Lionden Landing

Try telling a healthy, active 3 yr old that they must play quietly by themselves every morning for 2 hours and you are bound to run into trouble. My husband is trying to work and I am trying to care for my dying mom and together that makes it hard to properly devote the time and attention we would like to Froggy. Enter paper dolls. Exit Stress. I purchased this paper doll book at Michaels. The thought had been, with the help of some posterboard, contact paper and washers, to turn them into magnetic dressable dolls. That was an utter failure. Instead I laminated dolls and clothes and simply used the "reusable stickers" provided with the book to attach the clothes. Froggy has gotten days of quiet enjoyment out of these dolls with more yet to come. I keep them engaging by presenting her with new dolls or clothes or both from the book each day. She has never seen the book itself so she does not feel like she is missing everything by not having it all at once. At her age, ...

I try really really hard to keep my mouth shut when I see what I deem to be bad parenting unless it is to a level where social services needs to be called. I could not yesterday. We were at a local indoor play area with lots and lots of children. The mom i n question (we will call her shorty because she has a very short fuse) was having trouble dealing with her son and his toy. Shorty yelled at the boy to not throw the toy. Fine he could hurt someone. I kept my mouth shut. She yelled at him to be careful he was going to break it. Not so good but I still kept my shut by gritting my teeth. She lets him keep the toy and continue to play with it. Next she yanks the toy out of his hands and proceeds into a five minute rant on how he was breaking the toy. The rant was only five minutes because I interrupted. It is only a toy. Toys are meant to be played with. If they get broken then they get broken. So be it. I am all for warning a child that the path they are on will likely brea...