Tate is officially 2! If you ask him, though, he’s more likely to say that he’s 9 or 13, his favorite numbers of late.

Upon realizing that his birthday would fall during the Winter Olympics, I had a flashback to a jellybean-Olympic-rings cake my mom made when I was little. (I’m guessing ’84 in LA?) With my theme established, I started scouring the internet for other Olympic-related party ideas. Here’s what we ended up with:

• My brother downloaded the Olympic theme song to be playing as the guests arrived.
• The colors were red (for Team USA, with a nod to the Canadian host country) and silver, since it was a second birthday.
• Awesome 3-D paper snowflakes – awesome because of how great they looked, and also because I didn’t have to make them (a leftover Christmas decoration from the MagnetStreet office – thanks Rene’!). If you have older kids, though, it would be a fun craft.
• Chocolate gold medals for the kids – you can buy them here. Or for our cheapo version, use super glue to attach chocolate gold coins to plastic gold medals.

• Olympic Flag posters – Using Lindsey’s watercolor valentines as inspiration, Tate and I painted six half-sheets of posterboard, one in each of the ring colors*. The next day I traced around 2 different-sized plates, then cut out the ring shapes. A little glue stick under each ring, and we had a flag. Since there was plenty of painted paper, I made 3 flags to hang around the house.

• Tate helped to put a flag toothpick in each of the corn muffins. We had chicken chili and tater tot hotdish for lunch.

Some other fun ideas that I didn’t end up using:

• Assigning a different country to each family, asking them to come to the party dressed accordingly.
• Preparing an international menu that represents a variety of countries – ideas at Kids Birthday Idea Guide.
• Decorating with a banner of international flags. (I had great intentions of sewing these, but then remembered that I never finish sewing projects. Also decided not to pay for a plastic one online.)
• Sledding or skating activity – maybe we’ll do this in 4 or 8 years, when Tate is having parties with friends.

Unfortunately, my “inspiration piece” cake was less than spectacular. I started off feeling all chef-ly, slicing off the rounded top and frosting a base layer. Then I ran out of frosting and ended up putting the whole thing back into the pan so the unfrosted edges wouldn’t show. I added extra toothpick flags around the edges, as a distraction from the mess. The peanut M&M rings worked, at least!

The real highlight of dessert was the Olympic torch ice cream cones that my sister made. Earlier that morning, she filled the cones with vanilla ice cream and doused them in yellow and red sprinkles. We lined them up in a plastic container and put them back in the freezer.

In addition to being adorable, this strategy made the dessert-serving go quickly, since we weren’t scooping out ice cream on each plate. Everyone got to enjoy a cone while I was cutting the cake.

I’m a big fan of having a theme for parties – it makes the planning easier by providing a focus for the food, decorations, invitations, etc. What party themes have you used for your child’s birthday?

*For our Olympics, I went with “brown is the new black” because there was no black paint in the 10-pack of Crayola paints. And also because a standard bag of M&Ms has brown, not black candies (for the rings on our cake).

I’m finishing a post about Tate’s birthday party…here’s a sneak peak:

Yes, we still call him Tater Tot, even at the ripe old age of two. Yes, we live in Minnesota, home of the hotdish. Yes, his birthday is right in the midst of the Winter Olympics.

Stay tuned…

Today’s post is about thinking outside the box. I’m featuring customers that took one of our standard designs and changed it to suit their needs. I’m not just talking about picking your favorite colors and fonts – that’s fairly standard and expected. These people took it to the next level…

Ella’s mom Liz started with a birth announcement and ended up with an adorable first birthday party magnet:

These wild and crazy folks (okay, it’s my brother) took a wedding photo card and imagined it into a fabulous family photo Christmas card!

You’ve read about Melinda before, as she prepared her daughter for a new arrival. She creatively turned this baptism invitation into a birth announcement for baby Kaylin. Then for big sister Zaylee’s second birthday, a birth announcement became a party invitation. I love how the monogram was switched to a number “2″.

So if you see a product you love, but it’s not quite right for your announcement or invitation, fear not! MagnetStreet Baby is all about customization, wherever your imagination takes you.

Do a little browsing through the birth announcements, party invitations, baptism invitations and holiday cards. Remember, it’s okay to be out of the box!

Help! We seem to struggling with separation anxiety – again!

We’ve gone through some rounds of this previously, but recently had been in the clear. It was to the point where Tate was saying “buh-bye” and literally pushing me out the door when his grandparents were here to babysit.

For the last couple of weeks, though, he has a screaming fit when we leave him at any type of child care or with a babysitter at our house. He’s also fighting sleep at night and naptime, whereas he used to go down easily. Now it’s all tears and pleading.

At first we thought it was just a power struggle as our almost-2-year old tries to assert himself. Then the early childhood coordinator at our church pointed out that separation anxiety was common at his age.

Hmm, suddenly I was having flashbacks to my child psychology class, with something about “differentiation of self” running through my mind. Of course I can’t find the textbook when I want it, but it had to do with the child realizing that they are separate from the mother. They love this independence but it also scares them. The same thing happens in the early teenage years and then again in the late teens/early twenties.

So after trying for an hour to get the tired boy down for a nap yesterday, I finally gave in and sang him to sleep in my bed with me. I realize that I’ll probably regret that decision, but I felt like he just wanted some reassurance and mommy time. Truth be told, I wish I could do it more often, without it forming a habit – a la the Baby Whisperer’s “accidental parenting“.

For the long term (starting today!) though, I’m looking for some expert advice. In his book Touchpoints, Dr. Brazelton recommends a routine of preparing the child for a separation, promising that mommy will return. Then when you’re reunited, remind him that you have indeed returned!

The Toddler Tamer gives two solutions to the problem: One is to never leave your child’s presence until the anxiety period is over. The other is to be loving but firm, leaving your child with trusted caregivers without lingering or providing extra comfort. Like Dr. Brazelton, he says to reinforce the event of your return so that it really sinks in for them.

An article at KidsHealth not only gives advice on toddler separation anxiety, but recommends several children’s books that deal with the topic. We’ll be looking for these at the library!

• The Good-Bye Book by Judith Viorst
• The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn
• Even If I Spill My Milk? by Anna Grossnickle Hines

BabyCenter also gives some good advice on dealing with an anxious 2 year old. 

Has anyone else experienced separation anxiety with a toddler? How long did it last? (please say it wasn’t long!) How did you combat the problem?

Photo Courtesy:
MShades