Christmas Ideas for 9 Month Old

I recently did a post for Christmas Ideas for a 5 year old and a 3 year old. I thought I would do another for our little guy. He will be 9 months when Christmas is here.

You can view the Christmas Gift Ideas for 5 year old here.

You can view the Christmas Gift Ideas for 3 year old here.

I have started him a little Amazon wishlist like I do for all the children. The point of them is to give me ideas to buy for them for different holidays or their birthdays. It also reminds of what they have asked for, what they already have, and an idea for other family members to purchase for them.

Here are the top 5 Ideas I have in mind for him!

I remember when Arianna was learning to stand on her own, one of her favorite toys was a Fisher Price Little People van that had the little people. It made a variety of noises. She absolutely loved to push it around the house. She really enjoyed it for a couple of years before she outgrew it and it was old news. For Baby Carl, I came across this super cute Fisher Price Little People Lift n Lower Firetruck.

2. After the girls outgrew their activity tables, we passed them on. We want to get him one, but one that he will enjoy for a bit longer and won’t get as tired with them as the basic ones that we have had with the girls. I have been seeing these wooden activity cubes on a lot. They have great discounts on them. A friend of mine has a couple. She loves them, and so does her children. I have been looking at this KidKraft Deluxe Activity Table.

3. Both of the girls really got a lot of play out of the soft blocks. The ones that were plastic but still squishy and squeaked when you squeezed them. I found these cute Earlyears Squeak n’ Stack Blocks on Amazon!

4. I really love Melissa and Doug products. Baby Carl also loves vehicles. He thinks it’s funny when you push them to roll around. I found these cute Melissa and Doug Pull Back Vehicles Set!! They aren’t like the traditional smaller ones. They are actually fairly large, which is perfect for a 9 month old.

5. Last but not least is an interactive book. My children love to look at photos in books. They love even more to interact and play with the book. We have recently found the Usborne Busy books. They are so fun. We have the car and the bug. The girls get a lot of play out of them. And while they are playing with the toy inside of it, I read the story to them. They came out with this new version that is a Wind Up Book. There is a pirate theme with a pirate boat!

Here are my gift ideas for a 9 month old. The best part is it would be appropriate for both a little girl or a little boy!

What is on your child(ren)’s wishlist?

I Can’t Believe….

I can’t believe my oldest daughter is going to start Kindergarten. It seems like it was just yesterday that she was born. I can’t wrap my head around the fact that she is going to be considered a school-age child. I am having a rumble jumble of emotions about it.

Watching all my friends send their children off to school this week has been interesting. It just reminds me that in about a month our daughter will be headed off as well. I’m so incredibly thankful that I get a whole extra month with her.

Most people look at school as a time to have time to themselves. I just hate when I read that. Some I know are being sarcastic, but some I question. Teachers are not babysitters. But that’s not where I am going with this….

I just don’t want my little girl to grow up. I mean I want her to grow. I want her to mature. I want to watch every second of it. But I hate knowing that it is happening. Sometimes I wish I could go back to the glory days where she was a tee-tiny little baby all cuddled up with her Daddy. Because goodness knows that she never snuggled up with me. That little baby of her didn’t want anything to do with me unless it was for the milks.

She’s just getting so big. She reasons with us. She knows and understands consequences. She loves to write and try to spell. She loves to do flashcards so she can show off everything she knows. She loves to sing. And she has a super high interest in music. Maybe that’s something we can consider doing for her…. some type of musical instrument lessons.

She’s her own little person, so pure and innocent. She loves things that sometimes I wonder where she learns it from. It makes me incredibly proud because she is just so sweet and sentimental. She loves everyone, and she wants so badly to be loved by all as well.

You know what, I’ll write her a letter:

Dear Arianna, 

It’s so hard for me to believe that you will be starting Kindergarten this year. It seems like just yesterday we were in the hospital preparing for your birth. I remember that day and night so well. Guh-guh and Uncle Bull came to be there with us, and we all huddled around the hospital room waiting patiently for you to decide when you were ready to see the world. Your Dad and I were so excited. We were so nervous to become parents, especially your Dad. He was so nervous to be a Dad to a little girl. From the moment you were born, you were so attached to him. I never understood how that happened. You would just lay with him on his little bed or the couch (after we got home). You would just sleep with him. You never would do that for me. Even after your Dad deployed when you were just 5 weeks old, you still wouldn’t just cuddle with me. You always wanted to be snuggled up to your Daddy, and if it wasn’t your Daddy, you didn’t want anyone. I would lay you down, and you go would go just straight to sleep in our own little world. And you were such a great sleeper. But as a Mom the dreams and desires of sitting in a rocking chair cuddling her baby, reading books, and rocking her to sleep just didn’t happen. Not until your Daddy was back and you were about 9 months old. Even though it took such a long time for you to come around to me, I cherished those moments with you. 

Now you are 5 years old. You’ve done 3 years in the Italian Asilo (Italian Preschool), and now you are about to be off to your 1st day of American Kindergarten. I look forward to that day. I can’t wait to see how you react and how excited you are for your new teacher and all the new friends you will make. I can’t wait for you to come home and tell me just how your day went. I’m pretty confident you will love it, and I’m pretty confident I will cry. It will be happy tears. Please know that they are happy tears. Tears of joy, a sense of relief knowing that you are going to succeed, and a flow of happiness as you continue on with who you are. 

Arianna, you are so pure, so innocent, so humble, and so incredible sweet. You are fragile in so many ways, but I know that overtime you will conquer the things that you need to be built upon. And in the other ways, I hope you remain so soft and kind-hearted. 

We love you. Your Dad and I want nothing more than for you to grow into a happy and healthy and inspired little girl. We want you to reach for the stars and never worry about leaving us behind. We want you to you. And we want you to empower those around you. We want you to remain confident and secure in your life and anything that life brings to you. 

We hope for nothing but a fun and exciting new school year, filled with new friends and new milestones! We love you with everything we have and so much more. 

Good luck and may God bless you.

Mommy and Daddy

Christmas Ideas for 3 Year Old Girl

I posted a Christmas idea list for my 5 year old daughter who loves art. If you have a little one that is in the similar age range with similar interests, you may want to check it out. You can read it here.

This post is going to be an idea list for my 3 year old daughter. Eva is our girly one. She doesn’t have one solid interest, but she loves a lot of things. I think at this age they are easy to please. Eva does have some things she does really enjoy. She also has a favorite color now and some favorite characters. This list is based off of her interests right now.

1. Eva loves Peppa Pig. She has just now discovered her, and she has watched Season 1 numerous times on Netflix. She loves to make the pig sounds. Even though she doesn’t get much TV time, I find that it is a positive show for her age range. Eva also loves dollhouses and baby dolls. She loves to play pretend and it is ever so cute. On her wishlist right now is this adorable Peppa Pig Deluxe House.

2. She is also a huge fan of My Little Pony. She loves the colorful ponies. She has tons of outfits of the characters, and she has a couple of the plush animals. She also loves vehicles. The little matchbox cars she can play with for days on end. While browsing the My Little Pony section, I came across this cute bus. It’s call the My Little Pony Friendship Bus.

3. She also does enjoy some aspects of art. She has not mastered drawing or tracing, even coloring in the lines, but she LOVES stamps. She also loves Disney Princesses – all of the princesses. I found this adorable set by Melissa and Doug that is a Disney Princess Stamp Set. It includes the stamps, stamp pad, and some color pencils.

4. Playdoh is also a hit with my 3 year old. She loves to try and build things, and we are always looking to add to our small collection. We cycle out our toys by donating the ones they start to get tired of and then they generally get a new set for their birthday, Christmas, or Easter. Here is a newer one that she has been asking for. It’s the PlayDoh Perfect Twist Ice Cream Playset.

5. Another thing she is following in her sister’s footsteps with is puzzles. She loves to do puzzles, but she hasn’t mastered the level that her sister is on. She is bored with the wooden peg puzzles, so she needs the in between ones. I found some chunky puzzles that I think would be perfect for her during this stage. This is a Mickey and Friends Sounds puzzle, and I think it’s absolutely adorable!

I hope you enjoyed my little gift idea for a 3 year old. I believe all of these could be for either a boy or a girl. Because even some of the girliest ones (like the princess stamp set), you can find many other themes of them.

What are your little ones getting for Christmas? Or if you don’t have children, what was your favorite Christmas gift you remember receiving?

Weekend in Review: Rakovica, Croatia

We decided last minute to take a fun weekend getaway to Rakovica in Croatia. The town is near the World Heritage Site of the Plitvice National Park. It is one of the oldest national parks in Southeastern Europe and has been a part of the UNESCO World Heritage since 1979. It is famous for its lakes that are arranged in cascades. There are 16 lakes that can be seen and hundreds of waterfalls. Based on the location of the lakes, the waters can be seen in a variety of colors. There are some blue, green, gray, and brown waters. It is absolutely gorgeous.

It is a HUGE park. Huge is actually an understatement. We had planned on walking a 3-4 hour trek, but it ended up being 7 hours because we took two wrong turns. The way the paths are situated, once you start there is no turning back. We walked from one side of the park to the other. Then we took a train back to where we parked the car and had started the adventure.

About halfway through, we stopped for lunch. They also do boat tours that crosses a lake, so we jumped on that to reach the other side of the land to enjoy that side of the park.

The girls did great. They walked by themselves for the entire time. For Baby Carl, I wore him in the baby carrier.

After our walk, we ended having dinner right outside of the park. The day ended up being a great day. We were so proud of how well all the children did. We were so surprised they lasted as long as they did. It seemed they really enjoyed themselves as well!

And now for photo galore….

There were so many different kinds of cascades. They had clusters and single sets. They had some where the steps to walk were right above them and you could feel the pressure from the flowing water.

The girls loved being able to see the fish and ducks. The waters were so clear that you could see straight to the bottom. Some areas were so deep that you couldn’t see the bottom, but you could see several feet down. We also found some crawfish crawling on the bottom of the lakes.

Some of the waterfalls were very tall. The looks over the cliffs were scary and intimidating. But the walkpaths were very well managed and safe. The girls did have areas where they had to hold an adult’s hand, but overall the hike was fantastic and didn’t make me too anxious.

This is a great photo that shows how quickly the water color changes between the lakes.

It was a beautiful site. There are no pictures that could do this place the justice it deserves. It really is a must-see site if you are in the area.

I may do another post on the other days we were in the area, as we spent it doing other small things. It was a great trip and nice little get away for us to help change the pace in our lives right now.

Back to School: Free Themed Printable Worksheets for PreK

Carrying on with my back to school series, I thought I would share some of my favorite character themed printable packs for PreK. The best things about these is that they can be adapted to a variety of age groups.

You can find my other two back to school posts – Lunch box must haves and PreK literacy books – here.

1. FREE Jack and the Neverland Pirates Printable PreK Pack can be found at Freehomeschooldeals.com.

2. FREE Frozen Printables and Activities by Embark on the Journey.

3. FREE Tangled PreK Printable Pack from Mommy Saving Mom.

4. FREE Minion Worksheet Pack from freehomeschooldeals.com!

5. Disney-Pixar Finding Nemo Activity Pack by Mom Endeavors!

Hope you enjoy these wonderful and FREE printable activity packs for your preschoolers!

Back to School: Best Literacy Books for PreK

I shared a post about our favorite Lunch Box Must Haves. I thought I would continue on since going back to school has begun for so many. With our move, the girls won’t return until the beginning of October. But technically, it is back to school time.

My girls love books. They love to read. I thought I would share what our favorite books have been for the Preschool age group, roughly ages 3-4 years old.

1. My oldest LOVES Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss. We love many Dr. Seuss books. They are all very catchy with their words and to the eye, but the story lines are super cute as well.

2. One of my favorite books that quickly became Arianna’s favorite book, then Eva fell in line is Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you See? by Bill Martin, Jr. This book has great illustrations and of course is super catchy. In no time, she was reading it with me. It’s a great way to teach phonics and rhythm in words.

3. Another book that stole the girls’ minds is The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister. This book is so cute. It teaches young children about sharing and what happens when you do share. The images in the book are eye catching, and the story is mesmerizing.

4. Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown is a great book for bedtime. The book focuses on telling everything around the environment goodnight. From the clocks to his socks, to the mittens and the kittens, and everything else.

5. The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle is a book that I chose for them. Generally when we buy new books, I let them pick them from the store. To my surprise, they never chose this book themselves so I did. They ended up loving it and still do. The caterpillar in the book literally eats his way through it. Such a popular book, and of course I can see why!

There are so many great books out for this age range, and most of these books are enjoyed with even the younger and older children. I will start here since this is our grab and read most of the time. Maybe I will add to these another time once their taste in books start evolving!

Are you enjoying the back to school series? If so, let me know what you would like me to post about next!

 

Weekend In Review: Humus Park

On Saturday, we decided to take the plunge and go walk through Humus Park. There are many entrances for the nature park, and the walks begin in different towns. We decided to walk two of them on Saturday. We spent just over 4 hours walking and exploring. Be prepared for photo overload. That’s what I love most about my weekend in reviews… the memories, the photos of exploration. Hope you enjoy.

We started out in Polcenigio. Arianna was happy to take a photo in front of the trail sign. We stumbled upon on excavation site as well!

We had to cross a small bridge to get to the main path. The girls were obsessed with the water. The water drains from River Livenza.

There were many flood water gates to prevent neighborhoods from flooding. The girls wanted to climb on all of them and walk as far to the center as possible. Most of them looked out to some waterfalls that formed from the gates being set in place.

The land is referred to as the Natural Land of Art because of the different thing it showcases. The art placed around the land uses things that are found within the land. It is marked with what it is and who found it and turned it in to art. It is an extremely educational site.

Some artists just took twigs or whatever else they could find to create fun and interactive pieces. Like this one pictured above is a picture frame that people can stand behind to place their faces within to take a photo.

The river is such a clear body of water. It changes colors based on how the sun is hitting. We saw so many different shades from green to ice blue to gray to brown and so on. It was so much more beautiful in person.

There are many areas of the footpath where the backdrop is the mountains. It was such a peaceful environment. Here the water is green. You can see straight to the bottom!

The trees were all kinds of fun shapes. They grew all different directions. It was interesting to see. Behind Arianna, the one on the left, you can see some chopped up tree branches tied together to form some pieces of art. They almost looked like wine corks, but they very much were chopped tree branches/trunks.

Here is a photo of the ice blue water!! It is so clean that people use it without having to filter it for all sorts of things. Wiley even refilled our water bottle with the water from the river, and it tasted like pure mineral water. So incredible!!

This is how Mommy and Baby Carl made it through the walk. Lillebaby and sunhat for protection! 😉

Thank you for stopping by to explore with us! If you read this post, leave us a comment!

What is your idea of a day away from the home? What would you want to do? Where would you go?

Christmas Ideas for 5 Year Olds

Every year, we set a budget and we work with that budget for our children. I set aside money every paycheck throughout the year and start buying when July comes around. This year we had to do it a bit differently because of our move. Our things were going to be shipped in August, and of course it can take months before we receive it at our new destination. So we decided against starting to buy in July to avoid from us missing the items by Christmas time. I don’t foresee us not having our items by then, but I didn’t want to chance it either.

I thought since I’m not buying, I would start working on a solid list for each of the girls. I add and edit the list as the year goes on, and I also share the list with family as a guide to their buying. If they buy from it, they let me know and I mark it as purchased.

I love to see what other people buy for their children or what their ideas are, so I though I would share our children’s lists as well. This one is going to be for our 5 year old. She is a girl, and she loves the arts. That’s probably what we will focus on this year.

Each year, they do get clothes, shoes, and books as well. But this is just a small list of the “extras” that we may get for her or that she has requested on her own.

1. An art easel. Arianna has been asking for an easel for about a year now. I kept putting it off because I felt it needed a lot of attention when she played with it, and I couldn’t always supply that. I also wanted to make sure she was better with cleanup and had a better understanding of why we don’t color or paint on anything other than paper. (She has had her fair share of wall and furniture coloring.) I feel she is finally to the point where she can take care of it, but it will also teach her responsibility. I wanted an easel that could hold her chalk, colors, and paint, but was also simple. Wooden was preferred. Here is the one I have found that fits all of this.

2. To go with her easel, I figured I would add her on some supplies for it. The baskets underneath would be a great help to keep her items organized and away from the others that are too young to play unsupervised. I found this set from Melissa and Doug that includes the things I believe she will most use. The set includes 4 bottles of paint, 4 cups for the paint that also are spill-proof, 4 paint brushes, a paper roll, chalk, a chalk eraser, and some dry erase markers. You can find the set here.

3. Arianna is starting to learn to trace and use stencils. She really loves to draw, so I bought her a step-by-step drawing book by Usborne. Unfortunately, she just isn’t there yet with it. She loses her patience too quickly. So after doing some research, I learned about these tracing setups. They are so cute. This one is by Memtes. It inclues the lamp and projection, 8 markers, 6 slide show reels, 1 paintbrush, magnetic letters and numbers, and a painting art book. It says that it is for ages 3+. You can find it here.

4. I found a few new things that are artsy that I never even realized existed. Arianna is really at an awkward stage where she wants so badly to draw, but she still needs some assistance. Or if it doesn’t come out exactly how she imagined, then she gets frustrated with it. I thought (along with the tracing) that this scratch book would be a great addition to her collection. She loves to color and loves to draw, and this looks like it brings both of those into play. The book is a Scratch and Sketch book. There are different themes, but I have saved this mermaid one on her wish list.

5. Last but not least, these Dab and Dot systems seem to be a hit with the young ones. I think this would even be appropriate for Eva (3) at her age and development now. I see them all the time as a popular trending item on Zulily, and they sell so fast. There are a few different brands that do this similar set up – Crayola and Doodle Hog. It’s like markers and stamps in one! I found a cute SuperGirl one that I have saved to her wishlist because we all know she loves Superheroes and Villains!

BONUS ITEM!!

Even though she does love the arts, she also loves to build things. Legos are becoming something she regularly plays with. I also almost always found her playing with gears and the bristle pieces during school playtime. These awesome gears by The Learning Resources is on her wishlist as well!

What’s on your children’s Christmas wish list?

 

What I Want Most for My Children

Right now is a really difficult time for the family. Planning and preparing for our move from Italy to Texas has been time consuming and exhausting. Add in adding Baby Carl to the family just a few months before the move is even more trialing.

With knowing we move next month, Wiley and I have been discussing the differences we are about to experience and how we hope our children adapt to the change. They are going to be introduced to a new culture, new society, and a new way of thinking. After all, they have only been to the United States once during their time on Earth. We always knew that we would go back someday when the military decided, but it still doesn’t change the fact that it will be a new adventure and it will take some time adjusting. It will be scary,  but it will also be exciting.

We have been trying to keep life as normal as possible while we make this transition. We have been including the children in everything we do. We talk to them about it, and we try to share some of the fun and exciting things that will come with this change. But Europe, especially Italy, has been an adventure in itself. We have grown so much as a family, and our children have experienced the start of a new milestone in their life – school.

They’ve been exposed to a variety of people, languages, and beliefs. They are extremely flexible and resilient to life and what has come our way. With it, they aren’t so judgemental. They find everyone happy, friendly, and beautiful. They are encouraged, inspired, and motivated when they see others in their own personalities and own state of mind.

For example, our children find homeless people mesmerizing. They don’t look at them and say “Oh, he’s so filthy. He needs to shave and shower.” They look at them and say, “His hair is beautiful.” They want to go up to them and talk to them. They aren’t afraid to share their kindness with the people around them.

They see someone walk by and if they like something they are wearing or doing. They aren’t afraid to let them know. And the smiles they put on those people’s faces are priceless. From the color of their hair, to their “crazy” shoes, or pants or shirt. Even to something they are eating or doing. Maybe even the person’s pet. They aren’t afraid to let someone know they like something they are wearing, doing, or have by their side.

Our girls have their own personalities. And Carl is beginning to as well. They have their own likes and dislikes. They aren’t afraid to be themselves. I hope that these things stay with them forever. I hope they don’t bow down to peer pressure or like things because other people do.

Even for myself, that is one thing I learned while living in Italy. My best friend I gained here is the complete opposite of me, but somehow our friendship just blossomed. She’s wild, free, much more spontaneous. I’m more structured, organized, and try to foresee the future.

To see my children grow and learn and become such diverse and open-minded little people has been very encouraging to me. Sometimes I try to see the world around me through their eyes now. If I see someone and I like their hair, I’ve started telling them. Or if they do something that is inspiring, I want to tell them. I want to acknowledge my compliments in my head and let those people know I look up to them. To see the smiles and the happiness my girls have put on the faces of strangers all by sharing their thoughts is inspiring in itself. As an adult, I wish I could be more like them.

I wish more adults can be more like them.

I’m in a Mommy group on Facebook. One of the things that have come up time and time again with the new school year coming up is whether or not a parent should let their child buy something knowing there is a very high chance that the child will get picked on for it. It saddens me. It saddens me that in the United States so many people are about their status symbol and “what’s cool” than just being themselves.

That’s what I want my children to hold on to. The purity, the innocence, their own opinions. And where it with confidence, and be proud to be them.

The world puts way to much pressure on living the “American Dream” that many forget to find inner peace and personal happiness.

This is all I want for my children. To forever be happy and true to themselves and others around them.

Weekend in Review: Skocjan Caves

This last weekend we decided to head on down to the park that has the Skocjan Caves in Slovenia. My husband has been with my little brother a few years ago, and he was waiting patiently for the girls to be old enough to go as well. The time had finally come where he could show off this beautiful place.

The tour for the caves did not allow photos, but Google has some amazing images of the location. They are beautiful caves with a gorge within. Some of the caves have collapsed and waterfalls have formed and new trials were found.

The girls absolutely adored the day. It all seemed to go well, minus my mini anxiety attacks during tall climbs and steep railings. The girls did great though, and I pouched the baby.

A little history on the caves:

The caves were entered into UNESCO’s list of natural and cultural world heritage sites in 1986. They are acknowledged as one of the most natural treasures on planet Earth. They represent the most significant underground phenomena in both the Karst region and Slovenia. The gorge is full with the Reka River, which disappears into the caves. Archaeological research has shown that people have lived within the caves and the surrounding area since prehistoric times.

Once we learned we couldn’t take photos inside, we decided to snap a couple photos of us all before we entered.

Here you can see how the baby was able to enjoy the fun as well!

The next few photos are of the areas that collapsed and formed the waterfalls and other small caves. These footpaths were open to the public, so there was no guided tour and photos could be taken.

This was leaving out of the main cave where there were signs marking the different milestones of recognition for the caves.

We decided to take the long way to the exit to see the second cave that you could go inside. It was the one that collapsed and the river leaked into and waterfalls began to form.

This is a small waterfall that you could see as you walked around the gorge.

Looking from above that waterfall and into the river as it flows.

The waterfalls were flowing so fast that as you walked by, you could feel the wind and mist off of them. They were loud. You nearly had to scream to hear each other talking.

It was an amazing experience. The girls were excited to use their flashlights and see the “sparklies” on the rocks as they were forming from the top of the cave and the bottom of the cave. It was a great experience.

The guided tour took right at about an hour with over 500 steps to take (not all at once). They offer them in 4 different languages – English, Slovenian, German, and Italian.