Baby Boy’s Room and Organizing with IKEA

If there’s one thing that calms my mind, it’s an organized space. But if you walk into our house at any given moment, you are likely to find toy cars scattered across the floor and stacked on top of blocks, dress-up clothes trailing down the stairs, and a couch covered in stuffed animals. That’s pretty much our every day scene on our main floor living space. And as long as there is a narrow path for me to walk safely through while holding a baby, I’m okay with that for now. Because that’s life. If you then venture upstairs to the bedrooms, there is a bit more order. Mainly because we play up there only a fraction of the time as we do downstairs. But I do love playing and just being in our kids’ bedrooms. The girls are proud of their rooms and what they’ve helped them become and I hope Guyguy feels the same one day too.

We already had most of the big items (dresser, glider, and crib) as they’ve been passed down from the girls. Instead, we were only left to find the fun stuff for Guy’s room– items for a gallery wall, some room accents, and tools to organize all the little things. Here are three IKEA finds we used to give us some order:

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ESTES PARK 2017

Last week we went to Estes Park– the first time flying with both girls– and it was beautiful. Exhausting, but oh so beautiful. The weather was a perfect high of 70 degrees, Leah only had 8 full-on tantrums– nothing makes Derek sweat more than a crying baby in the wilderness–, and the girls were both angels on the plane (thanks to endless snacks and iPad movies.) Compared to all past travels, I would have to say that I planned the very least for this little getaway. Perhaps because Derek took care of the hiking logistics/ rental car/ driving, or maybe just because I was already in the vacation, laid-back Colorado mindset and figured things would just unfold. And they totally did. Some of our favorite stops were planned, some were just by chance (cue bathroom emergency at a local coffee shop.) But whether or not things happened on purpose, I was so happy just being us four, showing the girls a new place, and having them remind us that the best world is outdoors. Here are a few of our favorite findings (and a whole lot of pictures) from our little trip:

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DAYS AT HOME with BANNOR TOYS

You know how sometimes you have a plan for the day… and then you remember you have kids… and whatever vision you had was just a joke really? Pile up Mya getting sick, some gloomy weather, and post breastfeeding hormones and the past week was pretty thrown. But rainy walks around the block, lots of pajama days, and a daily dose of Moana seemed to do the trick. Last weekend, that’s exactly what happened– we stayed home to get well and recharge for the week. All the bins and baskets of playthings were thrown on the living room floor and we all just camped out by the fire. Most of the time, I have the girls pick up things as we are done playing with them because it leaves less of a mess for me after bedtime. And because #mamatired. But last weekend we just let it happen and looked past the mess to find two happy girls, perfectly content with being together at home with just us parents. Which I’m going to pretend will always be the case. Because this is my heaven.

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5 KID YOGA POSES with JoBea Kids

We might not always stick to a schedule around here, but we’ve got our morning routine down: The girls wake up by 6:30, we play and eat, then send Daddy off with his peanut butter and jelly breakfast sandwich. Derek feeds each girl a bite of it and kisses them goodbye for the day. Then the girls rush to the front door, Mya whips it open, and they wave and blow him kisses as Derek pulls out of the drive and down the street. It’s pretty much the most adorable thing ever. We’ve had a couple neighbors tell us they see the sendoff every day and I’m glad we have them fooled as totally calm, cool, and collected. Little do they know that when the door shuts, Mya usually has a meltdown of how she already misses Dada and Leah resumes banging on the pantry door for more food. But recently, the one thing that has been the best distraction from this and starts our girl days off strong are little yoga sessions. Mya takes out her yoga mat with this book and takes us through some “moves.” Leah pretty quickly ends up cozying up in the beanbag with another book, but Mya leads our yoga session and it’s always one of my favorite parts of our mornings together.

A couple weeks ago we met my Mom at a yoga studio and she helped us play document some of our favorite poses. My Mom is conveniently an Iyengar yoga instructor, so we pretty much have it made in the sense that she knows what to do and how to do it the right way. Since I can barely touch my toes, we keep it simple. These are our 5 favorite yoga poses for kids. I made myself look smarter by googling the sanskrit names and including them too:

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PICNIC READY with PLANETBOX

Let’s be totally real here and admit that kids “helping” you cook isn’t helping you at all. Doing twice as many dishes and prepping a meal at half the pace isn’t making anyone’s life any easier. But it brings them joy, so that’s why we let them scoop out the flour, leaving a trail of it until they (finally) dump it in the bowl. I do love cooking with Mya, but most days I just need to whip up something quick because when hunger strikes, it strikes hard. The food prep times when I welcome Mya’s help more, though, are when we picnic. Building a sandwich or stacking fruit and cheese kabobs is a lot easier than baking something from scratch. Suddenly, you’re a lot less frazzled when you don’t need 15 ingredients and precise measurements. With the help of PlanetBox, we’ve put together a how-to list to be picnic prepared.

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BOOKIN’ GOOD

Can you believe that when I first met Derek, he had never seen a Pixar animated movie? Like he hadn’t seen Toy Story. It was almost a deal breaker for our relationship. But I eventually got over it and gave him another chance. 😉 Because I don’t care how old you are, those movies are classics. (Mya and I are currently obsessed with Moana.) And little did I know, children’s books would also become a love of mine.

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MYA’S NATURE PARTY

Mya loves all living things… including bugs. I don’t know how it happened with me as her mother, but she has no fear of any insect or arachnid. A couple months ago we were at a nature presentation at Fat Brain Toys and Mya was front and center the whole time. She jumped with excitement to hold the tarantula and grinned from ear to ear while the snake slithered up her arm. At the end of the class, Scott the naturist mentioned that the Leawood Nature Center at Ironwoods Park offered birthday packages and the thought of not having her party at our house seemed pretty magical. I got Mya’s overeager approval and called to book a date. Best. Decision. Ever. Also to make it easier, we just sent the invites via email. The “nature” theme gave me a good reason to incorporate one of my favorite illustrators– Charley Harper.

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FATHERS’ DAY GIFT GUIDE

Derek’s headed to Colorado for a hiking trip with his brothers over Fathers’ Day weekend. I’m definitely happy that he’s finally able to get in some guy time– we all know he’s usually surrounded by us girls! But we will certainly miss him on his special day. I guess it’s buying us some time to get his gifts in order to celebrate after-the-fact. I threw together some fun guy finds to help with your Dad shopping. Some we have tried and tested. Some are current desires. And #3 is something we would never use, but it’s still cool.

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KID DECOR: GRAPHIC ACCENT WALLS

We’re spring cleaning over here. Mya loves cleaning and organizing (and I’m hoping this continues until… forever.) Her most recent job is going through all her little things in her room and deciding what she wants to donate. Sometimes she’ll come across something and says, “I don’t really like this anymore. Let’s give it to baby Leah.” So thoughtful– pawning off what she deems as junk to her lil’ sister. (Insert eye roll here.) But she seems genuinely thoughtful when she says it, so we’ll go with it!

As we’ve been spending our rainy days decluttering in the girls’ rooms, it got me thinking about what I would love to do in their rooms in five or so years. The girls’ rooms are considered “finished” for now and their rooms are some of my favorite spaces in our home. But if I didn’t have a budget, their whimsical, yet sophisticated spaces would look a lot differently. One of the elements that I looooove seeing in kids’ rooms is a bold and bright accent wall. If there’s any space in the home to apply something so graphic, I’d say this is the place to do it. And since my feminine side is rejoicing everyday with two little girls, I would definitely go with some large scale florals.

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MOTHERS’ DAY GIFT GUIDE

Mothers’ Day is May 8th– less than a month away! Luckily for Derek and the girls, they don’t need to buy me any of these things. I’ll be happy if they make me something with their handprints and scribble on some paper. Because handmade gifts are seriously the best gifts. And because spoiler alert: I might’ve already bought some of these things for myself.

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BABY LEAH’S ROOM

We’re finally getting around to showing you Leah’s baby room! I took these pictures back in early November, but not much has changed since then… except now we actually get to enjoy baby girl’s room with her! There are still some small things left to do, but if I wait to reveal before every little thing is “finished”, you might not see it until 2017! And I’m just too excited not to share…

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