A Truck

Over the weekend I bought Brady his first toy truck.  Recently he's shown an interest in scooting around the floor and pushing around this caterpillar we have that has wheels.  I was very excited to see how he would like an actual truck.  To be fair, I bought Chloe her first gender-specific toy as well, it is a little pink and purple picnic basket that has blocks with different holes in the basket to sort and place the different blocks in. 

While Brady and Chloe both seem only semi-interested in the picnic basket (although the blocks that came with it are a big hit!), the truck is actually very popular.  The funny thing is that Chloe is a lot more interested in it than Brady so far.

Here is a video of Miss Chloe with the truck:

She was having a great time!

Well folks, that is all for today as it is super super late and I am very tired!  Time for bed!  Have a good night!

 

Making it Work: Play Space & Toy Storage in a Small(ish) Living Area

EDITED TO ADD:  This is a long post but there are pictures if you want to scroll to the bottom.  Also, I want to thank Chad, he did an amazing job rearranging furniture, putting furniture up in the attic, making TWO trips to Ikea, and spending most of his Sunday afternoon building the storage shelves for our project.

I mentioned back in July that we decided to put our house up for sale.  Our plan was to ride out the summer real estate season and see if we had any interest in our house.  We only signed up for a three month contract with our Realtor that ended in late October.  Although we did have some showings and one near-offer, we were not able to sell our house.  The market is flooded with inventory and we were competing with many new houses in our area.

While three months is not a very long time to be on the market, it definitely felt like a long enough time for our family.  Keeping a house in show-ready condition with two infants is nearly impossible, and we often felt like our evenings or weekends were compromised because we had to plan on the possibility of being kicked out for showings.  Now that we've taken our house off the market we are enjoying the flexibility in our schedule and the freedom to live in our own home however we please.

Deciding to stay in our three story townhouse with our two growing babies did come with its share of new challenges.  Most importantly, the babies needed an open, fairly large, and safe place to play.  We also needed an appropriate place to store their multiplying toys.  We considered turning our first floor guest bedroom into a playroom, but we really like having a room for the grandparents to stay in when they visit.

We eventually decided to work with our large open-concept living space on the second floor and make some room for the babies to play.  We moved our dining table to another part of the living space, put a few furniture items away in the attic, and decided to use the recessed "dining area" for toy storage.  We also found an extra square of carpet in our attic that we saved when we upgraded the carpet in the bedrooms a couple of years ago.  It is thick and soft and makes a perfect area for the babies to play on instead of the hardwood floor.

We went to Ikea and found this book shelf and these baskets.  We bought two of the shelves and placed them longways side by side, making 16 cubbies for storage.  Our Ikea (not sure about other locations or how long this is going on) is currently donating $1 to children's education for every soft plush toy purchased, so of course we had to get two stuffed animals.

Here are some pictures of the end project:

Lots more room for toys!

Cubbies and baskets up close

Two out of three of these fuzzy animals were purchased at Ikea

All tuckered out from his Ikea shopping trip, poor buddy!

We still have a few projects to do around the house, but we feel like we've improved the living situation for the babies substantially.

Cause and Effect (Video in Post)

As I mentioned in my last post, the babies' playtimes have definitely become more sophisticated.  I recently read that at this age, babies are exploring the relationship of cause and effect.  I have tried to integrate some new toys that facilitate and encourage their exploration. 

After reading some reviews on Amazon, I bought this toy for the babies.  I really like it for several reasons: it doesn't require any batteries, it doesn't light up or make any obnoxious electronic sounds, the gears mix and match with other Playskool "gear" toys, and the babies love the gears.  Up until this point they were only interested in the gears as separate toys and not as a unit with the caterpillar.  If the gears are on the caterpillar and you move him back and forth using the handle, the gears go around and around. 

Today, Chloe discovered how to move the caterpillar back and forth and watch the gears move.  I feel like a crazy person for being so proud of her, but I am!  I guess it is the small things that make the stay at home mother's day a success.  I can just imagine my conversation with Chad now, Chad: "How was your day?",  Me: "Great!  Chloe moved the caterpillar back and forth!"....ha ha! 

Here is a video of Chloe doing this:  (please excuse my shaky videotaping skills, Brady was on my knee)

 

Have a great Monday everyone! 

Sadie and Sophie: A Love Affair

So Brady has been teething on and off for a while now, and I have tried just about every toy or product known to man to help. So I decided to try a very popular baby teething toy in the shape of a giraffe known as Sophie. Babies are supposed to adore it. I am sure you are wondering what this has to do with our dog Sadie, so I will tell you.

The problem with Sophie is that it looks and sounds exactly like a dog toy. Sadie is convinced it is NOT the babies' toy, but HERS. The strange thing is that Sadie isn't normally possessive of her toys and usually shows little interest in them. But not Sophie. She is OBSESSED.

Please observe:



So if anybody wonders how I spend my day, the answer is 95% looking after the babies and 5% keeping Sadie away from Sophie, LOL.