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Pkolino Silly Soft Seating
Can this really entertain a one year old for long periods at a time, as the product description claims. Or would that one year old, specifically my one year old, just poke it, take it apart, and eventually use it for throwing matches as he is into throwing any and every thing right now. Today he practiced hurling two cups, one in each hand, at the direction of the opposite wall. Perhaps he is preparing for the Olympics? They should start Baby Olympics….but I digress.
We are looking for a comfortable chair for our lil one, one he can sit on whilst reading, or sit one just to relax. I know it seems silly (no pun intended) to provide a chair for a young toddler, but he loves it. He loves sitting down and reading. The other day I caught him pulling off whatever was on the rocking chair, our rocking chair we use to rock him to sleep in when he was a baby, and with a book in one hand, he pulled the rocking chair to him, pushed his little body up, and positioned himself comfortably atop the rocking chair. He then opened the book in his hand, and proceeded to “read”. I put “read” in quotation marks as he is not reading just yet, but he loves to turn the pages, take in the pictures, and see if he recognizes any familiar objects such as car or bus. And so he was just sitting there, rocking back and forth, with an open book on his lap. Very cute, very endearing, very much a nice photo op, but of course, I don’t have a camera on hand. We never do when such moments happen.
Our lil one is becoming more a child and less of a baby, so thus he deserves a chair of his own. We just need to find the right one, at the right price. We’ll find one soon. Now I just have to show this to Mr.Bubba and see what he thinks.
March 9, 2008. Uncategorized. Leave a comment.
Middle Eastern Master Builder
I have been fascinated with all things Haba, after I spotted this, this, and this at a local toystore, Child’s Play. Sadly, they are for ages 3 and up. I vowed that I will get this for our lil Bubba once he comes of age, but every time I go to the oompa website or visit that toy store, I am so tempted to pluck the box encasing the building set and run towards the register before Mr. Bubba can catch me. But alas, I hold back my whims and patiently wait until lil Bubba turns three, or when Haba comes out with a building set for one year old.
And voila! They have! The above picture is of the Middle Eastern Master Builder, and it’s for one year olds! My heart did double leaps when I saw this on the Haba page. I am not sure if our toy store has this in stock, but only the pointed ends of the turrets and its possibility of causing injury has prevented me from putting this into my online cart. I am debating whether this would be a fun set for our lil one, or would it be another tool he’d use against us when he feels the need to throw things. So I will wait for now, but thank you Haba for putting this set together for one year olds!
March 9, 2008. Toy. Leave a comment.
Serena and Lily Bedding
I fell in love with Serena and Lily bedding when I stumbled upon it at the Dimples and Dandelions website. The soft, soothing colors of the bedding made me just want to jump into the bed in the photo and cuddle inside the blankets with a good book and some hot cocoa. I can see lil Kid doing the same, but more like nuzzling against the warm blues and browns and greens as he dreams the night away.
I know I said I wouldn’t do blue, but maybe a spackling of blue here and there or even as a soft, dominant color might not be so bad afterall. The first and third bedding pictured is my favorite so far. I really like the star duvet, it’s minimalist with a vintage feel and hints of childhood wonder.
October 31, 2007. Bedding, Room Decor. Leave a comment.
Orbits by David Buschman
This looks like a nifty painting to put up on his wall. It’s fun, a bit disorganized, basically a painting fit for a little boy.
October 31, 2007. wall decor. Leave a comment.
Wall Border
Upon my perusal of the world wide web, I came across the Design Public website. And found this wall border:
It is a Racer Wallbands Wallpaper that does not stick permanently to the wall. Therefore we can paste or unpaste it to our hearts desire, changing the decor to our every whim. Very awesome for a rental like us who cannot paint or damage walls as much as we want to, well not that we want to damage walls but painting it would most likely fall into that category in the eyes of the landlord.
This wall border comes in other colors as well but I am in love with the blue and I can see it on lil Kid’s wall. Not sure how I would do it, but I am determined to try when I do get this–when the budget is available. It is only $59 for 180 L 13 W of paper. I presume those are in inches so that would mean about 15 feet of border paper! Quite a bargain in my opinion.
October 31, 2007. wall decor. Leave a comment.
Hello world!
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October 31, 2007. Uncategorized. 1 comment.
Decor
Decor is another issue.
I cannot decide what to put in there.
I would like it to be fit for a growing child but not too cutesy that it cannot last several years or too grown-up that he cannot enjoy it now.
He’s not really fond of anything now except for books–he still has yet to discriminate his favorites though. A love for reading seems to be building. When he sees a book he likes, say the Seuss classic, “Are you my mother?”, he’d pick it up, waddle over to me, put the book down on the floor, scoot to sit on my lap, and wait.
At first I didn’t realize what he was doing, but I caught on. He wanted me to read to him. Not just any old book but the “Are you my mother?” book that I animately read to him. I’d make a Moo sound for cow, the Meow for cat, and even a Tug Tug for the boat. I am his entertainment for that brief moment in the evening. Or maybe I am his entertainment.
He has not wanted to play with any of his toys since I have been home with him. Whenever he catches me trying to do something else, other than play with him, he’d waddle over, pat my knee with his little hand, and look up at me with those big, brown eyes, and go “baa baa” or “boo”. If I don’t look at him, or feign not seeing him, he’d start to throw a mini-tantrum. He doesn’t seem to understand that I am not his Big Toy, I am his momma, and momma needs to rest and eat too.
In all honesty, I do not mind. This stage will fly by like the earlier stages and if I don’t cherish it or live in the moment, he’d be a teenager and hatin me faster than I can type this sentence.
Alas, maybe he does have a favorite book and it is “Are you my mommy?” along with “I love you Stinky Face” and the “Where is Baby’s Belly Button” flip up book.
Sweet as those books are, I can’t use them for the basis of the Kid’s theme.
Mr.Kid wants a space theme since he, himself, loves astronomy and all things space. He also likes, ok no, LOVES, cars. Maybe we’ll do a car theme for Mr. Kid as well. I don’t want modern cars to be plastered all over, they’d make it look corny to me. Perhaps vintage? Or an oldies feel to it? Mr. Kid loves old cars especially.
Here’s a few items I would like to put in the Kid’s room (the suitcase storage, I already got from Ebay, it was too cute to pass up):
I am in love with wooden toys, so much so that I don’t know if I’ll ever look at an electronic, plastic toy the same way again.
First photo: This is a wooden house stacking puzzle. We can keep it stacked or take them apart into different formations. Very cool.
Second photo: This is a wooden fish puzzle. Isn’t it just nifty! I love it! I wouldn’t mind tickering with this as well.
Last photo: The wooden number train is just so awesome. I have not seen anything like that before, and we can use it to help him master his counting and a few of his arithmetics later on.
I will probably save up for the train set next. I can just picture it ontop of his dresser or a shelf, and him throwing the numbers all around and then eventually learning to put them in order or rearranging them in a secretive, coded way.
August 21, 2007. Room Decor. Leave a comment.
Furniture–Bed
The Kid currently still has a crib. His main sleeping area though is our bed. His room is currently too warm for him to stay there, and I think he got too used to sleeping on a normal mattress instead of the hard, and uncomfortable, mattress required for little babies. Ok, it’s not too bad, it does have a spring to it, and he can sleep there soundly.
We, the grownups–who are spoiled by our pillowtops–cannot fathom ever laying our pampered selves on it and it’s a wonder how our little one’s can.
So the problem with furniture is:
- Do we go Toddler (that is “Toddler bed”) or straight to Twin
- Buy used or new
Here are a few contenders:
All are from Ikea and available in the US Ikea, except for the last one which belongs to the Ikea in the UK. I am partial to the last, and also to this one:
This particular bed is extendable. It can go from toddler size to full twin. It hails from the Leksvig line and cost around 78 pounds, or roughly 140 or so in good ol’ American dollars. I did find it in the Ikea catalog, as well as online in Ikea US, but they have taken it off the website. Not sure why. It’s a nifty looking bed.
So is the last one in the cluster of beds above. You can even position it to be like this:
Now that just makes that bed super cool for a little boy, doesn’t it.
So we can put it in the lowest position for when the Kid is younger and then switch to this super cool position when he’s older and we won’t be so worried about the bumps and bruises he gets, if and when, he happens to jump (or fall) off the bed. Which I’m quite sure he might because well, I did, and I am sure Mr.Kid did too.
I tried, in vain, to search for other sites that sells reasonably priced children furniture. Most were in the above hundreds range.
Ikea or second-hand it is then. Better yet, second-hand Ikea! yipee.
August 21, 2007. furniture. Leave a comment.
The room.
The room is nothing spectacular.
The dimensions are only 9 by 9 (just a rough estimate here).
There is just one window, perhaps it could be said to be the ‘heart’ of the room as it does drawn you in and make you want to take a peek at the beyond. The view is not magnificent, but serene. You can see a lush green lawn beyond our wooden gates, and willowly trees huddled in a circle around the basketball court. Our own yard is still in desperate need of work, but you can see the possibilities. Visions of a perennial plants and flowers dotting the landscape come to mind and seem to beckon you to be inspired to do something, to take up those garden shears and big straw hat and toil away under the watchful sun on a lazy summer day.
I can imagine the Kid curling up beside the window, a book on his lap, and rain caressing the windows. I hope his imagination will run wild with pirates, safari trips, and voyages to worlds beyond right beside that window, the heart of the room.
The rest of the corner sanctuary consists of stark white walls and a closet, now filled high with memories from his baby years. The closet can use a tweak or two here and there; the white walls though, alas, cannot be touched. Upon receiving word of this, my heart did sink a little. I am tired of white walls, it would’ve been nice to color things up for a change.
For flooring, we have soft, beige carpeting. This too cannot be removed.
So we have one window, white walls, beige carpeting, and a closet in a 9 by 9 room.
What can we do with that?
August 21, 2007. Uncategorized. Leave a comment.
The start.
The kid has his own place now. It is in one corner of the backside of the house, tucked away neatly for his own privacy as well as to maintain our sanity. Little spurts of tantrums cannot be heard much unless it turns into a full-blown crying session, of which–being good parents–we will take notice.
The conundrum with this new independence is designing it. I have no experience with children let alone children’s room, and despite my semi-artsy background, my imagination is at a standstill. I have the artist block. I don’t know whether to choose animals, cars, trains, or planes. I mean, the possibilites are endless!
What I do know is what I don’t want, and that is:
- anything Disney or other branded merchandise like Curious George, Diego, Thomas the Train
- anything too cutesy
- anything too blue
- anything too boy-ish
- anything that does not inspire the imagination or self-conversations
When I have discovered more of the things I do not want, I will add to the list.
And so begins our search and our project for His Own Corner. Hopefully, before we move from here, we would have come close to completing his room or atleast settled on a design.
Now let’s begin…
August 21, 2007. Uncategorized. Leave a comment.
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His Own Corner 