Tag Archives: Personal

I need your help with my 3 year old..please

Age 3-5, Bedtime, Personal, ,

I’m exhausted as a result of getting an average of 4.5 hours of sleep a night for over 3 years now. You must know though that despite what professionals say I feel like sleep is a waste of time and it’s not something that I look forward to like some people (like my husband). I am not, however, a night owl or party girl. I know that I need sleep for health and sanity reasons so I go along with the whole sleep thing even though I think it is time waster.

Here are a few facts about the situation that I am desperate for help with, for my 3 year olds sake and ours:

– She’s 3.5
– She always goes to the bathroom before going to bed
– She doesn’t fight going to bed
– We have a consistent bedtime routine that she enjoys that includes bathtime, stories and singing
– She starts stirring and/or crying after being asleep for about 1.5-2 hours
– She doesn’t remember crying the next day
– My husband and I don’t run into her room after every sound she makes
– If we don’t go into her room to soothe her pretty quickly she’ll stir or talk herself into a full wake
– She seems to get her best sleep between 4-7a.m.

My husband and I are EXHAUSTED. This has been going on every night for over a year. She doesn’t ask to sleep in our room, but we’ve thought about moving her into our room. We aren’t sure what good that would do except that we wouldn’t have to get out of bed to help her.

Your tips and feedback are appreciated!


Please forgive any spelling errors. I wrote this post on my iPhone.

My top 5 New Year’s Resolutions Plans

Contests, New posts, Personal, ,

I don’t do resolutions because history (my history at least) proves that 90% of them aren’t followed through with in the next 364 days… by me.
However, I have plans and below are 5 that I feel very confident that I will follow through with.. (hopefully my husband will follow through with #3 and #5) for me.

Here are the top 5 resolutions (plans) on my list:

1. Get over my serious case of Germophobia. I have to stop Lysoling my jeans and accept that I can wear them twice before washing them.

2. Don’t stress over keeping the house clean. My visitors don’t come over to tour my house, they come to visit… I hope.

3. Get new carpet for the downstairs den/playroom.

4. Spend more time out of the house with the kids.. going fun places (not the grocery store).

5. Get and keep the garage cleaned out long enough so that I can park in it for a few days at least. (will trade ad space on AtlantaMoms.com for a professional organizer!)

Well, those are my top 5 resolutions plans for 2010. What are yours?
Tell me what your top 1-3 resolutions (or plans) are and you’ll be entered to win a $15 Amazon.com gift certificate!
Just leave your list in the comments below.
Tweet (re-tweet) this post then leave your Twitter ID in a second comment to get two extra entries.

Read my ‘blogger/work resolutions’ coming soon!

Have a HAPPY and HEALTHY 2010!

A List: Things my kids use everyday

New posts, Personal, ,
All posts in this series:

Here is a list of things my kids use everyday or almost everyday:

  • Nalgene Sippy cups (my 3 year old, not my 10 year old!) – See this
  • The kids wear mostly Old Navy, Gap, and Children’s Place clothes
  • My 10 year old uses a Philips Sonicare toothbrush made for kids – See this
  • My son uses a Compaq or Toshiba laptop, whichever he prefers that day. They are both old. He’s not that spoiled!
  • tatutina dishware – See this

Things my kids use often

  • Zoocchini dishware – See this
  • Tots and Tails Designs baby blanket – My 3 year old carries these everywhere.. literally
  • Britax car seat – See this
  • Nurf guns – See this

I took a whole week off! Back to life now

Holiday, Personal, , ,

I realized a few minutes ago that it’s Saturday which means that I took a whole week off of work, a first in many years. Even while on vacation I usually have my laptop with me, answer emails, write posts on The Mommy Insider and my other site Atlanta Moms, and I have even been known to take phone calls while on vacation. It felt really good to not do any of the above while in Florida last week.

Exactly one week ago the kids and I and my sister drove to Orlando to visit and celebrate Christmas with my Dad and step-mom. We had an incredible time. Between ice skating and an amazing trip to Disney World we relaxed at their house which has a beautiful lake small enough that we swim in (no alligators) during our Spring and Summer visits.

Today I am going to extend my vacation a little bit by spending time cleaning out my car and I am going to go through the kids gifts so I can actually see what they got. Not to mention cleaning, laundry, etc.

Then when things settle down later in the afternoon (am I kidding myself?), I am going to transfer all of my files and programs from my MacBook White to my new MacBook Pro that I haven’t use since I got it from my Dad Tuesday! Talk about torture! It’s so pretty and shiny and I am a total geek so not using a brand new super duper laptop is extremely difficult for me.

Have a great weekend and I’m going to put some photographs of our Orlando vacation up soon so subscribe to my (almost) daily RSS feed or weekly newsletter to be notified when I update the site.

Alicia

What do your kids really play with?

New posts, Toys, ,

Do you spend money on toys and games only to find them in the garage a couple of weeks later?

For example, my 10 year old son really wanted Bakugan. He has several Bakugan and played with them quite a bit for about a week. Since then he doesn’t know where more than 2 of them are and when I ask him to get them out and play with them he says they are not fun to play with without a friend.
My 3 year old plays with toys, games and arts & crafts a little more than my 10 year old but switches between them often. She’s 3 so I understand that’s normal.
My thought is that my 10 year old has too many toys and can’t decide which toy or game to play with so he’d rather sit and stare and the ceiling, roll a ball, or torment his sister.
Oh, he did play with his slinky for a long period of time this morning. A grand total of about 40 minutes over the course of 4 hours.
Ugh, it’s so frustrating having to constantly remind a 10 year old that he has toys to play with!
Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate that the kids love rolling a ball, coloring, and reading. The good thing is that when I pull the toy or game out a month later it’s like new and they play with it for a while again. When I think about it, the toys they really wanted are worth the money spent because they are like new over and over again. It’s just that I thought the kids would stick with a toy they begged for longer than a week. I think I was wrong!

So what do your kids play with regularly? Toys (what toys), games, blocks, food (ha!), other something else?
Alicia, The Mommy Insider Editor