Melificent

Five.

Five. Incredible. 

This birthday feels more surreal than the others have. Maybe it’s because it’s 2020 and your year as a 4 year old was cut short thanks to a pandemic. We’ve all been stuck together for 7 months mostly indoors and peppered by some sense of normalcy: a play date at a friend’s, beach days, rides on the boat, car rides to quick photo adventures. Four was hard for you. It hurt you to not see friends, to not run around on a playground, to not go on family adventures. You laughed less, and cried so much more. Mommy did the same. 

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Zimpli Kids Review

Being a behavior analyst, I am all about the sensory play! Ever since Luna was little I would have sensory days at least 3 times a week where we played with different textures and consistencies, so I was very excited to give Zimpli Kids‘ line of Slime Baffs and Gelli Baffs a try. I wanted to see how they worked in multiple settings, so I gave the Slime Baff a go in the bathtub and the Unicorn Slime Play in a plastic container for her to play with at a table. Both were a total hit with her! In the bath, she loved pretending the slime was Elsa’s ice powers, and in the container, the slime came with two unicorns that she loved to trap within the slime.

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Holiday Bucket List #3: Safari Edventure

Luna absolutely loves animals, and visiting Safari Edventure for one of my birthdays on a VIP tour was one of the most amazing experiences, so we wanted to make sure that she had the opportunity as well. This place is such a gem. It is nestled in the Redlands and is the home to so many amazing animals, such as wolves, sloths and alligators.

With admission, you get a chance to sit in their very interactive animal show, which takes place twice a day. With it, you are able to have hands on interactions with a lot of amazing animals, such as baby gators, skunks and snakes. We were also able to go play with wolves in a group setting, as well as explore the rest of the grounds.

They offer a lot of very reasonably priced VIP tours where you get similar experiences but they are private and you get time with more animals. I can’t recommend it as a gift more – it’s still one of my most favorite memories!

 

 

 

Holiday Bucket List #2: Wynwood Adventure

Happy New Year everyone!

I hope you guys are enjoying what 2019 has brought you so far. I know I have and I’ll be posting about it on a later date because I want to make sure I share with you all the fun we had attempting to complete our holiday bucket list challenge.

Sure, Wynwood is in our backyard and it’s not the first or last time we have visited, but going with a little one kind of changes the experience. We went to see some new wall art and took some fun pictures in front of some, and then had dinner at our favorite taco spot, The Taco Stand, followed by some fun at the Wynwood Walls.

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Life with Luna: Selfish Mama’s

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Luna is 19 months and inching closer and closer to two. Two. How is this happening and how did we get here? It’s both so exciting to see her grow and learn, and so heart wrenching how quickly time has passed. She has definite interests (Mickey Mouse, Elena of Avalor, PJ Masks and My Little Pony), and a budding personality (fierce, but loving), and is finally(!!!) starting to speak. As she has evolved, so have I. I used to be worried about having a child because I was always very selfish. I was the baby of the family and always very coddled. I was never taught anything otherwise.

Tank; Old Navy
Pants; Uniqlo {similar}
Sunglasses; Cat + Jack
Sneakers; Converse

Funny thing is, I have realized that although someone now comes before me always, and I do it without thinking twice, I need to be more selfish than ever. Huh? Well you see, I have to think about what kind of mother I will be to my child. I have to think about me and what my needs are to be the best mom I can be for Luna, because if I don’t feel right, I cannot be 100% there for my child. This new form of selfish has been something that I have found very difficult to tune into. Life often gets in the way, as do emotions. You often feel trapped into doing things that seem pre-packaged as what you “have to do,” but only create barriers. I am working on honing in on what I need to make myself a better person, a better mother, because I feel like everything is moving so fast, and I am missing so much.

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Working mama’s: how do you cope with seeing things fly by at rapid speeds?