As some of you may know, I’ve been crossposting many of my blog posts on Shine for close to a year now. I recently saw that they were doing a call for Parenting Guru entries and before I knew it my busy fingers were typing a (less than) 200 word post about a special family tradition. Yesterday I found out I was named one of Shine’s 20+ Parenting Gurus! I’m not exactly sure what it entails yet, but I wanted to say thank you to my readers for all of your support with my blog. You’ve given me great ideas, feedback and a sense of confidence to put myself (and my writing) out there in new, exciting ways. I can’t wait to share this adventure with you! Here’s the post that got me the Guru title…
Our family tradition isn’t a once-of-year kind of thing. It’s become a way of life. Years (and years) ago when my husband and I were first dating, he’d see me starting to get stressed out about something and he’d turn on some music. “Let’s dance it out.” Within seconds of watching his silly faces and shaking hips, I couldn’t help but laugh and feel a little better.
Now that we have jobs, kids, ailing family members and a mortgage, stress is a part of everyday life. But in our house, dancing is too. Whenever someone starts getting grumpy or bored, we turn on the music and dance it out.
Frustrated getting that snug t-shirt off for bath time? The whole family—even Little who’s just 22 months—breaks into song and dance. “Put your hands up! They’re playing my song and the butterflies fly away!”
Rough day at school? Nothing a little kiddie rock can’t cure.
Syrup bottle shattered all over the kitchen floor? Turn it up, then clean it up.
As a mom, my worries go on and on. But fortunately so does the music. Every day I’m grateful to celebrate life’s ups and downs with my tiny dancers.
Love it! We too share that tradition…it is best and only brings lots of giggles! Love your pic 🙂
Congrats!!!!
And we love sharing in our tradition with all of you…these dancing kiddos are adorable!
Congrats. You are one SHINING star Amy 🙂 Keep up with your incredible writing. “I’m your biggest fan, I’ll follow you until you love me…. “
Aww, thanks, my friend. I forgot to mention that Little also loves Lady Gaga! 😉
Yay!! Congrats!! Btw, that picture cracks me up and I’m almost sure it’s from our wedding!? Love it!!
Wow, Christina, you’re right. Great eye! It was such a wonderful celebration and we danced the night away. (After all, you obviously have great taste in music since we had the same first song!)
You are most definitely a guru!!! Another name for your blog could have been WWAD (what would Amy do?!) 😉
In the Hoffhousehold, we’re all about singing it out… we can’t sing and our lyrics often make no sense (and MOST often revolve around “stinky” things), but it does the trick 😉
Jodie, you’re far too kind. I’m all for singing too! I remember that Hoffdad used to make up diaper changing songs…one of my favorite parenthood stories. Sounds like you’ve been great influences on your little superstars!