I Got Nothing

So, initially, this blog was really fun. I loved hearing different perspectives of similar situations and I've used some of these shared experiences to help improve in my own life. BUT...
It's been two years since I started this blog and the last year and a half really leave much to be desired. For me, I became so busy with life and motherhood in general that this blog was a low priority... a very low priority. (Which I'm going to guess describes most of you :-) I don't even take as much time to keep up my own personal family blog, which to me is more important since it is my journal of sorts. Judging from how often I see many of my friend's blogs being updated...I'd say they are in similar circumstances. WHICH IS OKAY!

So, unless someone else would like to try to maintain this blog with questions and discussion, I think I may just get rid of this blog. If there is any article/post that you have posted that you would like to keep or save, by all means, do it! I'll leave it for another month or so to allow you to pull any stuff you want to keep, maybe for your own journaling purposes.

Keep it up Mommies! You are all amazing!

A New Sister

The question is "How do I get my little 'helper' to be more gentle with the new baby?"

When we first introduced Sharon to the baby, she really didn't want to have much to do with her. Once we brought her home, though, Sharon wanted to help all the time. She frequently asked to hold her sister, but then would decide she was done holding her & would start to just push her off her lap. She also likes to help put the pacifier in the baby's mouth, sometimes a little more firmly than the baby likes. In order to keep Sharon from getting jealous and in turn being too rough with the baby, we've made sure to give her plenty of one-on-one parent time, include her with taking care of the baby, & ask her to help, rather than just tell her 'no' when she's doing something wrong. If the baby doesn't want the pacifier when Sharon is trying to help, rather than just tell her to stop, I ask if she wants to give the baby a kiss, or put a blanket on her, something to basically distract her from whatever she was doing that the baby doesn't like. Sometimes Sharon will be doing something, like throwing a ball around the house, that could possibly hurt the baby, but isn't really something she's purposely doing to hurt her. In those instances, I try to get her to do something else, without drawing attention to the fact that it's because of the baby, because I don't want her to get mad and take it out on the baby. I'm not sure if she really would, but I don't want her to think that she can't do anything just because she has a baby sister now.

Topic: January 15

Many of you have had new babies in the last year or so and others have had more than one child when having a new addition so...

How do you teach your little "helpers" to be more gentle with the new one?

A new topic!

I know, I know...it's been months, but I have an excuse. And it's a good one too!
See!














But I have a few topics I've been rolling around in my head and hope to get some response from those who still are following (crosses fingers)...

So one that I need help with-

What do you do when an acquaintance that you see often, keeps wanting to set up a time for a playdate with your kids and her kids, but (wait for it...) you don't want your kids within a block of her kids for one reason or another. How do you tactfully get her to let it go... or do you ever? What would you do? 

(I'm running out of excuses!)