Hellobee

Lately a big struggle for us is, while in the midst of bedtime, Miss H wants to come into the twins’  nursery again and again and again! Obviously she’s not banned from the room, but when her visits include dropping books, knocking into the rock-n-plays that the twins are sleeping in, yelling, and sometimes screaming, it becomes problematic. Especially when one parent has spent well over an hour trying to get the two babies to settle down for sleep and then Miss H races into the room making a ruckus!

To avoid the dilemma of constantly telling her “no” vs. letting her have her way every single time, I decided to put together a sign of sorts. Since my sweet little toddler obviously could care less about a cute little sign on the door saying, “Shhh…sleeping baby,” I decided to approach in a more visual manner.

Miss H understands that “red means stop” and “green means go.” We talk about this a lot when we’re driving in the car and look at the traffic lights. So I simply translated this into something that can hang from the door handle for the twins’ room.

Red on one side for “stop, don’t come in” and green on the other for “go in.”

You can make this as fancy or simple as you want. I needed to get it done while all three kids were napping (which does happen on occasion!), so my version is fairly rustic but it gets the job done. I was able to put it together with materials I had around the house.

Materials
Red and green felt
Roughly 12″ of ribbon, binding tape or other material for hanging (I used binding tape)
Thread or embroidery floss and a needle
Straight Pins
Stuffing
Paper and a shape to make a pattern (I traced a 5″ heart cookie cutter)

Step 1
Trace whatever shape you want onto a piece of paper and cut out. Pin the pattern to your felt and cut out a red piece and a green piece in the desired shape. I used a heart.

Step 2
Using straight pins, pin the red and green pieces together, leaving a 1-2″ space open for stuffing later. When pinning, pin the ribbon/string in between the two pieces. Stitch around the perimeter of the shape using a whip stitch, making sure you stitch the ribbon/string firmly into place and leave the opening for stuffing. Stuff the shape with stuffing and stitch close.

Step 3
Hang on the nursery door and have your toddler repeat over and over again, “red means we don’t go in the room without permission and green means we can go in.”

So far it’s working really well with Miss H – she’ll look at the door and contemplate whether or not she can go in. She still may on occasion find her way in, but having this in place gives us a more effective way to redirect than just saying “no” all of the time. Once the twins start napping in their room I feel like this will be incredibly important for us to have around!