Some help in getting out the door

For all of you who live in cold climates and who have small children, you KNOW that your time triples trying to get out the door when you go anywhere in the winter.

Put on child's coat.
Put on the gloves.
Put on the hat, while child takes the gloves off.
Put on the gloves.
Instruct child to leave gloves on.
Put on your own coat, while child takes the hat off.
Put on the hat.
Instruct child to leave hat on.
Put on your own mittens and scarf, while staypuff marshmallow man child has fallen on the floor and can't get up.
Get child up off the floor, and start to head out the door.
As you are walking out the door, you realize your child doesn't have shoes on.
Put down all of your things and put child's shoes on.
Head back out the door.
Child says, "Mommy, I'm poopy!"
Mommy has a meltdown.
The End.

Really, this is at times such a trying experience~ and can add SO much time to the morning!

So. I have a tip. I got it from my fabulous mom, which is kind of ironic because she raised her children in the US Virgin Islands and San Diego, CA, where I'm pretty sure she had no need for the tip.

The tip changed my life. (Relatively speaking...)

Teach your 2-year old to get his coat on by himself. You still have to zip it for him, unless he's a fine-motor skill developmental wonder...

First, put the coat out on the floor with the arms out and the front open a little.
Have your child stand on the hood side (this seems counter-intuitive, but trust me...)
Teach child to put his/her hands in the arm holes and flip the coat over the head.
Voila, the coat is on!




This might not seem like an important revelation, but think of all the things you can do while your child is getting on his own coat! And, it teaches self-discipline.

2-year olds LOVE to do things by themselves. Win-win, I say!

Hope it helps you!

Oh, and if you haven't already been able to tell, I'm ALL for kids doing things themselves as early as they can, which is why I was positively GLEEFUL to discover the coat thing.

This sometimes backfires on me, though:

Some recipe love

Fall in Minnesota. I love the 48 hours of fall we get here. This year especially, it seems like the leaves changed colors, and then 2 days later, a hefty wind came and whipped the leaves off in a matter of hours and now it's brown. The good news is the wind came and whipped the leaves out of my YARD, so it looks like there will be no yard work!

I woke up yesterday on pumpkin day and had a hankering for some pumpkin bread of some kind to munch on with my latte, and I was so pleased with the results, I'm going to share! Plenty more "pumkin-ish" days ahead to try this one out!


Pumpkin Scones (adapted from this recipe)


Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups whole wheat flour
1T plus 1t baking powder
1 1/4 t baking soda
1/4 t ground ginger
3 t ground cinnamon
1/8 t ground cloves
1 t salt (decrease if you use salted butter)
1/2 cup butter, cold
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
15 oz can pumpkin puree
1 c chopped nuts (I used candied walnuts, but plain wlanuts or pecans would be good too)
3 T white sugar
1 t ground cinnamon

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
In a large bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, salt, and brown sugar.
Cut in butter using a pastry tool, until butter is pea size.
Mix in nuts.
In a small bowl, beat eggs and mix in pumpkin, then add them to the dry ingredients.
Just before the mixture is completely combined (should still be a little crumbly), plop it all onto a cutting board, pressing it to about a 9" circle.
Cut into wedges. Mix white sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle on top of scones.
Bake for 11-13 minutes until tops are golden brown.

Yummy. We had some left so I froze them, but I think I'm going to go get them out and eat them tomorrow!