“Just” a Stay-at-Home Mom

  • Distract & Redirect: The key to managing toddlers!

    Distract & Redirect: The key to managing toddlers!

    With toddlers (children under 3), Distract and Redirect is one of the most powerful parenting tools you can use! Children at this young age are often interested in doing things that they can’t really do appropriately.  Ie. They want to touch baby sister, but even when you show them 3 times how to do so…

  • An awesome, easy & inexpensive Birthday present for a 2 year-old party

    An awesome, easy & inexpensive Birthday present for a 2 year-old party

    If you are like me, you are starting to get invitations to Birthday parties for kids as young as 1 or 2. A trend in this neck of the woods is that most parents write “no gifts. Just come enjoy!” on the invitation. Boy did I mess that one up the first time around. I…

  • Update on Potty Training

    Update on Potty Training

    So…… we tried to start potty training.  I had been convinced by others that 20 months was too early (and the summer schedule was so busy, there wasn’t a convenient time anyway). But now Chunky Monkey is 23 months and I have started to see so many other children around me (around age 2), who…

  • Montessori Monday: Toilet Training

    Montessori Monday: Toilet Training

    So….I’m interested in starting toilet training for our 20-month old. I have been reading “Montessori From the Start” throughout Chunky Monkey’s first 2 years, and embraced most of the ideas.  Unfortunately, I became a floor bed drop-out though, and I’m nervous that early toilet training could end up being another “floor bed idea” (as my husband…

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