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dancerjodiI am having so much fun at Zumba class! It is such a sweat drenching, groove inducing workout with friends.
Fall is here. I can't believe it is October! I want to dig out some Halloween decorations from our attic. They will be limited this year as Miss M is mobile.
I bought her a http://www.isisparenting.com/product/TMIVV_RODY/rideontoys last week since Isis was having a sale, and I wanted one of these anyway. It is blue, since she seems fascinated by this bright, royal blue color all of the time. It is Italian. I told Brian it was a horse but he seems to disagree. It is a donkey! The Italian Christmas donkey! Brian blew it up for her this morning and with support, she happily bounced on him for a while. It is another small but fun toy that fits well in our space and she'll have for a while. We are having fun filling in the holes in her toy arsenal with some (mostly) classics. The other day I bought her a puppet, since Brian mentioned that he thought we would all have fun playing with it (a Winnie the Pooh from the Concord Toy Shop on Monday). We are trying to strike that balance of not loading up our house, having quality/timeless things that encourage imagination and development, and not spending a ton of money. Rody wasn't cheap, but she'll use him for years and we can pass him on or re-sell him.
It has been cold lately! Our heat has kicked on a few times at night. We need to get her some warmer sleepers, so off to Carters I go today during lunch. Brian has been making radiator covers in earnest, and last weekend he build a box around the heat pipe in our dining room that runs up to power the radiators in the second floor (steam heat). We are prioritizing the work based on where she is getting herself. We have some gates, but need to install one at the base of the stairs. I still want to mess around with child-proofing and organizing the back hall in our kitchen. I can visualize the space being perfect for her having a play kitchen! She can 'cook' while we are, and it would be a good use of sort of dead space and wouldn't take up room in her bedroom. There are a lot of fun DIY ideas for making one out of an abandoned old entertainment center or end table or kitchen cabinet. I want to keep my eyes open for something like that. In the meantime I've been trying to figure out where to move things to so that we could free up some space and lose this black shelf to the right of the microwave http://www.flickr.com/photos/dancerjodi/6148699090/in/set-72157611296331888 . I'd like to have some kind of bar/counter on the wall that gives us a workspace and a home for our Kitchenaid and blender that is high enough that we could put the play kitchen under it. I'd find another home elsewhere for the bread machine. The other smallish things (or maybe my vintage pyrex bowls) would be displayed on small shelves in the space between the two windows. Lots of options. I love puttering with things in our house like this.
We picked up a couple of gates at Walmart that extend to be wide and are easily moved around that we'll be using in the kitchen http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=12383620 . They were half this price I think! Anyway, one is used to block off our fridge 'nook' (lots of stuff in there that she should not get to, including the cat's food and water, our spice rack and our pantry elfa unit http://www.flickr.com/photos/dancerjodi/5102815667/in/set-72157611296331888 ). The other one will be hooked up when needed in this back hall area to keep her from the cat's litter box. We can push the box near the back door, put the gate in front of it and give her that area to move in. Right now her exercauser functions as a gate of sorts . . . I push it over in that area and block the way to the things there. Of course, once she figures out she can crawl *under* it, that method won't work anymore. I think that is coming soon, since she just started looking underneath it as she crawls around on the floor. I have a blast playing with her in the kitchen while I prepare dinner and she crawls around, banging measuring cups on the floor and chewing on small rubber spatulas. Weird thing: we figured out how to lock our oven door while not in use but when it is in use, the door won't lock. I need to dig out the manual because I must be missing something. Similarly, our dishwasher has a lock to keep the controls from being used, but the door doesn't seem to easily lock (beyond its regular latch). Got to figure something creative out.
I apologize that most of these posts are baby baby baby! It is kind of the biggest thing in our life now, as every day is a new adventure. We are having a lot of fun though. We need to figure out a good (local) babysitting solution so that we can get better about having couple's time without having to drive to NH or scheduling an overnight. Or next 'date night' is a friend's wedding in November, where she'll be sleeping over her Auntie's house. We need to find some time before then to catch a movie or hit a live show or something.
Fall is here. I can't believe it is October! I want to dig out some Halloween decorations from our attic. They will be limited this year as Miss M is mobile.
I bought her a http://www.isisparenting.com/product/TMIVV_RODY/rideontoys last week since Isis was having a sale, and I wanted one of these anyway. It is blue, since she seems fascinated by this bright, royal blue color all of the time. It is Italian. I told Brian it was a horse but he seems to disagree. It is a donkey! The Italian Christmas donkey! Brian blew it up for her this morning and with support, she happily bounced on him for a while. It is another small but fun toy that fits well in our space and she'll have for a while. We are having fun filling in the holes in her toy arsenal with some (mostly) classics. The other day I bought her a puppet, since Brian mentioned that he thought we would all have fun playing with it (a Winnie the Pooh from the Concord Toy Shop on Monday). We are trying to strike that balance of not loading up our house, having quality/timeless things that encourage imagination and development, and not spending a ton of money. Rody wasn't cheap, but she'll use him for years and we can pass him on or re-sell him.
It has been cold lately! Our heat has kicked on a few times at night. We need to get her some warmer sleepers, so off to Carters I go today during lunch. Brian has been making radiator covers in earnest, and last weekend he build a box around the heat pipe in our dining room that runs up to power the radiators in the second floor (steam heat). We are prioritizing the work based on where she is getting herself. We have some gates, but need to install one at the base of the stairs. I still want to mess around with child-proofing and organizing the back hall in our kitchen. I can visualize the space being perfect for her having a play kitchen! She can 'cook' while we are, and it would be a good use of sort of dead space and wouldn't take up room in her bedroom. There are a lot of fun DIY ideas for making one out of an abandoned old entertainment center or end table or kitchen cabinet. I want to keep my eyes open for something like that. In the meantime I've been trying to figure out where to move things to so that we could free up some space and lose this black shelf to the right of the microwave http://www.flickr.com/photos/dancerjodi/6148699090/in/set-72157611296331888 . I'd like to have some kind of bar/counter on the wall that gives us a workspace and a home for our Kitchenaid and blender that is high enough that we could put the play kitchen under it. I'd find another home elsewhere for the bread machine. The other smallish things (or maybe my vintage pyrex bowls) would be displayed on small shelves in the space between the two windows. Lots of options. I love puttering with things in our house like this.
We picked up a couple of gates at Walmart that extend to be wide and are easily moved around that we'll be using in the kitchen http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=12383620 . They were half this price I think! Anyway, one is used to block off our fridge 'nook' (lots of stuff in there that she should not get to, including the cat's food and water, our spice rack and our pantry elfa unit http://www.flickr.com/photos/dancerjodi/5102815667/in/set-72157611296331888 ). The other one will be hooked up when needed in this back hall area to keep her from the cat's litter box. We can push the box near the back door, put the gate in front of it and give her that area to move in. Right now her exercauser functions as a gate of sorts . . . I push it over in that area and block the way to the things there. Of course, once she figures out she can crawl *under* it, that method won't work anymore. I think that is coming soon, since she just started looking underneath it as she crawls around on the floor. I have a blast playing with her in the kitchen while I prepare dinner and she crawls around, banging measuring cups on the floor and chewing on small rubber spatulas. Weird thing: we figured out how to lock our oven door while not in use but when it is in use, the door won't lock. I need to dig out the manual because I must be missing something. Similarly, our dishwasher has a lock to keep the controls from being used, but the door doesn't seem to easily lock (beyond its regular latch). Got to figure something creative out.
I apologize that most of these posts are baby baby baby! It is kind of the biggest thing in our life now, as every day is a new adventure. We are having a lot of fun though. We need to figure out a good (local) babysitting solution so that we can get better about having couple's time without having to drive to NH or scheduling an overnight. Or next 'date night' is a friend's wedding in November, where she'll be sleeping over her Auntie's house. We need to find some time before then to catch a movie or hit a live show or something.
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Date: 2012-10-03 02:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-10-03 04:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-10-03 07:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-10-03 04:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-10-04 03:41 am (UTC)what's your experience been? poor inara has already acquired a couple of bruises on ehr forehead and i'm worried someone is going to think i'm neglecting her or something!
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Date: 2012-10-04 12:33 pm (UTC)I asked the OT that runs the Cobblestones play group we go to about it (she is also a mom of 3). I said that I was struggling with letting her find her way but wanting to keep her safe. She said just childproof as best we can, and be ready for (and OK with) some bumps. She said part of learning how the body works is experiencing this discomfort. Thankfully, the older she gets the more sure she is getting and she is falling less.
She has had a couple of doozies, one at my sister's house when we were in FL (she fell into a flat surface - a closed door - no way to pad the whole house). The other fall was at daycare when there were 2 teachers in the room and she was supervised. They padded the edges of a low bookshelf that stores their toys, and she fell into the flat side of it faster than they could interfene. Off. Thankfully they have been on the front/forehead, which at least is the more solid part of her melon. :/