My oldest daughter, Raylee, stopped napping at what I felt was an early age. Or maybe it was just that I wasn't ready to give up that precious nap time -- also known as my "me" time. So when she stopped sleeping during nap time, we slowly transitioned it to more of a quiet time. At first, she would just lay in bed talking or singing to herself. Then, I let her choose one book to read ... then three books, until one day it became apparent that this girl wasn't going to sleep during the day anymore and she needed more options to keep herself entertained in her room by herself. I reached out Continue Reading
12 Toys & Activities to Keep Your Toddler Busy
The hardest part about being a parent of two so far has been entertaining my toddler, Raylee, while I tend to the baby. When I need to breastfeed Ruthi or put her down for a nap, basically all of my attention needs to go to the baby. That means that Raylee needs to keep herself busy, but she's a toddler so that doesn't come easily. I have been compiling a list of the toys and activities we use to keep our toddler busy. We use these as tools to help her entertain herself so I can focus on the baby when needed. Even if you just have one kid, sometimes mama needs time to check email or make Continue Reading
Our Potty Training Experience Using the 3-Day Potty Boot Camp
Here we go with yet another transition for our 2-year-old! A couple months ago, we moved her to a toddler bed, and that is going really well. So we decided to start the next big move -- potty training. We are trying to get all these big transitions out of the way before the new baby comes. That will be a big enough change for her that we don't want to throw in using the potty at the same time. Using the 3-Day Potty Boot Camp I decided after a little research and talking to some friends to use the 3-Day Potty Boot Camp method for potty training. First of all, the whole "3-day" part of Continue Reading
Toddler Bed Transition
Well, my little girl is now a big girl. I had planned to keep Raylee in her crib for as long as possible. She was doing great with sleeping in it and never tried getting out. Why mess with something that's working, right? Well, we did it. The toddler bed transition ended up happening, a lot sooner than I had expected too. Once we found out we were having another girl, I decided I wanted the white crib for the new baby. Travis was already itching to get Raylee moved to a big girl bed since he does the bedtime routine and wanted to be able to lay down and cuddle with her before saying "night Continue Reading
2nd Bee-Day Party
Raylee is turning two this month, and I can't believe it. I had originally decided we would do a very small, simple party for her. But then we found out we were expecting and we would have the gender ultrasound just days before her party. Not to mention, we just love both our families (big families) and we wanted a chance for them all to see our new house, especially after we had completed so many projects. So we went big! I decided to do a bee theme and host a bee-day party that doubled as a gender reveal party. We ended up having around 50 people come, so thank goodness we have a pretty big Continue Reading
Best Children’s Books for Toddlers
I recently shared my toddler gift ideas, which included some big items and some great learning and creative toys. But one thing that wasn't on that list was books, and that's because I have enough favorite children's books for an entire blog post. If you love to read or you want your child to love to read (who doesn't?), this blog post is for you because these are the best children's books for toddlers. This list includes books we own and love. My daughter, Raylee loves books right now and will read them over and over. She loves when we read to her, but she loves flipping through them Continue Reading
20 Toddler Gift Ideas
A few people have asked me what Raylee would like for Christmas, and I've seen even more mamas asking what they should get their toddlers for Christmas. I do not have any difficulty coming up with toddler gift ideas for my little one. I have too many ideas, actually! So I created this toddler gift ideas list just for those of you who struggle in this area. This Christmas, Raylee will be 21 months old, just a few months short of two. She is a full toddler at this point. She loves books and learning and trying out all the things. Her vocabulary is expanding every day. So this list was created Continue Reading
Sunshine First Birthday Party
Wow, I can't believe I have a 1-year-old! Like I said in this post, her first birthday party was more for me than her. I did survive 9 months straight without sleeping through the night and kept all three of us alive, so a celebration was in order. We decided to do a sunshine first birthday theme because Raylee is "our little sunshine." Look at the name of my blog, how could I not use this theme? We had around 25 people come to celebrate with us, and it was a blast! I was afraid Raylee might be shy or fussy with so many people filling our house, but she was actually happy and smiley. I Continue Reading