When life gives you ants 🐜🐜

🐜🐜 Give your 3-year-old a lint roller?

A weekly newsletter from Tabitha Paige- language development, motherhood, more

Preserving childhood… and motherhood.
Brought to you by Tabitha Paige.

read time 5 minutes

Thank you so much for the sweet messages after last week’s newsletter. It was such a gift reading how many of you are choosing to slow down and savor the season you’re in. You had me teary-eyed more than once!

Here are a few that stuck with me this week:

ā€˜My oldest moved out last weekend and my youngest turns one this week. We have been slowing down a ton this past year so we don’t rush through lasts and firsts.’ - Dawn S.

ā€˜We’re expecting twins in October, and we have 3 and 5 year old boys. In the middle of summer where it’s usually go go go, we’ve started a much more relaxed and intentional schedule with our 5 year old already in kindergarten. Trying to give our 3 year old more one on one time before we add 2 little babies.’ - Alexandra L.

So beautiful. Thank you for sharing your stories.

And congrats to Katelyn B., winner of last week’s book bundle giveaway! I’ll be mailing you a fun assortment of my children’s books this week… keep an eye out šŸ“«

This past week in a minute:

🐜 The ants go marching 2Ɨ2... not hoorah. Our little house needs some love, y’all. We traded the dream home for a fixer-upper with plenty of ā€œcharacterā€ and by character, I mean bugs. Specifically: ants. A lot of them.

We've waged a thousand battles and lost most of them. The outside of our house looks like Julia Child gleefully dusted powdered sugar around the entire foundation... but it’s actually diatomaceous earth. The ants? Unbothered. Barreling through like they’ve got a map and orders. Cinnamon sticks? Laughable. I swear I saw one using it as a construction beam.

We’re committed to staying natural and chemical-free, but seriously, what works?! Help a girl out and send me your tried-and-true (non-toxic) remedies.

In the meantime, Jordan pulled out an old classic: the lint roller. Yes, really. He claims it’s the most effective (and satisfying) way to kill and clean up ants at the same time. Naturally, Evie wanted in. So now we’ve got a new game around here: toddler-style Whack-a-MoleAnt... but with a lint roller. Who needs screen time when you’ve got that kind of entertainment?

🧔 Go, Ducky, Go! We’re so proud of our boy. Ducky is growing fast and honestly, it’s getting tough to lift and maneuver him like we used to. But he’s gaining so much strength. His PT and OT have worked miracles alongside his determination (and yes, a few tears). We’re seeing real progress, he’s able to hold onto us so much better and we are so thankful.

🄚 On the farm: Operation Silkie Sit The missing egg from last week’s mystery? Still missing. No leads. Cold case. (Cue dramatic farm-themed true crime podcast music.)

But we’ve moved on to a new experiment: Can a tiny Silkie hen hatch four ducklings? Our runner duck was disappearing for most of the day, and we feared the worst... until Jordan found her secret nest! And the cutest part? Her mate would escort her there every morning, check on her during the day, and walk her home each evening. Like... stop. The love story we didn’t know we needed.

But duck eggs need full-time care. So we called in our faithful (though questionably competent) surrogate: Cupcake the Silkie. Historically, Silkies aren’t exactly known for their mothering instincts... but we believe in Cupcake. Updates to come.

The results are in from last week’s poll 🄁 ... Last week’s egg thief poll did not disappoint. Clearly, Jordan stuffed the ballot box with votes for ā€œOther,ā€ and poor Lacey didn’t get a single vote?! (Honestly, fair… that girl can’t keep a secret to save her life.)

Looks like y’all believe in the mystery as much as we do… and let’s just say, the case remains very open.

 ā€” Tabitha Paige, Author/ Illustrator, Speech Therapist & Mom

Keeping Them Young

I don’t know if this is preserving innocence or just mildly misleading my children šŸ˜¬ā€¦
but my babies are growing up way too fast.

Evie’s is exiting that magical stage where she renames every animal with her own little twist.
And y’all—it’s the best.
But it’s fading. Fast.
And I’m not okay 😭 (praying she passes the gene to baby Isla).

The speech therapist in me wants to step in.
But the mom in me? Letting it ride.
(Actually encouraging it… because squickmunk might be my favorite word ever.)

Advice from a speech therapist (and a mom):
Know your kid. If their mispronunciations are part of the natural learning curve and not impacting their ability to communicate clearly you’re probably okay to just enjoy it.
If it’s not causing frustration, isolation, or major intelligibility issues… maybe, just maybe, you can hold onto those sweet toddler-isms a little longer.
Correction can come later. Cuteness doesn’t last forever.

What about you? What’s your favorite ā€œwrong-but-rightā€ word your kid has ever said?
Drop it in the comments, I need more to smile about. And I think I need to give away some more books for the cutest response I get 🄰 

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