The Music Park

Almost two weeks ago, we visited the new music park. Since then, we’ve went four other times.

I think we like it.

This park is amazing. The park was built about a year ago and it’s beautiful. The playground equipment isn’t too bright or startling, but a nice, muted green color. It offers plenty of space for dozens of children to roam. There’s a side walk for kids to ride bikes, trikes and scooters around the play ground.

There are a total of six swings for kids to use with four infant and toddler swings.

The two or three slides there are designed for older children, however they’re big enough for younger kids and their parents or caregivers to fit down together.

There’s a horizontal rope for children to walk across to get to the other side of the play equipment.

Sweet Pea got stuck on the fireman’s pole. It’s a different kind where it has a platform and as soon as you step on to it, it begins to move toward the ground, so be careful with your littlest this piece of equipment.

I’ll let the rest if the pictures do the talking! Enjoy this beautiful day!

The Transportation Museum of Western Virginia

Sweet Pea loves trains. He has so many Thomas and Friends trains that I can’t even count them. I’m just barely beginning to remember their names.

MB (Mom Boss) bought me a membership to the Transportation Museum of Western Virginia, the only official transportation museum in the Commonwealth. And while it’s a bit of a drive from where we’re located, it’s worth it.

With open space for the kids to roam and wide doorways, it’s easy (read, easier) to fit a horizontal double stroller through the doorways.

There are Link model trains that go through a track covered in mountains and other scenery. The kids can run around and see the train travel because the windows are at the proper height.

To the right of the model trains there’s a large gallery full of antique and not so antique cars. The gallery is beautiful itself, high ceilings and an incredible fan that the kids love looking at.

They also have a rail yard with these amazing diesel engines. They’re beautiful trains. There’s an occasional one that you can climb aboard and look inside.

All in all this museum is one that we go to at least once a week. I always ask the kids if they “want to see (something else), or the choo-choos?” and no matter what I ask about, their answer is always the choo-choos. Always.

Hiatus and New Vision

Wow. So, after not posting anything for about two months, I’m back. And I’m back with a new adventure.

I thought long and hard about what nannies really need. You know, other than a massage, a box of chocolates, a day off and a bottle glass of wine. We need resources. We need to know that there are places to go outside of the house where the kids can run around and no one judges us for taking an extra three seconds to stop them. We. We need to know there are places that we can fit our double wide, double stroller through the doors without holding, up the three people behind and the seven people ahead of us. Yes, it’d be great if you could hold the door, thank you. 

So, that’s where this blog comes in. That’s where partnership comes in. I’m going to review all the places my NKs (nanny kids) and I visit. Every place that had a skeevy old man outside and every place that had a double automatic door. You’ll know. And, if you know of anyone who nannies, or mommies in bigger cities, comment. Send me a message with their contact info. Ask them if they’re interested.

Thanks all. 😊

Advice (read Dear Lord, help me please!)

Peaches has a problem. Not a big one, but one big enough that it drives me and MomBoss and DadBoss crazy. She hates, hates, hates laying down for diaper changes. She’s fine if I change her standing up, but really, how often am I able to do that? When she goes to pre-school soon, they’re not going to be as accommodating as I am.

I’ve tried everything. I’ve given her toys, books, blankets (a disgusting story is now associated with said blanket). She looks at whatever I give her for 3.2 seconds, just long enough for me to get the straps of her diaper off. And then her feet go directly into whatever mess she’s made as she digs her heels in attempting to get up.

Nothing works, any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Also, for those of you who love social media, like me, thenaptimenanny is now in the 21st century! You can follow this blog at the_naptime_nanny on Instagram, and on Twitter at @thenaptimenanny. I’m also on Pinterest where I attempt to spend my time pinning crafts and activities for kids, but mostly fail and look at the pictures of babies. To see that, go to The Naptime Nanny on Pinterest. We are also in bloglovin! For those of you who don’t know what bloglovin is, it’s a website where you can subscribe for lack of a better word to all of your favorite blogs and they’ll send you an email of all of those blogs who have updated at the end of the day. It’s nifty and must be checked out. To find us there, just search The Naptime Nanny when you get to the bloglovin home page.

Who wants a little teaser of projects to come?

I do, I do!

I hope everyone gets the chance to sit back with a hot drink on this cool December Day. Enjoy the rest of Naptime

Bloglovin

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And with those random pieces of code, thenaptimenanny is now featured on bloglovin!

How Success is Measured

Today, so far Peaches has wanted to be held. That’s basically it. Maybe ‘wild ride’ wasn’t the right phrase.

We did have a few moments when she wanted to tear through her sister’s Frozen art kit, you know, like the ones we had as kids (or bought for kids) that came with a paint set, colored pencils, crayons and markers? Ah, I can still smell the cheap plastic.

Anyways. I decided that instead of doing nothing with her and SP all day, we’d make cards. We’ve done this before. I have a friend who works as a CNA, and is doing her nursing clinicals at a hospital and she’d take the cards and give them to her patients. It worked out great because she liked making her patients happy, P and SP loved coloring, and if I believed in karma, I’d have the after-life thing in the bag, right? I liked that everyone was happy.

The only hitch is that it hasn’t worked that well. P and SP are still too young to really understand that they’re making cards for people who are sick. And, at the time, Peaches refused to color. She’d hold the crayon and stare at the paper and me. I ended up doing the majority of the coloring (read, scribbling) because I didn’t want Sweet Pea’s cards to be the only ones. And it would be very hard for that sweet boy to crank out 10-12 cards all by his lonesome. I know, developmentally that she gets bigger and better. And that a couple of months ago, Sweet Pea was there, and Peaches was just a little behind, but…

TODAY, EVERYTHING CHANGED. She dug through the bag of art supplies and tore Elsa’s face off the art kit (sorry, Adele Dazeem)  She was all over the paper! And she didn’t put one marker in her mouth!

When you see the picture, you’ll think, Where is this  wild child’s artistry that I was promised? It’s there.

Granted, I did the heart, but I’ll let her get the credit.

What all of this digression has led me to is what I feel should be the new definition of success. Success shouldn’t be measured by if we do something perfectly. Success should be if we get better, if we improve each time we try it.

Goals and Inspiration

So, what am I doing here? What am I doing with this blog? What’s my goal? My purpose?

Well, if I’m being 100% honest, I don’t know. That doesn’t sound right, I should sound confident, right?  I know what I would love to achieve. I know what I’d love to post, what I’d love to take pictures of and what I’d love to feature. But I don’t know what will be featured. I don’t know what I’ll end up posting and what I’ll end of achieving.

I’m going to try:

• To shed some more light on the nannying profession
• To help provide ideas for stay-at-home moms, dads and caregivers

and, if I’m being completely honest,

• To see if I can stick to this

I’ve tried to start many different blogs and businesses. They’ve never worked out, seeing as I have shinynewtoyitis. Things are exciting and brand new. I had my dreams of how things would work out and then when I sat down to write a new blog post, I lost it.

It.

What is ‘it’? Inspiration. Motivation. Whatever you want to call it, It wasn’t there. But now, now that I know what I’m doing and I have my goals aligned, sit back and relax people, because it’s going to be a wild ride 😉