Why You Should Start Baby Sleep Training Early to Avoid CIO

Baby sleep training or Crying it Out Methods have become topics of contention in online mommy wars. In my most humble opinion, many in the opposing category tend to take crying it out or sleep training to the extreme. Arguing that it isn’t natural to sleep train. It is just downright cruel to place a baby in their crib and walk away, while baby screams, and expect baby to peacefully go to sleep.

I don’t think any parent literally drops their baby in a crib, places a light kiss on their forehead, and casually walks out waving adios as baby screams with eyes that plead for one last cuddle.

Parenting: Before & After the Internet

How did we survive before the internet? Certainly our parenting was far more driven by our own intuition than by that of our good friend Mr. Google. I suppose there were those things called parenting books that people could read.

“You are so lucky to have the internet,” my mom will often tell me. This is after I express to her that I’m refusing to give my kid juice before middle school because I’ve read somewhere on the internet that it’s a no-no. Or that my toddler won’t be wearing a winter jacket in her car seat because I’ve now seen the 12th video on how it could one day save her life.

How did this information get communicated so quickly before? Beats me.

A Lesson in Judging Other Moms | Real Life Guilt

This post was featured on Netmums.com

It has been a month since my last post. Life has gotten pretty busy – as they do.

Then this happened the other day. And I felt the urge to write about it.

I went to the park by our house for the 1000th time. It was one of those particularly repetitive days of motherhood. You know the ones.

Baby, Toddler, and I walked up to the park and headed for the swings. Consistently, the first stop on every trip to the park.

I catch the eye of the only other mom there, with her two toddlers and a baby strapped to her chest.

Where’s the #famjamlinky This Week?

Okay, friends. Thanks for stopping by, but we (Handbags & Snot Rags and I) have decided to take a break from the #famjamlinky.

I originally created this blog at the start of my maternity leave (for baby #2) because I wanted a hobby for myself. I wanted something outside of my family life that was just for me. In the absence of work, I also wanted to have something that kept my brain going a little.

So things started out great. I wrote some posts that I was proud of. I shared my stories, what I was going through, and what projects I was working on. 59 posts and 10 weeks of hosting a linky later; I’m feeling the drag.

#FamJamLinky | Link Up Your Family Posts #10

We have reached double digits with the #famjamlinky! Link up your family related posts about your kids, yourself, parenting, tough times, good times, everyday times! Handbags & Snot Rags and I cohost this linky every Wednesday.

Favourite post from last week was by Nikki of the View From In Here who wrote a bit about social media and Instagram, with a blogging focus. She has a couple other great social media posts for bloggers if you are interested.

As for my week: With a little inspiration from Nikki’s post last week, I actually started using my Instagram account! Big news right? I didn’t really see the appeal before but it’s definitely growing on me. Since I don’t post pictures of my kids on social media, I find it hard to know what to put on there!

On to the linky:

We Used to Cuddle Before Smart Phones

What is the last thing you do before going to bed? Give your significant other a kiss? Quick cuddle? Chat until you feel like falling asleep, then separate to your respective sides of the bed and fall asleep?

That’s how we used to do it. Before our smart phones became our cuddle buddies.

I was quite late in the game to join the smart phone party. I got my first one only this year after my trusty Blackberry of 5 years crashed on me. It had sketchy internet at best. No Facebook. No apps. Just texting and sometimes Google Maps if you really wanted to take your time and work at it.

Christmas Crafts for Toddler in September

Before you judge me, I must tell you that I strongly suggested to Little N that we partake in some Halloween crafts and she unexpectedly suggested we go with Christmas crafts instead. Even though I feel September is a little early for even Halloween, I had seen a few Halloween crafts on twitter (@midwifeandlife & @gloryiscalling), and thought, you know what, I can do this!

Regardless, N insisted on Christmas crafts. I couldn’t really complain, I love Christmas. I also didn’t have orange paint or any other Halloweenie craft supplies on hand. But that’s neither here nor there.

#FamJamLinky | Link Up Your Family Posts #9

Welcome to week #9 of the #famjamlinky! Link up your family related posts about your kids, yourself, parenting, tough times, good times, everyday times! Handbags & Snot Rags and I cohost this linky every Wednesday.

Favourite post from last week was by Cuddle Fairy who wrote about promoting creativity with her kids. It reminded me to try find things around the house (or close to the house) to use for arts and crafts with my kids.

As for my week: My kids are too young for school so we had quite an uneventful week. Besides traffic being really busy, everyday is still the same. #lifeofamum, am I right? I am requesting points for creativity though since I made these little jars for toddler-money-saving just for fun and cleaned up from the disaster that was the in-laws visit.

Want to get to know me better? Here’s 10 questions answered (The Liebster Award!)

On to the linky:

Teaching Kids About Money (DIY Spend & Save Jars)

I have to start off by saying these jars are a complete knock-off from The Crafty Mummy Blog. She has some amazing, creative stuff on there. You have to check out her website.

I thought these jars were a great idea for teaching our small humans that everything in life costs money Except maybe slightly less melodramatic than that. But I definitely hope I can teach both my girls how to save and the concept of interest and all that (because instead of learning these types of things in high school, they’ll be learning about algebra and other silly, far too complicated math skills that really don’t play into everyday life).

The Liebster Award

What is the Liebster Award? I had the same question when I first started blogging. And I always wondered, how can I get that kind of love?

And here we are, nominated by Emma’s Mamma (‏@emmasmammablog) a few weeks months ago! Thank you! I’ve finally learned that the Liebster Award is a way to get to know newer-ish bloggers and to encourage other new-ish bloggers to participate.

To be honest, I don’t like writing about myself. Bios take me ages to write. I think I’m far too brutally honest, I sound silly most of the time, and I also tend to be a little wordy. But getting an award is kind of fun so I guess I’ll suck it up!

#FamJamLinky | Link Up Your Family Posts #8

Here we are at another Wednesday and week #8 of the #famjamlinky! Handbags & Snot Rags and I cohost this linky every Wednesday for all your family related posts – your kids, yourself, parenting, tough times, good times, everyday times!

Favourite post from last week was by The Hollyhock Door with Do You Have To Hug? I hope to teach my daughter kindness and manners and empathy, but she can show them in other ways if she doesn’t want to hug. Or she can choose to hug if that is what she wants to do with her body. Great read if you’re interested.

As for my week: The in-laws came for a semi-surprise visit – did I love it or hate it? Then, on the weekend, the hubs and I went on a little overnight retreat – sans kids – and he proposed! It’s kind of weird since I call him husband already and now he’s just my fiancee….

Anyways, we are way behind on EVERYTHING! Huge piles of clean and not-clean laundry, no food, a messy kitchen/house/life/kids, bags still lying packed from the weekend, zero blog posts written, but that ring though – it’s so sparkly and distracting.

Moving on! Here we are:

Surviving the In-Laws (Love it or Hate it?)

That title sounds rather formidable. Maybe it should read more like “how do I survive hosting guests for multiple nights while keeping my children, myself, and my household alive”.

My husband’s parents arrived the middle of last week to stay for five days. On the one hand, I was ecstatic that they could come see Baby M while she’s so young and hear Little N tell stories over and over again about random things like how the power went out at her daycare four months ago. Skype just doesn’t quite cut it after a while.

On the other hand, I hate playing host. Some people are amazing at hosting. I will be the first to admit, that is just not me.

Here is what I don’t like about hosting: