Tuesday, January 31, 2006

52 week program

I have been doing a small thing each week to attempt to improve myself (such as drink enough water, read a certain amount, cut something out of my diet, etc.). The thought is that if you can make it a habit within that week and then build on the previous habits, you will have improved yourself in 52 small ways by the end of the year... leading to some major overall improvements. I've decided to also take this approach to my relationship with my children. Starting this week, I'm going to be adding one thing a week I can do better to enhance my children's well being ... whether it be in my relationship with them, their health, their social life, etc.

This first week, I'm going to start with something that many of you may say 'duh'. It will be brushing my 2 yr old's teeth before he goes to bed. I'm the one that almost always goes up to bed with our toddler and reads to him before putting him to bed. We are usually pretty good about brushing his teeth during the day, but I want to make a habit of doing it every night before we lay down to read.

Week #1 Starting tonight, I will make it a habit to begin brushing my toddler's teeth right before he goes to bed!

Toddlers and social interaction

As a followup to some of last month's posts about staying at home (I didn't blog as much as I would of liked to about alot of the research and conversations my wife and I had), we decided that instead of one of us stopping work all together, we would adjust our schedules. I have now been going into work earlier and have worked out with my company to leave in the middle of the day and then come back and work later into the night. Our main reasons for this are two-fold:

1. Money
2. Time with our children

But I keep coming back to a third issue as well...

3. Child's social interaction

While I would like my wife and I to be the two people who raise our sons, I also want them to be able to play with kids their age. Daycare provides a nice venue for that, but there must be some other ones out there. We are fortunate enough to have children early in our lives together (we are both in our mid 20s), but one of the downsides is that none of our friends have children yet. The playground is a nice place to interact with others in the summer. In the Minnesota winter though, it gets a bit sparse :) I'd like to hear some ideas from anyone else who doesn't send their child/children to daycare, but has found a good outlet to allow them to develop those social skills with peers.

Friday, January 27, 2006

2 year old's eating habits

We've never really thought much about the eating habits of our 2 year old. He almost always is presented with whatever we are eating at any specified meal. Sometimes he eats it sometimes he doesn't. He goes on unexplained hunger strikes from time to time ... refusing to eat both lunch and dinner. Other days, I swear he eats more than I do. We get frustrated alot by the above behaviour, thinking he should eat like we do at each meal, but have never taken the time to actually see if there is any research out there.
So... the following is some facts / ideas / hints / worthless dribble I picked up over the past couple of days:

-According to the American Academy of Pediatrics(AAP), toddlers need at least 1,000 calories a day to meet their nutritional needs for growth and energy

-The best way to provide your child with these much needed calories is to give her three meals and two snacks a day.

-According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture toddlers need foods from the same for basic food groups as adults do, but the serving sizes should be two-thirds of the adult serving size.

-According to the Ohio State Agricultural Extension, a good rule for serving sizes for toddlers is 1 tablespoon per year of age or 1/4 of an adult serving per year of age. For example, a serving of milk for a 2-year-old would be 1/2 cup, a serving of cooked carrots for a 3-year-old would be 3 tablespoons, a serving of ground beef for tacos for a 4-year-old would be 4 tablespoons.

-Your toddler should eat indicated servings from these food groups every day:
  • Meat, fish, poultry, eggs (two to three servings)

  • Dairy products (three servings equivalent to two cups of milk each day)

  • Fruits and vegetables (three servings each)

  • Cereal grains, potatoes, rice, breads, pasta (six servings)

Here are some interesting tips I saw along the way:

Toddlers: When Yours Doesn't Want to Eat -- familydoctor.org
Kid Friendly Veggies
FEEDING TODDLERS: 17 TIPS FOR PLEASING THE PICKY EATER

Thursday, January 12, 2006

Strategies for financing stay-at-home parenting

Ran across a nice short article from the Wall Street Journal on 5 strategies for being able to handle the "financial burden" of having a stay-at-home parent. They are:

1. See what you'll save
2. Shrink your budget
3. Eliminate debt
4. Have a safety net
5. Tweak insurance, savings.

More in depth in the article linked above...

Wednesday, January 11, 2006

Stay at home parenting III

As my wife and I are hitting the deadline for figuring out what we're going to do for childcare when she is scheduled to go back to work in Feb, it has brought a new sense of urgency for us to investigate whether one of us should stay at home. Last night I had some time to do some research when the family went to bed and I came across a couple of good articles to gain some insight from:

Calculating the true cost of working vs. full-time parenting
This short article brings out some good points as to cots incurred from working vs. staying home. Written from a slightly different perspective then we're in, this mom is weighing going back to work.

Forum at iVilliage: Stay at home or work debate
Interesting opinions and ideas from those going through the same decision as we are ... as well as those very entrenched in their decisions :)

Slowlane.com
Great site that I will definitely be consulting if I decide to stay at home. Tons of articles and ideas from those already doing it!

The Stay-at-Home Parent Survival Guide by Christina Tinglof
Found this on Amazon. Looks like a must have if the decision goes towards 'yes'.

These are the few that I perused last night before I succumbed to the tiredness. Right now we're leaning toward one of us staying home or coming up with some type of "hybrid" solution of work and home.
If you have gone through this or have any ideas, let me know!!

Monday, January 09, 2006

15 things you must do for your baby

I saw this little list in the USA Today Weekend supplement that comes with my paper. While not revolutionary by any means, it was a good refresher of some things you forget after the first kid has grown a little.

Is it just me or is having the second child a lot easier and less stressful. I have to say I have a lot less time now that I'm raising two children, but I'm not nearly as stressed out as I was with our first. The one thing I am finding out though, is I have already forgotten a lot of the stuff we did with Caden (our first) in his first couple of months. I think I'm going to have to go revisit a couple of the books we have on our shelves (which may bring up a good discussion topic later - pregnancy and child books).

Take a look at the list and let me know what you think...

I'm really back this time

After a week where it didn't seem like I had a free second to spare, I think I finally have most things put in place where I can spend a lot more time focusing on this blog. I'll continue with my stay-at-home series this afternoon as well as a couple of other things that have been floating around in my mind during this short hiatus...