The "extras" that I had no idea came with the title "mom"

I'm sure I am not the only one who feels like their mom task has some little extras that they did not know came with the job of mommy. I know I didn't.

I honestly was not naive in the fact that motherhood was a difficult task, I knew there would be great days and just down right horrible days, some of which I keep having lately. I knew as a mom you were 100% responsible for your kids. You have to feed, clothe,provide shelter, provide them with medical care, teach them right from wrong, manners (although I've noticed that some parents seem to forget this part this is a MAJOR pet peeve of mine), should be hands on with their education and spiritual learning, potty training, diapering, basically all the basics. These are my views by the way, but I'm certain I'm not the only one with these views. Then the little extras that you give them like toys, trips to the park, movies, etc...

I however did not know I was going to take on the role of "grandparent" or mommy to a baby doll. Punkin has her "baby" that now is like my third kid! How in the world did I become responsible for a baby doll. We did get her or well...Santa brought Punkin her baby doll for Christmas when she was 18 months old. We were trying for Doodle Bug and decided if she had a baby and everything a baby needed it would make the transition easier. It worked! I am however starting to think it worked just a little to well. Baby (this is what she named her) goes everywhere with us and I mean everywhere, if I remember correctly I think I did a whole post on Baby. But lately dragging this baby doll everywhere has been getting very tiring and almost like I'm caring for three kids. We have to have baby in her car seat and she has to be buckled. Baby has to have her diaper bag and juice and favorite toy. If baby is hurt she has to go to the doctor and the baby doll doctor kit is not good enough. She has to go the Punkin's doctor. If we lose baby which we did this weekend and I think it was at swim class, she freaks out, this weekend we had to call her uncle who is a cop and see if he can help find her. I never let her do that I pretended to call him to calm her down. We made phone calls everywhere to see if she was there etc. This time, unlike the first time, I had a back up. She now has bitty baby and is happy. Thankfully her old baby and bitty look similar.

Taking this baby everywhere and all of her stuff is difficult. I have my purse, Doodle Bugs diaper bag, Doodle Bug, Punkin, Punkin's baby, Babys carseat, diaper bag and everything else. Granted it was cute for a while but I am starting to lose my patience. I also have added to my very busy schedule have to dress baby for day time (play clothes) and night time (pjs) we brush baby's teeth while Punkin brushes her, same with going to the potty. Everyone in the stores thinks this is adorable and it is until I have to haul the stuff around or we have a melt down because baby falls and we can't take her to the doctor.

Worried about her baby at the doctors office during Doodle Bugs 9 month check up!

Grocery shopping and this works out in a way because I put all of the girls stuff in Punkin's buggy.

At Doodle Bug's 9 month check up Baby had fallen out of the car and needed to be examined and they amused her it was so sweet of them!

On a lighter note the role of teacher I have taken on and not teacher of life but pre-school teacher is a fun task. This does go back to the basics though so I was a little more prepared for this. I am very thankful that Punkin loves to learn. She ask to do her pre-school all the time and even on the weekends. She is also doing very well. I am so proud of her. She is three years old and is very smart for her age. Soon she will be tested for a magnet pre-school for next school year and if she gets in she will be able to stay at that school for her entire elementary career. We have our fingers crossed. I do work with Doodle Bug on this too, we do flash cards. I did this with Punkin when she was a new born all the way up to today. We make everything a learning experience.

She needs a little more work on her little a.

I love how she gets so excited to learn.

After our 30 minute lesson we put her work on the bulletin board for Daddy to see! This is also the first thing you see hanging on the wall when you walk in my front door, which is the playroom.

Some of the fun games we do that they have picked up really quickly and really well that teach them their ABC's, 123's, colors, days of the week, months, seasons, etc. are listed below:

1. Doing laundy we count how many items come out of the dryer
2. Folding laundry we say the colors of each item
3. Driving we notice colors and find certain colors
4. Driving we also sing ABC'S and a song for days of the weeks
5. Driving we also point out what red means (stop), green (go), yellow (get ready to stop), blue (hospital)
6. Going to the park we pick out shapes or while shopping, we also do the same with colors
7. In the car we practice spelling our name or while we are shopping (I do get funny looks sometimes but hey oh well)
8. Doing dishes is a great way we do shapes and counting
9. The game twister is great for teaching left from right
10. We learn our left from our right while shopping going up and down the isles we will say we are going to turn... then do so.
11. They only get to watch educational shows, nick jr is great and so is the baby channel and sprout
12. We count all of our toys while putting them away etc...

This also helps me get my work done while still getting to spend time with my kids and teaching them at the same time.

There are many things you can come up to teach kids the basics. I was doing some research and a lot of children go to kindergarten without knowing a lot of this. I do not want my kids to be those children. It is very saddening to me and I really hope that what I read was wrong. I am proud to say that Punkin, with help, can write the whole alphabet. Her 1, 2, 3 and we are working on her name. By herself she can write her A and B and C. If you are not paying attention to her and she is not being silly she can count past 20. She also knows all of her shapes and for Christmas my parents are going to get her the tag reader because her cousin that is one year older than her can read because of it so I'm hoping with me helping her that will work too. Anyone else have this item? If so does it really work or help your child read?

I hope everyone has a great week I will be back on this evening to catch up and visit some blogs running a little behind today. Thanks for stopping by!