Surviving Our Income Tax Appointment

It's Income Tax Time! My husband and I have always gone into an office to get our taxes done just in case something goes wrong or we fill out something the wrong way. This post is about how we took our 5 and 2 year olds into an office and how they behaved well in a cubicle for our appointment that lasted an hour and a half: 

1. We Prepared Before-Hand: Whenever there is a chance for me to print off forms and fill them out at home, I do. The Tax Office told us what forms to fill out and what documents to bring with us when we called to set up our appointment. I found all the things I needed and once I filled out the forms, I put them all into an accordion file. 

All of our papers were safe from the rain and kids in this folder

2. We Brought Quiet Activities: I have done a few posts on all the quiet time activities I have for my kids (link here to Ultimate Busy Bag Post). I brought our Restaurant Kit (link Here) with us as well as some small blocks and this V-Tech Tablet my youngest got for his birthday but it also helps my oldest with his letters and numbers. Most of the time my youngest sat in my husband's lap coloring and eating while my oldest sat playing with the V-Tech toy, then the blocks on the floor since he decide the blocks needed to fall down after he built a tower with them. 

Our Restaurant Kit, V-Tech tablet toy and blocks

3. We Had Snacks: Snacks are the #1 thing that keep our 2 year old from having meltdowns every minute! We always have packed with us: a sippy cup with half juice/half water, fruit snacks, some type of cookie and some type of cracker. This time we almost brought extra cereal in a snack container, mini water bottle, mini juice bottle, cereal bars and extra fruit snacks. 

This is not all we took with us, there was a lot more! This was all that was left!

4. When All Else Failed, We had the Tablet with Headphones and Movies: I don't know where my husband got this headphone splitter years ago but it helps us out so much! I brought their headband headphones (LOVE THESE!!), Tablet and tablet stand. We ended up not needing this until the very end. My youngest was okay watching a movie after he got tired of sitting on my husband's lap while my oldest sat on the floor building with the blocks.

Headband headphones, headphone splitter and tablet stand. My oldest has his tablet for nap time right now.

5. Mommy's Secret Weapon! I didn't end up needing this Secret Weapon but I had it stashed away in my purse in the event I needed to calm or bribe one or both kids to behave. It works every time! 

We did it! We got through our appointment with one meltdown from each kid but it was quickly resolved by a snack or new activity! No one had to go to the car or take a kid home, no one got stressed out and no weird looks from anyone so I would call today's appointment a success! 

Happy Mommy-ing!

Restaurant Kit Simplified

So I am an over packer 😶 I am that mom that has something for any situation that might arise when it comes to my kids. Not necessarily a bad thing per say, however in my experience with my kids it doesn't pay to over pack. When I have too many options for them, they tend to misbehave more or go through the items more quickly in order to do every single activity I have packed for them. Too many options confuse them.

Here is my old restaurant kit (link to full post here)

This kit was great! It held everything and anything my kids would want in order to keep them happy while we were dining out. I will keep this kit in my car but I wanted a smaller, simpler version for when it is just me with my youngest. Something compact that I could grab and go with a few diapers in my purse. A bag of some sort with snacks and distractions to get through a lunch with a friend.
Pinterest has tons of ideas but the one idea that I fell in love with was making a kit using a make up bag! Those bags in the Pins looked like this:

However this type of bag retails for 25$ or more! For a bag I was just using once in a while, I couldn't bring myself to spend that much of it. Luckily I stumbled upon this bag:

On clearance for only 10$! Score! That was too good to pass up so I got it! I was disappointed in the fact that it doesn't have a middle section like the ones in the Pins did. I was even trying to figure out how to attach one to it...before I started filling it! I didn't think it would hold what I needed because I'm so used to over packing. But I was wrong! This little bag holds the perfect amount of items! Everything fits perfectly with room to spare! 

On the Left: I decided to store eating items and snacks. Things like cut down bendy straws, kid sized utensils, a throw away bib (not that my youngest wears them, he pulls them off) and a throw away table topper.

 Next to the eating items I packed this thing full of tons of snacks to keep my youngest happy. His favorites are Gerber Grabbers and Organics Happy Tot pureed pouches. If I allowed him, he would eat 10 a day! I limit them to one or two a day depending on what we are doing. Both my boys love applesauce pouches as well. Other favorites are fruit snacks, cereal bars and Goldfish crackers. Recently I purchased Simply Balanced fruit leather bars from my local Target, hoping they would be like the Fruit Rolls they had in the produce section from my childhood. Although tasty, they sadly were not like the Fruit Rolls I remember; this brand was more sticky and not as dry and textured as the Fruit Rolls. Still good and something my youngest and myself like (hey we moms need snacks every once in a while, see the Fiber One Bar, when the food is taking too long to come or it's been awhile since you last ate while you are out running errands, it happens and nice to be prepared!) 

Now these are all non perishable items that I can pack up and leave in there until I need them which is a mom's best friend in my opinion...I like having things packed and ready to go instead of running around last minute packing things and forgetting half of what I needed. I have 3 diaper bags packed at all times for various outings but that's another post coming soon 😉 so back to the kit:

 On the Right: I have a Fun On The Go Finding Dory coloring kit (stickers, coloring pages & tiny markers), a Zootopia mini coloring book from a Play Pack, scented Crayola twist-able colored crayons, a Hot-wheel, Giant deck of cards in Finding Dory and a Finding Dory cardboard book (Gee can anyone guess as to my youngest favorite character right now?!). 

Very simple and non confusing for my youngest. As a back up for in the event he wants nothing to do with anything in this kit, I have apps on my phone to entertain him. I also always have my portable highchair/cart safety strap/walking harness in the car because it's amazing and a must-have when I go out to eat with my youngest (since he throws the biggest fit when we put him in a highchair and will not stay seated in a normal chair, which leaves me holding him. No thank you!).

We went out for my youngest birthday and that was the first I used this new kit and it was a mild success 😕 I don't know if it was because my youngest is not feeling well, he was upset by the fact that I put him in a booster seat that was very similar to a high chair or if he just didn't like the kit. He played for a little bit but once the food came (I ordered his as soon as we were seated so it came out sooner) he went nuts! He wanted to color and eat at the same time, he was eating pancakes with syrup so his hands were very sticky and I didn't want the crayons getting super sticky too.

Things I will doing differently the next time I use this kit (that very well may be when we fly to California) I will be adding: Suckers with plastic sticks and more fruit snacks. He ate all three fruit snacks and I believe if I had packed a sucker, he would have sat there and not cried or tried to get down. It's the little things that count!

Every mom should have her own version of a kit that they can use to hold snacks and entertainment items for a stress-free, well maybe less stressful, outing with their toddlers...This kit is a "Busy Bag" in itself and as such is ideal for restaurants, doctor's offices, dentist offices, eye doctor's, DMV, income tax appointments, Heck anywhere you need to keep your little monster in one place and happy.

HAPPY MOMMY-ING!