Homemade Toddler Advent Calendar: A No Sew Project

pretty scrapbook paper in Christmas colours

supplies

Now what to put in it? Cookie cutters, a stamp set, bouncy balls!

Natural options; a wool roving ornament, a wooden car, a hand dyed play silk

the finished product, it hangs over a door!

I decided that since Lily is almost two that we should start some Christmas traditions. I knew that I wanted to make an advent calendar for her that we could use for years to come. My main problems with making an advent calendar was that for firstly, I don’t have a sewing machine and secondly, I don’t know how to sew. I tried looking on Pinterest for ideas but I just couldn’t find something that fit. I knew I wanted it to be big enough to put enough things for two kids in the future and also be something that would last year to year. After a few nights of searching I came up with the idea to use a shoe organizer with 24 slots. I didn’t even know if those existed but as I started searching, I saw other people had done the same thing and there were lots of bloggers who had made them. Perfect! I went out and got one that day, as well as all of the other supplies. Not including what I had on hand, I think this project cost around $30. 

Here’s what you need:

• a shoe organizer with 24 spots
• some pretty paper, I used scrapbook paper
• craft paper
• some ribbon
• clothes pegs
• a hot glue gun
• a glue stick
• scissors
• a marker/pen
• items for the 24 days of advent!

Here’s what I did; I cut the paper the correct size to fit over each pouch on the shoe organizer. Then I cut circles in coordinating paper and smaller circles out of craft paper, I then wrote out each number on the craft paper. i did this by hand but you could print them or use stamps. Glue them all together and use the clothes peg to attach each number card to the pouches. I prettied the clothes pegs up a bit by hot glueing some ribbon to each. Then find some fun toddler items to put in! You could do all natural toys, conventional toys, dollar store items, treats, or write an activity for each day. We did a combination of all of those. 

Here’s a few things we had in ours:

Activities:

• make hot chocolate with marshmallows
• go look at the Christmas lights
• go visit Santa
• make Christmas cookies with mom

Items:

• bouncy ball
• stickers
• farm animals
• stamp set
• Christmas ornaments
• play food
• Christmas cookie cutters
• play dough
• Christmas PJ’s (this will be for X-mas eve!)

You could do anything really, it doesn’t have to be expensive or cost anything at all. The fun of it is the excitement and involving your toddler in the magic of Christmas. I can’t wait to see what happens next year when there are two little girls to participate in advent!

The Many Faces Of Ivy Kathryn Grace: 12 weeks

At 12 weeks old, Ivy goes from sad to happy back to sad again in seconds. She is full of expression and really growing out of her newborn face and into her baby face.

The Many Faces Of Lily Eleanor: 22 Months

Lily has about 15 different faces a minute. I love capturing her little spirit.

Nap Time Crafts: Toddler Felt Christmas Tree

Green felt; my piece is 36x36in, different coloured felt sheets, painters tape and scissors

Fold the greet felt in half and draw one half of a tree (I used my daughters Crayola Markers)

Tape to your wall with painters tape

I used washable markers and a mug to make some ornaments out of the red felt.

Tape the star to the top and place the ornaments on the tree, now your toddler can rearrange as they wish!

Okay... So it's been a while since I've posted anything. I now have TWO daughters and things have been a little busy. More on baby #2 coming.

This post is about a craft I saw on Pinterest that I HAD to do for my daughter Lily. She will be 2 in January (WOW!) and this is the perfect Christmas activity for her.

 Here's how it works, you get a big piece of green felt; cut it into a tree shape or just a triangle if you want and tape it to your wall with painters tape. Then you cut out a bunch of "ornaments" for the tree out of different coloured pieces of felt. The felt ornaments stick to the felt tree so the toddler can rearrange the ornaments as they wish.

Here's what you will need:

• A big piece of green felt (mine is 36x36 inches)
• a few different sheets of coloured felt 
• some painters tape
• scissors

The whole project cost me $10.50 (I had the painters tape and the scissors). 

This is not my idea, I got the idea from this blog, original post below

http://johnnyinadress.blogspot.ca/2011/12/play-felt-tree-ornaments.html

17 weeks Pregnant!

           

 

Okay, okay, it's a bit of a late announcement but an exciting one none the less. I am 17 weeks pregnant, my official due date is September 11, 2012 (I realize a bit of an ominous day but we are going to reclaim it!). Things have been going well, moderately. Well truthfully, as much as I love pregnancy and the miracle of growing a baby and bringing it into this world, it is so hard. It just is, it is wonderful and beautiful and rewarding and really really hard. At least for me. I am just now coming out of about 10 really rough weeks of nausea and major fatigue. The hardest thing to deal with is not being able to be the wife and mother that I want to be. When I am so sick that all I can do is lie in bed, I can't be on the floor playing with blocks, or helping my lovely husband around the house. I find that really difficult. I feel guilty and useless and frustrated. The upside is, we are going to have a second baby, Lily is going to have a sibling and we are going to be a family of four! I am over the moon. It has been interesting to compare this pregnancy to my pregnancy with Lily. Physically, things have been pretty much exactly the same. I've had the same cravings; lemons, olives, pickles etc, the same nausea and fatigue and the same crazy hormone induced skin break outs. But mentally, this pregnancy has been so different, not that it isn't as exciting as the first time, it is! I just know what to expect and I am so busy with having a busy life that it doesn't hold the same importance as the last one did. I know that sounds awful and it isn't really how I mean it, it is just as special and amazing as the first pregnancy, I just don't have as much time to marvel at the amazing thing(s) that my body is doing! In terms of health, I am doing wonderfully, no complications so far (fingers crossed). We have our first ultrasound on April 13th to make sure that the baby is growing properly and that it's anatomy is all normal. I can't wait to get a peak at our little bub, it always makes things unbelievably real. Anyway, here are some pictures of my belly at 17 weeks, these are the first real photo's I've taken this pregnancy and I will continue to update you as I progress! By the way I am WAY bigger WAY faster with this one, I guess my body just knows what to do but WOW.

Better late than never...?

Ok, so I'm betting you thought I was gone for good. It has been forever and a day since I have done a post and there are NO excuses. BUT... I've been busy! Life with a toddler is super fun, crazy, hectic, did I say crazy!? I wouldn't trade my life for the world but sometimes maybe I would like it to slow down just a little. Dan is in the peak of craziness with school, he's finishing up final projects and getting ready for exams, but pretty soon he's going to have 3 WEEKS OFF! I can't wait to spend more time as a family and just hang out... and maybe clean the house and catch up on laundry. Lots of other fun things have been going on, I've finished my training to become a Music Together teacher (a music teacher for a mix aged class, ages 0-5) and I start teaching my own class in 10 days! I'm pretty excited but also a little nervous. Lily is at such a fun (and busy) stage, she's 14 months and learning new things all the time. She's learning new words, running, climbing... I'll do a full Lily update in a day or two (I promise!), complete with pictures. We have another exciting life change in the works but you are going to have to find out about that in the next post (which I'm going to do now!). Thanks for sticking with my friends, I'm going to do my best to keep you updated on the journey of our life more regularly. Love, Kate.

Sleeping like a Baby

traditional crib set up

Montessori floor bed photo from Sew Liberated 

Side car crib photo from Soul Mothering 

Why is it that anyone would ever use the expression "sleeping like a baby" to refer to someone who sleeps so well! From the mom's I've talked to, getting your baby to sleep through the night is one of the biggest challenges of the first year (and beyond!). We have definitely had our fair share of trials and tribulations. We started out with a bassinet right beside our bed with the intention that our baby would sleep in our bed the majority of the time. When Lily was born she slept on and off in her bassinet and in our bed but generally she slept amazingly well in her bassinet. It was as if she preferred it. By three weeks old she was sleeping through the night, I mean twelve hours people. This continued until she turned four months old, started teething and we moved places. She had grown out of her bassinet by this point as well so we just moved her into our bed, well things got worse from there. Months and months went by with Lily waking up anywhere from 7-30 times a night and having to be nursed or soothed back to sleep. Next we tried the side car crib, I was determined to be "crunchy" and alternative and not have her in a crib, god knows why. The side car crib was a great idea, it gave her her own space while still having her close by. Well she didn't think so and she didn't go for it at all, her sleep seemed to get worse or stay the same. Next we decided to try the montessori method of using a floor bed, we were still determined to have her in our room so we set up a mattress in one area of our room. It worked okay and she didn't try to crawl off or anything but one of us would inevitably end up sleeping on the floor with her. It just wasn't sustainable. An emergency renovation on our house that landed us staying with family led us once again to bed-sharing. Well the same thing happened, she was waking up countless times during the night, almost constantly it felt like. My mother in law said to me, when Danny was little he really loved his crib, we couldn't get him out of that thing, he slept so well in his crib. I decided there was nothing else to try, I gave up trying alternatives. We set up a crib at the end of our bed and she took to it right away. She was still waking up 2 or 3 times a night but this was a huge improvement over the 7 plus times. After almost 3 months of sleeping in her crib in our room, we moved back home and decided to see how she would sleep in her own room. The first night we set up the crib, did our nighttime routine as usual and put her to sleep in her crib, in her own room. Well imagine our surprise when our girl slept from 8pm to 6am and then again until 8am. She slept through the friggin' night. Maybe she has grown up, maybe it would have taken this long anyway but despite my feelings, she needed her own crib in her own room. This really taught me a huge lesson, despite what you might want for your children, or how you might envision how a certain event is going to go, they are their own person. They will have preferences for things that you may not. Ultimately we both got what we want, a baby who is sleeping well and happy.

Dear Lily, you are one.

Party set up

delicious fruit platter with homemade flags

kettle corn for party guests

Chocolate cupcakes with raspberry cream cheese buttercream

more of the spread

photo wall of Lily's twelve months of life

rocking horse from Uncle Ryan

practicing knocking

the rejected cupcake

birthday outfit

dancing queen

one of our favourite guests, cousin Hank

one of our other fav's, our friend Celia.

My dearest Lily, on January 20th, 2012 you turned one. It has been an incredible year and it just keeps getting better. We celebrated your year with a big birthday bash at your uncle Ryan's house (thanks uncle Ryan!). About 30 of our family and friends came, here is the list: Sandra, Amber, Lorna, Gloria, Marie, Amber, Nya, Skye, Jason, Presley, Caitlin, Henry, Mollie, Logan, Celia, Allie, Shona, William, Colleen, Jim, David, Jules, Gavin, Alejandra, Wendy, Tessa, Nana, Papa, Gramma, Ryan, Mama and Dada. It was a lovely party decorated with lots of homemade crafts and delicious food and treats. Mama made Martha Stewarts tissue paper pom-poms, homemade pennant flags, cupcake flags, and a little "1" onesie for you! For the food we made hummus and pita, veggies, fruit, olives and cheese, assorted candy treats, vanilla vanilla cupcakes and chocolate raspberry cupcakes. You loved the party and spent the two hours dancing around and greeting everyone, not stopping to sit down once. Nearing the end of the party we all sang "Happy Birthday" while you looked on curiously and we offered you a vanilla cupcake, you opted for a bit of breastmilk instead. Overall it was the perfect party to top off the perfect year. You are such an incredible little girl and I am so proud to be your mom. In case you were wondering what you were up to at the time you turned one, here's a recap of all of your incredible accomplishments. You have been walking for over two months and you are so steady on your feet, you walk, run and dance! You can say tons of words and are incredible at communicating what you want, you can say: duck, light, eyes, all done, hot, peek-a-boo, mama, dada, nana, papa, hi, banana, what's that, what's this, night-night. You can sign baby and all done, you can make the sound for peeing on the potty, you can make kissing noises and blow kisses and horse noises. You are so happy and good natured, you laugh and smile all the time. You love music and dancing and playing instruments. You love to read books and play with blocks, most of all you love to play with wooden spoons, pots and pans, the dishwasher and the spice cupboard. You are so curious and smart. I love you so much. Thank you for coming into my life it has never been so enriched.