Toddler Tuesday: Easter Edition!

Easter is coming up! To be honest, I only celebrate because of the cuteness. We are not a religious family, so we won't be going to church.
**If you are religious, please message me if you have questions on why we are not. I don't want this post to be offense or looked down upon because of our personal beliefs.

So...what are we doing for Easter!? I have an Easter basket for Nate, did a couple crafts, and have snack ideas. My husband's work has an Easter Egg hunt the day before so we will go to that for Nate.

Here is Nate's Easter basket.

 What's inside?
*Annie's bunnies. White cheddar and snickerdoodle. They were 2/$4 at Target and bunnies.
*1 M&M egg.
*On the Farm book. It has little felt animals to put on the book. Dollar section at Target.
*Sesame Street bath coloring pieces. Dollar section at Target.
*The Goodnight Gecko book. This is sort of an inside joke. Nate had a gecko in his room one day and now he thinks he is living in there. This book was just so fitting and hilarious not to get. Plus, it will be a Hawaii keepsake. $13
*Bug catcher toy. Dollar section at Target.
*Basket was $3 at Target
Total spent: $23. More than I was going to spend, but I splurged on the gecko book.

Easter painting crafts/art: Easter Egg painting

What you need:

1. Easter egg printable. I printed out 4 so he could do a few of them.

2. Paint.. I gave him 6 colors, but you can choose how many you want or have on hand.

3. Clothes pins. I had 6 for the 6 colors.

4. Cotton balls or puffs. I did 3 cotton balls because they were bigger then the tiny puffs I had on hand. 3 puffs, just have a different size. 

5. Scissors to cut the egg out after.

6. Painters tape (see below for second painting idea)

7. Paint brushes (optional)

 The next one I used painters tape to make lines on the egg. I did one with straight lines and one with lines in different places, somewhat abstract looking. I let Nate choose if he wanted to use paint brushes or the cotton ball/puffs.

After he was done, I let them dry. The dotted ones, I cut the egg out. The painters tape ones I peeled the tape off then cut out the egg. 

Another craft I did but didn't take a picture of the process was footprint carrots. All you do is paint their foot orange, put the footprint on white paper. Let it dry then add a stem using a green pen, crayon, or marker. Super easy. 

Now what!? What do you do with all the art? You can make cards and send them to family. You can make magnets(laminate them if you have one), frame them, etc. I made an Easter banner using all 3 of the crafts. I punched a hole in them and used yarn to hold it up. 

Easter snack:

Bunnies eat carrots. Do kids? Most kids, my son included, don't eat as much veggies as they really need. We went to Costco to get little travel hummus packs for him to dip carrots in. I had some baby carrots I cut into thinner pieces for him and made some "ready-to-serve" carrot bowls. I only did 3 bowls because I ran out of carrots and I'm not even sure then hummus idea will work. 1 pack of hummus in his little toddler bowl and carrots. 

Phew. That was a long post. I hope you got a few ideas for Easter. Let me know what you have planned or anything other ideas! 

Happy Easter!

Bedtime Routine

I *think* Nate is starting to have a bedtime routine. Sleeping through the night has definitely not happened, but last night I got a 4 hour stretch, 2 hour, then 3 hour. Way better than EVERY 2 hours. Yes, I wish he would sleep a tad longer, but what can you do...the kid wants to eat.

He gets tired around 8:30. I (or Jason) put on his night time diaper, jammies, and "worm him up (swaddle)". I put on his white noise maker, then nurse him for about 20 minutes. Burp, then lay in bassinet and start to rock him away to dreamland. Side note: What do you think babies dream about? Milk? toys? Anyways, I rock him and he is asleep around 9:15-9:30. That hour sometimes go really fast or really sllooowww...depending on the night. It's usually pretty fast. One thing I have realized is I need to start putting the bassinet cover down. There are 2 little bears that hang from it and Nate has made friends with them. He will babble and smile at them until I completely turn off the light and he can't see them anymore. Note to self: no toys when he's older or he'll never go to sleep. I feel like I can already tell he might like to stay up late...we'll see.

Last night I changed 2 things in his routine. One: I pulled the cover with hanging bears down so he couldn't have a late night convo with his besties. Not okay, son. Two: I read some books to him. Normally, I read to him every other day in the day time. I want him to have a love for books and to start hearing the language. I also want him to have bedtime stories. Does any kid not like being read to at night?

I read Time for Bed, Nighty-night, and The Going to Bed Book. They are super short and cute little books. I got Nate in his jammies and sat him on my lap and read to him. I don't know if he was actually listening or paying attention, but he acted like it. He sat on my lap with his little cute hand resting on my arm. He didn't wiggle (which he does A LOT now). It was just a really relaxing little 10 minutes with him. I also enjoyed it because I haven't had much time to read myself, so it was nice to read in bed like "the good ol' days". No, it wasn't an adult book, but when he starts sleeping better I'll get back to my own books. For now, reading about animals going to bed is just fine.

When did you start reading to your kids? Is it something you enjoy? Let me know what your favorite story is (children's or adult)!