Butterbees and Bumbleflies

The Gift of Giving

It’s something all parents (I’d hope, anyway) want their kids to be able to do – to give. To give of themselves, to give things they love, to give to people they love, and to give to people they’ve never even met. But how do you start teaching and nurturing that gift in your child? And when? I think the answer to when, and maybe even how, varies by child. But here’s what I did with Becca this year that seems to have started planting the seed.

She’s super into money – sorting coins is really fun for her. She doesn’t really understand or remember the values of the coins, but she understands the concept of what it’s for, and that it all adds up to equal stuff purchased at the store. Before she was born, we were given a large piggy bank for her, and over time, the coins (and a few stray $1 bills) have added up. We dump loose change into her piggy bank (and now her brother’s as well) randomly. So, I got out her coin sorting tray one day, and we dumped her piggy bank contents out on the floor. She was super excited to help me sort, and decided she would find all the pennies, and leave the silver ones for Mommy. That’s fine. We had fun with the activity, and it was great fine motor practice for her too – picking up and sorting through all those coins.

Then, we sat down and made a list of all the people she would like to buy a gift for for Christmas. She thought of most of the people on her own, though she did have prompting for a couple of them.

The next day, we went to Dollar Tree on a mission. She had her list in hand, and we talked very seriously before we got out of the car about what the expectations were for this trip. We weren’t there to buy things for her. We were there to buy specifically for the people on her list. She had a bag of quarters (and a few $1 bills) to cover her gifts and the tax. We also took three extra dollars just in case she thought of someone last minute, and also so that she would have to count out the money to the cashier.

She did a fabulous job. She got a bit “grabby” a couple of times, and I had to remind her to allow ME to take the items off the shelf for her. But I was super impressed with her thoughtfulness. She’s a very deep thinker anyway, so it was the perfect place for her to stop and think about what each person on her list would enjoy. A game for a friend, a craft for another, a candle for one family member, an airplane puzzle for another. A sudoku book, a little stuffed animal, she had a thoughtful reason for each and every gift she selected. And then we got to the checkout, and she was so proud to tell the cashier she was spending HER money to buy gifts. We had the bag of quarters pre-counted, so I handed the cashier the bag and said “This is $7. She’ll count the rest of it for you.” We had practiced at home, so she knew to start with $8 in her counting. She counted out the $1’s and I handed each $1 to the cashier as she counted it. She was excited that she got to keep some, too. (I hadn’t told her I brought extra.)

Here she is opening her bag to get her $1 bills out to count them.

She was SO proud of her receipt showing she had bought presents with her very own money.

When it came time to wrap, I had her help me wrap the presents that were going to my family in Tulsa for Thanksgiving. I’ll be perfectly honest and say that having her help wrap was very stressful for both of us. She did enjoy having me help her write on the little labels, and sticking them on the packages. She was so happy on Thanksgiving (“Thanksmas”) morning to get to give her gifts to Granny, PawPaw, and Daddy!

Since we learned from the first wrapping experience, I decided to do something totally different for the rest of her gifts. The two for friends, we put in gift bags. The gifts for family, I wrapped (while she watched) in brown paper, and then she used wet chalks to decorate the boxes. I helped her write who they were to and her name, and then we put them under our tree. She is so excited about having her gifts for family under the tree!! And I know she’ll be really excited about giving them as well.

There is nothing like seeing the excitement on your child’s face as she eagerly anticipates Christmas morning… but there’s really nothing in the world like knowing that a lot of that excitement is about GIVING her gifts that she bought. Because THAT is what Christmas is all about – remembering God’s Gift to us, and giving our gifts to others.

Being Brave

I was recently approached by a friend who blogs, about being one of her “Thursday stories.” Called to the mission field in Madagascar, she has been sharing short stories from women there about how MOPS has made an impact in their lives, and led them to be brave.

When I asked her what she’d like for me focus on for this guest post, this is what she said: “The purpose of Thursday stories is to encourage others to be brave in Christ. Bravely trust Him for circumstances, bravely lean on Him for understanding, bravely trust that His ways are greater. Tell a story when God asked you to be brave for Him.

Here’s a link to my post on Aly’s blog.

Wacky Wednesday

“Ribbit ribbit ribbit. I’m pretending to be a frog. Are you a big frog? I’m gonna go ribbit for a minute, ok, Mommy? I’m on my wiwy pads.” I’ll miss her cute little “accent” when she can finally pronounce /L/.

“Mommy, you’re a girl. And I’m a girl. Daddy’s a boy, just like Brother is a boy. And George is, well.” Slight pause. “George is George.” Yes, yes he is. George is George. And we’re fairly certain that at this point he has attained Velveteen Rabbit status, and is now Real. Love that monkey. He’s like one of my own kids. Geez, if anyone had ever told me that my daughter at 2 1/2 would carry around a monkey she’d had since 6 months old and would take the thing EVERYWHERE with her, I would have told them they were crazy. But George is just… well, he is. He’s family. I must admit that I will miss him when he’s not part of our daily life. Sometimes on days of tantrums and drama, his little smile while being carried around by one hand and thrown over the couch to the floor… his little smile gets me through. He loves her unconditionally, just like I do, but he doesn’t have a voice to express his frustrations. He just smiles. All the time. I love that about him. George is George.

Cody: “So what did you do today?” Becca: “We went to Chicken fil a and we saw Evan and Ms. Amy. They’re my friends.” Well, Evan is your friend, and Amy is mine… but I’m glad you love her as much as you do Evan!

“Oh bless you Bubba! You just keep sneezin, Little Brother! You need to swow down!” Proceeds to sneeze several times herself. “Oh my goodness! Mommy now it’s your turn, k?”

“I’m jumping and dancing all about!”

Playing with her penguins: “They’re waiting for the sunset. The sun is gonna go down and then it’s gonna be nighttime.”

Hey you,

Lady in that beat-up tan minivan. You’re still on my mind at 9:15pm… 5 hours after you decided to step on the little bit of positive in my day.

You see, you didn’t know that I woke up with a cough at 5am to a coughing, wheezing baby with a stuffy nose who’s trying to cut his first tooth.

You didn’t know that I left the first load of clothes in the washer too long and had to re-wash them.

You didn’t know the plans I had for my day that got changed.

You didn’t know my slight excitement over being able to go to the bathroom by myself, unassisted by my toddler. It was one of the good things that happened today.

You didn’t know the stresses I dealt with.

You didn’t know why I was even at HEB in the first place. You see, I didn’t realize we were out of vegetable oil, and I finally was getting to bake the breads I’d planned to bake last week. Except we were out of oil.

The shopping trip itself was fairly uneventful. Our biggest excitement was Brother getting to sit in the shopping cart for the first time next to Sister, and she did a really good job of being patient with him. I forgot to bring him anything to chew on, but we survived because I found a package of placemats in the diaper bag that sufficed. She had been so patient, including when he knocked the cookie I had gotten for her out of her hand and onto the ground after only one bite. You see, what you didn’t know was that right before you pulled up to “vulch” for my parking spot, I was telling her what an awesome big sister she is and how I’d make it up to her and get her another cookie on our way home.

You saw me there, in the second spot from the front- one of God’s tiny little blessings I learned to appreciate today- with my cart of four bags and my two beautiful children, and you decided to wait. You had a handicapped tag, and there were three open handicap spots on the row closer to the door, but you decided to wait. Your perogative. I put my bags in the back and pushed the cart to Baby Grayson’s door- where you couldn’t see.

You didn’t see his burp cloth fall on the ground, or how he twisted funny and hurt his arm when I got him out of the cart. You didn’t see me comfort him as I put him in his car seat, pick up the burp cloth, and adjust his seat belt. You didn’t see him then spit up everywhere. You didn’t hear my sweet little girl tell him “It’ll be ok, Brother. Mommy will clean you up.” You didn’t see me do just that. And honestly, I didn’t even know OR CARE that you were still there. Because, lady, my kids come first.

As I pulled my cart back around to the other side to put the world’s best big sister into the car, you didn’t give a single fleeting thought to any of what you don’t know about my life or my day or the moments on the other side of the car while you waited. Instead, you chose to gesture wildly and flip me AND MY 2 1/2 YEAR OLD DAUGHTER off. I simply replied to your open window, cigarette smoke puffing out at me, “I need to get my two kids in the car.” You proceeded to YELL back at me as you drove off in a huff, “Woman, I got five kids and two sets of twins and it never took me that long to load a car.”

Wow. Good for you. I’m sure you’re Speedy Gonzales (no that’s not a racial comment- she was as white as me) and you never once had to help one of your kids who spit up because I’m sure none of your five EVER did that… Seriously. I feel sad for you. And for your kids. If nothing else, it’s Christmas time. Show a little love. Show a little care. Show a little patience.

So thank you very little for the negative impact you had on my day, and thank you very much for reminding me to focus on what’s important in my life. Thank you for reminding me that I do the right thing every time I carefully load my precious cargo into our vehicle. Because even if it upsets you, I know that taking my time with each of my children is what I need to do to keep them safe. I don’t purposefully take my time to annoy anyone, but please- don’t judge when you don’t know, and be glad this mama bear didn’t do a whole lot more when you flipped off my baby girl.

And fyi- next time you are rude to a woman in the HEB parking lot, that woman might not be as nice as me. She might be someone just like you… Merry Christmas, Mrs Scrooge. May you learn to change your Christmas Present, or your Christmas Future might not be real bright.

Animal Habitat Sensory Play

The day after Thanksgiving, we got to spend a tiny little bit of time with my best friend and her family at their home, and I got an idea from her that has become one of Becca’s all-time-best-loved “actiperies” (she can totally say activities now, but she still calls them actiperies b/c she knows I think it’s cute. ha!). She has always had a big fascination with animals and their homes, but this takes it to a whole new level… so thank you, Rena, for the inspiration!!

Arctic Habitat

What you need:
Storage Container
Flour
Sugar
Powdered Sugar
Corn Starch
Safari Ltd Arctic TOOB (aff link – thank you!)

It’s super simple – use a little bit of each of the first four ingredients and stir it up in a container. Then add your Arctic TOOB animals, eskimos, and igloo, and you are ready to play!

An old toothbrush made a fun addition, and great fine motor practice – as she decided to brush the snow off of the animals and people.

Antarctic Habitat

What you need:
Storage Container
Rock Salt (I used Ice Cream Maker Salt… b/c it was on hand)
Kosher Salt
Table Salt
Safari Ltd Penguins TOOB

Same as above – add some salt and stir up in a container, add your penguins, and you’re ready to play!

We also added some play “snow” from our ornaments project because she really wanted to make it snow on the penguins. 🙂

If you’d like, you can print out the maps and titles I made to tape to your lids.
FREE PRINTABLE HERE!

Enjoy! And be prepared – the Arctic box’s “snow” might make dark clothes turn white. 😉