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+.

Muffin Tin Monday- ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas

December 13, 2010 By Deirdre

Today’s tin is bassed on Kat Whelan’s version of ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas. In this version the characters are all mice. The illustrations are filled with whimsy and actually sparkle on the pages.

The tin was so cute as I prepared it and served it to JDaniel. It wasn’t until he had inhaled it that I realized the picture I had taken was awful. The foot of the stocking isn’t displayed and the reindeer are fuzzy.

Instead of trying to remake the meal, I have decided to describe the tin with a lot of humor and make the best of it.

Here is my tale:

‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house

Not a creature was stirring, not even a Swiss Cheese mouse;

The red apple stocking was hung without notice or care. (The mouse had not seen that it had way too much worn.)

In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;

The children have nestled all snug in their beds,

While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads;

And mamma in her ‘kerchief, and I in my cap,

Had just settled down for a long winter’s nap,

When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,

I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.

Away to the window, I flew like a flash,

Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.

The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow that was really a flake made of sugar cookie dough.

When what to my wondering eyes should appear, but a miniature sleigh, and three fuzzy chicken nugget reindeer.

JDaniel wished he could spring to his sleigh and to his team gave a whistle.

He was glad mom hadn’t tried to feed him a thistle.

But I heard him exclaim, ere he finished his last bite,

“Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night.”

If you have a Muffin Tin Meal based on a book, please think about linking it to

Disclaimer: I received ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas from Tiger Tales to review.

Maybe This Tiny Tree Will Grow Next Year

December 11, 2010 By Deirdre

We have the tiniest of trees this year. It took us all of five minutes to decorate. We didn’t have to move furniture to fit it in the living room or drag it through the house spilling pine needles everywhere. It was just pulled out of a box. Despite its height doesn’t seem to tower for the crèche beside it?

Why such a tiny tree? We actually don’t have space for a large tree. Well, we could have put it in front of the fireplace, but if we had a tree in front of the fireplace where would we hang the Christmas stockings. My mom suggested that we move some of the furniture out of the living room to make room for a tree. I am not sure where we would put the displaced furniture in our house. We have furniture everywhere. It flanks every wall of every room. Yes, it may mean we probably have too much furniture or maybe it means our Cape Cod house is really small and doesn’t hold a lot of furniture. We combined two homes when we got married four years ago and I gave away a lot, but maybe not enough for our house to hold.

Next year JDaniel will be three and half and he will probably want a full size tree. Until then this little tree will be our special Christmas tree and we love it.

Read.Explore.Learn.- The Manger

December 10, 2010 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 the 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.

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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:

Shannon of Milk and Cuddles sent JDaniel this book as part of the Christmas Book Exchange. Room for a Little One is a sweet story about a kind ox that has room for everyone animal that comes to his stable seeking a place to rest. The pictures in this book are beautiful. I love to just flip through and look at the illustrations. A pretty as the pictures are it is the message of this book that is the most beautiful. There is room for everyone in the stable. Jesus himself found a place to rest his head in a warm bed of straw in this stable one cold winter night.

What did we do with this book?

Retelling

First, we sorted through cookie cutters to find the animals from the story. We didn’t have cutters for all the animals. Some of the animals had to be modified to make all the right animals when I traced them on paper. We didn’t have a mouse so I reworked a rabbit into a mouse when I traced it.

I held up the animals and JDaniel held the flashlight as we retold the story with shadows.

Then I retold the story a second time and JDaniel pointed the flashlight at the right animal.

Story Comparision

We read Around the Farm by Eric Carle and talked about what animals were the same in both books and which were different. We used the animal silhouettes as reminders of what animals had been in the Room for a Little One.

Keeping Calm When Your Crane Won’t Open is Excruciating

December 9, 2010 By Deirdre

If you want to have a toddler present meltdown, than give him a present in its original toy packaging that cannot be removed while staying in a very nice resort far from home. There may be other factors that contribute to the meltdown, but have a crane screwed to the bottom of a box without a screwdriver nearby doesn’t help the situation. JDaniel just didn’t have the self control to keep his cool when after removing part of the packaging of his new remote controlled crane realized we would need a Philips head screwdriver to remove the rest.

This real life situation got worse when JDaniel had to go through it surrounded by a circle of my husband’s relatives waiting for his reaction to the wonderful gift Nana has just given to you. He had all eyes on him.

Here is how the situation unfolded from JDaniel’s perspective:

You feel the heat start to rise in your face and your demand that it has to be possible to get it out of the box. Mom has just removed a talking garbage truck you have also been given from its package. This present should be able to be freed too. Words of frustration start to fly out of your mouth and your feet start a little stomping dance.

Your mom and dad look like their faces are turning red. Your mom tries to calm you down with the reasons you have to wait and why the garbage truck is enough to play with just now. You think they just don’t get it so, you try telling them what you need again. Mom decides what you need is time out of the conference room the family has gathered in to have a Time Out in the hall. She warns you that if you can’t settle down you will need to go to the hotel room and get ready for bed. All the while she is hugging you tight and trying to help you calm down.

You finally calm down and can be walked back into the conference room. Dad sits you on his lap and you get to watch the other two young children in the family get to open their gifts. They receive dolls that are easily removed from their boxes and you wonder why remote controlled cranes are so difficult to remove theirs.

When your cousins finally finish opening their presents, you quietly drag the partially boxed crane and garbage truck under a tablecloth draped table and try to enjoy the rest of the evening resigned to the fact that the crane will remain in the box until you get home.

Lesson I learned as a mom:

Carry a small set of tools on a family vacation.
Pray that the toy packaging design for young children’s toys will change.
Remove all packaging before giving a child a gift. They don’t need it in the original box.
Work with JDaniel on handling different situations a little better even though you know it is hard at almost three. Helping my child through tough times will help him handle them better later on.

ACE is the Place for My Little Toddler Man or Popcorn is a Great Distraction

December 7, 2010 By Deirdre

I really needed to get to the post office and the bank on Saturday morning. I had a deposit I needed to make and a giveaway to put in the mail. It was 10:30 a.m. and both locations close early on Saturday. I was in a rush to get out the door. JDaniel decided he didn’t want to run errands he wanted to stay home with his dad. “I am not coming,” he pronounced. Pronouncements don’t get him very far, but lately he has been making them more often. Well, Dad was in the middle of paperwork that needed to be done and since JDaniel couldn’t be counted on to play quietly the whole time I needed to be gone he needed to come with me. “Let’s go,” I said gently shoving his arms into his winter coat. “This will be fun!” I said as cheerfully as I could muster hoping that God would grace with us with a miracle as we ran errands.

The bank stop was quick. We were able to get through the drive thru without a wait. The teller sent a lollipop out with my copy of the deposit slip. “Did we get one?” I was asked from the backseat. “Yes, we did and it will be perfect to have after lunch.” I replied. JDaniel didn’t care about when he got to eat it just that a lollipop was given to us.

We then headed to the ACE Hardware store right down the street. It houses a small outpost of the post office. It usually has a long line and tons of little items little fingers can pick up and move to a new location, but it was right down the street. The parking lot was crowded and people were streaming in and out of the store. This looked like this stop might turn into a nightmare. I was so anxious about JDaniel losing it and having to come back on Monday that I walked in the door farthest away from the post office instead of the one right next to it.

Entering through the door we did led to a miracle. Right before our eyes was a popcorn machine filled with freshly popped corn. Beside the popcorn machine should an angel wearing ACE Hardware apparel handing out bags of free popcorn. JDaniel and I waited hand in hand for his turn to get a bag of popcorn. Once it was procured we walked slowly to the post office area and waited in line to send the giveaway package. When I say slowly, I mean slowly. A toddler with one hand holding a bag of popcorn and one hand reaching in to pick up the next puff of corn has trouble walking quickly. He had to move very slowly through a store.

There was only one lady in front of us when we got in the post office line. I was a little relieved. It should have taken no time at all but, she couldn’t decide on the design she wanted for her Christmas stamp. It would seem like she made a decision and then she would change to a different stamp. She changed her mind three or four times. I started wishing for my own bag of popcorn. I didn’t dare take a handful of JDaniel’s. If we finished the bag before we paid the postage for the package, the nuts and bolt in small drawers beside us could become the focus of a toddler with busy fingers.

Thankfully the bag held out! There was even popcorn to spare. JDaniel and I headed to the grocery store next store to get milk. It took a long time to get to the milk section at the bag of the story due to serious concentration required to reach to the bottom of the bag and get the final puffs of corn, but we made it without needing a cart or getting distracted by the selection of fruit chews displayed on the aisle we walked down.

That makes ACE the place for my little toddler man! We may need to start every shopping trip there.

Muffin Tin Monday- Decorated Crescent House

December 6, 2010 By Deirdre

I have seen beautiful gingerbread houses decorated to the nines on blogs lately and we didn’t make one. The house we made looks like it needs renovations, but it tasted delicious.

We took four crescent rolls and make a bread house by flattening them with “clean” hands. Then I spread cream cheese across the baked bread house and finally we decorated it with yummy foods contained in a Christmas tree in.

The decoration tin contained Roma tomatoes, cucumber sticks, cheese in triangles (aka “big” cheese by JDaniel. He says the cheese from the deli is really big.), carrot sticks, banana chips and dried fruit.

We had the best time making this house. I placed the door and windows in the house. The rest was completed together.

Disclaimer: All the carrots and cucumbers were peeled off the house and placed in front of me. I was not offered any cheese or banana chips.

Jesus Has Left the Crèche

December 1, 2010 By Deirdre

I love starting traditions with JDaniel. I loved traditions growing up and have been waiting until he was old enough to understand what is happening at Christmas time to start some.

In my family growing up, there weren’t many traditions. My mom would set up a crèche. We would always have a crooked tree. (It didn’t matter if it was a real tree from a lot or one we cut down or an artificial tree from a box.)We opened one gift the night before Christmas. We visited with my dad’s mom on Christmas Day and would then load up the car and drive to my mom’s parents in New Jersey. We would arrive late at night and would have Christmas morning all over again the day after Christmas.

Since we spend Thanksgiving with my husband’s family, we always have my mom over for Christmas dinner. My husband has a friend come for dinner with us too. I try to make a wonderful Christmas dinner. We open presents that are under a two-foot tree due to my fears of JDaniel pulling down a tree and ornaments crashing everywhere. There are also small gifts in stockings hung by the mantle with the care that everyone gets to open.

This year I am finally ready to introduce some new traditions and maybe a full-size tree. We have put up the crèche, but this year two things are missing. Jesus has been put away and will make His appearance on Christmas Day. The shepherds are also missing. They will begin their journey to the manger on the far side of the house and will move slowly toward the living room where the crèche is located every couple of days. (Shepherds have to move slowly so they don’t lose their sheep.) They will arrive after dinner on Christmas to celebrate Jesus’ birth.

I really want JDaniel to understand that Christmas is about the birth of Christ and not just about great toys and beautiful lights so, following a wonderful Christmas meal I will be serving a birthday cake for Jesus. I hope we sing and rejoice in His birth the same way the shepherds and wise men did thousands of years ago.

What Christmas traditions do you have?

Waiting Until After Thanksgiving for Christmas

November 30, 2010 By Deirdre

“Mom, why don’t we have our Christmas things up?”

“JDaniel, we are going to wait a few weeks until after Thanksgiving.”

“The stores have theirs up!”

I am not sure why Christmas things go up as soon as the Halloween displays come down. I love to celebrate Thanksgiving and then get ready for Christmas, but I found Christmas sneaking in earlier and earlier this year.

We had a wonderful time with my husband’s family at Calloway Gardens in Pine Mountain, Georgia over the Thanksgiving holidays. Christmas was everywhere there. There was a lovely holiday light display that we rode through on Thanksgiving Day. The lobby of the lodge we stayed in had a beautiful tree decorating its lobby. We exchange Naughty Santa gifts while our little ones played with toys their Nana has given them for Christmas. (We only see all my husband’s siblings and their families once a year at Thanksgiving so, we always end up celebrating Christmas during Thanksgiving with them.)

When we came home, our street had Christmas lights guiding us down to our undecorated home. After we went to church today and watched the first Advent candle been lit, we came home and took out a few things. We had planned to hang wreaths outside today, but it was too windy and cold. Maybe next weekend will be warm and our house will begin to look a little bit ready for Christmas until then I am still stuffed from Thanksgiving.

When do you start decorating for Christmas?

Muffin Tin Monday- Advent Wreaths

November 29, 2010 By Deirdre

In honor of the first week of Advent JDaniel’s muffin tin is filled with a variety of wreaths.

There are the following wreaths:

Broccoli and tomato

Bread and butter pickle with carved edges and cranberries

Crescent roll with cheese ribbon

Green and red jello

Red grapes with golden raisins

Bananas with an apple peel ribbon

JDaniel loved using the bottle cap I used in the center of the jello as a scoop for all the foods. He did not love the broccoli. “I don’t like broccoli,” he informed me. “You ate it last night,” I informed him.

Read.Explore.Learn- Thanksgiving

November 26, 2010 By Deirdre

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.

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:

I love What is Thanksgiving! by Michelle Medlock Adams. It explains to children that Thanksgiving is not about parades, football, and food. It is about being thankful and giving thanks. I love parades and food. I will watch football games. Giving thanks and being thankful is really how I hope I spent the day.

JDaniel and I made a turkey puppet with a head that could wag side to side and up and down. As I read him What is Thanksgiving!, I had him nod the turkey’s head yes for what Thanksgiving was about and no for things it is not about.

We made Turkey bowling pins for fun. I found a pattern for making napkin rings and modified it to create the bands around these old bottles. The feathers are tracings of JDaniel’s hands.