SEARCH FOR THE PERFECT PLANNER

It's December and the year is almost over! That means it is time for me to search for the perfect planner.  I'm a "paper" kind of person, I write everything and a planner keeps me organized.  I tried several times to go digital but after a few weeks, I would end up getting a planner.  So this year, I'm starting the year right by getting the perfect planner.  I'm not loyal to a specific planner; I think I haven't really found the planner that actually works with my needs.  I have tried a LOT of planners in the past.  I've had a planner since high school and every year, I had a different one each year.

WHAT TOY STORES REALLY DO TO YOUR CHILD

The LO and I were at K-mart last weekend looking for a toy.  I was amazed by how much toys there were! It was aisle after aisle of toys; and this is just one section of the K-mart.  Then we went to Toys R Us since K-mart didn't carry the toy I was looking for and lo and behold!

You see, I'm a newbie when it comes to the toy department.  For the last year, I have been limited to the baby section; and the baby section is calm, uncluttered and spacious.  So, coming into K-mart and Toys R Us where you have toys that goes from floor to ceiling is just a bit too much compared to Target's toy section.  It was very overwhelming for me to be surrounded by all the toys and I'm an adult! Can you imagine how overwhelming it is for a child? Let alone a 14 month baby?

PAPER PLAY

This is an accidental activity for the LO and it kept her occupied for 20 minutes! (20 minutes of free time for me! wow!) I was going through our mail and tearing the ones we don't need while the LO was having snack.  When she finished eating, she tried to reach for one of the envelopes so I figured "why not?, what's the worst thing that could happen?". I handed her my pile of torn papers and she looked at each one of them as if its the most interesting thing. 

HALLOWEEN THEME

Halloween week is over! Here is how we decorated our classroom:

DIY COLOR BIN

I made a color sorting wheel for my class today.  My kids for this year are much younger than what I had last year.  I have some color sorting boards from Lakehore but they seemed too distracting for my little kiddos. 

ENTERTAINING A BABY IN A RESTAURANT

I love the LO to the moon.  But I have to admit, it gets pretty challenging to entertain her when in a restaurant.  She's strapped in high chair unable to move as she pleases... of course she'll be antsy and make every available effort to squirm out of those straps.  I'm amazed at how flexible she can be! The average time for a meal is about 1-1.5 hours so we need to be pretty creative in keeping the LO occupied.  I refuse to give her my iphone to entertain her.  That being said, I've adapted a few tried and tested tricks to keep her busy.

FRIENDS' ORANGE SOFA

Who would have thought that I will get to sit on Friends' infamous orange sofa?

This is the line from the other side of the street.  The line is short being that we went at 4pm on a weekday and it was raining.  We only waited for at least 20 minutes. 

OLD SCHOOL TOYS

We spent some time last weekend at Toys R Us and I found these classic Fisher Price toys. These toys brings back memories from my childhood.  This music box was one of my favorites.  I really can't remember the songs it played or if it actually played but I know its one of the things I've always played with.  

DIY SENSORY BOX

This is my friend's son Duke.  (He is also my daughter's soon to be boyfriend).  My friend Cita made him this amazing sensory box using common household products and a diaper box.

IKEA HACK : MALM HEADBOARD

Would you believe this is a MALM bed?  We've had our MALM bed for about 3 years now and I love how simple and clean the style is... but, I was getting bored with how plain looking it is.  One of the our bedroom's wall is painted dark chocolate brown and the headboard blends with it.

WHAT TO DO WITH THE EXTRA PASTA SAUCE

For those who know me, they will vouch that I don't have a lot of cooking experience.  That being said, I don't know any shortcuts when it comes to prepping or cooking.  One of my go to food is pasta in a jar;  not the healthiest but it's easy to make and quick.  My friend Cita thought me the coolest trick in storing pasta sauce.

 

PLAY AREA FOR 10 MONTH OLD

The LO has a new play area again now that she is 10 1/2 months (FYI this is the 3rd time I have rearranged our apartment!).  She is now cruising and standing up on her own.  She needs a much bigger space where it will be safe for her to explore. One side has the sofa for her to hold on as she cruises, one side has a shelf for her toys and I propped pillows on the wall.  The other side opens to the living room where she could explore even more.

DIY RIBBON TOY

The little one is a curious bee!  She is putting every single thing in her mouth! She especially loves exposed tags and hanging strings.  She will stop at anything to put them in her mouth --- the sofa's tag, my lounge shorts strings, her burp cloth's tag... to redirect her attention, I decided to make a tug toy.  I found one from Imagination tree and made a version of my own.

DIY OBJECT PERMANENCE BOX

 For the longest time, I've been wanting to buy the object permanence box... but I could not justify the $25 price tag.  I just felt it was too much for a toy I was not sure the LO will play with.  So, I decided to make one instead. All you need is a box and a ball.  This is a box from Ikea.  Any rectangular box with a lid will be perfect.

PINCER GRASP @ 10 MONTHS

The LO's pincer grasp has improved a lot over the course of 2  months.   As soon as she started to crawl, we started her on baby cereal and she loved them! and so did our dog!  

STORING BABY CLOTHES

The LO is now 9 months! How time flies... Today, I organized her old clothes to put in storage.  This is an underbed storage box where I put her clothes as she outgrows them.  Not exactly organized.

  

ORANGE AND GRAY WEDDING THEME

Today marks the 2 years that my husband and I have been married. How fast time flies! I was looking through our wedding pictures and came upon the DIYs I made for the wedding.  Our motif was orange and gray and I was really hands on with all the details.  It was the OC in me I couldn't help myself.

This is the table set up at the reception. Its very simple and the flowers pop because everything else is white.

DIY PHOTO CARD

My cousin recently had his birthday and I wanted the LO to greet him.  My cousin loves to go to the gym so I drew a muscle man on a poster board and had the LO hold it aka "eat" and "crumple" it.

BABY TOYS @ IKEA

I love Ikea. What is there not to love? Its modern, simple and inexpensive. Who would have known that I will one day venture into the baby section day? In my search of Montessori toys for the LO, I stumbled upon Ikea toys.  They are very inexpensive and seems very durable.  One drawback is that the toys are not entirely made of wood. This kind of bothers me but for the price, who am I to complain?

Toddler Wagon/Walker $19.99  /  Stack & Nest Cups $2.99  /  Shape Sorter $4.99  /  Building Blocks with Wagon $7.99  /  Sensory Ball $1.99  /  Baby Gym $29.99  /   Play Book $6.99  /  Stacking Rings $5.99  /    Toy Hammering Block $5.99

BABY'S FIRST PLANE RIDE

The LO just went on her first airplane ride! Actually, she traveled 2 times in a consecutive weekend.  It was not bad as I thought it would be.  Prior to traveling, I worried as to what to do at the airport and on the plane being that I've been to a lot of plane rides and I know that baby and airplanes do not go together.  I "googled" for information on what to expect when traveling with a baby but all I got was what to pack for a baby.  So, here is a run down of 5 things you should know when traveling by plane with a baby. Hope it helps! 

WHAT TO PACK FOR THE BABY

The LO just had her first family vacation.  We visited her uncle, aunt and cousins in Arizona.  It was a week of firsts -- first airplane ride, first swim and first trip to the shopping outlet.  It was also a first for my husband and myself to travel with an infant and did we screw up!

I'm not going to lie, but I may have over packed for the LO. I think 1/3 of our checked in luggage was her clothes alone and she only got to use half of it.  I also brought a lot of just "in case" clothes that were not even weather appropriate.  And don't get me started with the burp clothes!  As a general rule I think, it is better to have packed more than she needed.  But nevertheless, it is a lesson learned -- pack what is just needed.

DIY SENSORY BOTTLES

I made the LO these sensory bottles out of water bottles to heighten her sound awareness.  She is now 7 months and at this age, she is highly receptive to the sounds she hears around her. 

TOYS FOR 6-12 MONTHS

After weeks of research, I have narrowed my list for the ideal Montessori toys for the LO.  The LO is now 6.5 months old.  She is at the "I want to eat everything" stage and "I'm a wiggly worm" stage.  I had to take these two factors into consideration with my choice of toys. 

PLAY AREA FOR 6-12 MONTHS

The LO is now 6.5 months and is ready for a play area upgrade.  I recently got her some toys and I needed to make some changes to her current area to accommodate them.

DIY CARDBOARD SHELF

I think I outdid myself this time. I made a cardboard shelf. I am upgrading the LO's play area and I needed a shelf to store her new toys.  The LO has started to crawl and explore her surroundings and I am not comfortable with a shelf where she could hit her head.

MAKING THE CLOSET WORK FOR YOU

How do you organize your closet? Do you take out everything, sort through your items and then put everything back only to redo everything in a week or two? For me, organizing is like doing a math word problem.  You define your problem, identify what is given and look for the solution. 

Take for instance my husbands closet.  His current "system" wasn't really working anymore.  Here is a picture of his closet.  I would not say his closet is disorganized but some things do not belong where they should be. 

B&W CONTRAST PICTURES

When my baby girl was born, I went crazy looking for ways to stimulate her (yes, the teacher in me just had to!).  Upon research, I came across black and white contrast pictures.  As newborns, babies do not have the visual acuity to see the things around them.  What stimulates them are high contrast colors, like black and white. (I have a free printable at the bottom of the page!)

ORGANIZING WINTER ACCESSORIES

About 2 weeks ago, I got a hanging shoe organizer from Target for $5 on sale.  I figured, "I'll buy it and I'll find a place for it".  And I did! It has been a very very brutal winter here in NY so our scarves, hats, gloves and earmuffs had to be easily accessible.  I re-purposed the shoe organizer to an accessory organizer --

BABY MONTESSORI PLAY AREA

All done! Loren now has her own play area! She is now 5 months old and I can no longer keep her on the sofa or let alone the bed.  She's at the stage of rolling over and going in circles.  I wanted a Montessori based play area for Loren and though her current play area is not as Montessori as I want it to be, I am very happy with the results. 

DIY FRAME FOR IKEA NYTTJA

This is a very easy DIY and so inexpensive.  One wall in our bedroom is painted dark chocolate brown but I had a hard time finding an art that would go above the bed. 

This is a before picture (what was I thinking?):

I searched Pinterest for an ideal art to go on a dark wall and in one of my searches, I came upon an Ikea RIBBA white frame with a black and white photo.  It was very simple and I knew it would complement our brown wall.  However, the cost of the RIBBA frame was $20 and I needed 2 of them, so that will be $40 and I could get a finished frame for that cost.  I stumbled upon the NYTJJA frame which was only $8 but it didn't have a mat but I figured I could make one.

I bought a poster board for $2 and made my own mat.  I then used our engagement photos to go into the frames.   The total cost for the whole project was around $22 including the pictures.

This is how the brown wall looks now.  It is not the best picture with the sun reflecting back but overall, it came out the way I wanted it to be.  Much much better actually.  The frames pop on the wall and the best thing about the frames is that its about me and my husband. 

MAKING A MONTESSORI PLAY AREA

My baby just turned 4 months last week and I can no longer keep her by the sofa because she has realized that she can now move around by rolling over or pushing her legs on the sofa arm rest.  I've decided to make her a play area in the living room to give her the space that she needs where she could explore her environment.  Upon research and consideration, I've decided to adapt the Montessori approach in making her play area.

I am more familiar with the Creative Curriculum being that it is what I use in my classroom, but I am gearing towards the Montessori approach because I like the idea of less is more.  Here are some inspiration pictures to get me started, these websites offer invaluable information on using the Montessori approach at home and I am very excited to learn even more. 

The Imagination Tree

Itty Bitty Love

Montessori on a Budget

I am so excited to do this project.  It will be a challenge being that we're short on space but I really want this space for Loren and I know it will be really worth it. Wish me luck!

DIAPER CADDY

 

When I started organizing the nursery, I knew that a changing table was out of the question because of the limited space that we had.  As an alternative, I opted for a diaper caddy that I could bring from the bedroom to the living room and vice versa.

NEUTRAL NURSERY

Our nursery has a neutral palette because I wanted the nursery to blend with our bedroom.  My husband and I live in a one bedroom apartment and the nursery is situated right in front of our bed.  I am not a fan of color as my friends will attest to and pink is not something that I would want to wake up to every morning.