Crafts are pretty big in my house. Being a mama of a kindergartener and a toddler I am always looking for something to keep them busy. My oldest is not a big fan of coloring but if something involves glue, paint or popsicle sticks then he is all in. With fall being one of my favorite seasons and Halloween being the favorite holiday (next to Christmas) we will be crafting up in here all October long. I compiled an easy roundup of Halloween crafts that are super easy for kids.
You never really know what kind of parent you’re going to be. I worried from the very beginning about the type of mom I would be. Would I be too easy going? Would my kids listen? Am I capable of providing my children with a life that wouldn’t require therapy some 15-20 years down the line? Parenting is a constant merry go round of one worry or the other and no one can quite prep you for just how it feels. But the one thing I didn’t expect to worry about as much as I do? Leaving them.
It’s not like separation anxiety is a new topic in the parenting community. If you google it you can find tons of articles and sites dedicated to how to deal with separation anxiety through all ages of infancy and adolescence. But what happens when the shoe is on the other foot? I know I can’t be the only mom out there whose heart beats a little faster when it’s time for me to leave my kids. My anxiety is not that bad, I’m not talk about a regular day to do basis in which I leave and go to work. However, I have been blessed with many opportunities to travel recently and it never fails, a few days before it’s time to go the voices in my head go crazy and the dread creeps in.
I’m just going to admit it, whenever people ask me for potty training tips I struggle. More often than not I tell people I didn’t even potty train RJ, he basically did it himself. He was a very easy child on the potty front and it came to him quickly. He hated the feeling of wet underwear and within a course of 2/3 days he had very few accidents before he decided that the wet undie life was not for him. There are hundreds of resources out there that tell you how and when to potty train but mom to mom, my son was potty trained in 3 days, IF that. I felt absolutely no stress during the process and I was SO proud of how quick he got it. I’m just here to share with you guys what worked for me.
2018 is coming to a close (can you believe that?) and Netflix is making sure that even our smallest littles are included in on the New Years Eve celebration! Apparently this is an annual thing, and I’m just now getting on it because my boys spend 95% of their tv time on Netflix now.
Netflix has released a series of short videos featuring characters from some of our favorite shows celebrating the beginning of a new year. If your kids are like mine, they’re always looking for a good reason to turn up, even if they don’t understand the holiday. The great thing about the countdown videos is, you don’t have to wait until midnight (or even close to) to watch them. The New Years Eve countdown is available to stream now and can be found simply by typing “countdown” in on your Netflix search.
And I know I’ll probably be banished to some lonely corner of the Twitterverse where I’ll be slowly rocking back and forth and holding myself alone but, I could care less at this point. I meant it last night when it first came to mind and I mean it now as I’m typing this post. I hate parent twitter. Not to be confused with just parents on twitter. I’m talking about the very specific group of tweeters, you know who they are.
And there are are so many different corners of the Twitterwebs so I’m sure I’ll find another group to partake in (#BlackTwitter never fails me), but I felt like the mom life corner was supposed to be my thing. Nah, it ain’t. If you search any type of parenting hashtag on twitter you’ll be sure to find all of these witty tweets. Parents tweeting about their numbered children and the snarky or clever thing they’ve said that millisecond, all in the name of RTs and favorites. Can we be honest? You nor your kid are that funny ALL day. Someone else definitely has copied a meme I’ve seen on Facebook and used it as their own tweet, only to get 749201 comments about how funny or clever they are like plagiarism isn’t taught in elementary school anymore. WHY ARE YALL LIKE THIS?!
Last night while I showered and washed my hair my 1 year old stood outside the door screeching at the top of his lungs the entirety of said shower. My emotions teetered between guilt and annoyanc and I thought about reaching out to the parent posse to see who could relate. Instead I changed my mind because, it wasn’t funny, or sarcastic or witty and I felt pretty confident that though I knew someone would be able to relate… my tweet would just sink into the abyss of things forgotten. No one interacts for realness!! Where are the parents that are living REAL life and want to interact?! Those are the people I’m looking for.
Meanwhile you can miss me with the clever anecdotes about 4 pretending to sip your peppermint mocha this morning. I haven’t even had the chance to brush my teeth yet. But y’all are gonna get ALL this venting.
With November being National Adoption Awareness Month, Paramount’s film Instant Family comes right on time. Instant family was written and directed by Sean Anders and is inspired by his own experience adopting three children with his wife. Mark Wahlberg and Rose Byrne give you a look a hilarious and heartwarming portrayal of what happens when their family goes from a family of two to five overnight.
Going into seeing the movie I had no idea what the fostering/adoption process was even like. Instant Family opens your eyes to the entire process and I love the direction the story takes. Lizzie, Juan and Lita are three amazing children that are taken through the foster system and moved from home to home, until Pete and Ellie happen to find and fall in love with them. The movie takes you through all stages of the fostering and adoption process, including what you may or may not expect when a birth parent is involved. You really get an opportunity to see how the process affects all parties, including extended family (the grandmas in Instant Family are HEAVILY involved LOL).
Interviewing the cast, we really got to see that the cast became a family on and off the screen. Julianna in person is the exact opposite of her character on screen (though the ketchup scene was her favorite to film) and Gustavo won my affection when he told us his favorite day on set was when they catered Mexican food (because food.. is life LOL). The entire case was dedicated to making sure the story of Instant Family was told in a way that was true and relatable not only to Sean’s story, but the story of the thousands of families that go through the foster and adoption process.
When Pete (Mark Wahlberg) and Ellie (Rose Byrne) decide to start a family, they stumble into the world of foster care adoption. They hope to take in one small child but when they meet three siblings, including a rebellious 15 year old girl (Isabela Moner), they find themselves speeding from zero to three kids overnight. Now, Pete and Ellie must hilariously try to learn the ropes of instant parenthood in the hopes of becoming a family. INSTANT FAMILY is inspired by the real events from the life of writer/director Sean Anders, also starring Octavia Spencer, Tig Notaro and Margo Martindale.
“Instant Family” – In theaters Everywhere November 16th, 2018