Toddler Tales

Teachable Moments Vol I.

As parents we should have realized by now that we have little people that look up to us. They were given to us to guide them and mold them into the beautiful child of God they will become. But just like everything in this world, we are not perfect, and especially not when it comes to our children. There really isn’t a book to tell you how to react when our children do/behave in a certain way. Parenthood is basically trial and error. Something I have learned recently is too choose my battles and make sure that I can have teachable moments with Azzy.

Azalayah is literally the best little girl anyone could ask for! Now, I’m not just saying that because she is my daughter, but because she really is!  I always get compliments on what a joy she is to have around. She is the perfect mixture of spunky and spice and weirdness. I rarely discipline her because she is so great! She does throw tantrums and will act up and usually we can work through those.

I had a proud moment for myself.

I went to clean up Azzy’s room and as I was looking around and I noticed there was drawings on the wall! I literally starred blankly at the wall and died internally! I literally wanted to lash out at the top of my lungs but instead I didn’t, I started to cry. I cried because I was disappointed in her. She never has done anything like that or ever “pretended” to draw on the walls. All I kept thinking was “why now?” So I walked out of her room crying and called Chris over to look at the walls.  I went to the kitchen and reached for a sponge with soap. I then thought to myself,  “I am not going to get her in trouble, instead I am going to have her scrub it off” So I walked in the room and in a soft tone I asked her Why she did that, she didn’t have an answer for me. So then I told her she was NOT in trouble but that she was going to scrub off the wall as a consequence. She then took my sponge and was actually enjoying scrubing it off. I then helped her because come on , she’s 3, how much could she possibly scrub off.

So this my friends was my teachable moment. Rather than lashing out on her and cleaning it myself, I showed her to clean up her own mess. I also confiscated all the crayons and markers and told her she was only allowed to use them when Mommy and Daddy are around. I am impressed how good she has gotten about it. If she sees a random crayon or pen lying around she will ask us to put it away because she is not allowed to use them. We did not confiscate them for good, I just wanted to make sure she knew that she now has to be supervised due to a loss of trust for letting her use crayons and markers alone.

How do you guys discipline? How do you know when to choose your battles?

Crafty Hands

Now that Azzy is in her toddlerhood she loves to make crafts! It's like a plague that developed over the course of 6 months (totally kidding btw). Honestly, I have never seen her this crafty! One day we took a trip to the Dollar Tree and scored on tons of craft and learning supplies.

After our little shopping trip, I wrote down on my planner what types of crafts and activities we would do each weekend. During the weekdays I do not have much time to do anything time consuming because I am drained by work, but during the weekends I LOVE to dedicate time to my Azzy and her crafts.

I usually search Pinterest for fun crafts for toddlers/preschoolers. This is the stage in which they gain most of their cognitive development so DON'T be afraid to challenge your little ones. After all, crafts are all about having fun! There is no right or wrong way for little hands to move :)

Left to Right: Apple Stamps and Scrap Art for Letter A Week.

Toilet paper roll stamp art using acrylic paints. Sunday school mini-coloring book.  

Zimmer Children's Museum

Rainy Day Outings

Have you and your husband ever had the same day off, and make plans to go somewhere like the beach, and then come to find out that it is going to rain massively the day you had your day planned? Well, that happened to Chris and I. We rarely have the same day off, so when we do we try to schedule a Family Day/Trip. We had scheduled a trip to the beach but it started raining so we had to find something indoors that Azalayah would enjoy doing. I searched up Children's museums in LA, and came across the Zimmer Children's Museum. We decided would take the 2 hour trip in the rain just to make Miss Azzy happy. The price is about $7.00 per person and they have other promotions such as military and EBT cardholder discounts. The museum was really nice, we were there for only 2 hours but it was definitely worth it! We had been to the San Diego Children's Discovery Museum before and it was about the same size, only the San Diego one  had an outdoor exhibit which  made the museum look a bit larger. Anyways the Zimmer Museum had a real life ambulance truck and an airplane inside the museum. It had a boat ball pit, a pinball machine, construction area, grocery store, water tables, library, theatre art center, etc. Those are the exhibits that I can name off the top of my head. They had a really neat exhibit in which you pressed a button and you had 5 seconds to strike a pose, a light would flash, and when you looked at the wall, your pose was imprinted into the wall. I'm not sure if I'm describing that correctly but it was really neat and probably our favorite exhibit. Overall, Azalayah really enjoyed the museum and if you are in the LA area for a rainy day, I suggest going to the Zimmer Children's Museum. It is very kid friendly and your child will adore it!

Zimmer Children's Museum located in Los Angeles, CA.