Is that a chipped tooth!

Jaylen's smile is crazy contagious and after this little photo-sesh of  him, I was looking through all the pictures and I saw this little chip in his tooth. I'm not bummed because it doesn't seem to bother him right now. I will definitely get it fixed once he gets all his baby teeth in considering he will have them for some time before they all fall out. But for now my little man has a chipped tooth that's kinda cute and suits him.

DIY Oneies

So I had a bunch of white oneies that I bought on clearance for like 50c...of course I had to get them. So the other day I decided to do something with them besides let them collect dust. And I came up with this! I did two others but he hasn't worn them yet but when he does I'll post about them and link them back here. So this was really simple, I already had the paint and I just used some fabric paint and a paint brush and I love chevrons so I made it kid friendly and here it is :) Do try it yourself it's super easy and really fun to do.

Hand Eye Coordination

This fun little activity I came up with ended up not going to well and Jaylen just wanted to knock it down but what can I expect. So basically I put some spaghetti in a sponge and fruit loops and cheerios in a basket. I showed him how to do it and he caught on and did really good, so this is a really simple and fun activity to do with your toddler and it's a great snack for them too!

TV time.

How much TV time should or shouldn't a toddler be watching?? This will forever be a debate, I honestly did'n't want Jaylen watching any TV until the age of 3 but how can I expect him to never see it if I watch it. So I've come to the decision to let him watch select shows. Although it's mainly this show above "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse" he loves it too and we had yogurt that day to go with it after his nap.

I've also come up with a good schedule for him to be able to watch TV so that it's not constantly on. He watches Mickey Mouse in the morning and after his nap. So just twice a day but not everyday and most of the time it's on he doesn't sit there the whole time and watch it, he mostly likes the songs. In a way I'm doing good with him not watching as much all in all. In between breakfast and nap and nap and bed time I will have this music channel on, which I love because it's just a description of the song and a black screen so there is no action going on, on the TV. If I'm not listening to music, which is usually between nap and bed time I'll watch one or two of my own shows.

So as far as TV goes I'm doing pretty good with keeping it at a minimal compared to other kids these days where the TV is the baby sitter and I'm glad that I can't get Jay to cuddle up with me and watch more than 10 minutes of a movie...well some times :)

The Big Move.

So I've been planning this move for some time now and I've definitely made a final decision on where and when I want to move. I'm officially moving to beautiful Syracuse, New York right in the heart of the city. I decided on NY because of many reasons, one it's still on the east cost so I'll be a short train and a super short plane ride away from my family still here in Florida. Also I've always wanted to live in NY but when I was little I always thought of just the big city in NY and no other parts of it. Now that I'm slightly older and wiser I know there's more to NY than just Manhattan. I mainly miss the seasons, ha living in Florida there are none and it's so hot all the time and I feel it sort of limits the things I want to do with Jay especially outdoor play. And I just love the feel of Syracuse and the historic aspect of it, I just feel it defines how and want to live and I get the vibe that it's just me when I look at videos and pictures of that city...I hope that makes sense. It's just that feeling that the boot fits there better than it does for me in FL. 

So now as far as when I know it will be next year I don't have exact dates or months right now but I do know it will be, between August thru. October. I'll be posting here and there about home decor inspiration because I of course already have that planned out because I know the apt. I want and I can visualize everything I want in there and where.. a little weird and obsessive you might say but I call it dreaming! Stay tuned folks!

The Apt. I'm going to be staying in!

Getting a Toddler to eat...

More than just that pizza in his hand, hot dogs, nuggets and other not so substance filled foods. Now this isn't easy to do trust me because sometimes you'll still have to give those foods to get to another and much better alternative. For example I gave Jay that pizza but after it I gave him peaches which had been sitting in the fridge for quite sometime because he didn't ever want to try them. 

Also another great way to introduce foods if your toddler understands rewards and responds to praise well is to have the favorite treat in sight but let them know they have to eat what's in front of them first. This might seem a little advanced for a toddler Jaylen's age but he loves rewards and praise. Example we had soft tacos the other night and he was adamant on not eating it but I had his juice in sight and he wanted that first, but I just simply told him he wouldn't get it if he didn't eat. Yes, these took a few minutes and some whining but he eventually ate it and as soon as he did I praised him with claps and smiles and good jobs and he loves that. Therefore getting him excited to eat to receive praise and after a few bites he got a sip of juice and then right back to the food.

So it really works and I've added 6 news food to his diet and along with all the praise he really likes the food too, so I know he's not just eating for the reward. Try it and see! Good luck :)

Cluster Feeding?

At almost a year and a half of age Jaylen is still breastfed exclusively on the left boob, along with many other big kids foods, he's just never had cows milk. Now I'd love to keep this up until age 2 at the max and 18 months at min. Just really depending on him because he'll sometimes want to feed constantly hints the title of this post or barely at all. So I'm picking up on the vibes of him completely not wanting to at all anymore these days.

Back to the "cluster feeding" topic, now I really didn't know much about it myself until I saw a post about it on an FB mom page I follow and she mentioned it in the post. So curious ole me went to google and looked it up. It was a simple explanation that simply said something along the lines of when a child constantly wanted to be on the boob, hungry or not. (not word for word, so don't quote me) But at first I was like oh...nah my son doesn't do that. Then the next day it hit me! Jaylen totally does that, duh! Just as depicted ever so cutely in this photo :)

Jay's New Look

I will immediately say all of the clothes in these mini collections can be found here. All though I will be purchasing some of these things many of them are for just an idea of what I want to get for him and not all are linked to a store site but maybe a personal blog or tumblr page or the item isn't available anymore. That's why the above link is provided so you can explore everything I've pinned  here and more at once. Enjoy my mini idea book!

           Shirts

     Jackets & Assecories + 1 Shirt :)

   

      Shoes

      Pants/Shorts

     Sweaters

Forward Facing

Jaylen made it to 16 months 1 week rear facing in this car seat. I'm very proud of myself for keeping him rear facing for so long but I do wish they had seats that could safely go for longer. I had originally planned on 2 years max 18 months min but only if he didn't grow so fast :(

I definitely had a bitter sweet feeling in turning him around because I really wanted to keep him rear facing for my estimated ages. At the same time he loves it and so do I and this really shows how much he's growing up... another bitter sweet moment there.

Overall I'm happy because although he's forward facing earlier than I wanted, I still know he's safe because this car seat is amazing as I mentioned before.

Happy Labor Day!

 Our day started off slow but it ended up picking up and went really well. As you can see we went to the park, I hunted for somewhere to go as soon as I woke up. I found this park called Dr. Phillips Community Park and it's one of my face out of the other two he's been to. The equipment is so modern and funky and so different... I mean nothing compared to what I had growing up and they do such a great job sectioning off the little kids and older kids. But we still got on the big kid stuff! They also had this run through water park area that I was most excited to take him to but I guess earlier some kid pooped in it and they shut it down for the day  :( & =P

Then after that we headed to the movies to see Brave which still happened to be out 2 months later.. but hey I won't question it. But he really enjoyed that and I just love taking him to the movies because he loves them so much. And Lastly for the day was the beaut of a sunset that I just had to capture...it just makes you want to say ahh :) I hope you all had a great Labor Day and many more to come!