Teaching Kids to Swim: SwimFin Review

*The SwimFin was given to me for the purpose of a review, but all opinions, as always are my own.

It was my goal leading up to this Summer (which is now finally here), to start to teach Ezra how to swim, and arm him with some much needed water safety skills. With everything that has been going on, pregnancy then, new baby, moving, building and everything else,  I actually hadn't taken him to the swimming pool since last summer, and for a two year old, thats almost half his lifespan ago. So it is safe to say that his swimming skills and water confidence were severely lacking. This was a constant worry to me considering how close we live to the water!! I would have nightmares about him falling in and him having no idea what to do.

So, a few weeks ago I embarked on this swimming challenge. And I am utterly amazed at the results. The second time we went to the pool, Ezra swam EIGHT laps of the 25 metre pool ON HIS OWN! WHATTT!!! And even though I'm a qualified swimming teacher, I mean, I'm a pretty good swimming teacher, but I'm not that good!

5 Easy Toddler Lunch Ideas: That don't involve sandwiches

Some days I really struggle with ideas to make toddler lunches more exciting! If you are like me, sometimes the easiest meal for toddlers for lunch are sandwiches. We love our toasties in this house, a good old cheese, ham and avocado toastie (jaffle) is always a winner. But, on the fifth day in a row of having a toastie, I'm starting to feel that this lunchtime thing is getting a little redundant!!

So, I decided to put together this little post, and share some of the toddler recipes and ideas I already have in one nice little easy to find place!

The problem with being Two

You see the problem with being two is that you are very sure of what you do or don't want, but you don't quite have a full grasp on the world around you. When you are two, the words wait, patience and settle down mean very little. What you want, and how you feel reigns supreme. When you are two emotions can erupt and come bubbling out in every which way, sometimes it is amazing, and you laugh and giggle and get so excited, sometimes it is not so amazing. Sometimes you don't know how to deal with the emotions you feel and you react in the only way you know how, it usually involves some kinds of grand display!

When you are two, the world is focused on you, so you believe. You are learning so much, you are changing and developing and you are pushing every limit and boundary just to see what happens. When you are two understanding and then acting appropriately is really hard, things are just too tempting. Little sisters are just too cute, and you have to hug and squeeze and clamber all over. Saying sorry is easy when you are two and you've learnt it can get you want you want. Cuddles come quickly, but then remembering why you were sorry and not doing it again is really, really hard.

You see when you are two the world is an amazing place there is so much to see and discover. You think that because you can communicate better, that means you will just get everything you want or ask for. But, there is so much I need to teach you, so much you still don't understand yet and we need to hone in on those great qualities you already possess and we need to teach you right from wrong. The little things can be overwhelming when you are two, but don't worry, we are here to help you, to guide you. Oh, when you are two, you think you know everything, but my dear there is so much still to learn.
That is the problem with being two.
Oh my two year old, I love you and you push and challenge me everyday, I hope I can teach you the tools that you need for life.

Posted with Blogsy

From big boy bed, back to cot

A few weeks ago I wrote HERE about transitioning Ezra from his cot, to the big bed. The whole process, if you remember, was very stressful, strenuous and challenging. He just doesn't get how to stay in bed. The moment you leave the room he gets up, but if you are in the room, he thinks it is play time. If I try to lay down next to him, I would get punched or my hair pulled. It drove me crazy and it it made me so angry. The whole ordeal was a nightmare and it wore us all out.

We struggled through three weeks of battles for nap time, often lasting over 2 hours only to achieve a 40 minute nap, and although night time was better, it was still challenging. He would fall asleep fairly quickly, but we needed to be in the room. But then he became a night wanderer. One night I found him down the bottom of the stairs at 2am. He would wander into our room at any time of the night and we would wake to find him silently peering through the open door, our joke was that he was 'Children of the corning us'. He then only want to go back to sleep if one of us was laying next to him, but he was so anxious that we were going to leave that he wouldn't actually fall into a deep sleep. Meaning nobody really slept.

Needless to say we were all exhausted. A little boy who was barely sleeping, a pregnant Mumma who was already up multiple times a night to pee was now getting a horrible nights sleep, and a hard working Dad was feeling like a zombie in the morning. I felt anxious about bed time, and hated the battles for nap time, it was always so emotional for me.


So this weekend we made a big decision. To go back to the cot. We got it out of storage, and reassembled it. We decided or rather came to the realisation, that he just wasn't ready. He didn't understand, and he just couldn't figure out that he needed to stay in bed, even though he could get out if he wanted. The night wandering was dangerous, and could be quite scary, I did not want an accident on the stairs. It doesn't feel like a parenting failure, or like he is taking a step back. It was just something we tried, hoping it would be easier on us all in the long run, and then made another decision based on the needs of our child.

I had big ideas of what I wanted to happen, and for him to adjust before the new baby arrives. But, once again in my journey as a parent I found that my bright ideas as practical as they may seem, don't necessary always meet the needs of my child at his stage in life.

The day he came back to his room to see his cot set up for his nap he had a huge smile on his face, he didn't even want a bedtime story he just wanted to get in right away. I sat with him for a few moments, kissed him,  didn't hear a peep for the next couple of hours. He was comfortable and felt secure. He is the type of child that NEVER sits still, he wont lay still enough to sleep unless he has no other choice.

I'm so glad now that we made the decision to go back.
I didn't want my last weeks that I can focus purely on him to be ones filled with stress and fighting against each other at nap time. I want to cherish this time, I want to make sure he knows how loved he is before the arrival of his baby sister. I want to enjoy these weeks, and I don't want to feel stressed, anxious or sleepless, that isn't good for any of us.

We will try again later, when he is older, when he understands more and is ready.

Because it is Tuesday, I'm linking up with Jess for #IBOT

Karen xx 

If you want to keep up with the goings on at Yellow Dandy, I would be so happy if you LIKED my facebook page, or follow me on Bloglovin

Posted with Blogsy

The {not so easy} Transition from Cot to Big Boy Bed

The Easter long weekend is over already. We had a pretty full weekend, and it wasn't completely relaxing, but it was mostly pretty fun. We managed to go out on the boat, visit a new Church, have family time, go to the beach (the weather has been amazing), have an Easter egg hunt and watch some movies. Our biggest focus this weekend, the thing that has taken up a lot of our time, energy, exhausted our emotional state, stretched and tested our patience, and basically turned us into walking Zombies (maybe a slight exaggeration), was transitioning the little boy (at almost 20months old) from his cot, into the big bed. I picked this weekend because I figured Joel and I could tackle it together, in the hopes of tag-teaming and reducing stress. I wanted to do it with plenty of time to transition him before the new baby arrived, and because he can easily climb out of his cot, I knew this change was long overdue.

Night 1 in the big boy bed was amazing. It could not of been easier. I put it down to missing his day nap because we were out and about, I assumed he would nod off in the car in our drive home, but I was mistaken. When we put him into the big bed, he was already exhausted and fell asleep so easily, we didn't hear a peep until 7am the next morning when he wandered out of his room and clambered into bed with us. It was glorious. I found myself wondering why I was so tentative about this transition, it had all gone so well. Perfect in fact.

Day nap 1 was equally as glorious! I was elated and so impressed at my amazing mothering skills and what a perfect child I had managed to raise. This is great, he loves his new bed. I had heard nightmare stories about kids and moving to a bigger bed, I couldn't believe how easy it all seemed to be going. I must be doing all the right things, why hadn't I done it sooner?

That was until I encountered Day 2. When the little boy came to the realisation that he didn't actually have anything stopping him from getting out of bed. In fact, he could get up and play with his toys or open the door and walk out if he wanted to. And he wanted to, again and again and again. He thought it was hilarious every time I took him back to bed. Me, well I did not think it was anywhere near as funny. Eventually, after two very long hours, of dealing with the extreme over tiredness, tantrums, the hair pulling, biting and punching, he gave up the fight to be awake, and drifted off to a very,very short nap. Night time, was much less eventful and went relatively well mostly due to the lack of day sleep.

Day 3 was equally as bad, perhaps a little worse. My patience was tested to its limits, my emotional state was not faring well. But, I wasn't about to let him win. Joel was out, enjoying a lovely afternoon surfing, much to my dismay. I was in the midst of a strategic battle of the wills, and I wasn't going to be the first one to break. It may have only taken me 2 and a half hours, including a slight intermission for a banana and a glass of water, but he slept. I may have resulted to using every strategy I could possibly think of: lying next to him, sitting at the end of his bed, singing, patting, waiting behind the door, finally he fell asleep as I was lying next to him reading him a story. Very cute, I must admit, for a conniving little fellow.

Day 4, well I hand-balled day 4. Joel who was blissfully unaware the day before, was to about to go under trial by fire. It took him just over an hour! Yay, we were cheering for the small victories. An hour, only an hour, amazing. The night time sleep battle also was shorter than the evening before, I got him to sleep by 8.30 rather than 9. Like I said, it is the small victories.

But, as I write this, I have been visited by a certain toddler 3 times (make that 4, nope now 5). This is a new thing, middle of the night waking.

Its 10.30pm. He was fast asleep. My patience is waning. I need some down time. I could just put him back in the cot, but well, I'm not one to give up that easily, we are as stubborn and determined as each other,  and I know it will be so much harder with a newborn in the mix.

Welcome to a brand new trial in parenting.
Every time you have one thing under control, you get another challenge flung at you.
The next big challenge I guess will be dealing with two instead of one.
(I didn't get this post finished until the morning, lets just say the very eventful evening continued! Someone didn't want us to leave the room, but was up playing around in his bed at midnight. This morning he woke chirpy and early as usual, the adults on the other hand are completely wrecked)

How did your little ones transition to the big bed, or are you yet to face this fantastical challenge?

Karen xx

Won over by E-Books for Kids

I had stayed away from electronic kid's books thus far because I wasn't sure how I felt about them.  I feel like kids need that authentic experience of touching the books, physically holding them and turning the pages. I think that it is easier to engage in the book by having it physically in their grasp and feeling the pages and you just don't get that same feeling from holding an iPad. I didn't want to start an iPad addiction for my toddler too early in life, or have to share my iPad with him!!

Then, the other day I decided to try out some electronic kids books and made a couple of purchases. I pretty much only read books on my phone or iPad these days, I can't remember the last time I bought a hardback, and so it got me thinking about kids books again. I thought because we were going to be going on another plane trip this week (a 5 hour one eeeek), it might be worth investing in some.  So, I looked up one of my favourite kids authors, Nick Bland, the guy who wrote The Very Cranky Bear (my favourite kids book!!!). I found that there are some really cool versions of his books as iPad apps. I bought The Very Hungry Bear, and The Wrong Book. I love that they are narrated by Aussie comedians, they are interactive, Ezra spends most of the time touching the screen to make things happen and he really loves them too. You can also record and play back your own voice (handy for FIFO families), and they are just fun. They are easy to pull out at a Dr's waiting room to subdue a wild toddler, or if you are travelling and don't have lots of room for books, I read Fox in Sox twice a day for a week when we were in Broome, because it was the only book we brought, and it drove me batty.

So, I guess the E-books have won me over. I still don't want to use them exclusively, I  love real paper books. But, I definitely see the value in E-books for kids, and the cost savings is also massive. The electronic age that we are living in probably means that when Ezra and kids of his generation are older, they wont be reading physical books, or writing very often on paper. They will be relying almost entirely on a device that hasn't even been invented or imagined yet.  So, teaching them young to use electronics is not a bad thing, as they will need to be able to adapt and be prepared to use them when they are at school,  I feel it is just another part of adding value to their development.

Have you gotten into Electronic books for kids yet, or how do you feel about them?
If you have any good recommendations I would love to hear them too!

And of course linking up with Jess @ Essentially Jess for #IBOT today!!

Karen xx

(If you want to keep updated with the goings on at Yellow Dandy, you can subscribe HERE, or I would love you to like me on Facebook)

A new dislike for bedtime

Recently Ezra has started getting quite upset when we leave his room in the evening and say Goodnight. For months he would just roll over and curl up in bed and fall asleep. But now as he is becoming more and more aware what bedtime is all about, he stands up and screams as we leave the room, and wants us to stand next to his cot while he falls asleep, he has never done this before. Maybe he is just experiencing more separation anxiety as he is becoming more aware of the big world around him. That is parenting for you I guess, once you feel like you have one thing sorted out, something new comes along and gives you another challenge.

Last night he got so upset when I tried to take him off to bed, he snuggles in really close to Joel on the couch to try to get away from me. Then he screamed, flailed around and had a mini tantrum as I took him to his room. I think part of it is that he misses his Dad during the day, and has a hard time when he only gets a couple of hours with him before bed. It could also be teeth related, but it seems that for the last year everything has been seemingly teeth related.  I really hope this isn't the beginning of a complete hatred of bedtime.

We thought that perhaps a solution would be to set up a night-light in his room. So we bought one for him, and well it doesn't really help, because he just stays awake because he loves the night-light so much and  is looking at how cool the light is. It will probably be more effective once he gets a little older, and once he gets over the novelty of a cool glowing light in his room.

I'm excited that we bought it for him though because we are going camping next Saturday for two weeks, and I think that a night light for him in the tent will really help, I hope, we took him camping last year at this time, but he was so young, and would sleep anywhere, I have a feeling this time may be a bit more challenging.

I also wanted to share about this night light as well because I love it (I bought it myself and thought I would share because it is awesome!). It is by a company called Kinder-Glo and it is in the shape of a T-Rex (you can get other shapes and animals too). It has some cool features, like it isn't hot to touch, it is cordless, bpa free (Ezra likes to put it in his mouth) and it changes colours. Ezra carries it around and makes "ROARing" noises at it, it is pretty darn cute.

Karen xx 

Toddler Lunch: Quesadilla

A favourite in our house. Even Ez stuffs them in his mouth!

Whole Tortilla, Cheese, Spinach, Tomato, Pickles and Avocado in this one, served with Yoghurt. 

Often I will use sliced turkey breast if we have some or beans work as well. 

Simply place the ingredients on one half of the tortilla, fold it in half.

Put a bit of oil in a pan on medium heat and lightly toast each side until the cheese is melted.

Cut in slices and serve with Sour cream/Yohgurt/Guacamole 

And Enjoy. It is a good lunch for adults too! 

Linking up with Trish at My Little Drummer Boys