Hellobee

Wonder Baby is becoming increasingly mobile and is hitting those milestones much younger than her big sister did.  She started crawling, for example, 5 months younger.  What this means is that she’s getting into all sorts of trouble, and doesn’t yet comprehend “no touch!”  I’m pretty sure she wouldn’t care anyway.  And so I’ve been re-babyproofing the house this week.  I recently read a great post on Oh Joy about how she redid her living room for her baby.  This post is nothing like that.  I only wish I could buy new furniture for this stage.  Heck, I wish we had nice furniture to start with, but our living room has never made it to the top of the budget.  I actually hate showing it to anyone, but I will today, because I love you guys.  And maybe you can’t afford to replace your furniture either.  Your tour guides today are Toddler Girl and Mr Finnegan (the cat).  Wonder Baby was asleep on my back.

1) I moved our bookcase behind the couch.  This made it easier to use as a coffee table and harder for Wonder Baby to climb/topple on herself.  This also makes it somewhat less effective as a bookcase, however I can hide things (like my breast pump) in it.  I can slide it out easily, and the girls can’t.  I have our favourite board books on the visible shelf.

2) This was a matching bookcase with cookbooks and photo albums.  I had to switch it with my bedside table when Wonder Baby started pulling Jaime Oliver out onto her head.  This started a chain reaction of reorganizing.

3) This basket is specifically toys for Wonder Baby.  Most of the little toys are in the nursery, so this basket is to amuse her when her sister is sleeping.  I like that there is a limit to how many things can be out here, and that they get tucked away often.

4) The parking garage for Toddler Girl’s Wheely Bug.

5) When I tried to remove the teddy sleeping in the footstool, there were toddler tears.

6) We have a two bedroom house with no office (tragically).  I’m a digital illustrator so I love having a large setup; I’ll never be a laptop only girl.  I have the computer tower in a shelving unit covered with some fabric.  It is not the coolest thing ever and (as my husband points out) a bit of a pain to use the disk drive.  However there are no visible cords or blinky lights (babies looove the blinky lights).  I have gotten exponentially better at cord management since having children.

7) Toddler Girl has a little Ikea table and chair in the living room with her crayons at the ready.  I love that she has a place to be creative (even though it’s just scribbles) whenever the mood hits her.  She also likes to eat snacks here.

8) The dreaded exersaucer.  I try to keep the ugly baby gear to a bare minimum, which means only one large item in the living room (seriously, do you see room for more?).  This spot has also been used for a baby swing and a bouncy seat.  I love that it makes her happy, but I’ll be excited to see it go!  We also had a play gym stashed behind the couch for a while.

Some thoughts:

– As you can see, I have kid stuff everywhere.  I believe that it’s their house as much as it is ours, so I want them to live in all the rooms.  I try to get toys and furniture that I’m happy to look at, so that it feels playful as opposed to feeling like a kid’s room.  They have a play kitchen in the kitchen as well.

– Our house is tiny.  I try to control the kid clutter by keeping the toys down to a dull roar (I have a limited amount of spots for toys, and if something new comes in I might have to move something out of the house).  I also only let them have one set of toys out at a time, so it’s faster to clean up.  Messy and painful (if stepped on) toys like blocks aren’t allowed to leave the girl’s room.  Our house still gets messy, but it doesn’t take forever to tidy at naptime and bedtime.

– I love having a small house because once the rooms are babyproofed, I can let them roam around freely.    This isn’t to say that I just ignore them, but I can be in the next room without fearing for their lives.  I can be anywhere on the main floor without being more than a couple steps away.  Our only stairs are the basement steps and the door is always closed.  We put a cat door in it so that Mr Finnegan can get to his area in the basement anytime.

And there you have it, our little person friendly living room!