Category: motherhood

Mother Daughter Color Block Skirts | Preciously Paired

Mother/Daughter Color Block Skirts

Mother Daughter Color Block Skirts | Preciously Paired
Mother Daughter Color Block Skirts | Preciously PairedMother Daughter Color Block Skirts | Preciously Paired Mother Daughter Color Block Skirts | Preciously PairedMother Daughter Color Block Skirts | Preciously PairedMother Daughter Color Block Skirts | Preciously PairedMother Daughter Color Block Skirts | Preciously Paired

Ok I’m freaking out right now that my baby girl is going to turn three next month! Oh, and that I’m currently six months pregnant with a nice round baby bump… unlike the pictures falsely portray above. We did this fun little mommy/daughter shoot last November, and with all the craziness of the holidays and the first trimester sickness, it got tucked away and forgotten. I came across them the other day and thought all this cuteness needed to be shared!

Also, I’ve kind of developed a new found love for our color block party skirts. Not that I ever stopped loving them, it’s just with all the projects and new additions we’ve added to our shop they too got tucked away like these pictures. In fact, I hadn’t even sewn up a color block skirt since December until just recently. Now I’ve sewn over ten color block skirt in the past three weeks, and with each one I fall more in love. The “in love” kind of sense where I pour my heart and soul into every stitch to make each skirt perfect, then get little butterflies in my stomach once I ship one off to it’s owner in anticipating their excitement once it arrives. It’s a sometimes stressful, yet thrilling and rewarding kind of love– sort of like being a mom.

As some of you may remember, I quite my daytime job last June to be able to stay at home with this little girl and to pursue some of my other dreams. It was an adjustment at first, but I love it! …Ok lets be real, some days I feel like I might be going crazy. Being a mom can be really hard, then add being a housekeeper, cook, and business owner (and pregnant) on top of that and it is like insanity, but I still LOVE it! Like I said, sometimes stressful, yet ever so rewarding.

As for these lovely skirts, both are available in our shop for custom orders! Mother’s Day is coming up, and how cute would matching mother-daughter skirts be?!

XOXO,

Sara


Potty Training in 3 Days...Does it Work?

Potty Training in 3 days… Does it Work?

I know what you are all thinking, “Potty training? Are we really going there?” But after all this is a lifestyle blog, and my life for the past week and a half has been cleaning up pee, doing laundry, and acting overly enthusiastic when my daughter goes in the potty. And since everyone who is a parent, or is planning on becoming a parent, will have to go through this thrilling experience (if you have not already), I thought I’d give my two cents on the matter.

(Disclaimer: All thoughts and opinions about products mentioned in this post are my own. I am not receiving any payment or compensation to review the products mentioned, they are simply things that I like and have worked for me.)

Potty Training in 3 Days...Does it Work?

When we were first thinking about potty training, a friend told me of a program she used called “3 Day Potty Training“. Like anyone else, I was skeptical. Could a child really be completely potty trained in three days? The idea of potty training and everything that accompanies it caused me to continually find excuses to put it off… for three months! Finally, after coming back from vacation with no job and only two weeks before my husband had to go back to school I felt like it was now or never. But I knew if I was going to do it I wanted to have a game plan; I didn’t want to jump into potty training cold turkey. There was no going back for me once we decided to start. I knew we’d have more success if we established a method and knew before hand how we were going to handle certain situations. So, I did a little research and found myself reading up on the “3 Day Potty Training” method that my friend had suggested.

After reading through the “3 Day Potty Training” program, I was really intrigued by it’s concepts and felt empowered to start. This particular method focuses heavily on love, consistency, patience, and positive reinforcements throughout the potty training process. Since my daughter (and probably most other kids) responds best to love, patience, and positive reinforcements (a.k.a candy) I thought I’d give it a try. I had my husband look over it too before we started potty training so we’d be on the same page throughout the process.

Day #1. An important part of potty training in three days is that you give your child your complete attention during that time so you can watch for signs of your child having to go potty or catch them in an accident. So on day 1 I woke up early and got ready for the day and finished a few tasks before my daughter woke up. Once she woke up, we changed her diaper, put on her “big girl panties”, and got rid of the any diapers we had left. Part of the program right from the beginning is to throw away all diapers and pull-ups to remove any and all temptations to revert backwards. Repeatedly during the day we would say to my daughter, “Tell us when you have to go potty” and then every twenty minutes or so we would take her to the potty. My mother-in-law bought her a cute little princess potty chair that senses when a child goes potty and plays a celebratory song once they do.  When my daughter would go potty, the potty chair would play it’s song while my husband and I clapped and cheered with excitement. What 2 year old wouldn’t love that kind of attention? She thought it was the funnest thing and had no problem going every time we’d take her. Plus she got a little treat after as well…positive reinforcements! There were 3-4 accidents to clean up the first day, but overall it was pretty manageable… Day #2 however was different story.

Day #2. On the second day of potty training my daughter did not find going on the potty very amusing. In fact, she refused to go on it at all! There was one point in the day that she begged to go to time out rather then sit on the potty! In turn I started to loose my patience. While the program stresses not to get upset when your child has an accident and not to force your child on the potty, by mid-afternoon I  was like, “to hell with it!” I was mad. I had spent the better half of the day cleaning up messes and doing laundry- not to mention my house reeked of urine. When I wasn’t cleaning up messes, I was sitting in the bathroom trying to get my daughter to go potty. Finally towards the end of the second day, we coaxed her to go in the potty and we made sure to make a big deal about it. I guess she found it fun again because she went several more times before bed willingly.

Day #3. On the third day of potty training we had much less accidents than the previous days; only two. We would remind her to let us know if she had to go potty, and when we saw her dancing around or holding herself we would take her to the potty.

It has been a week and a half since we started potty training and each day has been much the same as the third. She does great during the day as long as we stay on top of taking her potty on a regular basis. She has not yet pooped in the potty and has wet the bed almost every night since the day we started even when following the program. Any and all suggestions in this area would be welcomed!

In conclusion, would I say my daughter is completely potty trained? No. Does she still have accidents? Uh, yah. Would I still recommend “3 Day Potty Training“? Absolutely! (Again I am not receiving any payment or compensation for reviewing and recommending this product) I did not go into this process with the illusion that my daughter would be perfectly potty trained in 3 days– she’s 2! Like learning any new skill, it takes time and lots of practice to get really good at it. While she still has accidents, I love the concepts this program is based upon. Then again every parent and child is different and therefore requires different needs. I’m not saying you have to use this program, but I do think it is a good idea to do some research and prepare yourself ahead of time for potty training.

Have a game plan so you and your child can be successful.

If you have a spouse or someone helping you potty train, make sure you’re both on the some page about how you’re going to handle certain situations.

And lastly, do what works for you!

When researching how to go about potty training my child I heard from lots of different mothers how they did it with their children. I’m not saying any one of them were wrong or right. When it comes right down to it you have to do what works best for you and your child. I’ll freely admit that while the method I used is against using pull-ups, if my daughter is still consistently having accidents at night in a month or two I may very well resort to pull-ups at night. I very much value my sleep, and not having a washer and dryer of my own I get tired of having to do laundry every day.

Also for those who are interested, below is the potty chair that we use. It is great because it is easy to clean, can be used as a step-stool, and plays celebratory songs! I got mine at Walmart.

potty chair


My Struggle With Patience

I’d like to think this blog is a place where I can share my latest projects, but also a place to get a little more personal. The blogs I seem to follow the most are the one’s where I feel like there is actually a human being behind the writing with a real life and stories that I can relate to.
So today I want to share a weakness that I have that I’m sure a lot of you out there face and that is patience. I’ve never been one for having a lot of patience and since becoming a mother it’s been a struggle I seem to face daily when taking care of my children. As much as I’d like to appear like the perfect mother to everyone outside of my home, I’m not. I loose my patience sometimes and a lot depending on the week; sometimes over things that really don’t matter.
For example, last week Eric was out of town for work and I had two cranky girls who seemed to be crying and whining at me all week. My 3 year old was having a hard time listening and obeying and my 1 year old needed to be held constantly or else an hour long tantrum would begin. By the third day of this my patience was literally on egg shells waiting for one of the girls to do something before I exploded on a yelling rampage. It didn’t take long until that happened. Once again I was that mom that I kept telling myself I would never be…that mom that ends up loosing my cool and yelling at my kids instead of trying to talk to and understand them. The worst part is that after all this instead of calming down I became mad at myself for not handling the situation well and continued to be impatient and ended up yelling more.
After episodes like that I feel like the worst mother and wonder if one day my kids will resent me for it. Even worse I can see that they sometimes struggle with the similar things and I wonder how I will teach them to deal with it when sometimes I can’t. Needless to say I am grateful for this time when my girls are quick to forgive as I try to figure out how to let certain things go and see each situation in the way their growing, young minds see it.
In my “quest” to try to have more patience with my children I have come to focus on three things.
1. Don’t be so focused on time and how long it takes for things to get done. Sometimes it frustrates me how long it takes Mia to do things after asking her repeatedly to do something especially when I am in a hurry. I’m learning to slow down and just plan for extra time so we can all be calm.
2. Let some things go and just enjoy the moment. I’m a little bit of a clean freak sometimes and I have two girls that LOVE dirt and messes. Since becoming a mom I’ve really had to work at just forgetting about the mess being made and letting my kids be kids while they enjoy the fun they are having and cleaning up the mess later.
3. Remember they are only children! You would think this would be an easy thing to remember but sometimes I find myself having expectations for how my girls should act being at an adult level when clearly they are not. I have to remind myself that they are still learning and trying to understand how to process feelings and thoughts. When I remember this it makes a world of difference.
So there you have it; my struggle with patience. I know I’m not alone in this struggle of having patience with my children. Some it takes a lot longer to break but I’m sure at one point or another we’ve all handled a situation with our kids in a way we aren’t proud of. So I basically wanted to let you know you’re definitely not alone and we’re all struggling every day to be the best mothers we can for those kids we still seem to love to pieces no matter what they do.

~ Hanna

Linked To:

Friday Finds #10: Mother’s Day Gift Ideas

Mother’s Day is right around the corner, in fact it is in THREE days! If  you’re a last minute gifter like us, don’t worry, we’ve got some truly special Mother’s Day gift ideas for you that are sure to impress. This first idea is something Hanna and I put together that will provide your mother a peaceful day of relaxation. Who doesn’t love a good book and chocolate?! If that special woman in your life doesn’t like to read much, no problem, put in their favorite movie instead. The great thing about gift baskets is that they are completely customizable. Hopefully some of the ideas below with get the wheels turning in regards to what your mother would enjoy most. 
Once you’ve gathered up the items for your ultimate relaxation gift basket, you could deliver them in this beautiful DIY “Best Mom Ever” tote created by Jess over at Style Me Pretty. She has even included a FREE printable of the “Best Mom Ever” illustration so all you have to do is print it onto iron-on transfer paper, then iron it onto a canvas tote bag. How simple is that?! 
Below are a few other inexpensive Mother’s Day gift ideas that we absolutely adore. 
Mother’s Day Breakfast + FREE Printables |  by Jennifer at Hostess with Mostess Blog
Easy DIY Painted Flower Pots  |  by Bright Bold & Beautiful

Flowers seem to be a big tradition on Mother’s Day, so why not customize a flower pot to give the gift a little more meaning and thought. We love this simple color block DIY painted pot from Bright Bold & Beautiful!
We hope these easy ideas were inspiring and helpful. Happy (early) Mother’s Day to all you wonderful mommies out there who make this world a more wonderful and joyous place. Without a doubt, we would not be the women or mothers we are today without the loving example of our own mother and all the other influential women in our lives. We love you! 

Link’n Blogs Linky Party {#20}

Today we’re honored to be guest hosting the Link’n Blogs linky party brought to you by Put a Bird On It. This is our first time ever “hosting” a linky party and we couldn’t be more excited to share with you the inspiration and talent of so many wonderful bloggers! It is actually through linky parties that we have come across some of our favorite blogs and have connected with some amazing people. With that being said, we invite you all to share, connect, inspire, and be inspired yourself!

Welcome to Link’n Blogs {#20} !
A place to link up your projects and make new friends. We are all about visiting links and following new bloggers here at Link’n Blogs. Remember to leave comments and PIN PIN PIN!
Cause sharing is caring. 


**Your links will show up on ALL blogs hosting the link party!**

Interested in guest hosting Link’n Blogs?!
I’ve created a spreadsheet where you can sign up to host a link party! It’s a great way to get to know other bloggers, share a recent post with other party goers and pick the features. Sign up using the link below!

Grab my party button! 
 



*Feel free to post my party button on your blog and say you linked up here!*



I am sharing a feature I did on Warby Parker collaborating with Architecture for Humanity. It’s a good company working towards a good cause!


Warby Parker + Architecture for Humanity






Katelyn is sharing a DELISH recipe for a spin on cheesy pasta. This looks so good! I love that it has bacon in it. Everything is better with bacon!



Be sure to give some love to our guest hosts – you will love their creative blogs!



These two girls have one of the cutest blogs! You’ve got to check out the Pinterest challenge they’re doing. Today, Hanna and Sara are sharing some divine cinnamon rolls – with a twist!






Chastity has a fun lifestyle blog and is momma to an adorable little cowboy! Today, she is sharing a heart filled printable perfect for the upcoming Easter holiday. I love it!





Carolyn’s blog is all about her life as a stay at home mom to her two daughters {which she never thought she’d be!}. And her post this week is about just that.




Here are this week’s features:

My Pick

DIY Felt Flower Headbands by Maddie Moe’s




Katelyn’s Pick

DIY Stenciled Tray by Life in Velvet



Hanna and Sara’s Pick

DIY Geometric Photo Display by The Caldwell Project



Chastity’s Pick

Picnic Basket Tutorial by Over the Apple Tree



Carolyn’s Pick

Bacon, Egg and Avocado Sandwich by Belle of the Kitchen


Fan Favorites


Reversible Easter/Spring Wood Blocks by Something Splendid



Pantry Makeover by View from the Fridge




I know the bloggers featured would love if you would visit their posts and say hello!

All features will be pinned to my Link’n Blogs board. Follow it here!



Follow my blog! If you want to receive an email reminding you about the link party, leave your email when adding your link.
Link to your blog post — not just your blog.
Share the love! Visit the other links and say who sent you.
If you enjoy a link, you can LIKE it {new feature!}
Adding your link gives me permission to feature you on my blog. 
Grab my party button! – See more at: http://iputabirdonit.blogspot.com/2013/12/diy-christmas-scriptures-advent.html#sthash.mPINNYsH.dpuf
Ok, here are the guidelines for the link party:  


Follow your HOSTS and GUEST HOSTS

If you want to receive an email reminding you about the link party, leave your email when adding your link

Link to your blog post — not just your blog.

Share the love! Visit the other links and say who sent you

Adding your link gives me permission to feature you on my blog
Share this link party on social media to help Link’n Blogs grow!

*Don’t be a LINK & RUN partier. Visit a couple links before you and a couple after!*


Happy Linking!

Leave a permalink on your blog back to the party to help our party grow!

*here is the link*
http://iputabirdonit.blogspot.com/2014/04/linkn-blogs-20.html


 

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I monitor each link and may delete a link if it is not something I want to promote on my blog. If you see your link was deleted, please email me. I’d be happy to chat about why! Thanks! 

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Our Blogging Goals for 2014

Hi everyone! I’ve just returned from a week-long vacation with Hanna and am already looking forward to our next one! We always have so much fun together and it is as though we’ve never been apart. With a whole week together we had so much that we wanted to do, but it only took us a day to realize that not all of it was going to get done. With having three little girls under the age of 3 there was just no way that we were going to be able to care for them, complete all the projects we had planned, and go everywhere we wanted to go while still keeping our sanity at the same time. When it came right down to it we decided to set aside our blog and all of our projects for the week and enjoy the time we had together. Instead, we had a blast chatting away the days, eating way too much food, and watching our girls play together—while having to play referee on occasion. We even found the courage to pack the three girls in the back seat and travel out to our parent’s house for a few days. With it being about a four hour drive each way, Hanna and I utilized the time to talk about our future progress and goals for the blog. Since many of our blogging goals are geared around our readers, we thought we’d share them with you.

BLOGGING GOALS

1.   Get more personal in our posts. We want our readers to come to know the real us. While some of our pictures may suggest otherwise, we have bad days too where our hair and makeup doesn’t get done, our house is a disaster, we lose our patience with our children and the laundry is pilled high. We make mistakes and we are always striving to be better than we are. We’re not blogging to imply that we are above anyone else, but rather to share our ideas, experiences, and inspirations to help and inspire others.
2.   Stay true to ourselves. We have both found a lot of joy in blogging and the opportunity it gives us to stay more connected with one another. In continuing to blog, our overall goal is to remain true to what is important to us, what we believe in, and who we are. We will never post anything on the blog for the mere sake of posting something or to get gain.
3.   Comment more on other blogs and connect more with other bloggers. We are constantly overwhelmed by the support of other bloggers and our readers. We are delightfully gitty with each new follower and with every comment. Our goal is to continue to pay-it-forward by supporting other bloggers and to make new friends by reaching out. After making this goal we have rounded up a great group of other bloggers for a surprise blog series we will be starting in March– stay tuned! 
4.   Start an editorial calendar to organize our tasks and improve our time management. I know I am not alone when I say that time management can often be a struggle, but it is something we are constantly trying to master (without success). We started using an editorial calendar (both a hard copy and an online version) so that we can more easily keep track of the tasks that need to get done and hopeful become more organized with our time. If anyone has more ideas or suggestions on the matter please feel free to share!
5.   Post more regularly on our social media sites. This is really something that we have both struggled with since starting our blog. Neither one of us are the type that updates our Facebook status everyday (barely every month) or posts a new picture on Instagram on a daily basis but we are beginning to realized the importance of social media use in growing our blog. And, since we only post three times a week we hope to stay more in touch with you and fill you in on daily happenings through the use of social media. Wish us luck!
6.   Make our blog more easy to navigate and more easy to connect with. It has been less than two months since we started up Stripes and Polka Dots and we are already finding many new ways to make it better. Unfortunately, we feel rather limited at the moment as to where we’d eventually like the design of our blog to be, but it is our goal to save our pennies and do our research so by this summer we can make our blog more user friendly. With some of the changes we hope to incorporated in the coming months we hope it will enable our readers to become more engaged as we wish to get to know you better. 

Creating a Learning Environment at Home for your Kids

Since having my girls and getting the privilege of watching them grow I’ve started realizing how eager they are to learn and experience everything they can in life. It’s so inspiring to me how free-spirited and willing kids are to jump in and learn and try something new. I also noticed how children learn better in the safe environment of their home from people they love and trust. Seeing these things have made me want to create more opportunities for my girls to learn and experience new things at home in these younger years, especially for my 2 ½ year old daughter, Mia.

Learning through participating in the day-to-day things:

One simple solution I found is slowing down and taking the time to involve her more in the day-to-day things; like chores around the house, getting groceries at the store, or cooking something. I’ve never seen anyone more excited to learn how to set a table than Mia was the other night when I would hand her each dish and she would have to figure out where it should go.

I also often take the opportunity to let her help me with the cooking and measuring out ingredients. In fact one of our favorite things to make together are those healthy, chocolate chunk banana muffins from last week’s post.

All this things take extra time and effort, which is why I often have to remind myself that I’m doing it to help my girls, especially Mia. Not to mention, Mia simple loves the opportunities to do something new!

Learning through music:
Another great way I found to create learning opportunities is switching out my music for “kid-friendly” music or what I like to call the toddler station on Pandora. We also have the CD If You’re Happy & You Know It by Fisher Price in our car that we listen to when the girls are along the ride. Mia loves all the songs on it and after several months of listening to it I’ve noticed a lot of the words from the songs have become a part of Mia’s regular vocabulary. Needless to say, music has a huge presence in our home and it has been a big factor in helping Mia learn. Plus there is nothing cuter than hearing your kids sing!

Creative learning:

Finally, I’ve put my so-called “craftiness” to use to encourage Mia’s creative side but also use it as an opportunity to have Mia experience creating with different kinds of things. Sometimes I use different occasions and holidays to do projects. For example, last year for Valentines I had Mia stamp hearts on card stock and we made cards to send out to the Grandparents; or for Halloween Mia glued cotton balls on some paper ghosts I cut out. On a regular week I’ve done play dough, let her cut paper with scissors, paint, helped her build a snowman or whatever random thing I can come up with.

Even with my perfectionist side, I’ve learned nothing has to be super grand and planned out for Mia to learn something new and love doing it at the same time. She just wants the experience and the quality time spent with her mama!

Since the move and the holidays I haven’t been as good about some of these things as I should be. Mia is crazier than ever, getting into everything she can and is just down right bored! This post is a reminder to myself (and hopefully an inspiration to some of you others mom out there) to slow down, take some time away from all the things that need to be done and spend some time with the kiddos to create opportunities to help them to learn and experience new things.

-HANNA

Linked To:
http://www.trueaimeducation.com/2014/01/6-favorites-and-moms-library-80.html
http://sodapopave.com/soda-pop-ave/2014/1/27/what-we-love-wednesdays-24
http://www.familyhomeandlife.com/2014/01/wow-us-wednesday-link-party_28.html
http://www.keepingitsimplecrafts.com/2014/01/motivate-me-monday-210-block-party.html
http://www.carolynshomework.com/2014/01/the-inspiration-board-creative-party-139.html