Oatmeal Everything Cookies

I love spending time in the kitchen with my toddler and this vegan and gluten free cookie recipe is perfect for those little helping hands (and no egg, means no worries if they eat some of the raw dough). I like to call these Oatmeal Everything Cookies because you can add just about anything to them. You can make them Oatmeal Raisin or Oatmeal Pecan Choc Chip or Oatmeal Cranberry...

Take the Terrible out of the Twos

There was a time when my house was run by a 3ft tall dictator. OK, who am I kidding, 50% of the time my house is still run by a 3ft tall dictator.

Yes, my 2.5 year old had taken over and I as the parent needed to take charge. In the morning getting ready for school and in the evening getting ready for bed had become a power struggle. We had no structure and we simply wanted to get our son off to school with clothes on in the morning (no shoes and Thomas the Train underwear outside of his clothes counts, right?)

I looked toward my inner kindergarten teacher and decided we needed to create a routine and I needed a visual aide that was interactive so he could feel involved. I turned to the bible for all things crafty, Pinterest, and started to create a plan.

Baby Signing Time

Baby Signing Time is fun way to interact with your baby and toddler. The video series teaches ASL sign language and makes communicating with your wee-one easy!

The songs on Baby Signing Time are very catchy and you will find your self singing them throughout the day (my husband and I joke that we are brainwashed because we can't get the songs out of our head). Check out one of my favorites "The Pets I Love"!

My 14 month old son loves watching the videos and has been picking up signs more quickly than when I tried to teach him on my own.

I have been asked "Why teach your child to sign" and my experience this morning was the perfect example:

When we let our dogs out this morning my son signed to me "eat". We went upstairs sat down for breakfast and he ate. This may sound really simple, however had he not know the sign for eat he probably would have gotten fussy and started screaming since he can't yet say that he is hungry. This simple sign allowed us to communicate without a meltdown and most mommies know that is priceless!!!