Let's do some good...

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I woke up this morning with a fire in my heart.

It seems like tragedy has been waiting for us around every corner this year. Doesn't it? Whether inflicted by humans or nature.

And it never fails, each and every time I have felt so helpless. I cry. I pray. But I want to physically help–somehow.

So after seeing even more images of the devastation in Oklahoma this morning, I put my foot down. 

I can help. We can all help. And instead of feeling helpless, and just staring at pictures from the media, I want to challenge us all...

Just think: what would it look like if we all donated $10 to Red Cross right now. 

I'm not just saying that. Really, stop and think of the good we could do: The medical materials we could supply, the food we could buy and the comfort we could send. I've never donated before, but I am starting today.

If you are reading this on a mobile device (or even if you aren't) it's as simple as texting "REDCROSS" to 90999. If you are on your computer, you can donate here.

I know I sound like a commercial, but really, let's not wait another minute.

Make a donation and then, spread the word. Keep it going.

Let's make Oklahoma the good we do this day.

P.S. Here is a phenomenal resource about talking to your kids after a tornado tragedy. And please, please, please, talk to your families today about making a tornado (or natural disaster) plan for your household.

Sports Month: Toddler Tennis

I came across this idea when gathering inspiration for my post over at Modern Parents Messy Kids. It looked like so much fun, we decided to try it for ourselves.

I also figured that, slightly tweaked, it was the perfect opportunity to teach Isaiah about tennis (great for our sports month). He's still a little young to understand, but he got the idea nonetheless.

It's amazing how much fun a toddler can have with a balloon. Isn't it? And Mom too, for that matter.

All we did was hot glue two paper plates (we used Chinette for sturdier "racquets") to two popsicle sticks.  Next time we'll probably use sturdier popsicle sticks as well, since ours came detached after about 20 minutes of play. (It was just as much fun without the racquet handles, though.)

Isaiah giggled the entire time. So I'd definitely say it was a hit. (A hit. Get it? I crack myself up...)

A few days off

I'm taking a few days off from the blog. Mostly because Isaiah is spending some time at Grandma and Grandpa's (which means some much needed rest for this tired Mommy).

We'll be back on Monday, and I already have some fun sports activities up my sleeve.

Besides resting, I'm going to spend some time organizing around here (nesting much?)...especially in the nursery. We're keeping it mostly the same, but adding a few personal touches for this new little personality.

And in the spirit of organization, here's a free printable from A Pair of Pears. I love their site, and their designs. And shoot, their love of lists too. :)

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend, and see you Monday!

via a Pair of Pears

Happy Mommy's Day

It's been a wonderful Mommy's Day here at the Aars house  (thanks to my wonderful husband and sweet little boy). I love them so much, sometimes I think my heart might explode.

I love holidays that remind us to hug and kiss on our family. They are the best kind, aren't they? I vote we have more of them.

 (I call this picture, "Baubles and a Baby Bump")

I'm sitting here tonight counting my blessings, and dreaming of what this new little one will be like... how our world will change, and what adventures await us.

Oh little one, there is so much love for you here. I just can't wait for you to get here and claim it. 

But stay put a while longer, alright? Our love will just be growing in the meantime...

Here's hoping every Mommy out there (whether your children are two-legged or four-legged) knows just how much they are loved today!

Sports Month: Oreo Baseball Bites

How cute are these? Baseball is Isaiah's favorite sport so far, so I wanted to try and incorporate the game into a special treat.



Enter my mid-aisle Oreo pregnancy craving, and the "Oreo Baseball Bite" idea was born.

Really, how easy is this?

I just twisted the Oreos in half (and maaaybe I ate all the other halves all by myself), and then used the tiniest bit of red icing to make the stitching.

I love making food fun for Isaiah. It never fails. He lights up every single time.

Sports Month: Tin Can Bowling (plus 25 other sports activities!)

If you want oodles of ways to play with sports all month long, I'm over at Modern Parents Messy Kids today sharing a few...

I'm also sharing our Tin Can Bowling project, which was cheap, easy, and a great little evening activity.

We'll be posting more of our sports activities over the next few weeks, but if you wanted a jump start, then by all means...head on over and check it out!

Big Boy Bed (and other milestones)

It was a big weekend for us at the Aars house. Isaiah made the leap from crib to big boy bed.

It's the first big milestone for him. And truth be told, it was much harder on Mommy than it was on Isaiah.

I spent the entire week leading up to it wiping away tears as I tucked him into his crib each night. I'd stare down at his sweet face, desperately trying to capture a mental image I could keep in my heart forever.

As for Isaiah? He couldn't wait to try out his new bed. And he still gets excited every night (and nap time too, for that matter.)

It's just so hard to see my baby (who's not such a baby) growing up on me. But why is that?

When you really stop and think about it, it doesn't make any sense.

As a parent, our number one goal is to raise up our children to be kind, respectful, independent, and godly adults.

(No pressure or anything.)

And we only have a short window of time to complete that lofty objective.

Simply put, we are stewards of our children, and they are only on loan to us.

So why do we get so surprised, so hoodwinked, and so hurt that they are growing up before our eyes? Isn't that the goal?

Really...moving Isaiah to a big boy bed was just as much a milestone for me as it was for him. It's the mark of a job well done, so far anyway. We've still got a long way to go.

But it got me thinking...

As Moms, we should learn to celebrate the milestones as much as we mourn them, if not more.

In any other position in life, you celebrate the victories; the new account won, the deadline beat, or the project completed.

So why would we not do the same?

Answer: Because we love our jobs so much, it actually hurts us to see time pass us by.

(Now that's a dream job).

But let's face it. Our job is tough, too. And we need to celebrate the wins.

In theory, we may be have the only job on the planet who's main goal is to prepare for our own obsolescence. So with every milestone, we actually take a step closer to our success.

That's the way I'm choosing to look at it, anyway.

Don't get me wrong, I still tear up when I walk by his empty crib. I mean, I'm only human right?

But at least now, I'm smiling as I wipe away those tears. (And secretly high-fiving Moms everywhere...)

Batter Up, it's Sports Month!

Cue the ballpark organ...it's sports month!

I'm particularly excited about this month's theme, well, because it poses a great challenge for me. Let's just say sports, or playing sports rather, isn't really my forte.

I'm not terrible by any means. It's just never really been my thing. Now, take me to a live sporting event and I come alive. Just don't ask me to play.

There's a reason that Isaiah has been exposed to more art than sports around here, and her name is Allison Aars.

But that all changes this month. I am SO excited to teach him about baseball (I played softball as a girl), basketball, football and more.  He already has a knack for throwing a football, and he is so inquisitive about any sport that he sees.

(Don't you just love the enthusiasm of a two-year-old? It's like everything they see, absorb, or learn is their new favorite thing. Oh how I wish we could keep that enthusiasm throughout our lives.)

But the real reason I'm excited about sports month, is the opportunity to teach sports the right way, the first time. To me, 'sports' isn't just about baseball, basketball, and football...it's about mountain biking, dancing, swimming, and so much more.

It's not a boy thing or a girl thing. And it's not just for professionals or those who excel.

Sports should be about attitude, compassion, exploration.

And FUN.

If I can teach that to my son this month, while having fun along the way? Then that's a win.

All that matters

We have a new tradition, Isaiah and I.  Every night, when I put him to bed, I scratch his tummy and ask what his favorite part of the day was. He usually starts by mumbling an odd word or two, but give him a minute and his little mind will unfold right before your eyes.

It amazes me, even at two years of age, how much he absorbs, remembers, and recites.

This weekend marks the end of nature month, so instead of asking him about his day I decided to ask him about his favorite part of the month. I figured he wouldn't understand, and would go right on talking about his day...

But without a moment of hesitation, he began to talk. And talk. And talk.

And what he said nearly knocked me off my feet.

(Note: He calls himself "baby" and it's just too darn cute for me to correct)

Isaiah: "Oh. Well...baby went on nature walk, and saw birds nest. And snake. And baby planted flowers in garden. Mommy and baby made rain with water. And feed birds. Oh, make paper too. Mommy read Hungry Caterpillar and Quiet Cricket.  And Grandfather Twilight...."

I couldn't believe my ears.  I mean, he's TWO!

He went on and on, and on.  And pretty soon I started to cry.

Sometimes it's easy to question whether these theme months are more for me, or for him. They teach him about the world around us so effectively. But they also give me a creative outlet, and a sense of structure that so many stay at home Mommies tend to crave.

But it wasn't until tonight that I realized how much these little activities really mean to him. I could see it in his eyes as he mumbled on about each and every project we've done together.

And in that moment I realized...

That's all that matters. How much they mean to him. How much they mean to me.

They're not activities. They are memories–stamped on our hearts.

And there's nothing else I'd rather do than make memories with my baby boy.

Goodbye, nature month. It's been fun. But I can't wait to see what memories next month has in store.

Nature Month: Bird House Feeder

One of our nature month projects this week was making a homemade "bird house" feeder.

Isaiah and I have been talking about birds, and how they are a part of nature we can witness every day.

Aside: This project was very special to me, because my Grandpa used to love watching the birds. When I was little, he helped me make my very first bird house. So somehow, making this sweet little bird feeder channeled my inner 6-year old and brought back floods of memories.

In fact, one of the last memories I shared with him was looking out his hospital window and naming all the birds we could see. I love that these simple little projects, like making a bird house or a bird feeder, really do make memories to last a lifetime. And now I get to make those very same memories with my baby boy.

Whew. I digress.

This is another one of those "seems-like it's-harder-than-it-is" projects. The whole thing took us about twenty minutes, which is perfect for a two-year-old attention span. And once it's done, it still gives hours of joy.

WHAT YOU'LL NEED:

(This recipe makes 1-2 feeders, so just double or triple if you are making more)

Ingredients
1/4 cup flour
3-4 tbsp water
1/2 packet gelatin
1 tbsp corn syrup
1 cup birdseed

Additional
1 straw
wax paper
cookie sheet
cookie cutter/mold
twine

First, mix all of the ingredients together until birdseed is coated evenly. Then let your toddler play with said mixture (very important step).



Next, spray your cookie cutter with cooking spray, and gently fill with the birdseed mixture. Pack it in as tightly as it will go, without overflowing. (I used a wooden spoon to pack mine down)

Pick where you'd like to hang your feeder, and using your straw, poke a hole all the way through.



Leave your straw in place and let dry for 2-3 hours. After drying, gently press the molded birdseed out onto wax paper, and let dry for several more hours (overnight is a good bet).



When it's good and dry...tie on your twine, hang, and watch the birds dine. We added a tag to ours, you know, for hospitality. ;)

Homemade Bathtub paint

We're diverting from nature month for this one...

Our bath time had been a little ho-hum lately, so I've been looking for ways to add some fun. I'd heard making your own bath tub paint was easy, so I decided to try it for myself.

Honestly, the recipes that are out there vary widely, so I wound up making a few mixtures of my own.

I made two kinds of paint: corn starch paint and shaving cream paint.

For the corn starch paint, I used:

-2 tbsp corn starch (I wanted my paint to be a little thicker)
-5 drops food coloring (I wanted my paint to be vibrant)
-1/2 tsp baby shampoo ('no tears' was a must for me since Isaiah still rubs his eyes)
-1 tsp water

And for the shaving cream, get ready for the most complicated paint recipe of all time:

-shaving cream
-food coloring

Really, no measurements were truly needed for any of the above. I eyed everything until the color and consistency were what I desired.

Plus, all were ingredients I had on hand, and that's so much better than buying the $15.99 store-bought version, in my opinion. We also used our old baby food trays, which were perfect since they came with a lid.

The verdict? Isaiah loved it. We spent about an hour in the bath, and I'm not gonna lie....tears ensued when it was time to vacate.

(Sorry for the lack of pictures. Call me over-cautious. I may be the only one who thinks it's odd to post pictures of my child in the bathtub. I mean, it's one thing when they're babies. But let's be honest. Their friends will find those pictures someday and post them on Facebook, I'm sure of it.)

I would change one thing for next time: skip the blue corn starch paint. Everything washed completely clean, except for the faintest hint of blue in some areas of our grout. It's so slight, no one would ever notice but me. But worth the warning just in case. 

All in all, fantastic for bath time, or even better for a rainy day activity.

Isaiah has been asking for "more painting?" every single night since...

Nature Month: Fingerprint bluebonnets

I just had to teach Isaiah about bluebonnets. I wouldn't be a true Texan if I didn't, right Dad? We haven't had a chance to see any in person yet this year, but before we ventured out I thought we would make some of our own. Perfect for nature month.



I decided to make this a fun "Mommy and Baby" project, by using both of our fingerprints.

(And yes, I still call him my baby)

I got the project started while Isaiah was napping, that way my prints would have time to dry. I used my ruler to draw several green lines (using a green sharpie) and then added my finger prints sparingly, to make sure we'd have room for his.



I chose to use blue paint for my prints, and purple paint for Isaiah's.

As soon as he woke up, we pulled out the purple paint and got to work. I taught him how to use one finger (and that's major restraint for a two-year-old) then we added his prints throughout the page. I absolutely love how it turned out...



Next stop, a real Texas bluebonnet field!