Activities For Kids On A Budget

We hear it everywhere: having a baby is beautiful, and gorgeous, and demanding and overwhelming all at once. And yes, it is all those things, but something else it is? EXPENSIVE!  From having to buy more diapers than the number of surgeries on Joan Rivers, to the million activities they start undertaking as they grow older, a little human can take a major toll on your wallet!

However, as they grow they need to see and explore and discover and learn, so cutting out on their activities when the budget is small isn't a very good idea. It is during those times that parents need to make use of all their creative neurons and find dynamic, fun activities to do with their little ones without breaking the bank. This list I am providing below isn't exclusive to parents, though! If you are babysitting for a relative or friend, or just want to do something fun with the kiddo in your life (and even if you do have spare cash), here you can find some inspiration for different activities to do with them.

1. Go hunting for funnily shaped rocks/leaves/etc: Go with them to a nearby park (or even your backyard) and have a contest to see who can find the funniest rock or leaf or anything else you see there. Then try and see what it is shaped like (perhaps a dinosaur? a car? a bird?).

We are trying to find a rock shaped as another "plane" so mommy can fly too.

2. The classic fort: An oldie but a goodie! Make a fort in your living room out of pillows, blankets and rugs. If it is dark, grab flashlights and pretend to be camping there.
3. Create your own game of memory: With some paper or cardboard and some markers, a basic game of memory can be easily created. Make an even number of flash cards out of the paper, draw a simple picture (twice), face them down and spread them evenly on the floor and let the child turn them over and match them.
4. Prepare a concert: Go into your kitchen and grab an assortment of pots, pans, lids and utensils. Create different songs using them as your musical instruments. (Just try and not do it at night time - your neighbors might hate you after that!).

We didn't do a concert with this potholder, but we did have a puppet show!

5. Balloon Characters: This is a favorite! Firstly, make some papier-maché: cut some long strips of newspaper; make the paste with 2 parts of water, 1 part flour and a teaspoon of salt. Paint a layer of the paste on the newspaper strips and stick them on the balloon, applying even strips until you've built up a good, strong layer. Once all the strips are on the balloon, cover it with yet another coat of paste. Leave to dry for a couple of hours or if you can, overnight would be preferable because you want to make absolutely sure that the papier-maché has dried. Once it has, apply a base coat of white paint, and then enjoy painting all kinds of different designs and faces on it!
6. Mad Libs: There are hundreds of free printables on the Internet for hilarious mad libs for you to fill out with your kid. To make it even better, why not create your own version? One of you asks the question and the other one answers, and then read the final result. Then reverse the roles.
7. Bean-bag contests: A big hole in a cardboard box and some bean bags provide the setting for an awesome tossing contest, where the goal is to get the bean bag through the hole.
8. Have an election: Grab all of the child's stuffed animals (or cars, or dolls, you get the idea) and have an election to determine who shall be the Official President Of Stuffed Toys. Each of you can put forward your arguments as to why each toy shall/shall not be elected and then decide who will hold this very important title.

Turns out Mickey won this one because "he is the only one wearing pants". Fair enough!

9. Make a mud picture gallery: Make some mud with water and dirt, grab some cardboard or boxes that you aren't using, an old brush or toothbrush, and start painting!
10. Make Soup: Fill a container with water, go to your backyard/garden/nearby park and start finding "ingredients" to add to your soup. The mud from the previous point works wonders too!
11. Create a little house/room in a shoebox: Again, the more creative the better. Start filling the shoebox up with what you find: an old cloth can be made into curtains, for instance; a bed can be created by cutting a small piece of cardboard or with an old plastic container. A kid's imagination is unstoppable, so let them find ways to add elements to the room.
12. I spy clouds: If it's a nice day, take them out and play "I Spy" with the clouds. Find as many silly and quirky shapes with the clouds as you can and encourage them to do the same.
13. Good ol' time capsule: The shoebox becomes useful once again! Find stuff around the house that can be stored to be found "hundreds of years later".
14. Works of art: Dried noodles and popsicle sticks can be made into houses, picture frames, and a zillion more things! Ask what he/she wants to make, and help them create it out of it.
15. Create a construction site: If your kid has an assortment of diggers, trucks and cars, all you will need to create an awesome construction site is a big cardboard box that serves as the site, and diverse props such as sand, rocks, grass and maybe even some mud to create some pretend cement.

You can easily recreate this in a big cardboard box!

16. An alphabet tour: Perhaps I was way too nerdy, but I loved this as a kid! The idea is that you play with your kid to see who is the first one to find an object that starts with the letter 'a', then 'b', 'c' and so on. Educational and plenty fun!
17. Hopscotch: Another oldie but a goodie! If you don't have chalk, you can create the hopscotch out of lined-up pencils or whatever else you have on hand (which makes it great if you are indoors, too!).
18. Egg race: The classic! If you don't want to waste any eggs, little balls will do too. Put them on a spoon and race away!
19. Toilet paper rolls: Oh the possibilities! Binoculars and telescopes, for example. Or why not some cute bunnies or perhaps a castle? I think my favorite one, however, is this awesome car!
20. The Dress-up Box: Gipsies, fairies, pirates... they can all come to life with a few garments and a lot of imagination!

These are only some ideas that have provided hours of fun with my kiddo without having to spend any significant amount of money. The best part is I found that these activities aren't only cheap and easy, they are also very educational as they encourage lots of creative thinking!

On the next rainy day, stuck at home, be sure to come back to this list instead of gluing your kid to a screen and I guarantee you'll both have a blast!

Tips For Moving With A Baby/Toddler

I always say that I struggle with change. That I like the status quo and drastic changes make me really, really antsy. But then I start thinking about it, and at least how things have turned out, my life has been quite the opposite. I have lived in six cities and three different countries, have moved houses TEN times in the last four years, and in the same period of time have done three big overseas moves (and plan on doing another one this year!). Whoa. Just writing that got me a little exhausted. So I don't think that exactly classifies as "reluctance to change", does it?

Now, however, I am definitely planning on settling for a good while. I have a three year old and I believe that stability is important growing up. The little dude has been with us in two of those three big moves I was talking about above, and he is about to go in his third one before his fourth birthday. I am not going to say that I am a bit of an expert when it comes to traveling with young kids; you are welcome to come to that conclusion on your own  ;-)

Hold their hands through the whole process. A strong sense of security is really all they need.

I know I covered one tip here, but traveling (and specially moving overseas!) with kids involves much more than just knowing what to pack for the flight.

Kids are much more adaptable than grown-ups but they also might have a hard time understanding why all of a sudden their life looks completely different. This has been key when we've moved before: ensuring that the transition is as smooth as possible and that he doesn't get overwhelmed by all the "new-ness". One thing we do a few weeks (and maybe even months) before the big day, is start telling him that we are going to move to an awesome place where he will be able to meet lots of new people and do lots of cool stuff. That usually gets him excited to go and see this "new place" we are talking about, rather than anxious.

The first time we moved with him, he had just turned two. He didn't really grasp the concept that Grandma and Grandpa weren't going to be just around the corner from us anymore. However, we got to a wonderful home where his other Grandma and Grandpa ensured he felt comfortable and loved and happy. It was pretty stress-free.

I also make sure that we don't implement any other "big" changes right before or after the move. This would be asking too much of their abilities to understand that their environment and circumstances have changed. Case in point: Tommy was ready to be toilet trained right before our second big move, but we decided not to start properly training him until he was settled in the new place and used to his new life.

Getting used to a new place might result in your child acting out a bit. They might become more needy or clingy, and that is normal. You need to arm yourself with lots of patience: It is not easy for them to suddenly be pulled away from what they had known for most of their lives. Give them the time they need to adapt; they will eventually.

For me, providing an environment where the child feels secure is paramount. Reassure him that you are there, that you are not going anywhere without him. Sure, he misses some people, but at least his parents, - a general term I am using to describe the only people he really, truly needs; each family is different- are there for him, and that suffices.

Oh, and one last tip in case you are still worrying about the flight? be totally awesome and do your own version of this. Fellow passengers will be eternally grateful to you!

Two Months In Snapshots: My iPhone Photos

As I get older and wiser (?) I find myself kicking 15-year-old me for spending so much time obsessing over who was dating who, and not doing some actually useful things. Photography is definitely one of them. Now that I have a kid, I realize just how valuable it is to keep beautiful memories and to have something to remind you of all the lovely moments life is full of. Many of them and might seem insignificant at the time, but their true meaning only becomes clear much later, when we look back on them. That is why for 2014, my main goals are to enjoy the little things in life more, and to take a lot more photos of those things, so that I never fall in the trap of forgetting how wonderful life can be.

I don't take my "big-girl" camera wherever I go (I really should! naughty girl!), so I have started snapping away with my iPhone a lot more than I used to. These are some of the photos that I've taken with it in 2014:

1. My little brother, who left yesterday on a year-long exchange to China.  //  2. A 17th Century castle in the city of Cartagena.  //  3. A beautiful sunset close to where I live.  //  4. Tommy with one of my very best friends (whom he calls his aunt) and her boyfriend.

 

5. Me as a toddler. My mom sent it to me last week saying: "OMG! You look just like Tommy!". I showed it to Tommy, and he wouldn't believe me it wasn't him!  //  6. Another picture I took during that gorgeous sunset this week.  //  7. Another pic of Cartagena, where we went for a little roadtrip this weekend.  //  8. The Caribbean Sea in Cartagena.  //  9. I was walking around town and saw these two gorgeous ladies sitting on the side of the road, and couldn't help but take a picture of them through the fence of the park.

All photos have been taken by me with my iPhone (except, obviously, my toddler one). I have started using the Afterlight app to edit them, and love it so far!

I was never very good at this "taking lots of photos" thing, but I am quite digging it now... and although iPhone photos aren't the best quality, they are easy and practical when I don't have my proper, bulky camera around. So far so good in keeping my new year's resolutions! (Far better than the "lose 10 pounds" of last year!).

Friday At Home (Or New Parent) Playlist

Source

When you become a parent, Friday nights are pretty much confined to the house. You can't just go out and party every week, and on the odd day that you have someone to look after your kid, the thought of having to wake up with him at 6:00 am, with the worst hangover, is enough to stop you in your tracks. Since stay-at-home Friday nights become the norm, you are going to want to vary it every once in a while, and that's how you end up with two kinds of Fridays: the ones where you just want to chill out, open a bottle (or two) of Rosé and have a nice meal before watching a movie with your partner. And then you have the ones when you really feel like going out but can't, so you invite some friends over, and get in "faux-party" mode.

That is what prompted me to develop two separate playlists: one for the relaxing mode and the other for partying mode, to really help set the mood and make us feel a little better that our Fridays have pretty much been spent within four walls for the last three years. So this is what we have been listening too lately, depending on what kind of Friday it is:


CHILL-OUT-FRIDAY PLAYLIST:

• It's time (Imagine Dragons)
• Royals (Lorde)
• Fast Car (Tracy Chapman)
• The City (The 1975)
• How Long Will I Love You (Ellie Goulding)
• Can't Remember To Forget You (Shakira feat. Rihanna)
• The Man (Aloe Blacc)
• Not Giving In (Rudimental)
• Ready For Anything (Landon Austin)
• Make It To Me (Sam Smith)
• Little Talks (Of Monsters And Men)
• Give Me Love (Uncle Jed)
• This Year (Meghan Tonjes)
• Please Don't Say You Love Me (Gabrielle Aplin)
• Just Give Me A Reason (Pink)
• No Ordinary Thing (Op Shop)
• Cool Me Down (The Black Seeds)
• Viva La Vida (Coldplay)
• Somebody Loves You (Betty Who)

PARTY-FRIDAY PLAYLIST:

• DJ Got Us Fallin' In Love (Usher feat. Pitbull)
• Timber (Pitbull feat. Ke$ha)
• Wake Me Up (Avicii)
• Don't You Worry Child (Swedish House Of Mafia)
• Red Lights (Tiësto)
• Hey Porsche (Nelly)
• Feel This Moment (Pitbull feat. Christina Aguilera)
• Under Control (Calvin Harris)
• Take Me Home (Cash Cash feat. Bebe Rexha)
• Thank You (MKTO)
• Without You (David Guetta feat. Usher)
• Wild Ones (Flo Rida feat. Sia)
• I Love It (Icona Pop)
• Good Time (Owl City & Carly Rae Jepsen)
• I Could Be The One (Nicky Romero & Avicii)
• Just One Last Time (David Guetta)
• Dance Again (Jennifer Lopez feat. Pitbull)
• Titanium (David Guetta feat. Sia)

What do you like to listen to on those Fridays when you find yourself at home?

Toddler Lookbook: 2014 Edition

Hey there!

As you know, I have this little rad man in my life. Also, I am not very good at taking lots of pictures (I forget, mostly!), and decided to change that this year (I guess that qualifies as a resolution?). So I started snapping away some pictures of him, and this is the result. Without further ado, I present to you A Toddler Lookbook, encompassing his five "coolest" looks:


Look at this sneaky little fella! Feeling all badass in his Despicable Me t-shirt:

Just chillin' mom. Just chillin'...

Yes, I am half New Zealander. And yes, I have awesome Spider Man sneakers that light up:

Oh mom, if only you knew what I have in mind... ha ha ha!!

Some quality time with my mama...

Oh, Tommy, you are so delicious! I particularly love how much he enjoys the little things in life, and I am quite proud that it was so well portrayed in this lookbook! That truly is how he lives his life: smiling and laughing, and not taking himself too seriously.
I still have a great deal to learn from him...

Let me know if you liked this lookbook, and if you would like to see more every once in a while :)

10 DIY Holiday Gift Ideas For Kids

Kids can go crazy at Christmas. Some of them ask for a real pink pony, some ask for less specific stuff, such as something that can turn into anything at anytime (true story!). At this time of year, many parents find themselves in trouble trying to fulfill their kid's not-so-rational desires (and even less rational ideas of where to fund said desires from). To the rescue I come, with a list of links (because, let's face it, I'm not that creative) that will provide you with easy, affordable, and super awesome gift ideas for the littlies in your life:

1. DIY Art Easel: Remember the girl who wanted something that can turn into anything, her parents can get away with this! She wants it to be a pet? draw a little puppy! two minutes later she wants it to be the whole American Girl doll collection? erase and get drawing again. Solved!

2. DIY Heart Hair Clip: The ultimate stocking stuffer for little girls. We all love 'em.

3. Glitter Playdoh: You just can't go wrong with this.

4. DIY Train Table: This is a great way to upcycle some old furniture. My own son would adore this!

5. Buzz Lightyear Jetpack: Easy and cheap to make, and sure to be a hit!

6. Kitchen Set: What a great gift! And you get brownie points for upcycling instead of buying a plastic set!

7. Angry Bird Hooded Towels: Going for the win!

8. Kids Sleeping Bag: An outdoorsy kid will think this is the best present ever!

9. Glitter Flats: If you can only afford some basic, plain flats, make them an awesome gift by adding glitter to them, and make a girl's day!

10. Sock Monkey: Fisher Price toys are great and everything but they are so pricey and so much plastic! Nothing beats making the special kids in your life something from the heart, such as this adorable monkey!


So there you go. Kids are going to get a million toys from everyone, so why not be a little different and give them something more personal? I have already started making the easel for my son (photos to come), and will probably continue with the Buzz Lightyear Jetpack (the kid bloody loves it!). Not only will you probably save money, but those types of gifts are the most memorable ones.

Homemade Mickey Mouse Chocolate Chip Cookies

'Tis the season to eat yummy!

Baking cookies is one of those things that I hardly ever do, but when I do do it I love it, and end up wondering why I don't do it a lot more often. Of course, help from my fiancé is pretty much required, as God knows how they would turn out if he didn't (oh look at that, I know too: not too good!).

He is a second grade teacher, and last week we were discussing what he wanted to give his students as a little treat for the beginning of the holidays. I mentioned that baking some cookies would be nice, and that is exactly what we set out to do. I started researching recipes, and was finally inspired by these from Bakerella. They include pecans (which I hate) and sprinkles (which we didn't have at the time), so we didn't add those. We also substituted the chocolate wafers she used in that recipe for regular chocolate chips.

We made enough for his class and of course for us, and even though they didn't look particularly stunning, they tasted pretty darn good, so I was satisfied.

The ingredients you will need to make 24 of these are:

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1 cup softened butter
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 2 eggs
• Whatever additions you want to add (license to get creative here!). I only used m&m's and chocolate chips. You can use whatever you have handy.

First of all, mix the flour with the baking soda and the salt. Take the butter and the sugars and cream them together:

When the texture is fluffy, add the eggs and the vanilla, and combine. Take the flour, baking soda and salt mixture and add it. When combined, add your toppings:

Let it chill for about half an hour. Preheat your oven to 350 ºF (or 180 ºC). Scoop the cookies onto baking paper, and let them bake for around 15 minutes (but be careful! some ovens take shorter, like mine... I got a little distracted and almost burned them, so just make sure you are keeping an eye on them!).

After making the first batch, we realized we have a Mickey-shaped cookie cutter lying around (goes to show how often I bake cookies!) that we got when we went to Disneyland last year. Tommy was so excited to eat the "Mickey cookies"! They could have tasted awful and they still would have been a hit with him. Oh, and Sean informed me that his students loved them too, so I am definitely calling them a success!

***The reason there weren't too many m&m's may or may not be because I had a mouthful or two before baking***

All in all it was quite the nice Sunday afternoon activity. I was left with the desire to keep baking fun little treats during the Christmas time. It just feels like that is what super moms do, you know? I have the impression that all the great moms out there are great at baking (just me?) and I really want to incorporate that into our lives. Who knows? maybe I'll become the kind of mom that when my kid brings a friend over I just come out with baked goodies for them... I think that makes for great memories. And, well, if the cookies don't turn out that good, it makes for great stories, so what's there to lose, right?

Top 5: Things my toddler taught me

It is amazing to see how wise this little dude is

We have taught our toddler how to go potty. We have taught him how to speak, in both English and Spanish. We helped him learn to walk, and we have taught him to say please and thank you. However, I believe he has taught me far more important stuff in his three short years:

1. I am far from a perfect mom. I try really hard to be the best I can be, but I am still human, and I have made some mistakes. However, he is the most understanding little person, and very forgiving. He never rubs my past mistakes or shortcomings in my face. What a great trait to have! No one is perfect, nor should they be. Everyone makes mistakes, and the faster we learn that, the better. There is absolutely nothing to be gained from holding a grudge. We would be far happier people if we just learn to forgive and forget.

2. Tickle fights are the best kind to have. They can make you forget all your worries. Nothing is more effective at alleviating stress, and causes more laughs, than getting tickled by your toddler. Tickling him and hearing him laugh like crazy does the trick too.

3. He is completely mesmerized by the moon. Every night he can just sit and stare at it for hours (ok, that might be pushing it a bit... but you get the idea). It is one of the very few things that keeps him quiet and still for a fair bit of time. Of course, I have sat with him and stared at it, and learned that it is one of the best ways to relax. There is nothing really that can stop you from taking 1 or 2 minutes and just look into the night, and then carry on with your life. It has become a favorite ritual of ours.

4. Taking life too seriously is no fun. Life becomes much easier when you let go and burst out laughing when, for instance, your mom makes a duck face while putting makeup on.

5. There is absolutely no rule that says that we can't have dreams and beliefs that others would consider ridiculous or unrealistic. It is way more fun to believe that Mickey Mouse is truly there instead of a guy wearing a costume, isn't it? There is no harm in having dreams, and if no one else believes in them, it is more than enough if you do.

I can definitely say that with a kid, it has become easier for me (if not imperative) to put things into perspective. Prioritizing and time management are not a luxury, they are a must, and even though my life is crazy hectic 99% of the time, I always have very clear what is most important in my life.

Baby Tiggers and Brave Cowboys

It's that time of the year again!

This is going to be Tommy's first ever trick-or-treating. Well, technically, when he was 1 1/2 months old, we did dress him up as Tigger, but he wasn't so much trick-or-treating as sucking happily on his pacifier and sleeping. So this is the very first time he actually knows what is going on, and is looking forward to it. I was just going to dress him up in his Superman pajamas, since my ever-so-rational fiancé mentioned that it would be a waste to spend money on a costume for one day. And it's not like we are the best DIYer in the world to go ahead and make one. But the kid was just so excited and curious about this whole ordeal, that I couldn't stop myself when he stared wide-eyed at a Woody costume.

So yes, that is what he is this year: my adorable little cowboy, boots and all. We will probably have a very, very hard time convincing him to take it off, he is that thrilled.


Oh, and the prize for best/most awesome/most creative Halloween decoration of all times? Definitely goes to the team who submitted this epic depiction of Anna and Christian for their office pumpkin decorating contest:

Motherhood in Your Early Twenties

Girl goes on exchange to a strange country, where she knows absolutely no one. She is excited, thrilled, and a little nervous about what she'll encounter there. Girl sees boy on her very first day at university. Girl sits next to boy and introduces herself.

One month later: Girl is sick of her university accommodation and boy suggests she move in with him. She has never done anything this impulsive, this irrational, this exhilarating. She moves in three weeks later. Girl and Boy start falling hopelessly in love with each other.

Six months later: the pregnancy test comes back positive. Girl runs to tell Boy. Both of them are surprised, scared, happy, and a thousand more emotions at once. Boy decides he will move back with girl to her home country, 36 hours away by plane, which they ended up doing in the second trimester of the pregnancy.

Three years later: Boy proposes. Girl says yes. They start preparing the wedding, which doesn't take place until a year and a half later.

If you think this is a story taken from some old rom-com movie, let me tell you that this is my very own true story. I met Sean in New Zealand in July 2009, and on the 13th of September 2010 our son Tommy was born in Colombia.

When Tommy was born, we were both 22 (I am older than Sean by exactly 17 days!). It has been quite a ride, full of ups and downs. I always thought being a mother was going to come easily to me. Throughout the whole pregnancy I kept daydreaming and picturing how we were going to raise our son, the values we would teach him, and the habits I didn't want him learning. Three years down the road I can see how naïve I was. I was really smug and thought I had it all figured out by the time he was born. I was prepared and ready.

Except I wasn't. I wasn't prepared for those moments in which I have wanted to scream in frustration because he just isn't cooperating very much. I wasn't prepared to feel like I was missing out on my youth because of him, nor for the inevitable guilt that comes one second after thinking that. And I definitely wasn't prepared for the strain it put on my relationship with Sean.

We come from completely different cultures, so our ideas about how to raise Tommy, discipline him and teach him right from wrong sometimes differ greatly. And that for me has been the biggest challenge of motherhood in the early 20s: you are only just starting to know yourself, but are forced to know what kind of mother you want to be and on top of that, reconcile that concept with that of your partner's.

Also, in order for me to function, I need some me-time. It is part of who I am, and if I don't get it often enough, I become stressed, anxious and overwhelmed, definitely not the kind of parent I wish to be. But it is hard to get that me-time when I am working at a full time job and trying to spend as much time as possible with my toddler and fiancé. I feel guilty very often, and that has also been very hard. I don't think this happens exclusively to mothers in their 20s, but when you have children a little further down the road, you have had enough time to be on your own. I didn't have a lot of time when the only person to consider when making a decision was myself, and I have resented that at times.

Sleepy Tommy. 24 hours old.

A dirty, just-after-dinner Tommy at age 1.

Tommy at age 2

Tommy three weeks ago, aged 3.

However, I have also enjoyed many aspects of being a young mother. I love that we are both young and energetic (most of the time, anyways) to play with our son. I love that we have our whole lives ahead of us still and get to enjoy them with this little person that looks up to us. I love how when he is a teenager, we will be in our mid-thirties and although he will probably think otherwise, we won't be too old for his stories. I also like the idea that we will probably get to meet and enjoy our grandchildren, just like our (still very young) mothers are enjoying Tommy: my own mom is 47, and Sean's is only 43 having had him at the age of 18.

Those early mornings when he wakes up at 6am; those times when I have had a long day at work and he is being especially clingy; those times when our friends call us to go out but we can't find someone to look after him... all those times are worth it when I come home and have someone waiting eagerly by the door to give me a big bear hug. Or when he is in bed and tired beyond belief but still manages to give me a little kiss and whisper "I love you mommy" with half-open eyes. Or when he comes home from kindergarten, and excitedly starts telling me snippets of his day. Because of these and a million other moments, it is all worth it. Those moments fill my heart more than any amount of outings or parties ever could, and I wouldn't change it for the world.

There are few things more adorable than cute baby stories, so if there is/has been a special baby or toddler in your life that has completely melted your heart, I would love to hear about them in the comments.