Two Quick Tips

Well, it's been another crazy week in our household, so I have been a little lax in posting this week - my apologies! I have lots to write about, but at this moment I am clearing the "rubble" out of my guest room in preparation for my mother-in-law and her sister to come out for a visit this Thursday. But, I wanted to share these two little tips that I wanted to share while I was thinking of them!

First, while I am cleaning out our guest room, which has literally become a catch-all for everything that we don't know what to do with, I found a pile of birthday gifts that my oldest daughter received at her party in January. Her birthday is less than a month after Christmas, and between those two special days and the generosity of her family and friends, the amount of gifts she receives can be a little overwhelming! This particular pile was probably moved from our dining room table to the guest room in a straightening frenzy before having company over. Looking through it today, there are a lot of great craft projects like friendship bracelets, scrapbooking materials, stickers, glitter glue pens, etc. Instead of trying to find a place for all of this in her room or in the already overflowing two-drawer cabinet that we designated for our girl to keep some of her toys and art supplies in, I decided to make a "rainy day tub." I am filling one of my many 20-gallon tubs with some of these craft projects, some puzzles and games that my mother just gave us, and a few other things that I have found, including a pile of magazines that we can cut up for special projects. This way, when my girls are bored on a rainy day, I can pull out a new project to brighten their day!

My second tip came about during a "quick" trip to the grocery store yesterday. My mom had invited the girls and I out for a special lunch, and after lunch we decided to run a few errands, including stopping at the grocery store for just a couple of necessities. We got in line to check out and although the store was busy, we found a line with just one person in it, with not too large of a pile of groceries. My mother went in first, then I unloaded the things from my cart (of course a little more than I originally went in for) and then my oldest daughter was standing beside me. Unfortunately, the lane we chose was full of candy - all within reach of my littlest ones arms - AND, I have no idea what was taking so long, but our "short" line took an eternity to get through! My little one was overdue for a nap and she was grabbing candy bars off the shelf and tossing them into the cart - not because she wanted to eat them, she's never had a candy bar, but because they were colorful and accessible! I kept putting them back and telling her, "No touch!" to no avail. My patience was waning and I literally felt trapped in this line. I said to her quite sternly, "Stop it!" and then I turned to my older daughter and told her she needed to back up so that I could back the cart up. As I turned to do this, there was a woman behind me with her cart and she looked at me like, "OK! I'll move out of your way too!" It was one of those moments where I didn't really know what my next step was - I hadn't noticed the woman behind me, and I think I was thinking of just moving out of the line until it was my turn, but that was not an option with the other customer behind me. So I just sent my older girl up to stand with her Nana, and then I decided, "I'll just get back in line and hold my little girlie's hands!" Well, I quickly realized that that was only going to irritate her and make her more wiggly, but I got my senses back and I remembered her favorite song "Wash" (aka "Itsy Bitsy Spider"). She always holds my hands while I do the motions for that song, so in the check-out line I took her hands and we sang two rounds of "Itsy Bitsy Spider", then we sang "Wheels on the Bus" (still holding her hands) and "Old Mac Donald". FINALLY, it was our turn, I was able to move her away from the candy, and she was happy after getting to sing some of her favorite songs -- PHEW! Saved myself and my little girlie from having a total meltdown in the store!

Ok, so those weren't really "quick" tips -- but I thought you'd appreciate the grocery store tale! Back to the guest room...