Tag: momlife

Castle Babystar.

Published on by Darlene Dee4 Comments

I have a very serious question.

HOW DID THE TINIEST PERSON IN THE FAMILY TAKE OVER THIS WHOLE HOUSE???

Ok, for example, look at this dining room. There is a tiny dining table in the tiny corner and the rest of the room is a rocking horse and ride on horse and a bunch of blank space because Babystar likes to RUN.

dining room

Please also notice the living room. This ENTIRE AREA is dedicated to a teepee fort for Babystar. And the window seat holds her adorable toddler books. Including the new box of Baby Lit board books that I bought her from Costco ($15.99) thirty percent because I thought she would like them and seventy percent because if Babystar is going to take over the house, then her things should at least be cute. (All I read are children’s books. HOW ON EARTH do other parents read books?!? Genuinely asking. I keep a book in the bathroom and I read one chapter per bath so I will likely finish it by my birthday. In September.) Oh! That adorable tiny wooden bookshelf is from Ikea ($24.99) and it’s perfect for toddler sized books.

That window seat is actually pretty cool. It holds books and a couple of Melissa & Doug puzzles. One puzzle set is the really cool one she played with last fall with her cousins. I finally found it (on CLEARANCE at Target for $8.98) and Babystar LOVES it. I think it is the perfect started puzzle for kids, because you just match the shapes to create a picture. You don’t actually have to fit one particular piece into one particular place. Genius. The other puzzle was given to us by our only Colorado friend (so far). Babystar gets to drive the vehicles around the puzzle path to match them to their homes. I mean it: Melissa and Doug are both GENIUSES.

Over here we have the toy box corner. That toy box ($42) is FULL and it’s not even her only toy box. It’s her living room toy box. I don’t have room in this giant fucking farmhouse for a desk which I really need but we have a DOWNSTAIRS TOY BOX.

toy box

And do you even see this freaking train table?!? It is taking up some prime real estate in the living room just so Babystar can have a place to play dinosaurs with her rocks. Oh, and she plays trains sometimes too. Sometimes the Trolls ride the trains. Ok, it really does make her happy. And it was FREE thanks to an awesome mama on an awesome Boulder mama Facebook page.

train table

We shoved the couches and lamps and end tables into the other corner over there and you better believe she STILL LEAVES HER TOYS ALL OVER THE COUCHES. Dude. What.

living room

Also one of those ottomans is full of papers that really belong in a desk. Help. Me.

RAISING BABYSTAR: $26,955.75

 

Hoppy Easter!!

Published on by Darlene DeeLeave a comment

How does your family celebrate?

We tell the kids that the Easter Chicken will only lay pretty eggs if the children clean the house the night before.

APRIL FOOLS! (Although we totally should have went with that version and you can feel free to steal it.)

In our house, the Easter Bunny hides the easter baskets. And he (she? it?) always includes  a book, some chocolate, and a surprise.

E.B. hid three baskets last night.

Babystar is only two years old so hers was kind of easy to find: under the train table.

basket1

Princess Buttercup and Magic Boy (he’s a magician) are legal adults so E.B. could try a bit harder.

Princess Buttercup (age 18) insisted on having a giant stuffed chick so her basket and chickie were hidden in the only place it would fit: the corner cupboard.

E.B. tried hard to trick College Boy but he found it anyway.

Babystar found her basket first. AND she found it all by herself! E.B. is gonna step up her hiding game next year. Tbh I should have known. Babystar LOVES hide and seek.

And now it’s time for the break down.

Disclosure: Some of the links above are affiliate links. This means that if you click through and purchase anything, I may earn a small commission. You will earn my eternal gratitude.

  • Book: Frida Kahlo by Isabel Sanchez Vegara $8.09 (The Easter Bunny shops at Barnes & Nobles but it’s available on Amazon, along with tons of other great titles in the Little People, Big Dreams series.
  • Tiny chocolate bunny $0.59
  • pastel Goldfish crackers $0.99
  • Skittles with bunny ears $0.80
  • egg full of M&M’s $0.80
  • Cheez-it crackers $1
  • Trolls bubble wands $1
  • three easter-themed coloring books $3
  • easter sticker book $1
  • twenty mystery Trolls (though we have already opened a few and one is COOPER!!) that were on clearance last month $17.80

Easter basket total: $35.07

RAISING BABYSTAR: $26,854.80

Monday’s Mama is Legit My Hero.

Published on by Darlene DeeLeave a comment

This Monday, I am excited to introduce you to Leah Martin. Leah is a Colorado blogger (like me!) and she has all the secrets of living clutter-free with kids (not like me!). She and her husband have three kids under five. She writes about living a full life with less at Less in the Nest.

Leah1

Read her blog. Follow her on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. It might change your life. I have definitely changed my buying habits so I can have less stuff. Less stuff means less cleaning. Less cleaning means more time.

Now I just have to figure out where to put all the crap we already have.

Leah even explains WHY kids create so much clutter. She writes about other things, too. She shares great DIY instructions and interesting recipes and writes awesome articles about parenting. But I am OBSESSED with her ‘less in the nest’ philosophies.

Enough about me, though. Leah was kind enough to answer some questions about Colorado and clutter.

1. What is the coolest thing about Colorado? What is the most annoying thing about Colorado? What is the Colorado-est thing about Colorado?

Getting to go to the mountains whenever we have a day or two free is definitely the coolest thing about Colorado. The culture and the economy revolve around the outdoors. The most annoying thing about Colorado is that it’s hard to breathe! These high altitudes make for less oxygen, and as a bad side effect, the air quality is not good a lot of days. The most Colorado-est thing about Colorado is that the first snow is a big, exciting event. People literally mope around all fall until that soft powder falls. I’m talking, standing on street corners with signs to protest the lack of snow kinds of things. And when that first snow comes, it’ll probably melt the next day. 

2. Your blog is awesome! I love the idea of having LESS in my nest. I cannot even believe how many boxes we moved from Virginia to Colorado. What can I do? Donate all of it? Please help.

Aw, thank you! And congrats on the move! I remember when we moved a few years ago, I was shocked by how much stuff we had. There are lots of outside-the-box ways to donate it  in Colorado. You can print off a label and ship it to the Goodwill in Amazon boxes. You can even call Arc and they’ll come pick it up for you! But if it’s junk, just toss it (as bad as that sounds!) Once, we put my husband’s beloved recliner in the driveway for pickup. Arc showed up, took one look at it, and turned around.  When my husband got home that day, he couldn’t believe his chair was still sitting in the driveway!

3. Everyone outside Colorado wants to know: are people here walking around high all the time? What are your thoughts on the legal weed?

In my little pocket of suburbia, I don’t notice legalized marijuana at all. But really, people already do dumb enough stuff without it. 

4. It’s the PTA Bakesale: homemade, store bought, or NOPE?

I’m a “homemade” in my mind, but since baby #3 was born, it’s more realistically a “nope.” And also, we’re going to homeschool, so I’m the parent, the teacher, and the association. 

Leah2

I want to be like Leah when I grow up.

Stop This Train.

Published on by Darlene Dee11 Comments

Babystar visited the Emergency Room this week.

She was scared but very brave and very very sweet.

Babystar just wanted to make sure that I would hold her the whole time at the doctor’s office. I promised that I would. We first went to Urgent Care because Babystar had not peed in twenty-four hours. And she had a fever for about half of that time. AND I gave her a choice of peeing or going to the doctor and she told me that she didn’t want to pee. So into the car we went.

Ok, technically she had not peed in twenty-three and a half hours, but Urgent Care closes at seven and the co-pay difference is $300. And since we just moved here, Babystar does not yet have a pediatrician. That changes today, by the way.

(Anyone in Boulder have a pediatrician recommendation pretty please?)

The doctors and nurses at Foothills ER were all very very nice but they definitely underestimated the strength of my little ToddlerMonster. Since she had not peed, there was concern of a possible UTI or other infection. Which meant they needed a urine sample. She is not potty-trained, and she was straight up refusing to pee, so they needed to do a baby catheter.

I wanted to cry but I was a brave strong mama. (We were there alone due to family logistical reasons.) And Babystar was on my lap because I PROMISED. (Well actually she was between my legs but she knew she was on mama’s lap so that’s all that mattered.)

Do you know that if you take a young child to the ER they basically put them in a straight jacket? They hold baby’s arms by his or her side and wrap a sheet around baby’s entire torso. MY baby was screaming and fighting this whole situation, and they wanted ME to hold her arms inside this torture device. MY sweet baby wiggled her arms up and out, but not to rip off the sheet or push away the nurses. She just wanted to hold my hands.

Things were not going as smoothly at the other end of the gurney. The nurses cleaned and prepped her but holding her down for the catheter was not working at all. Babystar is strong like mom, y’all. She has a shirt that says so and everything. They had to go get another nurse to help hold down my little thirty pound kicking machine.

They tried.

It didn’t matter in the end.

She. Peed. Everywhere.

I have never been so happy to be soaked in baby pee. (She was on my lap, remember?)

And for those med students following along, since she was prepped, she was clean. A quick thinking nurse collected a sample for testing. Actually, I think they managed to get two vials and they probably could have gotten twenty. There was SO. MUCH. PEE.

She even peed on her head. I didn’t know that she peed on her head, so when the nurses left and I was cleaning her and changing her clothes and giving her a million kisses, I kissed her head. Right on the pee. It was gross. I didn’t care.

Hashtag momlife, right?

I got to wear awesome blue paper scrubs and pretend to be J.D.

We waited around for about thirty more minutes and Babystar was pronounced bacteria-free.

BOOM. $350.

We have been talking a lot about the potty the last couple of weeks. Babystar will be three in June, and she is showing all the textbooks signs that she is ready for the potty. She knows when she is peeing or pooping in her diaper (because she always tells me right before it happens so I can be ready to change her because “remember that time I had a rash and it hurt?”) She hasn’t had a wet diaper overnight in almost a year. She has the ability to hold it. Obviously. And she actually DID pee in the potty about two weeks ago. We made her a chart with stickers and did the pee pee dance and she got some chocolate candies and we did ALL THE THINGS.

But she hates it. She doesn’t want to use the potty and she tells us all the time. So I told her we would stop. And that while she was sick, she could have m&m’s every time she pees in her diaper. My sweet funny Babystar got so excited and said, “we don’t have to go on the potty train anymore?”

Did I just push her potty training back to age four? Probably.

Will she go to college in diapers? Maybe.

Am I the worst mom in the world? Nah.

RAISING BABYSTAR: $26,819.73

 

Big Girl Bed.

Published on by Darlene Dee1 Comment

If I build it, she will sleep in it.

That’s a thing, right?

CAN IT PLEASE BE A THING?!?

Ok, so before we even left for Colorado, Babystar said that she was really excited to sleep in her own bed like a big girl. She also said it was going to be right next to mama’s bed.

Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links. This means that if you click through and purchase anything, I may earn a small commission. You will earn my eternal gratitude.

The night before we moved into the Colorado house, I sat in a hotel room and ordered this adorable pink toddler bed from Amazon ($63.99). Over the weeks, we also bought a cloud pillow and an actual lovely toddler sized blanket ($8 at Home Goods). Then, yesterday, after opening at least fifty million boxes, I FINALLY found the crib sheets. (Toddler beds are just cribs with no walls.)

Voila! The newest addition to my bedroom.

big girl bed 2

See it over there next to my bed?

big girl bed

(Yes, I actually made BOTH of these beds for this picture. I am not good at making beds.)

The ponies love it. As do the Trolls. And the dinosaurs.

For real though. Who actually thinks that BABYSTAR will sleep in this bed before her third birthday?

RAISING BABYSTAR: $26,469.73

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