Deirdre, Author at JDaniel4s Mom

Deirdre Smith writes/owns JDaniel4’s Mom. After twenty years as a elementary school and technology resource teacher in Northern Virginia, she became a stay at home mom in upstate South Carolina. Her blog features ways she and her 5 year old are exploring learning, crafting, creating healthy meals and living life to its fullest. Deirdre can also be found on twitter as @jdaniel4smom and on her blog's FB page. You can also check her out on Google+.

Sunday Sleeping Lead to Silently Listening to My Husband and Son

February 16, 2011 By Deirdre

On Sunday afternoon I decided to take a nap when JDaniel did. My sinuses were driving me crazy and I has sneezed or coughed during most of church that morning.

I must have been in a hard sleep. I totally missed JDaniel’s screams for mama that fill the house when he wakes up from his nap. (He hasn’t figured out that he can get out of bed yet. He just sits there and screams for me until I come.) What did cause me to wake up was the pounding of feet down the steps and sounds of his voice coming from the kitchen.

I glanced up and noticed that my husband had closed the bedroom door so I could sleep without interruption . No one outside the door would know that I was awake. If I lay quietly without making a sound, I would be able to have a few more moments of quiet time to myself.

Then I felt my first bodily betrayal. I sneezed. I tried to quiet the sneeze by sneezing into my pillow. Yes, that was gross idea. I silently slid over to my husband’s pillow and listened for the sound of little feet to come to the bedroom door. There was silence.

It is strange to lay there in quiet of the bedroom and hear all the noises of a toddler as he moves around the house. After JDaniel inhaled a snack, I heard a loud crash in the living room. Oh! The trains were now dumped out all over the floor. I knew that wood on wood sound when I heard it.

Then there was a patter of feet to the bedroom door. He must have listened at the door and not heard anything because there was another patter of feet away from the door a few second later.

A second crash came from the living room. This time there were squeaks and groans along with the bang. The toy basket must have been dumped out too. Stuffer animals with squeakers, toy instruments and other assorted toys were now spilled out next to the trains. The idea of this growing mess was hard to fathom. I was sure my husband had come downstairs with him. Where had he gone? There weren’t any exchanges of conversation about needing to clean up before mom saw this mess or inquires as to what was going on. Just silence and then loud crashes filled the air.

I didn’t hear my husband’s voice until the phone rang. I heard a shuffling of penny loafers to the phone and a conversation with his friend Jeff begin. I was glad to know he was still downstairs.

It was at that moment my body decided to betray me a second time. It told me in very certain terms that I needed to get up and use the restroom or I was going to need to change the sheets soon.

I quietly tiptoed to the bathroom and used the toilet. Then I tried to flush quietly, but you really can’t flush quietly.

As I left the bathroom, the knob on the bedroom door started to jiggle and shake. A voice from the other side of the door demanded that I help open the bedroom door. “I need you!” the voice exclaimed.

I did what every mom would do. I opened the door and let my son rush in.

It was so worth it to have him rush into my arms and say, “I missed you.”

I asked if dad had done a good job getting him up and giving him snack. “He was great!” he said. I was please to hear that. “But I really missed you!” he continued.

It is great my husband took care of getting JDaniel up from his nap. It was great to get some quiet time to just lie in bed. More than anything it was great to be missed.

This post is linked to Mrs. Matlock’s Alphabe Thursday and The Writer’s Workshop.

Muffin Tin Monday- Valentine’s Day

February 14, 2011 By Deirdre

We have been sick at our house for about a week with head and chest colds. I first noticed JDaniel coughing a week ago Saturday. We kept him home from church on Sunday and playgroup on Monday. I knew he was really sick on Monday at lunchtime when he ate two pancakes and a marshmallow for this lunch and announced he was done.

He was so excited about making the meal. The tin was based on a book about a special grandfather and grandson and the fun they have together called Lucky Pennies and Hot Chocolate by Carol Diggory Shields.

The grandfather in this book looks a lot like JDaniel’s GranDan. GranDan, my husband’s father, died last February. The grandfather in this book does so many of the things GranDan would have loved to do with JDaniel. They tell knock-knock jokes, visit construction sites, play with trains, wash dishes (The men in my family love to wash dishes.) and so much more.

One of the things more is making pancakes with raisins, bananas, and marshmallows. I decided we would try them out and see how they tasted. The marshmallows got all gooey and icky. JDaniel wasn’t interested in tasting that pancake.

I made pancakes without marshmallows and place them in the muffin tin with syrup, marshmallows not in pancakes, scrambled eggs, and berry applesauce. As I mentioned above he ate the pancakes without marshmallows and a marshmallow.

After taking a three-hour nap, JDaniel asked if he could have the scrambled eggs for a snack. I decided to give him something light instead. He got scrambled eggs for lunch later in the week.

Are you having a special Valentine’s Day meal today?

A Heart Shaped Shadow with a Promise- Valentine’s Day Gift

February 12, 2011 By Deirdre

I found this wonderful idea in part of my Sunday paper. It suggested taking a picture of a special ring in between pages of a special passage in the book to create a heart-shaped shadow. I thought this would be a wonderful gift for my husband

I tried my wedding band first, but I couldn’t get it to balance. After many attempts, I switched to my engagement ring. It would balance but, only with the diamond side down.

The verse I selected as my special passage comes from the book of Ruth chapter 1 verses 16-17a. This is one of the bible passages that were read on my wedding day. I love it for so many reasons. The biggest reason is that Ruth chooses to follow her mother-in-law back to her native land rather than stay in the place she was born and raised in. She left behind all she knew to follow someone she loved.

Here is the verse:

¹⁶ But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God.

¹⁷ Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried.

When I got married, I left Virginia and move to South Carolina where my husband lived. It meant living behind all that I had ever known. I left behind my job of nineteen years, my friends, my house, my church, my bible study, and prayer group. It seemed like I was leaving behind everything I knew and loved to follow the man of love.

He is very much worth it!

What verse would you select for this project?

Read.Explore.Learn- The Kiss That Missed

February 11, 2011 By Deirdre

Welcome to Read. Explore. Learn! This meme was designed to be a place for you to share the learning opportunities, crafts, field trips, and other activities you have done this week that tie-in to children’s books. I look forward to seeing ways you have learned with and explored books.

Steps:

Link your activity below.

Please place the Read.Explore.Learn. the badge on your post or create a link back to this meme.

Please try to visit at least three of the other people that have placed links below and leave a comment. I will visit each of you and leave a kind comment and Stumble your post.

If you are not linking up an activity and are just visiting, please try to stop by a few of the links below.

My Book Tie-Ins of the Week:

A very busy king/father tosses a quick kiss good night to his son as he heads to the bath to clean off the grime of the day. The kiss he throws misses his son and heads out across the kingdom. A brave knight is sent to retrieve the kiss and bring it back to the palace. The kiss flies around the kingdom settling bear, wolves, and dragons down for the night as it travels. When it is finally caught and brought home, the king reads all who were touched by the kiss a good night story.

What did we do with the book?
Created Cards to Send to Exchange Partners

We are participating in the Fantastic Five’s Valentine’s Day Card Exchange. I had JDaniel decorate puzzle cards I found at Hobby Lobby. Yes, I took the easy way out having him put these together. I thought the children receiving them would like them better than one covered with our artwork.

Letter Recognition

I attached a magnet to the end of an old fishing pole my sister Michelle gave to JDaniel. He had fun fishing for the letters of the alphabet on hearts with paperclips attached to them.

I Crumbled While Making Cookies

February 10, 2011 By Deirdre

Last Monday I invited my friend Bridget and her daughter over for a play date and to decorate Valentine’s Day cookies. Before they arrived I decided to make the cookies and have them ready to decorate. JDaniel was watching The Cat in the Hat on television this meant I could make them without “help.”

As soon as I had the cookie ingredients mixed in the bowl, a patter of feet headed toward the kitchen. Before I could rush the dough out of the bowl and start rolling it out, I felt a plastic stepstool being knocked against my leg. “Move over Mom! I want to help you,” JDaniel announced. Apparently the Cat in the Hat had lost his attention.

I moved over and showed him what I was doing.

“I am trying to roll this dough out and cut it into hearts,” I explained.

“I need to taste!” he replied. I pinched off some of the dough and gave him a little bit.

“I will need more, please,” he told me. I gave him a little more and then started to roll the dough again.

Giving him little bits seemed like a good idea. It wasn’t a good idea. He kept trying to reach in the bowl and get more as I rolled out the dough and cut out the cookies.

I got more and more frustrated. He got more and more indignant about wanting the dough.

Thankfully my friend Bridget arrived on the scene with her daughter before the battle had really escalated.

When she saw the battle over the dough, she calmly picked up a spoon I had laying on the counter and filled it with dough.

“If you want this, you will need to go sit in your chair at the table,” she told JDaniel.

He walked right over to the table and climbed up in his chair. Once he had taken his seat, she handed JDaniel the spoon. He sat silently he licked the dough off the spoon while I finished getting the next batch of cookies in the oven.

“This happens at my house all the time,” Bridget said. “Really the best thing to do is give him his own ball of dough and let him play with it at the table.”

Why didn’t I think of that?

Why did I turn it into a battle?

Thankfully Bridget bakes often and she has gained experience on how to entertain her daughter while she cooks.

I don’t bake often, but I still should have known better.

I wish I hadn’t made a rookie baking mistake in front of her, but know what I will do next time I bake.

We did have fun decorating the cookies though.

I have been so excited about this Virtual Valentine’s Day Party. Can’t believe it is finally starting today. The last few weeks I have been creating crafts with JDaniel and testing out new recipes to share with you. It has been hard to not share them with you as we did them. Many of you have been anxious to share your ideas with other party guests too. I heard from one of you that you were so excited about one of your projects you couldn’t wait until the party to share it.

The Purpose

This Valentine’s Day gathering is a time to share your party ideas, enter giveaways planned just for the party, and to mingle with other guests. I hope you take the time to share your posts and visit other party guests.

Party Idea Link Up

There is a link below for you to post your Valentine’s Day Party related posts. Each family-friendly or child-related post linked up will need to have a Virtual Valentine’s Day Party badge or a link at the bottom of it pointing back to the Virtual Valentine’s Day Party Link Up. One of the people that links up a post that contains a badge or links back will be randomly selected to receive a $10 Visa Gift Card. You may link up to four posts during the party.

Here is the badge:

What party is any fun without guests mingling and getting to know each other?

I am also going to randomly pick a comment stating the two link up posts a commenter has visited to receive a prize too. You will be able to leave as many comments as you like making the above statement. I will check to make sure that you have really visited the two posts you have said you have. The prize is a $15 Visa Gift Card.

Reminder:

In order to be eligible for the $15 Visa Gift Card, you have to visit two of the links above, leave comments on the posts you select, and leave me a comment telling me which two you visited. You can enter as many times as you like. You will need to visit two posts for each entry.

Examples:

Entry One: I visited links 1 and 35. Each post has a comment from me.

Entry Two: I am still visiting. This time I visited links 25 and 43. Each post has a comment from me.

Entry Nine: I am having such a great time visiting. This time I visited links 50 and 3. Each post has a comment from me.

Just leaving a comment is wonderful, but doesn’t count as an entry.