Tea Time with a Toddler

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What do you do when you have lemons?  Make lemonade!  
I *used to* dread babies waking up from their naps.  I know, I know, not exactly “mother of the year” attitude, but there are just so many difficult parts about waking up…grumpiness, sleepies, frustration, hunger, the ‘crazy’ hour before dinner, survival…okay, I think my point was made.  
So, I decided to do something fun so Harper and I would look forward to waking up from naptime.  We have started having tea time!!  And it is oh so much fun!!  
I put on classical music or an instrumental praise cd and we have a tea party.
I have tea (usually peppermint).  She has juice and water.
Then we have a fun little snack – one day it was nutella on pita bread with a dollop of whip cream.
Another day it was grapes and peanuts.
Another it was chocolate chip cookies and apples.  
I try to make it something fun and something with protein 
(so we don’t crash from the sugar in 30 minutes).
 My favorite part is Harpie’s little bracelet that she says she *must* wear during ‘tea time dah-ing.’ (ps hearing a two year old speak with a teensy Brittish accent is about the most hilariously cute thing you have ever heard!!) 
My other favorite part is she doesn’t fight naptime anymore because she curls up in her bed and looks at me with her big brown eyes and says, ‘Tea time when I wake up?’  And I say, ‘of course dah-ling.’  and then we giggle.  And the she goes to sleep.  And then, this is what we do… 
(not every day, but most week days)

I bought this little piggy cup for Harper when she was about 8 months old.  I was not even pregnant with the trio yet.  I wonder if it was foreshadowing at all?!?!  😉  

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I think we will try to keep this as special mother-daughter time.  Maybe I will do popcorn and race cars or Thomas the Train with the boys when they are bigger.  Something fun for sure!

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Annnd, second of all, how do y’all respond to people’s comments?  Is it best to respond to you by finding your blog & commenting, or should I respond on my comments?   What if you don’t have a blog?  I want to talk back to you, but don’t know how!!  For now, I think I am going to use the first part of my blog for my post and the second part for responding. We’ll see how that works!

Comment Response:
Anonymous – Thank you so much for your comments!  After re-thinking bath night, I will not bathe my children all together by myself any more!  It is pure craziness!!

Ashely – what do you do with your kiddos now that they roam?  Is it any easier pre-dinner?!  Or should I expect to keep pack-n-plays around until my children leave for college.  :-)

  SweetPsNaPod- O I have wanted to talk to you so many times, and I cannot for the life of me figure out how to ‘find’ you!!!  I think we could have so much to share with each other!  :-)  I love the Maxwell books – they are so helpful and informative!  If you go to their website, they have a template in a word document that you can open up.  I then copied & pasted that into an excel template & color coded as I went.  It did take me a while (couple of hours spread out), but I love the outcome!  And I made several different days b/c we have no two days that look exactly alike!  :-)

Tara – yay for Target and Sonic runs!!!  We would be two peas in a pod if lived close by!  I’m sure we would be doing stuff together all the time!!  Next summer for sure!!  :-)  Love you

Okay, well this will work for now!  Feel free to post!  Thanks to my friend, Tara, I have leared the secret of posting several posts in one sitting (thank you Picasa – you have rocked my world!)  I may not check back until later in the week, but I will eventually respond! 

All my love~
Mary Lindsey

7 thoughts on “Tea Time with a Toddler”

  1. Hey there, I’m a friend of Nancy’s, we grew up together at Bayleaf and whenever she would post a link to your blog I would check it out. I am AMAZED at all you do! And your new idea for tea time? You DO win mother-of-the-year for that! What you did is something I believe in so firmly-that the wife sets the tone of the home, instead of your home being unpleasant, you chose to create love and harmony in your home. I was just talking to my husband about this concept just an hour ago while cooking dinner. So kuddos to you, that’s awesome! I’m adding you to my following so I can check in on here more often. Take care!

    .heather.

  2. that is so sweet… tea time… and such a great idea… You are a great mommy and VERY creative…Yo have given me so many good ideas for when I start having kids. I always look forward to reading your posts—

  3. love that you are having “you & Harper” special time. i think that is so important for BOTH of you – because i know undivided attention is a hard thing to come by around a house with 4 itty bitty ones. and oh me. i don’t have good news for you as they turn two and they want/need to be able to roam – and they know how to climb. we are in a rough transition stage – the boys want to get into EVERYTHING & climb EVERYTHING – but they don’t quite understand their limits yet – we’ve had several accidents lately too – some blood and some bruises -yesterday we bolted lots of furniture to the wall – hard to watch 4 little ones at once, but i think your schedule idea is great, i think i am going to order that book, and maybe if we had a little more of a guideline to our day, we could keep the crazy a little more under control! in the mean tmie, i think we could use some extra prayers over here – for sanity and safety!! :) and to ever respond to my comments – you can always just email me! but i always wonder that same thing with blogs – how to respond to people best!

  4. What a sweet time between you and Harps. I know that she must just love that time with you- What a grown up thing to do! We do tea parties every now and then, and my kids love it! You’ve inspired me to try to do it more often:) Love you too!

  5. You inspire me!! My little girl is only 15 months, but seeing your sweet pictures makes me want to start tea time TODAY. (= Just think of the memories you are creating! So special.

  6. What a special time for you both. My boys woke up crabby some days too. Something like that would have helped make them happy quicker. Great idea!!
    I have a friend that is expecting triplet boys in Oct. She has a 6 year old son already. She is doing great and so are the babies. It is amazing that the body can hold all of that! I give you both a pat on the back. It can’t be easy!

  7. that is THE cutest thing i have ever heard, especially that Harper asks about having tea-time after her nap! i think you are just an amazing mom, and you give me so much hope for being a parent one day 😉 miss you and love you!

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