Motherhood

Festival of Lights – Cincinnati

Having a toddler requires a lot of creativity when it comes to winter when it becomes cold outside.

One of our favorite things to do, no matter what season it is, is going to the zoo! During the winter, for a few weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas, PNC Bank sponsors Festival of Lights!

We love looking at all the lights, saying hello to the animals and riding the train. Even during the evening time when we go, we still spend 2 hours there!

It is amazing at how great the zoo is and how much fun my daughter has. We have probably been 100 times in the last couple months!

Motherhood

A Very Picky Toddler!

It’s time to eat lunch, so you prepare a turkey and cheese sandwich for your toddler. You sit her down in her high chair, put a bib on and finally hand her the plate with her sandwich and some fruit. Of course, when you hand your toddler a plate of food, you would think they would eat every single bit of it — not in my case! My daughter ate EVERYTHING but the bread! She usually always eat the bread, but she also thinks its funny to lick off the peanut butter and jelly when I give her that kind of sandwich. In this case, she at the turkey and cheese and the fruit but eft all the bread. I had a feeling that is what she was going to do, and therefore I only gave her half a sandwich so that I wasn’t wasting two pieces of bread.

I never knew toddlers were so picky until I had my own! As I got older, I got more picky with what I wanted to eat. For a toddler to be this picky but not wanting to eat bread kind of shocked me! She is a great eater all around, but this bread thing is a little weird.

As one of my friends said, “at least she ate what is healthy for her!” I couldn’t help but laugh be because she is absolutely right. All you can wish for a toddler is for them to eat healthy foods and not always eat that sugary stuff we tend to give them a lot!

Motherhood

She Screams for Ice Cream!

On those special days, where it is nice and sunny and hot out, we walk down the street to this cute little ice cream parlor.

Once the little princess wakes up from her nap and has lunch, sometimes I will ask if she wants to go get ice cream. Her little brown eyes get as wide as head and she gets the biggest smile on her face as she shakes her head with a nod. Lilly goes to grab her shoes and brings them to me, sits down on the floor and lets me put her shoes on her feet.

She heads to the door and tries to open it, but doesn’t have the full strength so I open it; she rushes to the elevator and pushes the button then runs to the wall. I make her stand by the wall so that she isn’t blocking the door if anyone is getting off! Once the door opens, she runs inside the elevator and always goes to the corner, unsure why, but she thinks it is funny! We get off the elevator, head outside and finally make our way to the ice cream parlor. We always share vanilla with some kind of topping. She loves sharing with me and sometimes I let her finish it herself, without my helping and makes a mess. She makes a great ice cream date and we enjoy the little mother-daughter day dates.

It is dangerous how close we live to the ice cream parlor, 3 minutes walking! During the summer we go more often than we should, but how can you not!? On those hot days you want something to cool yourself down with and ice cream is definitely the cure!