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How to Grow Your Toddler's Library for FREE!



Calling all Miami Moms! Would you like to help grow your toddler's library for free? Through the The Children's Trust Organization you can! Their Read to Learn Book Club provides you with the opportunity to register your child up to six months before they turn 3 years old to receive 1 FREE book each month for a whole year, starting on their birth month. That's 12 FREE books! Each book is accompanied by a bilingual instruction guide for the adult reader and a simple hands-on activity to engage your child.

https://www.thechildrenstrust.org/content/read-learn-book-club?gclid=Cj0KCQjwjMfoBRDDARIsAMUjNZoB9HefYKuXpBYt8Qbt0_owTkrIIYdmf3Kt34zclYhsjrjtESPPSo0aAm_zEALw_wcB

I love reading and was very excited at the opportunity to share my love of reading with my daughter. Last summer, before she turned three, I signed her up for the Read to Learn Book Club and it has been amazing! Each month she looks forward to receiving her package in the mail and finding out what book is waiting for her inside. I have to say that I have been impressed with the books she has received. All of them have been high quality books and many of them have been well known and loved books such as If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Numeroff and Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown. In the picture you will notice that the books my daughter receives are in Spanish. This was because her first language was Spanish so I chose that as the language of choice, however, the books are available in English.

After we receive the package in the mail, I always like to prepare the activities so that we can be ready to use them after reading. First, we cut the pieces out. Then, to make sure they can last for many repeated readings, I always laminate them. This is when I whip out my handy-dandy Scotch Pro Thermal Laminator (Amazon Affiliate Link) and my Scotch Thermal Laminating Pouches (Amazon Affiliate Link) to laminate the instruction guide, activity instructions, and activity pieces. As a Type-A-Mama I love laminating any papers I can. It provides me with the peace of mind that my little one can play all she wants without fear of ripping or crumpling. 


Allison is learning to use scissors and loves to help me cut. 
Placing the pieces on the laminating pouches.

Feeding the pouch through the machine.



 Once the activity has been cut and laminated we are ready to read and play! :)

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie Labeling Activity
The Little Engine that Could Shapes Activity

I hope you have found this post to be helpful and hurry to sign-up for your toddler's free books. I would love to know, what are some other ways you promote literacy with your little one?



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10 Diaper Bag Essentials


Who said diamonds are a girl's best friend? When I'm toting around my little one, my favorite accessory is my diaper bag. In it, I keep everything I need to try and ensure a smooth and successful outing with my sweet pea. After many times of overstocking and understocking my diaper bag, I have finally narrowed down my diaper bag essentials to 10 items. Check them out...

1. Diapers (regular and nighttime)
Not only do I usually carry about 5-8 regular diapers in my bag, but I also pack a nighttime diaper in case my outing runs late and I end up having to put my little one in her pajama and nighttime diaper before I arrive home. You better believe I don't want to wake my little one for a diaper and outfit change after she's fallen asleep in the car seat on the ride home.

2. Diaper cream
I always like to carry a tube of diaper cream to protect my baby's bottom from getting a rash. When she was a newborn, I found that Triple Paste worked best to protect her baby soft skin from getting irritated by the multiple diaper changes she had. Now that she's older and doesn't dirty her diaper as often I like to use Desitin or Aquaphor.

3. Wipes
You can never have enough of these, especially for those messy diaper changes (you know what I mean).

4. Changing Pad
Even though there are changing stations in most public restrooms I always like to place my own changing pad on top of the changing station to make sure my little one is lying on a clean surface. Thankfully, most diaper bags already come with a changing pad included. *Mama truth: I have changed my baby's diaper many a time in the trunk of my car and my changing pad has definitely come in handy to protect my baby from lying on a potentially dirt ridden surface and my protect my car from being soiled.

5. Milk (breastmilk or water and formula powder)
I was fortunate enough to be able to exclusively breast feed for 6 months so I didn't have to worry too much about taking milk around with me at first since my "girls" were always with me. I only toted around breastmilk on nights I had an event and pumped milk in advance to not have to worry about squirming out of a dress to breastfeed. However, after I went back to work and started supplementing with formula, baby water and formula powder became additions to my diaper bag. I like to keep the formula powder in this little OXO Tot Formula Dispenser. With this dispenser, I can pre-measure powder for three feedings. (Very convenient)

6. Solids and spoons
Once your baby starts eating solids (homemade or store bought), baby food and spoons are must-haves for your diaper bag. I usually place all the baby foods and spoons in a Ziploc or small bag so the containers don't slide around the baby bag and to try and prevent massive chaos in the bag if a container should decide to explode.

7. Bibs and Burp Cloths
Spit up or yellow squash anyone? No thanks! After the effort I put into piecing together a fashionable outfit for myself and my daughter, I know I don't prefer stains if I can avoid them. Therefore, I always try to pack one bib and burp cloth per feeding in my bag since every feeding is a gamble... sometimes I quietly beam with pride at having successfully fed my daughter without even a speck or drop landing on her bib and other times her bib, high chair, and my daughter look like Jackson Pollock work of art. You never know, therefore I like to leave prepared and have multiple bibs and burp cloths should her feedings not go as planned.

8. Extra Clothes (onesies, outfits, pajamas)
Remember those messy diaper changes and messy feedings I spoke about? Well... that's when the extra clothes comes in handy. I don't have enough fingers to count how many times I have needed to perform an outfit change thanks to a dirty diaper gone wrong (and yes, I say perform because removing a soiled onesie from your baby is like performing an operation, one wrong move results in disaster). I always like to pack 1-2 extra onesies, 1 outfit (top and bottom), and 1 pajama (in case I'm out past baby's bedtime).

9. Pacifier
When all else fails, bring out the pacifier or "tete" as we call it in Spanish! Once upon a time when my daughter was first born, she rejected the pacifier and I was ecstatic thinking she was going to be one of those babies that wouldn't want/need one. That fantasy ended week two and I quickly learned that the pacifier helped soothe her when nothing else would. Now, it is my life saver and I NEVER EVER leave home without it.

10. Toys
Packing a few of my daughter's favorite toys helps me to keep her entertained during the car ride and at our destination.

*If you are a breastfeeding mom, here are a few additional items to consider packing:
1. Breast-feeding cover up
2. Manual Pump (for on-the-go pumping if necessary)
3. Little Cooler (to keep your pumped breastmilk from spoiling)

**Additional items to consider:
1. Hairbrush (when taming the mane is called for)
2. Thermometer (for peace of mind if baby is feeling warm)
3. Nose bulb and saline solution (should a stuffy nose arise)
4. Teethers (to comfort teething babies; Sophie the Giraffe and the Baby Banana Teething Toothbrush are my daughter's favorites)
5. Disposable Diaper Bags (to dispose of dirty diapers on-the-go or when a trashcan is out of sight)
6. Sunscreen (for fun in the sun)

I hope you have found this list of diaper bag essentials to be helpful! I would love to know if you have any other suggestions for diaper bag essentials. Feel free to comment below.


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Quick & Easy Baby Food Organization Tip


Does anyone else get overwhelmed by the vast selection of baby food at the grocery market? I know I do! Don't get me wrong, I think it's great that there are so many options, but it's definitely a lot to think about. I only recently started my journey into solids with my daughter two months ago, when she turned 6 months old, and it started off well while I was introducing the "first" fruits and vegetables. It was a pretty straightforward/basic plan of introducing fruits (apples, bananas, peaches, and pears) one at a time, for 3 consecutive days, at two feedings and then introducing vegetables (carrots, peas, squash, green beans, and sweet potatoes) one at a time, for three consecutive days, at two feedings. However, once my daughter graduated to the "second" foods I was in a different ballgame. There are a whole lot of food options in this category and it didn't take me long to decide that I needed to come up with a system for selecting and organizing the multitude of flavors and meals available. Not only was I feeling overwhelmed choosing the foods at the market, but I was also feeling overwhelmed when I got home and unloaded all the tiny containers onto my kitchen counter! The Type-A in me couldn't take it, so I came up with a plan to facilitate this mealtime mess.

My plan was to organize the containers so that I wouldn't repeat the same foods over and over and so that the meals would be easy for me to grab-and-go or leave behind for a babysitter at a moment's notice. Here's what I came up with...

Guidelines for selecting the foods...

1. Choose a mix of green and orange/yellow foods.
When my pediatrician first explained how to introduce solids, specifically vegetables, she advised me to alternate introducing the yellow/orange and green vegetables because if I fed my daughter the yellow/orange vegetables back to back it could cause her skin to gain a slight yellow tint. So, I continue to follow this advice when selecting the "second" foods.

(*NOTE: My methods for introducing solids were based on my pediatrician's recommendation. I am sure every pediatrician has their own advice and recommendations for introducing solids so if you are introducing solids for the first time, please consult your pediatrician about the way/order they would like for you to do so.)

2. Choose fruit/vegetable mixes that contain ingredients you have previously introduced. 
Many of the fruit and vegetable mixes are made of the basic "first" fruits and veggies (i.e. apple, banana, pear). However, there are some mixes that contain other foods such as banana, carrot, mango that you may not have introduced before (i.e. mango). In such a case, I always try to find a container that sells that ingredient in isolation or buy the fresh fruit or veggie and introduce it for 3 days before I feed my daughter the mix containing it. It's a simple precaution to rule out any food allergy.

3. Choose a mix of "lighter" and "heavier" meal options.
This a preference I have in order to differentiate between lunches and dinner. For example, I try to give my daughter "lighter" foods such as a pear, zucchini, corn mix for lunch and a "heavier" food such as vegetables and chicken for dinner.


Organizing your child's foods for the week...

If you follow the guidelines above for selecting the foods, it becomes pretty easy to organize them once you unload them from the grocery bags by using the following 5 simple steps:

Step 1: Group all of the same flavor foods together. 
Create a group of vegetable based foods (which I consider the "meals") and a group of fruit based foods (which I consider "desserts"). Within each group, organize the same flavored foods together (i.e. stack all of the garden vegetable containers together and all the pear + pineapple containers together, etc.).

Step 2: Grab one "light" meal and one "heavy" meal per day from the vegetable based foods.
As I previously mentioned, I try to give my daughter a "lighter" meal that doesn't contain a meat for lunch and then a "heavier" meal that includes turkey, chicken, or beef for dinner. There's no real science to this, it's just my way of mimicking adult eating habits where typically the dinner is heavier. I also like to give her the heavier meal for dinner to fill her belly more since she won't eat for another 11 or so hours until breakfast. Once I have selected the two vegetable based foods, I stack them on top of each other with the lunch on top and dinner on the bottom and line them up in a row (Monday through Sunday).

*Remember to keep colors in mind when selecting your lunch and dinner foods. Try not to pick two very orange or yellow foods for both lunch and dinner. Alternate between greens and yellow/oranges, beiges and greens, or beiges and yellow/oranges.

Step 3: Label each vegetable container by day and meal. 
Now that your meals are organized, all you have to do is simply label the containers. YAY! Just grab a sharpie and go to town. I usually label the containers with the day, meal, and flavor. I write the flavor because although Gerber does have the flavor printed on the container, it is in very small font so I write it to make it easier for me and others to see.

Step 4: Grab two or three "desserts"per day from the fruit based foods.
When my pediatrician gave me the instructions for feeding my daughter from 6-9 months she told me to start incorporating a breakfast, lunch, and dinner each day and she told me to include a fruit at each feeding. My daughter often suffers from constipation so I always give her 2 oz. of prunes for her breakfast feeding. However, for lunch and dinner I give her 4 oz. of individual fruits or fruit mixes. Once I have selected the two fruits or fruit mixes per day I add them to the stack they belong in. For example, I add the fruits I selected for Monday to the stack of meals I already labeled for Monday.

*Just like when I pick her meals, I pay attention to the colors of the fruits and fruit mixes I choose to make sure they vary. For example, I try not to give two purple fruits/mixes a day or a very orange fruit mix at dinner if her dinner is also orange in color. Also, I try not to give two of the same fruits a day. If I am giving her apples or an apple mix for lunch I try to select a fruit at dinner that does not contain apples.

Step 5: Label each fruit container by day and meal.
Okay, now that ALL the brainwork is done (PHEW!) grab your sharpie once more and label your fruit containers. Similar to the way I label the vegetable containers, I write the day, meal, and flavor of the fruit. I also write the word "Dessert" on the lip of the cap covering the food container. This just helps set it apart from the lunch and dinner meals.

TADA! Here you have it.


If I haven't scared you off already, which I hope I haven't, I'm happy you're still reading. The explanation of this process sounds WAY more complicated than it is. Honestly, this process takes me about 10-15 minutes once a week. I usually organize my daughter's meals on Sundays so that way I feel good about having her food ready for the week before I go back to work.

This organization system has been really helpful for me and for my mom who takes care of my daughter while I am at work. It does take a little effort to prepare, but it facilitates mealtimes so much! When your baby is wailing from hunger or you're simply in a rush you don't have time to sit and search through food containers for a well balanced meal. Using this system, all my daughter's meals are pre-selected and organized, which makes them easy to grab and go or grab and feed by anyone.

 I hope you found my organizational system to be helpful. I would love to hear from you. How do you organize your baby's food or how do you facilitate mealtime? Please feel free to share your organization tips and ideas in the comments below.


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What does "being a mom" mean?

Having recently celebrated my first Mother's Day, I decided to reflect on what "being a mom" means to me. As a new mom, every day I learn a little more about what "being a mom" really means. Although I'm no expert, here are some things I have learned so far...


1. Being a mom means being SELFLESS.
Once your little bundle of joy enters the world, life isn't ALL about you anymore. That is not to say that I think once you become a mom you should no longer make yourself a priority. In fact, I think taking care of yourself is very important because at the end of the day if you do not take care of yourself how can you take good care of your little one(s)? Rather, what I do mean is that once you're a mom you can't JUST take care of or think about your needs. Motherhood entails making sacrifices for the benefit of your kid(s). The sacrifices can be small such as giving up time to watch your favorite TV show to spend time with your little one (after all, the beauty of DVR is that you can always watch it later) OR big such as choosing to remove someone from your/their life that you know could bring them heartache. Above all, being a mom means putting your kid's needs first and concerning yourself with making decisions that are not only in your best interest, but most importantly in theirs. I'm not going to pretend that this way of life is a piece of cake. Being selfless is definitely easier said than done, but I think the benefits my daughter can reap from me approaching motherhood with a selfless attitude will far outweigh the costs of what I will have to sacrifice.

2. Being a mom means being RESTLESS.
Motherhood is very rewarding, but lets be honest...you can't deny it is tiring work. Whether your kids are babies that require feedings every three hours, diaper changes in between, and constant entertaining (like my little ball of energy) OR your kids are older and need help with homework or transportation to extracurricular activities, there isn’t a lot of downtime in the life of a mom. Life can get pretty busy. Ever since I returned to work,  finding downtime has been even more challenging than it already was because when I get home all I want to do is spend as much time with my little one as I can before she goes to bed. In turn, that means I postpone all of my chores until later. Luckily, I have an amazing support system that helps me with many of these household duties so that I can dedicate more time to my baby, but even so there's always something to do. Thankfully, my little one is a pretty good sleeper, so when she is finally sleeping I take advantage and use that time to try and finish off my chores around the house or catch up on my blogs. However, sometimes I'm so exhausted I simply put my feet up, relax, and watch some TV or just plain fall asleep.

3. Being a mom means being WORRIED. 
From the moment I found out I was pregnant, I began to worry. Throughout my pregnancy, I also worried. Why is she moving so much? Why isn't she moving enough? Was it okay to eat that? etc. Now that my little one is here, the worrying continues. Like many moms out there, I only want what is best for my daughter and want her to be happy and healthy at all times. That means I often worry at the sign of anything. I worry when she starts to feel warm, gets a cough, sneezes, gets a rash, sleeps too short/long, doesn't eat all of her food, doesn't drink "enough" milk or water, etc. The list goes on and on. Sometimes it may just be new mom craziness (lack of knowledge or experience), but I know that once you're a mom the worrying never ends. I used to see my grandma worry about my mom and us all the time and to this day I still call my mom every time I get to work and get home from work to let her know I arrived safely so she won't be a nervous wreck. As a teenager I used to find it bothersome, but now I get it. The worry comes from a place of love and I appreciate that she cares enough to worry. 

4. Being a mom means being a MULTITASKER.
Mothers wear many hats in their every day lives. Not only are mothers "moms", but many are also wives, daughters, sisters, aunts, employees, volunteers, caregivers, etc. and with each of these roles are a slew of responsibilities attached. As I mentioned earlier, I'm still learning how to try and effectively balance it all together.  Who knows, maybe I'll never perfect it, but I'm going to try my best to figure out how to make it all work for me. I feel that oftentimes us moms put a lot of pressure on ourselves (myself included) to get everything we need to do done and do it perfectly, but what I'm slowly learning, despite my Type-A craziness, is that there is no "perfect" and sometimes it's okay to put things off. Not everything has to be done in ONE day. There are some essential tasks that need to get done, but there are other minor ones that can wait. The dishes can wait to be unloaded from the dishwasher and the laundry can always be folded the next day. Too busy to cook dinner? Take-out or food for delivery is always an option. It's all about prioritizing what MUST be done and what CAN be done. I've also learned not to be afraid to ask for help. I am lucky to have amazing parents that will drop whatever they're doing to help me out when I am struggling to get it all done. I know that is not the case for everyone, but there are always other family members or friends that may be willing to lend a helping hand if you need one. Simply ask. At the end of the day, you aren't any less of a mom if you ask for other's help.

5. Being a mom means being an EXAMPLE.
As young as months old, children watch and imitate the actions of their parents. They look up to them and want to be like them. That being the case, I feel that it is important to be someone worthy of imitating. I strongly believe that "actions speak louder than words" and therefore feel that being a good example to your kid(s) is one of the most powerful ways to help raise them into the kind of person you hope they will be. I can't promise there won't be days where I won't say or do the wrong thing because I am HUMAN. I recognize that I am going to make mistakes along the way, and that is OKAY. In fact, I think it's important for kids to see that we as adults are not perfect. It's an opportunity for us to teach them that they can use mistakes to learn and grow. However, I am going to strive to show my daughter an example that teaches her to be a compassionate, ambitious, and humble human being. I pray that I can raise her to be a beautiful person.

Overall, being a mom is PRICELESS. The sacrifices, exhaustion, worry, and responsibility are all worth the precious moments and love of your child. I look at my daughter every so often and still can't believe how lucky I am to have been blessed with such a wonderful gift. I cherish being a mother, HER mother, and wouldn't trade it for the world. Each day I try to take in as much as I can because as I have come to realize, time passes by way too quickly. In the blink of an eye, 8 months have passed since I met my little cupcake, and before I know it, her 1st birthday will be here. As much as I hope time slows down a little, I greatly look forward to all of the adventures and memories that are to come.

Thank you for sticking around to read what "being a mom" means to me. I would love to hear what "being a mom" means to you. Feel free to comment below.


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