Tag: Parenting

Our Magical Visitors and Their Fonts

Posted on by keepinthesunlightblog@gmail.com

When our first-born was a baby, I didn’t know how I felt about having Santa visit our house.  I discussed it with my husband and close friends. I read articles about it. I hemmed and hawed it.  Fortunately, those babies give us time to make such decisions.  One of the best pieces of advice I got was that if we did choose to have Santa and the Easter Bunny in our home, we should make a game of it in other times and “play” that we are these characters.

By the time our girl was nearing two, I was giddy with excitement to see her reaction to a visit from St. Nicholas.  Apparently, the decision had been made.  She took on the “play” element with zero prompting from us.  On holidays, we are each instructed by our little director when it’s our turn to “be” Santa, or whomever has recently stopped by.

Now, we have no less than 7! magical visitors.  (How did that happen?)  And while I’d made all sorts of promises to keep it simple and not add to the deception, there are definitely ways I have lapsed on this.  Everyone has their own forms of this, of course; I mean if you’re going to do it, you might as well have some fun, right?  While we don’t do any footprints or costumes or ringing bells, we definitely have gone farther than I had planned.  I had hoped to reflect any questions about these visitors back to our daughter.  “How do YOU think Santa gets down the chimney?”  etc.  And while I usually keep to this rule in person, everything changes when the questions are asked in a direct letter; those magical visitors can’t help but answer.  So now, each visitor has quite an elaborate backstory, which is a combination of our daughter’s long list of questions and her mama’s excitement.  And, as our girl is beginning her reading and writing journey, I couldn’t just have these visitors write their letters in recognizable print.  So, while I’d love these letters to be handwritten, they are way too lengthy to do so in special writing.  Thus was born our Magical Visitors’ Fonts.

I am fortunate to have an incredible stock of scrapbook paper, and after researching some fonts, here’s what we’ve got:

Our leprechauns and their font (They actually do handwrite this font with green whiteboard marker on mirrors and tubs.)

Our Easter Bunny and her font

Our Switch Witch and her font

Our St. Nicholas and his font

Our Christmas Kindness Elf and her font

Our Santa and his font

Our Tooth Fairy and her font (She originally had a different font, but she writes so very tiny that it had to be changed.)

I hope some of these links can help another mama or dada who might be in a pickle trying to figure some of this out!

 

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Switch Witch
Tooth Fairy
Christmas Kindness Elf
St. Nicholas
Leprechauns
A New Holiday Helper

Before We Say “Goodnight”

Posted on by keepinthesunlightblog@gmail.com

Before We Say “Goodnight” by Hank Frazee

Father of three kids and insurance agent by day, Mr. Frazee tells a real-life bedtime story to his kids every night, which he has calculated to be over 8,000 stories. This entertaining, quick read is a convincing argument for the importance of sharing life stories with your kids. While many families, including the author’s, believe in the importance of reading books to children before bed, Hank suggests there is also much to be gained by including a story about your own life. It’s a great opportunity not only for your children to snuggle close with you and learn from the way you structure your stories, but also to help them learn about their family’s history and perhaps be comforted in knowing that you faced similar challenges, embarrassments, and joys.


I have to say that when I first read through this book, I was immediately on board with the idea but thought that I couldn’t possibly have enough stories to share. I racked my brain only to come up with memories of accidents and humiliating moments from my life, not the kind of thing to lull my young daughter to sleep. But Mr. Frazee offers tips, ideas, and a few pages of story prompters to help the reader embark on this journey. It took a little bit of reflection for me. But, notebook in hand, (which Hank suggests you won’t necessarily need), I slowly began jotting down ideas of real-life stories I could tell. And once I began this process, I really started to “get it.” The stories didn’t have to be long or even highly entertaining. They could be stories from my own experiences or other family members’. I now have pages of ideas. Mr. Frazee’s book really has been an inspiration.

Now, years after my first reading of his book, I realize just how much this book has changed the way I parent.  Storytelling plays a central role in our each and every day, whether they be stories from our long-distant past, stories from our day, or stories from books or movies my kids have yet to experience.  With more and more practice, storytelling has become second nature for me, and has been a huge part of bonding with my kids.  Thank you, Mr. Frazee

Darth Vader and Son

Posted on by keepinthesunlightblog@gmail.com


Darth Vader and Son (2012)  by Jeffrey Brown

This is a book of one-page comics that show what life would be like for Darth Vader if he were spending time with a four-year old Luke Skywalker.  I don’t know Star Wars that well and had to have some of these cartoons explained to me further, but most of these stand on their own, even for those of us with limited Star Wars knowledge.  They will be especially funny to parents or to anyone who spends time with young children.

I happened to first read this book soon after giving birth to our second child, a time when my emotions were a big, dramatic jumble of very high highs and very low lows.  And so, as I read these over and over to our own four-year old, while nursing her brother, I laughed out loud uncontrollably… as in… I CouLD. NOT. stop. laughing.  I’m pretty sure this book is funny even to a person of average emotional range, but these comics hold a special place in my heart for all the joy they brought me in those early, raw days and weeks after giving birth.

 

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Michael McIntyre

Don’t Force Me to Hug

Posted on by keepinthesunlightblog@gmail.com

I saw this on A Mighty Girl.  I know some agree and some don’t, but it’s definitely something to think about.  Interesting how all the things we want when our kids are little, “Just do as I say,” “Eat what I tell you to eat,” “Sleep in, for goodness sake!” “Stop bothering me,” etc. are all the things we try desperately to change in them when they’re teenagers–“Stand up for yourself!” “Make your own wise choices,” “Get out of bed!” “Spend more time with me…please.”   Or, in the case of this one, “Just hug this person, even if you don’t want to…” vs. “Respect your body.”

I, for one, am in very strong agreement with the message here, although I couldn’t claim for certain that I’ve never tried to encourage a hug to a relative.  I’ve never liked the idea of forcing kids to be affectionate or share.  Heck, most adults I know wouldn’t want to be forced to share their favorite “toys” with others.  I certainly wouldn’t want to be forced to “play” or hang out with someone I didn’t like, and I certainly wouldn’t want to be forced to be affectionate to someone.  (Don’t even get me started on the crying, screaming, forced Santa’s lap pictures.)

As a parent of a little girl, I’m especially sensitive to a situation like this.  She needs to be respecting her comfort zone, not catering to another person’s wishes.  Fortunately, we haven’t been faced with much of this, but I’ve heard about this situation again and again from other parents.  Almost 100% of the time, it is a grown male (a grandpa, an uncle, a close family friend) who is being pouty and sensitive about a little girl not hugging him or kissing him or even giving him High 5s.  (Don’t know why little boys are excused from this…)  Some people think that relatives and close friends are exempt from a young kids’ discomfort with a situation like this.  I, however, believe my kid needs to know that her comfort is respected above all, especially above some grown man’s hurt feelings about not getting the physical contact he wants.  In my opinion, this cannot be taught too soon.   Anyway, I don’t see how forcing someone to show an affection they don’t feel is a good thing anyway.  Let adults be the adults in the situation.  To me, this lesson is not one to back down on.  …  All easier said than navigated in real life, of course, but I think this one is too important to ignore.