Nightly Activities: What our son likes to do before bedtime.

Every child has a nightly list of things or activities that they like to do leading up to bed-time. At our house, Romey likes to do a VARIETY of things before he goes to sleep, which many of them HAVE to be done before he can "settle down".  

Most of the time, our nights start off with eating dinner at  5:30pm (we live with my parents so Grandma usually cooks and has dinner ready by this time and we all eat together... lucky me, I know!).

Then we follow with bath time around 7:00pm - which is one of my favourite times with him because I use this time in the tub as a fun learning while we clean time, which we sing songs that he recently learned at daycare or songs I made up to to teach him how to spell his name. We also like to clown around, get the floors wet and be silly! (Clean up time is not as fun, but the splashes and laughs with him are so worth it!) I like to use the "Live Clean Baby" line, including the moisturizing baby bath soap.

After bath time, he usually likes to come back downstairs and play with daddy and his grandparents while I'm cleaning up our "fun" mess.

With daddy playing who knows what on his Android

Now its SNACK TIME! Every child's favourite time:

he loves teddy grams, Can you tell?!?

If we don't have time for snack or he had a later dinner, I usually give him his milk in a sippy cup. Here he is waiting for me to make his milk, all like "Hurry up mommy!"..

After I'm done cleaning up and it's around 8:00pm, I like to bring him up to his room for "quiet play", where we do calming activities like learning to sketch/write in his learning pad book, shown below or, we play educational games like Endless ABC's (HIGHLY recommend this app for fun learning of the ABCs for babies) on my tablet or watch tree house for a bit in mommy's room until I see those "sleepy eyes". Then I know it's time to bring him to his room.

Watching Caillou with mommy

Playing Endless ABCs

 Once I know he's ready for bed, usually anywhere between 8:30-9;00pm, we will go into his room and read. He likes to pick out his favourite books, usually "Where's Spot" or any other pop-up book.

 After a little snuggling and kisses, Its nighty-night time! He doesn't yet fall asleep on his own with crying, so we tend to lay beside him for a few minutes (sometimes hours!) til he falls asleep. I try not to push him to fall asleep on his own, since i was like this as well when i was younger and I learned to do it when i was ready. He will eventually, so until then, i don't mind the extra cuddle time!



What are your favourite night time routines and activities? I'd love to hear!

Top 5 ways to "De-compress" after the 9-5 grind!

As a full-time employee myself, I thought it would be so useful to research and share with you my top 5 methods of combating stress after a long day at the office.As a Recruiter in a busy employment office, I definitely know a little or two about STRESS.

As a woman, we often have other "jobs" that start after the "day job" is complete, such as:

• being a mother/caregiver
• a daughter
• a wife/girlfriend or
• just being a good friend who takes 2 hours out of her night to listen to one of her girls tell her "awful breakup story that happened or recent fight with another friend".

Which ever you experience on a daily basis, we all know that this is just another "thing" to add to our day's stress and less time to focus on ourselves and what WE really want to be doing.

I want to suggest that we should always leave the last hour of our day or so, before bedtime, to do some"de-compressing" of our tensions of that day and really do something that helps us relax, laugh, be at ease and simply enjoy that get us ready for a peaceful night's rest.

Here is my top 5 ways of doing just that:

1. Reading: where you read love to read cosmo mag's before bed or your Bible, we should dedicate an hour before bedtime to simply relax and read something that can uplift our spirits and make us feel at ease and calm before sleep time. Personally i love to read self-help books on being a woman entrepreneur such as Daniella La Porte's "The Fire Session Starters" and a daily devotional from my Youversion bible app on my iPhone. They help get my mind in a place I want to be... happy, filled with God's peace and of course, motivated.

2. Silent Meditating: Have you ever tried to just sit still and think of completely nothing. No thoughts about your day or what you have to do tomorrow. Just the noise of your heart beat and slow breathing... That is the art of meditating. You don't have to be a guru at meditation to successfully do it at home. All you need to do is choose a quiet, softly lit place in your home, where you won't be distracted by others and you can feel at ease and safe. (If you're like me, your house is FAR from quiet... thats where good headphones and the songza app comes into play! - Just put on your head phones and play a playlist for nature sounds or soft, word-less rhythms that can get you feeling relaxed and calm). Do this for at least 5 minuets per night. Then increase gradually to 10 mins a night, then 15, until you can do this for an hour. Here is where you master the art of slience... mind, body and soul. You can even have this time for conversations with God in you head, something I usually do as well.

3. Hot, steamy bubble bath... by YOURSELF(sorry no hubby's allowed): If you love LUSH bath products as much as I do, you can invest some time in enjoying them in your bath time. These wonderfully smelling baths not only relax your body muscles, but also help relax your mind. Just be careful not to fall asleep in the tub! (I know, I watch way too many movies...) Also, by having your iPod dock-system in your bathroom like I have, you can also softly play your favourite slow jamz playlists while lighting some Bath and Body Works candles (another favourite item of mine) to create that romantic ambiance... but just for you! Every hard-working female needs to try this at least once! I swear by it, you will do this at least once a week after the 1st try!

4. Exercising: Ok, Ok. I know that for most, after a long day, the last thing you want to do is work out, but if you can only stretch the entire body from head to toe, one section at a time, you will feel a huge difference when you hit the bed. You will feel 10x more relaxed and at ease, plus you'll be doing your body a favour by helping to circulate your blood better, which causes your body to feel more relaxed also. Give it a try! Just 10 minuets before bed, on the floor in your room ( I usually just tell my husband to pretend he doesn't see me and don't make fun or try to distract me) and possibly end of with a glass of water. Good night!

5. Sex: I know this might seem like the "champion of choice" for most, but it really is great for couples to have some one-on-one time before bed to be intimate with each other, have a "sweet, sweat session" and finish off with some good ol' spooning til you both K-O. Need I say more?....


Hope you enjoyed this post! I welcome any comments or other ideas you may have to add to my top 5!