new sheets and a new comforter for her bed, in hopes that she would be excited to sleep in it. It worked and she was so excited about her new sheets with unicorns AND deer on them. So 7:30 rolled around and we got her ready for bed and all was well. Josh read a book to her, as usual, and tucked her in…and then the tears started. It was SO HARD to not go in there and fall asleep next to her. We were watching her on the monitor and fighting the temptation to run in and save her for who knows how long. I think she finally fell asleep around 8:30, so hopefully she sleeps through the night.

My town is having a Gilmore Girls block party next week, so I’ve been re-watching Gilmore Girls from the start and so it’s just constantly on in our house and I’m loving it! I so wish we could visit Stars Hollow but sadly, it doesn’t exist. Now all I want to do is go up to Boston during the fall(or anywhere in the Northeast) and stay in a bed and breakfast! FYI, there’s a 14 bedroom house down the road that’s for sale and would be a perfect B&B, but it’s 1.5M and also there’s really not a whole lot to do around here, so no wonder they’re selling…

Since I’ve been watching Gilmore Girls all week, I decided to see what it took to get into Harvard these days. Can you believe that pretty much the minimum GPA to get in is a 4.1? That’s MORE than just straight A’s. Also, the minimum SAT score is 1540. If a student had both of those, there’s still only a 6% chance of getting in. That is crazy! I mean it could happen, but I don’t think either of our girls will be attending. UGA is much more attainable. GO DAWGS!

Tomorrow, I’m going to attempt to stain our deck and front porch, if my arms don’t fall off before then. I told the hubs I would stain if he watched the girls so I can’t complain about sore arms or heat! Wish me luck!

And remember- you’ll make it, mama 🙂

Niki

Slime-Making for Beginners

We had a very busy week this week, hence my post being several days over due, with celebrating the 4th of July and starting my new workout regimen and making a huge mess in our house making SLIME! We had attempted making slime a couple of weeks ago, with a huge fail. We discovered the reason behind the fail and brought in a slime-making expert(a 5th grader) and tried again! This time was a success and super fun!

The first step is to gather all of your ingredients that you’ll need, which include: ELMER’S GLUE (This is crucial. Non-Elmer’s glue WILL NOT form the slime.), contact solution containing boric acid, shaving cream for fluffy slime(not necessary), glitter(not necessary either). Please disregard the baking soda in the picture. Several recipes called for that but we ended up not using it and it worked fine. Also, we did not use measurements so you can put away your measuring cups and spoons. Yay for wingin’ it!

Then, we poured one bottle of Elmer’s in a bowl. We wanted this slime to be fluffy so we just added a few squirts of shaving cream.

We mixed the glue and shaving cream until combined well, and then squirted a little bit of contact solution and mixed, and continued squirting little by little until it turned into slime that we could handle without it sticking to everything. Be careful if you are making this with small kids, and do most of the mixing yourself. Do not let them eat it or lick their hands. Mine wanted to play with it before we had enough contact solution and it was such a pain to get off of her hands.

Slime is almost complete!

Finished Slime! We added LOTS of glitter to ours. At this point, it’s very easy to mix with your hands. You should be able to pour the glitter on and then work it in like dough. Word to the wise, do not use glitter if you don’t want it ALL OVER your house. Someone had already recommended that to us and I thought it wouldn’t be too bad, plus I LOVE glitter, but it literally was everywhere.

Ready to make more?! Yeah! Now on to regular slime with no shaving cream. Again, pour one bottle of glue into your bowl.

Since we made just regular white slime the first time, we thought it might be fun to mix things up and add some food coloring! Gimme some pink!

After your food coloring is blended into your glue, add your squirts of contact solution and mix until it is a dough-like consistency and does not stick to your hands.

We got REALLY wild and mixed the fluffly slime with the regular slime, and of course we added more glitter. Notice it is ALL OVER the table.

Overall, this was a really fun activity and my favorite part was that it took a while to mix everything and play with it and it kept my toddler entertained the whole time. However, this is an activity that you can’t leave your toddler alone with so you can’t just sit them down at the table and think you can go clean or watch Netflix. You are all hands in on this one.

I don’t think we’ll be making a habit of this, however, I have seen some really cool slimes on Instagram, so maybe we’ll try those if we’re feelin’ crazy…

Here’s to making slime, a huge mess, and most importantly, memories!

You’ll make it, mama 🙂

Niki