The Keating Crew
  • Home
  • About Me
  • Blog
  • Favorites
  • Project Corner

Default Parenting

3/8/2021

0 Comments

 
I’m going to rattle off some super basic parenting questions. Answer them honestly, and then we’ll talk default parent and what that really means (to me, at least). Here’s the thing, you either know exactly what I’m talking about, or you don’t. And there’s no shame on being a default parent or not. It is what it is and each role in parenting carries different perks and negatives. Here are some scenarios:

It’s 7 pm, kids are down and you need toothpaste. Do you A. Run out and get it or B. Ask someone to pick it up?

Your child gets a cut at school. Does the school call you first?

Schools out, snow day! Who’s the parent to stay home with them without much thought?

It’s 2:30 am and the baby is screaming in their bed. Do you jolt awake in bed or slumber through?
​

Doctor’s appointment and it’s time to fill out the forms…Do you have their information memorized or are you texting to find out answers?
Picture
Picture

Read More
0 Comments

Snowy Construction Site

2/24/2021

0 Comments

 
Sometimes when it's too cold to go outside, you have to bring the elements in! My two year old is obsessed with trucks and has been for a long time. We used a square sensory bin to make a snow site and added in various sized construction vehicles. 

To engage my younger toddler, 1 year old, I added in stacking cups in various sizes to fill and dump to create snow castles and boxes. 

One thing that's great to focus on for this activity is filling and dumping. And if you have a toddler, you know that they love dumping. The cups provide a productive way to fill that's fun for all ages.
Picture

Read More
0 Comments

Power of The Outdoors

2/24/2021

0 Comments

 
Quarantine was rough for us and a major factor was the fact that there was a newborn at home. With any newborn, there's a feeling of being stuck and not being able to go wherever you want. You're very much strapped down to a feeding and sleeping schedule, rinse and repeat. Despite the collic and endless wakings at night, I really found my footing in this mom of two being stuck at home life by getting outside. 

March in New England is still cold. It snows sometimes, is generally wet, and really not a great experience if you didn't have to go out. But once I made it a part of my daily routine to get outside in same way, shape, or form, my mood change and my mindset lifted.
Picture

Read More
0 Comments

Layla's birth story

2/8/2021

0 Comments

 
The quick facts:
December 2019, 7:12 pm
8lb 3 oz
20.25 inches long
8 hrs active labor
Vaginal delivery at the hospital
Epidural

Picture

Read More
0 Comments

Potty Training | Week Two

1/28/2021

0 Comments

 
It's official! We have a potty trained two year old boy and I don't know how to be more EXCITED for him! After a rough week one, we figured out a solution and he's been rocking it. Not a single accident (except a little dribble when I was cooking in the kitchen) and not a single tear all week long. The happy guy is back and so PROUD of himself.

​Here's how the past two weeks went down...
Picture

Read More
0 Comments

Potty Training | FIrst 3 days

1/21/2021

0 Comments

 
​Can I just preface this with the fact that potty training is freaking scary. I had dabbled in the act of potty training my son about a handful of times before finally committing (and even then it was sort of not fully committing until I knew that he was into it and could handle it). Had day one been a nightmare, I might have backed off and pushed it off another month or so. I don’t really know. 

Potty training, especially a boy, and you’ll understand why in a few paragraphs (think sprinkler) is a lot of work. Not only do you have to be on your child 24/7 for a few solid days at home, but you have to be on your game. And I have to admit, with the smaller girl always attached to my hip, it’s hard to fully devote my attention to Lincoln. 
Picture
​And then there’s just a million and one excuses. He’s not developmentally ready (says who, and what’s the actual requirement for potty training? It all seems sort of arbitrary), he’s not showing an interest (well, he likes the word poop and to flush it, is that interest?!), he’s not asking to go potty. I think more than any of those questions and standards, it’s on the parent to be ready to do it.
​
After deciding that I could handle a weekend of potty training, I got two different potty training books, one of which had been sitting on my shelf since March 2020. I took them out and placed them on my nightstand and…never read them. I have every single intention of reading them, but I was just too tired at night and had other things prioritized so I decided to go into the potty training blind—using only my gut as my navigation system. 

Read More
0 Comments

Millennial Parenting

12/29/2020

0 Comments

 
If you Google parenting styles I’m sure that a million different options and advice columns would pop up. You’d read about helicopter parents and free range children. A horror story about spanking would traumatize you, and yet on the next page a parent who does not believe in boundaries would have an equally traumatic experience. The fact of the matter is, parents don’t fit into some perfect mold to describe what sort of parent you’re going to be and the effects that style have on the psyche of a newborn, toddler, or child.
Picture
As a 1991 baby, a millennial, but not really one at heart, I feel my style rolls more like a gen-x. I also feel like my boomer family judges me every step of the way from the fact that I let my kids test their limits or paint apron free or the fact that I don’t force them to wear a coat to the car so that they experience the natural consequence of feeling cold. Are you rolling your eyes? Hi, Mom!

Read More
0 Comments

2020 Rewind--an essay

12/28/2020

0 Comments

 
Maybe it’s a mom of babies thing or a young mom thing, but this end-of-year feeling has me yearning for the tough days again and wanting to transport back to February 2020 when life was so much easier and seemingly less complicated. And yet as I sit here, reflecting on who I was back in February and what we were doing, was it much different then?
​
On maternity leave with baby number two, a colic-ally little thing with red hair and a loud scream, I sat at home all day long, trying to “nap when the baby naps” as if that’s a real thing, and juggling a 15 month old clinger who wants to climb and run and gets injured every two seconds. I was perpetually exhausted from said newborn and really run down physically. Not from a tough labor or a slower bounce back—no, I felt fine in that way. The constant touching of baby life and toddler life and husband life was wearing on me. I remember being so touched out one day that laying in bed alone when my husband worked late in numbing silence was self-care.
View this post on Instagram

A post shared by â–¡â–¡â–¡â–¡â–¡â–¡ â–¡â–¡â–¡â–¡ (@taylorkeatingcrew)


Read More
0 Comments

2020 Rewind

12/22/2020

0 Comments

 
I've picked my favorite three pictures (or the three that most resemble that phase in our life) for all of 2020. Travel back with me! I wrote an essay about the past year, see the button below to read it!
2020 REWIND Essay

January

Picture
Picture
Picture

Read More
0 Comments

Holiday Traditions

12/21/2020

0 Comments

 
There's nothing more magical for a growing child than quietly playing Christmas music, a warm fire crackling, twinkling lights on the evergreen smelling tree, and a pile of neatly wrapped presents. Of course, this isn't real life. BUT the traditions can be!

I have so many memories from my childhood of waiting eagerly with my brother at the top of the stairs before going downstairs, waiting for our parents to wake up so that we can go down and get our stockings. I remember the smell of bacon on the stove and eggnog mustaches on all of our faces. 
Picture
These sort of memories and smells and feelings are engrained in me from holiday traditions. Now that I have my own family, I want them to have these sort of memories as well. I find that merging my own traditions with my husband's has created a really fun season for us. With Lincoln being 2 and Layla being 1, this year is finally a year that he gets it and can join in on many of our traditions. ​

Read More
0 Comments
<<Previous

    Categories

    All
    Activities
    Birth
    Book Club
    Daycare
    Favorites
    Infant
    Kids
    Lesson Plans
    Mom Life
    Mom Thoughts
    Places To Go
    Pregnancy
    Preschool
    Product Review
    Quarantine 2020
    Schedules
    Toddler
    Toy Guide
    Vlog

    Archives

    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020

    RSS Feed

      Can you spare a moment?

    Submit
Copyright © 2021
  • Home
  • About Me
  • Blog
  • Favorites
  • Project Corner