Watch Your Mouth There Is A Recorder Around! KIDS

So my lovely sister decided that my 23 month old should take a ride with her. In the beginning that sounded like a wonderful idea, she was out of my hair for at least the next 3 hours. All of a sudden my cell phone begins to ring. What do I think just a random call my sister wants to CHAT. NOT! She wants to tell me that someone cut her off in traffic. The phone call at this point is still a little normal. The call gets better my sister proceeds to tell me that she yelled “Oh Hell NO”. Just as you are thinking she is only talking to me. Yet again NOT! There was a little recorder in the backseat sitting securely in her car seat who happens to be my 23 month old daughter. She repeated verbatim with expression “Oh HELLLL NO”. This has truly become a problem in my house. She records everything, every single word, phrase, sentence, expression and sometimes we even think she gets our THOUGHTS.

I sit back and think I can’t be the only person dealing with this. Cursing should never be done around your children if at all but guess what I am HUMAN and I make mistakes just like the next person. I’ve noticed that as long as we don't react when she says the bad word she won’t say it. The bad part is that she has been saying it for about a month and I just got that yesterday:)

If you can relate to this then you understand what I am going through. She is driving the entire house crazy repeating everything her older sisters say making it impossible for them to get a sentence out without her butting in trying to keep up with what they are saying. Thank you NICK Jr, for my reinforcement of good words, well not totally NICK Jr I have to give credit where credit is due. THANK YOU TO MY ENTIRE HOUSEHOLD…LOL

PROBLEM solved yes and no. She still manages to take rides with her AUNTIE, but auntie is on high alert that she is not always only talking on the cell phone to one person. The RECORDER is always listening.

Doesn’t she look innocent?

Text/Instant Messaging 2: Would You PASS?

Let’s go back into time when you were an adolescent/teenager. How did we communicate with our parents, friends, family members and general people? We surely did not have cell phones; well at least the vast majority of us did not have one. May be a pager (BLEEP: BLEEP) but that’s about it, heck we just made the era of call waiting, 3-way call and caller ID. Caller ID/Call waiting still did not come for some time after that. We had the opportunity to play around with e-mail in our early teenage years, but communicating then is nothing of how it is now. If you were one of the ones to have a cell phone for this blog’s sake well just call you FORTUNATE.

My oldest daughter is 9 years old getting ready to turn 10. I have been up in arms about getting her a cell phone. It almost seems as if I can’t go without getting her one. She has a very active life in which I am apart of 100%, so I just have to decide YES or NO.com THE END..

My job passed out these text/instant messaging quizzes and of COURSE I FAILED. I only knew the ones I taught my mother because she is in dinosaur times RIGHT? WRONG? After taking this quiz I am in dinosaur times myself. I think I may have made it through like 15 of the 65. Please don’t think there are only 65 codes. REALLY? I went on several websites listed on the paper to find that there are hundreds of codes. I am treading DEEP WATERS trying to keep up. Looking at all the codes out there I need a weekly training to keep up. I think as PARENTS we are obligated to keep up with what our children are getting involved in. There is a time and a place to be a parent and a place and time to be a FRIEND. When it comes to the safety of our children we should be parents 210% and more of the time.

Depending on your age if you were asked how you communicated as a teenager would defer from the teenagers in 2012. The overall percentage of teen’s texting is 75%. This simply tells me that this is one of the most used forms of communicating for teenagers today. Check out the list below on a few text/instant messaging lingos. How many did you get right? Be sure to leave a comment in the comment area and let us know.

These are just a few that I wanted to share with you. Be sure to check out the following website for more text/instant messaging codes/lingo.

www.netlingo.com

www.techdictionary.com

www.urbandictionary.com

2 The Neighborhood "Our Spotlight"

We would like to welcome you into the lives of 2 lovely young ladies and of course wonderful mothers who enjoy helping to capture the moment where girls get to be princesses. Jasmine and Tania have been “girly girls” as early as they can remember. Between the two of them they have 5 little princesses who now get to experience the "girly girl" factor as they did. Giving other little princesses the opportunity to smile and be dressed as a princess brings them nothing but joy.

Jasmine and Tania have now extended the “girly girl” factor into every home where there lives a little princess. Please check out their website and facebook fan page for some of the items pictured below as well as many other items for purchase.

www.dosprimabowtique.webs.com

Stop by their Facebook Fan Page. Don't forget to hit the LIKE button!!!! Tell them Toni & Karesa sent you:)

www.facebook.com/dosprimabowtique

What's In Your Basket ?????

Basket full of GRASS with Chocolate Covered Bunnies, Sweetarts, Bunny Shaped Reece’s Peanut Butter Cups, Jelly Beans, Colored Eggs, Toys and let’s not forget the HUNT! My mom and dad would create these wonderful baskets for my siblings and I filled with nothing. Then it was Easter Egg Hunt time this is where I got most of my candy but of course there was more where that came from INSIDE OF THE HOUSE! Easter has always been fun since I was a child I can remember going to church on Easter Sunday rushing home to change out of my pretty dress in preparation of decorating eggs. Everyone would come up with their own style of creating their "MASTERPIECE" egg. My brother's egg was messy, my sister maybe had 2 colors and of course I had a cleaver design. I guess you can call me an artist in the making. Now that I have children of my own it is a joy to see my children enjoy it as much as I did.

Easter is fast approaching for many of us who celebrate this wonderful holiday. How many of us parents have actually sat down and talked to our children about the true meaning of Easter? Well that's where we come to help, keep reading this post to find creative ways of introducing the importance of celebrating Easter.

Easter this year will be celebrated on April 8, 2012. Easter is not about the bunnies, candy and hunts. Although we enjoy and have fun putting baskets together for our little ones it's more than just that. This is the time to discuss with our children all that Jesus has done for us and what he did on the cross.

Eater is one of the most sacred Christian Holiday's. Easter is the celebration of Jesus Christ's rising from the dead (resurrection) after he was crucified. Jesus was crucified on the cross on what we know it as today "Good Friday". God sent his only son Jesus to die for our sins. Even though Jesus died he did not stay dead, he rose from the dead on Easter Sunday. This is why we celebrate Easter it is the celebration of New Life.

Here is the link to a great movie that will help you explain the True Meaning of Easter.

Please check out our "Let's Get Crafty Page" for cool Easter ideas. Here is a little sneek peek:

Happy First Day of Spring….Cleaning!

If you live in the DMV (DC, MD & VA) area, you know we never really had a winter season and spring has been in full effect for several weeks. The kids were looking forward to wearing their new snow suits. We’ve had no snow. It actually hasn’t even been cold enough for them to wear the typical winter gear. Now don’t get us wrong, we are definitely not a fan of the winter ice mix, school delays and closings and worst of all the traffic (Ranked #2 in the top 10 of worst cities for traffic), but this winter was just not the same without the 3ft of snow. We’ve had up to 80°weather, a little rain and overcast, but still able to wear shorts, tanks/tees and flip flops…ummm YES please! It’s actually been kind of tough to dress the kids because it’s still cold in the morning then warms up by mid afternoon. Do we dress them in shorts anticipating it will be warm, or do we still keep them in pants with a short sleeve short and light jacket and a pack a pair of shorts for them for later? But if we send them to school/daycare in shorts they may catch a cold because the weather is so bi-polar. But if they’re in pants, will they be comfortable? Too hot? What to do, what to do?

Spring cleaning anyone? Winter is officially over…time to for spring cleaning. Do we have to? Yes, yes we do. But why? (Doesn’t this sound familiar-It’s funny how most of will resort to the 4 yr old or teen for that matter when it comes to cleaning) Honestly, who likes to clean? I’m sure we all feel spring cleaning just snuck up on us, out of nowhere. As much as we are procrastinating and kicking and screaming we really got to get it done. It’s going to help you and your sanity in the long run. We’ve found that when we do take the time to do a thorough Spring Cleaning, it’s easier to for us parents and kids to keep up with our day to day tasks, activities and most important, stay organized.

Everyone lives in the house, so everyone is responsible for cleaning it up and making sure it stays clean. Yes, even the little ones. Get them started EARLY! Be sure to check out our checklist to help get you started (Can be found under the 1 For Fun 2 Get it Done! Page). By all means please use your discretion for the little ones.

Depending on how much change the kids found in the couches and cars, take the family out for some ice cream and take a stroll in the park. By the time you get home, the kids should be exhausted. You probably will be exhausted too, but at least you don’t have to clean ANYTHING when you get home!

Making A Change!

National Nutrition Month

Way back when, our parents and grand-parents day, they had no video games, cable TV, and no computers. FAST FOOD restaurants, you gotta be kidding me! There were few of those around and they sure did not have 1 on every corner.

Most of their time was spent outdoors riding bikes, creating outdoor games, climbing trees and eating from the family garden. We surly cannot say that for the kids growing up today. Kids today watch an average of 20-30 hours of T.V. a week; we can average that out to the amount of time spent in school learning. Kids that eat fast food consume an average of 187 more calories a day. Childhood Obesity does exist! Let’s start changing the numbers NOW not LATER.

Parents we have to be a role model for our kids. Get out and get fit! Start with small steps take the kids from in front of the T.V. and do a learning activity, get them involved in the kitchen as you prepare meals, take them outside for at least 20-30 minutes a day 5 days a week. With this, we are creating an environment of taking care of your mind, body and health. Who said rewards were a bad thing?? Encourage and reward your kid’s physical activity with outings, games, and or equipment related to different activities.

Where Did My Hour GO?????

It’s that time of year again! On Sunday, March 11^th at 2AM, we will Spring Forward one hour. This means we lose an hour of sleep, but gain an hour of PLAY! This also means summer is right around the corner! This is the time that you may want to start preparing your minds for Spring Cleaning-but that’s a whole other blog…coming soon! J

Here is a link where you can keep track of the different time zones http://www.timeanddate.com/ and time changes around the world. This will be a great way to teach the kids about the different time zones and 4 seasons. If you have family in different states, have the kids call them to see what time is where they live. The kids can also learn what the different temperatures are, sunrise and sunset, and moonrise and moonset where your families are.

When you get up Sunday morning, before breakfast, go around the house and have the kids change all of the clocks. The kids will have fun running around the house and your toddlers are now learning their numbers and how to tell time. Have fun!

Much Love! T & K

Welcome

Toni & Karesa would like to welcome you to our blog!!!!!!!!!