Dreaming Of A Playroom That Does Not Make Me Cringe Upon Entering

This is our playroom. 

Granted, a play date has just ended so it is not always in this state of disarray.  Oh wait, yes it is.  I am an organized mom,  but I cannot get my playroom under control.  If we are awake and playing in the playroom it is trashed.  I often feel like I simply follow the Bean around picking up toys.  With the invasion of toys from Santa, there is barely room to move.  I need new playroom ideas because something must be done. Which is why, rather than cleaning and organizing, I am procrastinating on Pinterest, looking for  playroom ideas and inspiration.  (Shameless plug- follow my boards HERE) Here are a few playrooms, I love that all seem to share one thing.  They are fun and they are organized, which is exactly what I need.  

So now all I need is a plan oh and free time,  free time would be helpful.  If you would like to check out the origins of these playroom ideas,  simply click the photos or follow me on Pinterest and check out my Kiddies Board

Early Potty Training…Am I Crazy To Even Consider It?

I have been cruising the internet for the past few days in search of all of the information about early potty training that I can get my hands on and well, let’s just say that there is a lot of information.  I have found parents that are beginning their elimination communication when their children begin to sit up on their own and others that don’t worry about it until 3 or even four.   The Bean is eighteen months and this week I am beginning to wonder if it is time to think about early potty training.

Let me back up by saying it is all Elmo’s fault!  We went to the library to rent a DVD and the only Elmo DVD available was the potty DVD.  I didn’t think twice.  I just wanted to be able to turn on Elmo when the Bean looked at me with those puppy dog eyes and asked; “Melmo,  Peas”? (Elmo, please?)  After playing the video in the background as she played for a few days, Bean began coming up to me squeezing her diaper when she went to the bathroom.  It took me a while to catch on but I figured, what the heck, so I bought a toddler potty and placed it beside the toilet. When I went to the bathroom, the Bean followed me in and would sit on her potty (fully clothed).

I didn’t think much more about it over the weeks of Christmas,  due to crafty mom overload but this week,  I began noticing that she was still telling me when she was wet or in the process of peeing.  I read about 3 day potty training and naked bottom potty training and peeing dolls and movies and well there are a lot of opinions out there.

Yesterday, Bean came to me squeezing her diaper and making a face.   I undressed her and placed her on her toddler potty.  She sat happily but did nothing.  I replaced her diaper and she peed in the next five minutes, in her diaper.  About a half hour later, she came to me squeezing her diaper and making a face so I undressed her and placed her on her toddler potty,  again.  She sat happily but did nothing again.  I replaced her diaper and she peed in the next five minutes, in her diaper. 

I did what any level headed mom would do, I headed for the kitchen and came back with salty snacks and her favorite juice and after she knocked back two cups of juice and water, I undressed her and let her play, sans diaper.  She came to me three times whining and holding her lady bits but when I sat her on the potty she would cry and reach for me without peeing so I would lift her off and she would resume playing.  She played for an hour and never peed so I chalked it up to misreading the cues and put her diaper on.  Within about five minutes she filled her diaper.

 So am I reading too much into her diaper cues?  I don’t want to push her before she is ready, but I also don’t want to ignore her cues.  I am not sure what my next step should be, so I am going to return to the Library, check out the potty video and let Elmo finish what he started.

Crafty Mom Strikes Again With An Easy Custom Headphone Tutorial…As Promised

This Christmas season was all about crafting in our house.  We decided to make the majority of our gifts this year and after a cruise through Pinterest I fell in love with the idea of wrapped headphones.  They were on Etsy, which is a favorite site but I knew I could make these myself.  As a kid, I considered myself the queen of friendship bracelets so I figured this would be an easy notch in my crafty mom belt. It didn’t hurt that I knew I could do this in front of the TV, therefore further encouraging my lazy crafter tendencies.

It is really simply.  I headed to the craft store and picked up this box of embroidery thread for a few bucks with a coupon.

 I then bought inexpensive headphones with colored ear pieces and got to work. I taped the first headphone to a stable surface. And tied a knot, tight against the top.

 I then stared at that knot, drawing a complete blank on how to proceed.  After a quick Google search for friendship bracelets, I found a great tutorial here. 

 The first step is to make a figure four with your top thread.

Take your thread under the headphone cable and through the hole and pull tight. 

Repeat these steps about a million times.  As a lazy crafter, I would have probably lost interest, because headphones are much longer and therefore more time consuming than I expected. But I taped my work to a coffee table book in my lap, and turned on some trashy reality television and somewhere between the Kardashian wedding and divorce (which was about 3 hours since I DVR’d both) I finished my first pair.  After the first one, I had my technique down and flew through the rest.

I loved finding the variegated thread and think it really made them look great.  I didn’t take enough pictures of one so that is why there shots of different colors at different stages of completion.

I Was Once An Organized Mom, Then Santa Struck And Now All Bets Are Off

With Christmas officially behind me, there are so many emotions left lingering.  I feel spoiled and over indulgent as I look around at the generosity of friends and family and I feel as if I have lost all grips on my inner organized mom, there are boxes and tissue paper still hiding in every room, the playroom looks like Santa threw up toys and there seems to be a laundry basket waiting to be put away in every time I turn around.  I am usually a very organized mom, in fact, I teeter on the edge of OCD but the house is in shambles and I do not know where to begin. 

This year, the husband and I decided to make the majority of our presents and it completely changes our Christmas experience.  We worked side by side; looking for ideas, manning hot glue guns and sanding and staining and at the end our gifts felt like more than most years because we had really put our hearts into these gifts.  However, after frenzied month’s of multiple projects going on,  there seems to be craft supplies lingering everywhere. 

So, the basement is barely passable, the toy room has way too many toddler toys and the closets are exploding.  I need a magic wand but it seems that everyone is sold out so instead I am sitting here refusing to look a laundry basket in the eyes as I figure out where to begin.

What are your suggestions, after the explosion of Christmas decorations, craft projects and multiplying toddler toys,  where do I begin the Home cleanse that is so very necessary?

Wordless(ish) Wednesday - And The Bean's Favorite Toddler Present Is The $2 Bouncy Ball

Yup,  out of all of Santa's gifts,  this bouncing ball from her stocking is the current favorite! 

The Lazy Chef Strikes Again With Cake Batter Cookies

I love all things Christmas but with the holidays stampeding past at an alarming fashion,  I have been struggling to get it all done.  My husband and I had a day at home together and we really wanted to put on the holiday music, crack open a nice import and bake some Christmas cheer into our home.  However, with a toddler at your feet, it is impossible to give your kitchen your undivided attention.  Plus I am tired and lazy so insert easy breezy cookies that turned out so amazing I HAD to share!!  The results were perfect and giving into my inner lazy chef felt wonderfully indulgent.  Seriously,  I made 7 kinds of cookies and these were the easiest and my favorite (my husband’s second favorite).

Cake Batter Cookies

1 box of chocolate cake mix

½ c. butter

2 eggs

1C. semisweet chocolate chips

2T vegetable oil

1tsp vanilla

Oven at 350.  

Mix everything together, spoon onto greased cookie sheet  

Bake 8-10 minutes.  

VOILA done. 

  Now go sit down and enjoy some free time no one has to know you did not slave over cookies.  Indulge your inner lazy chef!

Wordless Wednesday - Crafty Mom Headed Full Speed Ahead

My Job as a Crafting Christmas Elf...Too Busy To Blog, To Busy To Pee

We are elbow deep in Christmas preparations and I feel I am running full speed ahead, the problem is I feel like I am running in circles. I am crafting the majority of our Christmas presents this year so at present my fingers are covered in band aids, I have not seen my kitchen table in months and the guest room looks like a Seal team invaded Martha Stewart's compound looking for Al Qaeda, with tulle and ribbon and fabric...oof.

There are so many exciting projects going on and so many exciting things happening with the Bean's first memorable Christmas and I am dying to just sit down and write but that would mean both finding and empty chair and finding the time to sit. Yesterday, as I ran errands, I vaguely remembering needing a potty break and hitting four more stores before I finally made the time, which is nutty to say the least. Still, I promise I have blogs spinning in my head and so keep checking in for recipes and craft tutorials galore that I promise are heading your way.

What is happening with all of you, are your holidays flying by or are you making time to enjoy them. I am headed for the finish line and have hopes of sitting quietly, coffee in hand and just relishing in Happy Christmas Joy next week. For that to happen, I better finish my coffee and kick today into high gear. Happy Holidays Everyone!!

Jumping Into The Santa Lie With Both Feet As A Part Of Our New Christmas Traditions- Hot Topic Tuesday

This week Enyo, a fellow blogger at Motherhood Looms asked the question: “Is Santa Clause promoting Christmas imagination and magic or is it lying to your kids” as her Hot Topic Tuesday.  For me this is an interesting question because I have never believed in Santa, not even for a moment, but I want the Bean to Believe with her whole heart.

Christmas is one of my favorite times of the year.  I love everything from the Christmas Carols,  to the way strangers smile when you wish them a merry Christmas to spending time with family  to the cookies and cookie baking and cookie exchanges and of course the presents.  I love shopping for Christmas presents and this year I am making tons of presents and so I feel like a little Christmas elf.  I love Christmas.  I want the Bean to love Christmas and I want her to have the Santa experience. Santa will be a part of our Christmas traditions. I want to stay up late on Christmas eve, putting out the presents.  I want to watch her come running down the stairs with stars in her eyes to see what Santa has left her.  I want to help her mail her letter to the North Pole and I want to hold Santa and the threat of a lump of coal over her head when faced with winter meltdowns.  Is it lying?  Well I suppose it depends on how you define lying, I mean certainly it is a bit dishonest,  certainly there is a withholding of the truth and certainly there will be a spinning of tales that I know to be untrue. Fine.  Call it what you may, Santa will still be a part of our Christmas holiday.  I want her to experience the magic of Christmas that you can only buy into when you are young.  I want her to have these beautifully naive beliefs before she discovers that the world can be a hard place.  I want her to surrounded by a protective magical innocence for as long as possible.  When she begins to suspect, we will go from there.  When she is old enough to ask the questions, I will figure out how to answer them.   However, from this year on we will welcome Santa with a plate of cookies and a glass of milk each Christmas eve.  They will be chocolate chip because that is my favorite and my hubby and I will eat them as our little Bean dreams of reindeer footsteps tappity tapping across the roof.
What Are Your thoughts? Is It a Lie or a part of the magic? Be sure to check out the Parenting Patch to see what they think.

Fun Toddler Activities That Have Me Wistfully Wishing That Santa Was Real

Today I took the Bean to a trial day at our local Little Gym.  That’s right it is a toddler gym and this class was filled with kids her age.  With fun toddler activities always on my mind, I have seen the gym and thought about going for ages now but I have always talked myself out of it.  For one thing it is expensive and well I just figured why pay for a gym for toddlers when we can go to the park for free.  However the air is cooling, the mittens and hats have come out and the morning grass is often covered in frost so in an attempt to break up the monotony of being inside, off we went.  The toddler gym exceeded every expectation and the Bean LOVED it.  She did front rolls and back rolls and ran through the obstacle course.  She climbed on the balance beam and played with the balls.  She was in heaven and I was deflated.  While I am always keeping my eye out for a job that makes my return to interior design full time,  I am a stay at home mom and that means we are a one income family, which means that we do not have money for this gym.  It means that despite the fun she had, we are going to have to forgo this experience for the time being and it breaks my heart.  I want to give her everything and while I know she will be fine if we do not go to these classes, I will know in my heart that her experience could be better.  When I am helping her do a summersault across the playroom floor, I will know what she is missing.   I want her to grow up going to gymnastics and swim lessons, I want her to be able to tell everyone that she has been doing these things since she was a baby.  I want her to have all the things that I did not have but wished I would have.  I grew up envious of the kids that got to go to Girl Scouts and gymnastics and the kids that got to play summer tee ball. I wanted those experiences as a kid and I want the Bean to have those opportunities.  I want to give her the world on a silver platter but I am on a Happy Meal budget so for the time being we will simply continue to play at home as I save up in hopes of taking her next year.  I will continue searching for fun toddler activities and we will make our playroom a magical place with good books and a little imagination.  Of course, just in case Santa saw her smiling and laughing as she danced around today…my little Bean has been a very good girl this year.

Christmas Gifts For Toddlers…When Toddler Toys Have Reached A Hoarder Level?

Today, I boxed up more toys than I even remembered having and heaved the boxed from the top of the stairs into our basement.   Perhaps, it is the fact that our basement is beginning to look like an episode of hoarders or perhaps it is the fact that even after the “clean-up” the playroom is not far behind.   I looked around the playroom and was still amazed at the sheer amount of baby crap in every nook and cranny and I just cringed.  I have been spending the last week scanning toddler toys with the hubby, in search of the perfect gifts for toddlers and now the idea of bringing mounds of toys into this room is well, ridiculous when many children do not have toys.  Still, I am not missing out on the Christmas experience, I go absolutely giddy looking through the toy catalogs and thinking about the Beans excitement.  I don’t want to bring home mounds of toddler toys but I do want to find a few wonderful gifts for toddlers.  It appears I am at a bit of an impasse.  I have already been mentally rearranging the playroom to make room for the new toys already ordered and the idea of buying more seems ridiculous since the Bean pulled out a toy that has been in the basement for months and has been clinging to it like she won the lottery. 

I love the idea of making custom story books, ornaments and forever gifts that the Bean can hold on to into adulthood and looking around the playroom, I am thinking that perhaps the hubby and I are simply looking in the wrong direction.  Perhaps we should focus on the gift of experience.  There is a toddler gym nearby that I have been dying to try out that is ridiculously priced.  I have refused to buy classes BUT wouldn’t spending money on some new daytime adventures make a better gift that just another plastic toy?  My little Bean loves story time at the library so I can only imagine her excitement for baby tumbling classes or (and I can’t believe I am saying this) music classes at Gymboree.  I am blessed to live in a town where I have a Little Gym and a Gymboree within five miles.  Wouldn’t the gift of music and play during the coming cold miserable months be far better than another stuffed bear shoved into the bottom of the toy box?  While I get easily excited by the brightly colored toy ads, I am thinking that the gift of imagination, music and play may be the way to go.  After all if today’s excitement over the box of toys packed over the summer is any indication, I can simply wrap up a few old toys and my Bean will be none the wiser.