Bedroom for B2

Now that my sister has come and gone we've started to really turn our attention to the new babies room.  We're going with a Noah's Ark theme, since Working Dad's grandmother collected them, and we have about 6 or 8 that we can display.  I like the theme, it works well in our house, and sort of compliments EG's Hot Air Balloon theme. 

Here's the mood board I created.  This is my first time creating one, so don't judge me to harshly:

I've already bought the wallpaper, which is Element by Graham and Brown.  It wasn't too expensive, and we'll be mounting it horizontally to make it like an ocean wave.  I'm planning to mount all the arks around the water, with the animals inside.  There will be at least two that the children can play with, most likely a playmobile wooden one, then there are a few puzzely wooden ones from Grandma's collection.

We're using the crib we have from EG's room, once we get her toddler bed.  She's not crawling out of the bed yet, so we're planning to put in the toddler bed and try taking naps on it before moving over for nightime.

The dresser is the big piece that I haven't found yet.  The one in the mood board is from Pottery Barn and is over $1000, so I don't think we'll get that one.  I've been looking on Craigslist, and hope to find one cheaply.  I'm planning to do magnetic paint on the end sides, and maybe do a rainbow in the middle of the closet space.  The closet in the babies room has lots of storage and things that can't move, so I'm pretty much planning to block it off.

I love these bamboo blinds.  I think I can use them decoratively, and then add a total light blocking curtain behind them.  This image is from Young House Love.  I also LOVED their little octopus hanging item- I picked that up from Target.

The only thing I haven't been able to buy/find is the rocking chair I want.  The one in this image is from Target's Eddie Bauer line, but they don't make it anymore.  They sell one by Little Castle, but I don't really like it and it's really expensive.

Oh well- what do you think about B2's room?  I'll update you as we make some progress!

Project Life Album Making

I already talked about the wonderful first year baby book that I've started (and almost finished!) for EG.  The giveaway is still open through Thursday, so feel free to enter that still.

However, even with all those wonderful pages, there are still plenty of things that I didn't get to include in that book.  Not all the holidays were represented (no 4th of july!) and anyways it only goes through year one with holidays or stories. 

I've been a scrapbooker for quite some time.  I did my first book when I was in high school, and have even made gifts of books for my parents and my sister.  However, since having EG it's been really hard to continue to scrapbook.  It tends to take a lot of time, a lot of space and a lot of materials to get things done.  We have a tiny house, and though I had the guest bedroom as my office/crafting space I was never in it.  Once EG goes to bed there is laundry and dishes, not to mention a few minutes/hours with Working Dad before hitting the hay. 

Enter Project Life by Becky Higgins.   It's a scrapbooking/journaling/album system that works without you cutting photos, and is super easy to use.  So far, I've found it to be incredible, and I wanted to share with you a few of the pages that I've worked on.

The books are bit larger than the typical 12x12 size, but they fit 12x12 pages as well.

I only bought all the items two weeks ago, and have only spent 1-2 hours a night for about 5 nights on everything you see here.  That tells you how quickly you can work on a Project Life album.  I was initially really hesitant to use the system, because I didn't think that I would be able to add all the personality and the items that are special to me (in scrapbooking I keep everything from ticket stubs to maps and use those in my books) but I've found myself able to include lots of the things I used to in my regular books.

I started with my baby showers.  Even though these are in EG's first year book, there were tons more photos, and momentos that didn't fit.  I had them slipped inbetween the pages of the Pearhead book, but anytime that she or anyone else wanted to look through it was worried these items would get lost.  This whole page took me about 5 minutes.

The system is simple. It's a big binder, a few page protectors (she has like 12 different styles) a 'core kit' of little note cards and your photos:

 There are other companies that produce items that fit inside the pockets as well, and I've really enjoyed some of the products by WeR Memory keepers. They sell the little cards and a lot of them are really, really neat. 

As you can see below it's still easy to include items that you've collected.   I cut up some of my cards, included whole cards in a 5x7 little sleeve, and the list of who gave me what in an 8x11 sleeve. 

I used a regular scrapbooking page to add some of the cards we received.  You can pull out the page and open each of the cards, so we can always see what people said about the coming baby. 

Journaling is a big thing in Project Life.  I love that they make the cards nice and easy to write on, but I don't love my handwriting.  I'm going to have to get better at my penmanship, but I know that when EG is older, she won't care what my handwriting looked like- she'll just care that I wrote so much down!

The larger 4x6 cards some with cute sayings on them, or are more like title pages like on the top left.  They make it really easy to add cute and meaningful sentiments and just round out the images. 

When I was making this album I had bought myself the baby girl package by both We R Memory and by Becky Higgins (she calls them project packs I think), and it's so nice and easy to add the details.  They have little cards that say everything from "1 month" to "I Heart Tummy Time" and everything in between. 

I was able to add in my birth plan, and EG's hospital bracelet to the mix as well.  I've kept all these items, I might as well use them!  I also have her first hat and her baby blanket that she was wrapped up in.  I might make a box for her items, but I could also cut a scrap of the blanket and put it in one of the pocket folders they have. 

I hope seeing how easy this is has inspired you to take the jump.  It's versatile, easy, and a nice compromise between scrapbooking and traditional albums.  I also love that none of the pictures have been touched or hurt, they aren't stuck to anything, so you don't have to worry about not being able to remove them.  It would be so easy to take out any photos that get damaged, or to take them out to make copies of them.

Now that I've started, I'm hoping to finish and get 'current' before the baby comes.  I've got at least 5-6 other albums that I want to work on (here's to getting all our wedding into a scrapbook!) but at least I'll feel good about moving forward.  That's one of the things that Project Life is so great about- less guilt!  Just put them in the sleeves, add a few cards, jot a quick note and you are done.

Once I get current I plan to print once a month and work forwards. 

Do any of you use Project Life?  Do you do more traditional scrapbooking?  The only thing I haven't figured out is what to do once B2 gets here.  Do I make two books, one for each kiddo?  Hmmmm...

By Force or By Bribe?

This weekend we had an interesting parenting moment that I still haven't quite processed.  As EG is getting older, we're having to start disciplining her and getting her response from our requests.  Generally speaking she does very, very well.  Once I've used a sort of time out:

"EG please bring your backpack inside"
"No"
"EG I will ask you one more time, please bring your backpack inside."
"No"
Sit her on the bench in the entryway:
"Okay, you can sit here until you go and pick-up your backpack and bring it inside"
"I go outside, backpack"

Simple, effective and totally worth the effort.  Usually our I believe in giving choices, always careful that they are all options that I'm okay with:

"EG we won't be buying that item.  You can give it to the sales clerk, to Mommy or put it back where you found it."

Typically she chooses to give it to the sales clerk, and I politely explain that we don't want this item.  Sometimes she gets a little mad and lashes out a bit with hitting, but I grab her hand and explain that I know she's upset and disappointed, but that hitting is never okay.  It lasts about 5 seconds and generally we're okay.  The picture above was taken after I told her we were leaving, and she wanted to play on the slide. I explained that we needed to get home to Daddy, we couldn't play on the slide, but if she wanted to she could walk up the stairs and back down them on her way to the gate.  A good compromise- as you can see from the joy on her face.

Our typical response to her tantrums (on the floor, crying/screaming) are to ignore them.  We've been doing this since she was about 15months old, so it's definitely gotten across that these incidents don't get her what she wants.

But what do you do when you really don't have a choice?  When you absolutely have to have your child do what you need them to do right this second.  And no, I'm not talking about walking down the aisle as a flower girl.

I mentioned in the flower girl post that we put a bit of make-up on EG's face.  Earlier that day she had tripped and had a full-face run-in with the edge of her crib.  I tried to put Ice on it, but she didn't want it, and I thought everything was fine.  Fast forward about an hour or so and Working Dad gets a chance to see her.  He's really upset and thinks its possible she might have a concussion or some other type of injury and feels like we really, really, really need to get some ice on her head.

So, he explains to her that she needs the ice.  She resists.  He holds her hands down and forces the ice on her head.  She's screaming and crying and I'm desperately resisting the need to say "is this really necessary" because I know he wouldn't be doing it to her if he didn't think it was absolutely necessary. 

When we've been to the doctor we've occasionally had to restrain EG.  They need to look in her ears, etc.  But generally we've gotten good cooperation out of her, and we have enough time to think through a few options before we physically restrain her.

This weekend she asked for her blanket, and I took her on my lap to try to calm her a little.  Her little voice crying, struggling and saying "no daddy, no daddy, no" just about broke my heart.  We put on her first movie (first time we deliberately let her watch something) "FROZEN" but even that wasn't enough to distract her. 

Eventually I suggested that maybe she could lay down on daddy's lap and on the ice that way, so she would get the ice on her eye, but possibly be more comfortable.  That worked, watching the movie, having her blanket and laying down.  And I'm so thankful I thought of it!  But I'm not thrilled with the idea that our way of getting her to do what we needed was to force her into it.  There will come a time when we won't be able to force her- when she's old enough to run away, or hit back and really mean it.  And I want to teach her that she's the boss of her body, so do I really know if she needs ice better than she does?

I'm still trying to process what happened, and how we might do better next time.  I realize that what will help is her getting older- therefore knowing what a concussion is, and other words we might use to convince her how serious it is and how important it is to get the ice on her head.  But what about now...?

What do you do when you absolutely must have your child do something they don't want to?

Flower Girl Tips and Tricks

This past weekend EG was a flower girl for the first time.  While at the end of the day it went really well, there were a lot of little things that I might do a bit differently next time.  If you have a budding flower girl, here are a few things to keep in mind:

1. Go to the rehearsal.  We didn't attend the rehearsal.  It was an hours drive from our house, and took place during naptime for our little one.  However, in retrospect, it was really stressful on me not to know what she was supposed to do, and where she was supposed to be.  I also think it would have been a touch easier on her, though, honestly, she did wonderfully.

 2. Do snack first, then get dressed.  This is pretty basic, but a good rule of thumb to remember.  Most kids this age get a kick out of nakie time anyways, so it's nice to give them that time.  Then, it's easier to get them into the dress you need them to be in, since they've been hanging out eating for a bit.  Also, don't be afraid of hairspray and make-up.  Yup, there is Make-up on my non-quite-two-year-old. She ran right into her crib side chasing after her cousin that morning, and a HUGE bruise wouldn't have gone well with the outfit.... oh well, she didn't mind the 'lotion.'

3. Lots of Running around before ceremony/serious time.  Again, seems obvious, but sometimes its' hard to let them have that time.  Both EG and her cousin J enjoyed running, tag, and just hanging out before they needed to get lined up and ready.  We waited as long as possible to make them get serious and get organized. 

Running in the halls and playing tag around Aunt B, my sister.  It was cute, but it also let them have some fun, and relax a but before they needed to do anything to serious.

EG loves to play hide and seek now.  She says that we can't find her... Who's that?

Working Dad was also part of the wedding party, which made it a bit harder on me to get things going, since he left for the day around 11am, and we didn't have to get there until 2:30pm.  Then during the wedding he was obviously walking down the aisle when he was supposed to, and that meant I had to watch and coordinate everything for EG.  At the end of the day, they did great and it was nice to have them so adorably coordinated.

3. If possible, have other kids they know as part of the wedding party. There were two other kids in the wedding party, but EG didn't know dear Lily until the day of the wedding.  While it would have been nice to have them meet at the rehearsal, it worked out okay because she had Cousin J to play with and be comfortable with through the whole day.

4. Give them something to hold/hang on to.  This is really up to the bride/groom, but I really recommend giving them something to have in their hands.  It worked well to have EG hold onto Lily's hand as she walked down to the aisle, and the basket for the rest of the way.  Cousin J had a great sign (which was a tad bit large for a tiny two-year-old) but it gave him something to concentrate on.

Cousin J had this big sign to carry, and he did a REALLY great job getting it down the aisle.  He then went straight over to Mommy and Daddy and sat down.  I will admit that the Happy Tot Pumpkin/Chocolate cookies helped too!

Lily led the way down the aisle- worked brilliantly!

Lily was great with EG, she just led the way perfectly, and our girls matched so nicely.  She was a bit concerned about doing her duty to throw the flowers, but luckily EG let her drop her hand and she still made it down the aisle.  All those people, I was definitely concerned she would stop in the middle and worry- should have known she'd be a pro!  Love the groom at the end of the aisle.  He's such a wonderful addition to the family, and I can't wait until they start having kiddos (no pressure!).  I feel a little bad that I got in the photographer's shots, but I was really concerned she would stop and turn around!

She got to the end of the aisle, and dumped all her flowers and her basket upside down.  It was actually quite adorable.  And instead of coming to Mommy or Daddy, she ran straight back over to Lily to walk away.  I couldn't have planned it better even with a rehearsal!

 5. Remember to still enjoy the affair!  It can be really stressful to be trying to make sure that your kid does the right thing, and doesn't ruin the wedding. That feels like A LOT of pressure.  But remember, kids are kids.  They do unpredictable things, and as long as the couple gets married, the goal of the day is completed.  It's not often that everyone gets dressed-up fancy, there's a chance to dance a boogie and have a little fun, so try to get in some smiles!

 Would my doctor love this shot?  Heck no, but sometimes you just want the little to have a little fun!

Photo taking at the wedding, since we all looked so fancy as it was.  Cousin J wasn't being the easiest during these moments, but ironically he's totally much cuter than poor EG, who was just so, so so tired.  I'm glad we got this family shot though, it's not often my sister and I get together!

Pregnant belly bumps- we are both due in July, only a week apart from each other.  What fun it was to see each other, and get the chance for some sister shots too!

Don't forget to Enter the GIVEAWAY

Don't forget to enter the giveaway for a Free Pearhead Giraffe Baby book!


I'll be back on Monday with a review of EG's first time as a Flower girl!

Choosing the Good

A few days ago I got the 'dreaded phone call' from EG's school.  They had determined that she was sick and needed to get picked up.  On the one hand, it was decent timing.  I wasn't at work, as I'm out on maternity medical leave, and so I didn't have to rush away from any meetings or get anything covered.  On the other hand, being on medical leave means that I need extra rest/less stress.  Having a sick kid certainly doesn't sit well on the second level.

There are two options when you have a sick kid.   Make the most of it and try to enjoy what is precious time you end up having with your child.  Or cater to the misery and suffer.  I always try to choose the first option.  Here are my Top 5 stuck at home with a sickie activities:

1. Water Table/Water fun:

 

Playing outside even when baby is sick can give your kid the feeling of being okay.  In this case EG had gotten sent home from school just before they were going to play in the inflatable tub, so she didn't get to play with her friends.  Putting out the hose, the buckets and some toys really helped her have a good time.  Plus we got to end the event with a nice shower/bath- great for getting out the snot and being relaxing before naptime. (of course, as with every child, sun hat, protective clothing and lots of sunscreen *see EG's chalky white legs*)

2. Play dress-up, use what you've got:

Even if that's a hat and a jacket with your pajamas before breakfast in the morning.  Darling EG loves to wear jackets and hats, and we can easily get distracted for about 30 minutes or so trying on different jackets and hats.  Mommy's shoes work well too! We keep all of her Halloween costumes, so even though she can't wear them, it's nice to have them to play with...

3. Contact Paper on a window:

by Nongbri Family Pix cc

This can be very fun for the kiddos, EG loves to do it at school and I recently got more supplies, so I'm sure we'll be doing it again sometime soon.  You take a piece of contact paper (sticky shelf paper) that's clear, hang it from the window (it clings easily) and let the kids decorate it with tissue paper.

4. NAP

Sick kiddos should be doing this anyways, but how often do you get to nap with your kiddo anymore.  I know that I don't.  But you are home, you are here, you might as well take advantage!

5. Visit to the Doctor

This seems like a to-do, not a toddler activity that will keep baby entertained, but taking the kiddo to the doctor is a place she can get out to and you don't have to worry about her getting anyone else sick.  Not to mention the fact that it's a new and interesting place, and there are lots of fun things to play with/look at at the office.  Talk up the visit to the Dr, EG loves to go.  She gets a sticker and to play with the sticks they put in your mouth.

Chronicling the First Year

I've been busily working on EG's baby book in anticipation of Baby #2 coming our way.  Yes, that's right, she's almost two and there are pieces of her first year baby book still missing.  But not that many, I swear.

When EG was gestating I looked high and low for a baby book that would make me happy.  I ended up finding something I thought I wanted on Etsy, but Working Dad thought that almost $100 for a baby book was just too much money.  So I settled and got this one from Pearhead:

This is an Amazon Associates Link

It's cute, and it does the job.  It comes with pages for babies first holidays, and goes through babies fifth birthday.  However, I knew I wouldn't use those extra birthday pages, so I took them out.

It starts out on the right note, with pages for Mommy information, and Daddy information.  Each page is set-up like this, with the writing on the right side and the left side totally open for pictures.  It came with a bunch of corner stickers, that I actually really like for holding the photos.  That means that if you want to, you can take them all out later to copy them, or do something else.  

This is Working Dad's page.  I tried to get photos of us at different ages, one each from our wedding and one each of us with little EG.  Technically at this point in the book, EG hasn't been born yet, but I thought it was sweet to show him and me as a Mommy/Daddy- otherwise we wouldn't have the book at all.

This is the one pager to tell the story of birth- our very first pictures of EG.  It was so easy to write everything out, and put in a few photos.  The layout is really nice.  

This is one of my FAVORITE pages.  Her hands and feet.  It came with this inkless print kit that made it fairly easy and painless to get the prints.  I would be lying if I sad these were baby ones- she was about 3 months old when I finally managed to get to doing this.  Most likely it was right before I went back to work- deadlines like work give me lots of encouragement to get cracking on projects!

One of the main reasons why I bought this book was because it included some of the Jewish Holidays.  Since Working Dad's family is Christian, I needed to have and use both Hanukah and Christmas.   I really liked that they included Hanukah as a standard page.

Unfortunately it wasn't the same for Passover.  Since it's my favorite holiday, I couldn't not have one in here. So I ended up buying two albums for EG, and taking the pages out of one of them to get what I needed/wanted for the album total.  Since the pages are fairly generic (just a holiday title line and a bunch of questions) I could interchange them as needed.  Here I wrote about both our Seder and Easter, then did more pictures on the second side.  I didn't get/take any pictures of our family seder, just the 2nd night we held her first year- our first baby Passover party.

They gave pages of 'Firsts & Favorites" which I used to write commentary about her, what was happening and a monthly note or so about her.  We weren't so great about taking those cute pictures in the same place each month (like Young House Love who did so every Friday!) but I did a fairly good job or writing about everything.  This even goes after her first birthday through February this year, and I'll probably end up going back to the margins to write more as she grows.  That was one of the things I LOVED about Working Dad's baby book- his mom wrote so many cute notes about things he did.  Again I took pages from two albums to get enough to suit my needs.  My mom didn't even make me one... 

Another one of my favorite pages.  There was a single 'letter for you' page in each album, but I made one for each of us.  Here is Working Dad's.  He helped me pick the photos:  EG and him camping, looking over the bluff after our first hike-in.  Daddy Daughter morning hair- nope, not staged, just the reality of morning for both of them.  A sort of scandalous picture in the shower, but it's something that is a sort of fond memory/joke in his parents house that because he was baby #3 he never got a nice bath- it was always "I'm in the shower, hand me the baby."  EG's first time touching the ocean was in the hands of Daddy, and her one year portrait photo session wouldn't have been complete without a ride from Dad.  Working Dad isn't much of a writer, his handwriting is atrocious, so I think he'll end up typing something. No matter, it's the thought that counts!
 

The last part I loved about this is that you can add a slew of pictures to the back of the album.  It's nice to have a lot of the photos from the party we held (Our version of a Sip N' See). 

There are, however, a lot of things that are missing in this version for me.  It doesn't have all the holidays (no 4th of July, certainly no Purim), and it's already getting so full that I feel like if I tried to go through her 5th birthday you wouldn't be able to turn the pages.  So, I'm also working on a Project Life album that I'll be sharing with you sometime later this week or next week.  I've only been working on that one for a few weeks now, but I can say that it's going quick, and so far I love it!

Wow- what a LONG post.  While I wasn't paid, perked or in anyway compensated for this post, I thought that I would share the bounty of what I loved, and get one for one of my readers.  Are you gestating, or just dreaming of a future baby?  Maybe your kid is 5 and you might finally have time to put all the pictures together.  No matter, enter below and I'll announce the winner next week.  Continental USA only.



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