Category Archives: house stuff

Big Girl Room: Take 1

Well, it seems like I can’t stop changing stuff in the house, and even though these pictures weren’t taken that long ago, they are now outdated as I’ve already moved stuff around in Phoebe’s room and will probably do so again. As for Enzo’s room… well that time will probably come too.

So far Phoebe is loving her new big girl bed and I really like it as well. The drawers are nice and with an extra mattress, it can also be a trundle bed too… however I’m not really sure where one is supposed to store said mattress. As you can tell from the pictures there isn’t exactly room for it anywhere, so I don’t know what Ikea had in mind.

Enzo and Vega also like Phoebe’s new bed. We’re still working on storage issues and toy placement, but this brown cube shelf is gone and now I just need to either get rid of some toys or figure out a better method of storing them. I think our real problem is too many large toys and also the fact that Phoebe forgets there are toys anywhere she can’t immediately see, but Enzo is also that way so January will be filled with more rearranging and storage switching so that we can get a feel for what the kids actually play with and what can head out the door.

It’s probably just a good thing neither kid messes with cords or electrical outlets all that much because I have yet to figure out a good way to keep those from being in the way since the outlets seem to be in all the wrong places… that or we have way too many things that need to be plugged in. I have a thing with lights, though… it can’t be helped.

Ah, here’s a good example of something that is gone – the panda. While Enzo has always been a fan of his giant bear, Phoebe never really bonded with her panda, so we gave it to a new home and she never even noticed it was missing. In general the kids aren’t big on stuffed animals, so I think we’ll probably let more of those go. I bought too many before they were born and thought they’d enjoy them more than they actually do. Instead they have a select few dolls and animals that they really love, and for those I’m thinking one of those wall hammocks would work great and would definitely free up shelf space.

Now to go take updated pictures of what her room looks like now, or maybe I’ll wait until January since several rooms will have changed by then.

Prepare… winter is coming.

I can feel winter’s icy hand on the back of my neck and it’s time to prepare. We need to get the house in order and come up with some fun ideas for when it’s too cold to go out or we have zero desire to bundle up because we are not cold weather people. I know… it’s a mystery why we live in Minnesota when none of us really enjoy snow or frigid temperatures.

I think I need to do some Pinterest scouring to find good winter crafts, although apparently even a paper plate can be fun. Who knew that switching one simple artistic medium could do so much? I left out paper plates for about a week and both kids would climb up on the barstools whenever they were hit with artistic genius and color away.

I already know we’ll do plenty of baking, but I want to spend more time this winter crafting and making things and being creative with the kids. We should also actually take them sledding since they’d both enjoy it this year, but there’s that whole cold and wet factor. We’ll see. Maybe we can just watch a movie where there is sledding? I kid. Sort of.

One of my goals is to do some sewing – specifically a quilt. I’m going to start small and go from there, but first we need to do some major winter cleaning. I see many trips to Goodwill in our future. I need to go through old baby clothes as well. I wanted to try and sell them, but it’s getting to a point where the payout doesn’t seem worth the effort and I’m tempted to just donate the lot. Sure, some extra spending money is nice, but I could save myself some time and headache by just packing it all up in garbage bags and giving it away. I can already see the empty bins we’d be left with. I feel lighter already!

We also need to do some deep cleaning and prep our basement windows for their glorious annual plastic wrapping. While the wood floor looks nice downstairs, it’s not the best choice for Minnesota winters. Plus hot air rises and we have 9 foot ceilings which also does not help. Basically our basement is no-man’s land in the winter unless we wear warmer layers and remember to turn on the electric fireplace and space heaters an hour in advance.

First, though, I need to get my body used to the lack of daylight. This year especially it seems to have caught me off guard and the late sunrise and early sunset is taking its toll. By the time we get the kids to bed its already dark and the couch beckons me to curl up in its warm embrace. Sigh. Soon, motivation, soon.

Another Big Boy Bed

On one of our more recent trips to IKEA with the kids, we decided to make a completely random and unplanned purchase. This particular idea was all Enzo, and Josh and I were hopeful that it would be a game changer. His idea was… a loft bed. We couldn’t help but agree that it would be a fun setup for his room, and would actually free up a lot of floor space. More importantly, we hoped that it would make bedtime easier as he has never been a big fan of settling down for the night.

As you can imagine, both kids wanted to help put it together, so I did my best to keep them amused while Josh did the easy work *wink*. I let them play in the rain for a bit and then both decided to strip down and run around… a fairly common occurrence in our house. The funny thing is that Phoebe is usually the one requesting to take all her clothes and diaper off and if anyone takes an article of clothing off – even if just to change into something else – she will start trying to take all of her clothes off and demand that you disrobe her so she can be free.

Anyhoo, the more the bed came together, the more excited Enzo got and he was thrilled when he was finally able to give his new bed a whirl. We had picked up sheets on the way home from IKEA and the quilt was made by his great-grandma and was the perfect size. Josh and I high-fived and Phoebe may have pouted a tad since she’s too little to climb up top by herself.

As for whether or not it’s actually improved our bedtime routine, well… sort of? It improved for a while, but we still have those nights where it is really hard to keep Enzo in his room and get him to go to lay down. Part of the problem could be due to the rain we’ve been getting that has meant less outdoor time that usually wears him out. I know the rain the past few days has been messing me up as well and I’m a tad stir crazy since I haven’t been getting as many walks in. You can only wander Target for so long, you know?

Overall, Enzo really does love his new bed, though, and he and Phoebe often play in the nook area together. It may not have completely changed his sleep habits, but I’d still say it was a good change and something that was fun for Enzo to be a part of choosing.

Holy Productivity, Batman!

Sometimes I think we must be a tad crazy. As if coming back from vacation and trying to get small kiddos back on schedule wasn’t hard enough, we also decided to drastically rearrange our house this weekend. Madness, but it seems like it will be worthwhile madness. All of this moving meant I needed another bookshelf, so we ended up at IKEA where Enzo got very excited about a small loft bed. More excited than we’ve seen him over anything in a long time, so we decided to get it for him in the hopes that bedtime would become easier. For the first time in weeks, he slept in his bed the entire night. If this trend continues, the bed will have been worth every single penny.

All in all it made for a very busy weekend, though, and the kids are still off from vacation. Enzo had a rough preschool drop-off and Phoebe got clingy as well, so I’m just hoping we can get everyone back into their normal routine this week. I’m really glad we have a 3 day weekend coming up as I feel like every night this week is going to be filled with busy work as I finish moving books and toys around and finally get photos from our trip off my camera, and about a million other tiny little projects. We do, however, plan on getting out this upcoming weekend and relaxation and fun will be a must.

Garage Sale Time!

Getting ready for another late night and a busy weekend because of the crazy decision to have a garage sale. So much stuff. Mostly baby clothes and baby items, but a surprising amount of other things as well. Now let’s hope that our somewhat remote location and other cities having city wide sales this weekend doesn’t affect our turnout. On the plus side, thanks to garage sale groups online we can pretty much advertise for free and will hopefully get more traffic because of that. The weather should also be good tomorrow and Saturday, but we’re thinking Sunday we may have to pack it in early or be shut down entirely due to the forecast of severe thunderstorms. I’m just hoping we can get rid of most of our stuff.

So that’s our exciting weekend! I almost hope we do have to shut down on Sunday and then maybe we can do another indoor picnic with the kids and just hang out and watch a movie. They really liked it when we did that a few weeks ago on a Friday night. Phoebe got a little bored about halfway through Big Hero 6, but she just amused herself by bouncing around on the couch. Enzo seemed to enjoy it and we’re talking about taking him to his first movie theater show soon. We’ll just need to find someone to hang out with Phoebe and hope she doesn’t get too jealous that she can’t come to. Both kids seem to do better when we can make separate one-on-one time for each of them, though, outside of the house. If anything, I’ll take one of them shopping with me. I may forget a lot and it’s definitely not as relaxing, but to them it’s special time, so that works for me.

Have a good weekend everyone!

Dino and Bunnies

Every day adventures