The Toddler Room

Grateful I thought to take photos last week of Dylan's "toddler room" as it's already transitioning into a "big boy" room with the arrival of his new twin bed this past weekend.

His room was the first to be completed after our move. I wasn't sure how he would take the new room and new house so I set out to get his room set up as fully as possible before he even arrived. That meant little details like getting curtains hung happened immediately. A few details such as wall decor actually did wait a little which was nice as he gave some input. I'm sure he'll have a bit more to say as I rework it to coordinate with the new furniture layout. That will have to be another post! For now, here's how his room looked before we started the transition to "big boy."

From the hall looking in.

Bookcase & closet at back of room. (Details on art trio over bookcase here.)

Toddler bed and bookcase. His new twin bed is now along the wall where the bookcase was.

Looking back toward door at the dresser & reading corner. Also a rare capture of Cali in his room - she still isn't so sure about Dylan. ;)

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Toddler Sleep Training Clock

We've been blessed that Dylan has been a good sleeper since his early days of life. Before his birth, we'd heard the stories of babies that have their days and nights mixed up. I had hopes he already "knew" the difference since he was always more active in utero during the day. He barely stirred overnight unless I did and then it seemed like he was just resettling as I was. I did slightly worry after he was born in the evening - thinking he might believe it was morning (yes, totally irrational, but isn't that the norm for a new, sleep deprived mom?). Instead, he slept longer stretches at night from the very beginning.

Then a few months ago, he suddenly shifted his morning wake up to an hour earlier. Now, admittedly, changing from 7:30am to 6:30am might not sound so bad. With me staying at home, we have the luxury, if you will, to delay the start to our day. I didn't mind him up a bit earlier but I did mind it affected his mood. My sweet boy was a bit on the grumpy side due to lack of sleep. A couple of my friends had had good luck using sleep training clocks with their toddlers who are close in age to Dylan. This change in schedule pushed me to start looking into them.

Searching online, I quickly found they all seem to be in a price range of about $30-40. I was initially interested in the Baby Zoo monkey kids alarm clock - a perfect fit for Dylan's zoo themed room. The monkey closes his eyes during sleep time and opens them when it's time to get up. It also features an analog clock which I thought would be beneficial in helping him learn to tell time.

I ended up with the KID'sleep clock though as I found it at a consignment sale for $8. I couldn't resist that price and snatched it up. Dylan was quite excited when I showed him his new "clock" and set it up on the shelf over his dresser. The front has interchangeable face plates. One is a single scene for using the clock as a nightlight for younger toddlers/infants. The second plate, which we use, has a split image with an awake bunny at the top and sleeping bunny on the bottom. I set the alarm to 7:00am which triggers the awake bunny to light up then and alert Dylan that it is okay for him to come out of his room. There is an audible alarm option, but we haven't used it yet. Since our schedule is flexible, I prefer the quiet flip of the light only. Occasionally, he will oversleep the bunny waking! Most days though, we will hear him awake & playing in his room followed by joyful cries, "bunny up! Bunny up!" at 7:00am.

One of our final night time remarks each night is "see you when the bunny wakes!" whether I'm tucking him in or saying goodbye before heading out to work. Either way, he knows when the bunny wakes in the morning, the day is ready to begin and he'll find Mama & Dada there.

Note: the particular version of the KID'sleep clock we have has only one alarm setting. During naptime, I do flip the bunny to sleep but he doesn't wake up. Per online searches, it does appear there is a version that has two alarms. We've managed fine with one but if you feel the need for two, do some careful searching and product label reading.

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Canvas Quote Art

I had a canvas stored in Dylan's closet that I bought several years ago. I had big plans that never materialized until a few weeks ago when a new idea came to mind and I created this for his room using a quote from Dr. Seuss:

It was so simple to do. Here's how to create your own ...

• Canvas
• Assorted letter stickers - mine were by American Crafts & Making Memories
• Paints - white for letters and spray paint for main color
• Useful tools - pencil, ruler, painter's tape, xacto knife

Paint the canvas in white (or whatever color you want the text to be). I used some white semi-gloss paint left from our Cat Drawer project and actually rolled it onto the canvas. Let dry completely.

Lightly sketch lines with pencil to help align your letters. I started at the bottom knowing I wanted the quote to be in the lower right of the canvas and used painter's tape to mark the base line. This gave me an easy point to measure off of for the rest of the lines which were at 2" spacing. Place your letters.

I literally just dug into my stash of stickers for this project and used a whole mix of styles & sizes.

Spray paint over entire canvas in color of choice. I used Periwinkle by Krylon. Let dry. Check per manufacturer's instructions as to when a second coat can be applied and do so if needed.

After canvas is completely dry (I waited until the next morning just to be sure!), carefully peel off the stickers. Some of mine were coming up on their own. For those that were more stuck, I used my xacto knife to get under one edge so I could pull them off. Even Dylan got involved in this part. :)

Hang and enjoy your artwork!

My completed canvas is hanging in Dylan's room along with his initial (from Pottery Barn Kids) and a shadow box about his first beach trip last year. The grouping perfectly filled a space that had been empty since we moved him to this room. He was so excited to see it and still points at it & comments. I think he especially likes the canvas since he got to help make it. :)

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Cars Pillowcase

Dylan finally got his own pillow a few months ago in a last minute, anything to get the child to go to sleep in his own bed moment (he never sleeps in our bed but wanted to lay there with his head on my pillow so I offered to give him his own). I wanted to get him a special pillowcase for it. Something fun and all his own. I looked for a Cars sheet set thinking it could be part of our switch from crib to toddler bed. But most came with a comforter (which we don't need) and he's still very happy in his crib & doesn't use a top sheet so no need to buy the full set. Instead, I pulled two fabrics from my stash and bought a third from Etsy to make him his own special Cars pillowcase. He loves it which makes this mama very happy. :)

In his crib with his Seahorse & Cars blanket (not exactly a match but he's happy!)

Detail of the fabrics

Supplies: cotton fabrics; Coats & Clark threads; pillowcase pattern from AllPeopleQuilt.com - Pattern 15.

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Shoot and Edit: Good Night

This week's prompt for Shoot and Edit is what says "Good Night" to you. I had an idea for my photo almost immediately, but kept getting wrapped up in our evening rituals and forgetting!  Finally, last night I remembered and snapped a few shots.  "Good night" to me is cuddling with my sleepy boy just before his bedtime and reading books. 

ISO 3200, ss 1/500, f4.5

His lovey and Soothie (pacifier) are restricted to bedtime only so those are a big treat for him to see sitting out on his nightstand.  I'll let him have both as we read. Our books vary depending on what he selects but regular favorites are the two in the photo - Goodnight Moon and Night-Night, Little Pookie.

Join in the fun with Forever'n Ever'n Always Photography and Ramblings and Photos:

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Room Remix

For a while I have been thinking about moving Dylan to a new room. Originally he was in the larger of our 2 extra bedrooms and shared space with the full size guest bed. This worked really well at times particularly when he was sick in December and he & I spent nearly a full 48 hours in there together. It was nice to be able to tuck us both into the big bed and have all of his stuff (diapers, medicine, etc) at hand.

As he's grown (and we've had overnight guests stay more frequently ... ie, Grama :D ), this has not been the most ideal situation. I do think he and my mom had quite a good time playing "peek-a-boo" through and over the rails at each other during her last stay. But we all need sleep so I began to think about putting him into a new room.

One of the pros or cons of me being a stay-at-home mommy now is the simple fact that I am here enough to see what is/isn't working, what we do/don't use, what I do/don't like, etc. Last year I created a 3D model using Google Sketchup to help arrange the furniture in the nursery/guestroom. I went back to that model and updated it to match how the furniture was currently arranged:

Then I drew the second room (the former computer/scrap room) and began drawing & repositioning the various pieces of furniture to determine the new arrangement.

The new layout of the guest room:

The bed remained in the same place. The computer desk and scrapping desk run along the wall between the two rooms and the Crop In Style cubes sit between the foot of the bed and the closet.

Dylan's new room:

I started taking apart the computer/scrap room about two weeks ago. I patched and touched up the paint where the shelving and pictures hung. Since the room was originally painted with "regular paint" (ie, before the no-VOC paint option we now have) and I just wanted to touch-up versus totally repaint, I let it sit for a few days to air out before moving Dylan into the room.

As of the beginning of the week, all of the furniture is in place in each room. I'm now focusing on organizing and decorating. Dylan's new room is taking on more of the feel of a toddler room now that he's more mobile. The built-in shelves in the corner by the glider once held old textbooks and scrapping magazines as well as knick knacks. Now they are taking on childhood favorites and stuffed animals. I confess, I'm having fun looking through Flickr again for more inspiration. His room will still have an animal theme (after all, I did just finish the zoo print crib teething rail cover). But some of the details are changing. I'll share photos as the rooms progress.

ETA: If you decide to play with Google Sketchup (it's free!), be sure to check out the 3D Warehouse for free models you can download (I did this for the glider and Aeron chair). And I have begun sharing some of my own models as well - 2pD Models. Enjoy!

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