One Finger Touch

Getting to play with the toy soldier ornament
Originally uploaded by bunnyfabulous

As I look back at Christmas and the entire season with a tree full of breakable ornaments and tons of toddler eye candy (a.k.a. 'I want to touch it' candy), I am ever more thankful for an idea shared with me by a wise mom friend called 'one finger touch.'

Her daughter MB is two years older than mine, and like Li'l Girlie, she's a very tactile kid. To help MB satisfy her curiosity in stores without breaking things, my friend would tell her daughter before entering a store whether it was 'no touch', 'one finger touch' where MB could touch things, but could only use one finger to do so, or she could touch anything (very rare).

This accomplished several things. It prevented unnecessary tantrums, near-constant 'no's', and MB having to wonder each time whether she'd be admonished to not touch something each time she tried. Plus, one finger touch helped MB learn self-control while still satisfying her curiosity in a safe, appropriate manner.

One finger touch has worked great with Li'l Girlie. We didn't have to move any of our ornaments higher on the tree...though I did put 'safer' ones that she'd be interested in at eye level, and I feel comfortable taking her into most any store without worrying about her being destructive.  She did get to play with the toy soldier ornament on our tree; we lifted the one finger touch rule for that, and she had a ball with it.

Being paid to shop

How fun is that?  I'd mentioned that I started couponing a number of posts ago, and it's really been saving us a lot of money.  Our grocery/household/personal care expense savings are hovering around 47% as of 2 months of couponing.

When I talk about it with friends who don't coupon, one of the questions I get the most is 'do you end up buying a lot of stuff you don't need?'  Here's my answer: I only buy stuff I don't need if it's either free and it's something I can give to a food pantry or other charity OR if I can make money by purchasing it.  Extra bonus if I can give it away.

One of my fave couponing and good-stewardship-of-your-finances websites is Money Saving Mom.  Here's her post giving readers a heads up on how to make $13 on Bayer meters at Walgreens as well as how to get free Lipton Tea and Theraflu.  I'm not diabetic, but I can certainly use $13 and give a glucose meter to charity so that someone who can't afford a meter can have one.  Everybody wins!

Teaching a Toddler about Christmas

From a young age, we want Li'l Girlie to be hearing the real story of Christmas and learning why we celebrate it. She's 22 months old this Christmas, and some of her favorite things (like most kids) right now are books and Fisher Price Little People toys. Playing to those interests, I found a couple of things that would be great for her for this year, but we could continue to use as she gets older.

The children's ministry director at our church --a mom of three herself, and a children's book aficionado -- recommended Patricia A. Pingry's The Story of Christmas for toddlers and preschoolers to tell the story of Mary, Joseph, the shepherds, wise men and of course Jesus' birth in an easy-to-understand manner. Li'l Girlie likes it a lot, especially since there are animals and a Christmas tree in the book. It ties in why we give gifts; to show our love and to celebrate Jesus' birthday. My personal opinion is that it would benefit from adding at least a paraphrase from Luke: "for today a Savior is born, which is Christ the Lord." Something about why baby Jesus is so special. Just my opinion. Maybe Pingry left it out so that parents could fill it in.

Our other Christmas story purchase was the Fisher Price Little People Nativity Set.  We have some lovely nativity sets, but none appropriate for toddler playtime.  She likes pressing the angel on the top of the stable to hear 'Away in a Manger' and she's learning who Mary, Joseph and Jesus are.  As she gets bigger, we can use the figures to act out the story.  Fisher Price also has the Three Wisemen and the Inn at Bethlehem sets, but we've also been on a tighter budget this year, so for us, those will be purchases for another year. 

The tradition that we started last year (when Li'l Girlie was too young to even notice) was making a birthday cake for Jesus.  This year, I let her squirt some of the frosting on the cake before I wrote the words.  She was nonplussed.  Oh well, hopefully seeing the finished cake and the happy rejoicing and eating will be a little more fun.  We still have yet to break out the cake today. 

I wish you a very merry Christmas celebrating our Savior

Erin

Bike!

Yes, after all my talking about the Strider Running Bike, we finally got one for Li'l Girlie.  Her Grammy and Grandpa gave her one as an early Christmas gift, and boy has she taken to it.  She knew what it was immediately, signed 'bike', did a little happy dance and threw her leg over it.

The folks at Strider say that most kids walk with the bike between their legs first, then gradually learn to trust the seat and their balance and start zooming from there.  That's pretty much the pattern we've seen with Li'l Girlie.  She's just starting to coast for a second, so we can see the real speed coming just around the corner.

We've been extremely pleased (as has Li'l Girlie) with the Strider so far.  She's learning balance that most kids don't learn for another couple of years, and she's so confident riding her bike.  She'll never use training wheels (the bane of my learning to ride a bike experience), and will transition straight to a regular bike once she gets big enough.

The bike's adjustable enough to fit a child as young as 18 months to your average 5 year old, and as an added bonus, it's a whole lot cheaper than the other leading pedal-free bike brand.

Here's Li'l Girlie in action. Look at her go!