Christmas Toy Favorites!

*Hi Everyone! I took an unintentional blogging break this week, spending a lot of time with family and friends and enjoying every bit of this holiday season. I will return with my regular 3-4 posts a week in the New Year. For today, I've written a quick little post about my children's favorite gifts this Christmas!

I hope that all of you who celebrate had a very Merry Christmas! I know we did. Christmas morning was full of magic as the anticipation of the season finally culminated in Santa's arrival. Stephanie was thrilled as she ran into the living room and delighted in the stuffed stockings and piles of brightly wrapped gifts under the tree. She shrieked with excitement over each gift and took each one out to play with as she opened it.

Joseph was a little more subdued, often getting overwhelmed by his sister's enthusiasm. But he too enjoyed ripping off the wrapping paper and playing with his new toys. We spent the day in our own home, welcoming my parents, grandparents and sister in the afternoon for Christmas dinner.

It was a day full of good food, conversation, and holiday spirit.

As the kids have continued to play with their new toys these past few days, a few clear favorites have emerged.

Joseph is particularly enjoying his Fisher- Price Laugh and Learn: Learning Piggy Bank

And his Fisher-Price Little People Zoo Talkers Animal Sounds Zoo

(The zoo is actually a big hit with Stephanie too!)

Of the toys Stephanie received, her favorite by far is the Crayola Magnetic Double Easel

She's also loving Bell, the interactive storybook buddy, who is the companion to her beloved Jingle. 

Did your kids love their gifts? Did you? What were their (and your) favorites this year?

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Finding Room For All The Kid Stuff!

We live in a small, two-bedroom apartment. I try so hard not to complain, because it's part of my husband's job which means we live here rent and utility free. It's the reason I get to stay home and raise my little ones, so I count it as a blessing. However, with the blessing comes plenty of aggravations. Especially with two little ones who come with a LOT of gear.

One of the biggest problems with our apartment is figuring out where to put all the stuff. Our living room floor is littered with a baby swing, bouncy chair, play-gym, and child's rocking chair, as well as shelves full of baby toys and books. The "master" (I use that term very loosely!) bedroom has Joseph's pack n' play shoved under the window, and I have down-graded from a closet to an armoire, which is in the kids' room, so that they can have the closet in their room, and Dan can have the one in our room.

Recently Dan moved his office out of our apartment, so I've turned that room into a playroom. It's been a life saver, because all of Stephanie's toys are in there. It gives her a special place to play that's all hers. (For now.) However, even with the extra room, I was overwhelmed when we came home from her birthday party and I had to figure out where to put all the new toys that our friends and family so generously gifted to her. (It feels like I just found homes for all the Christmas stuff.)

I've looked up storage solutions for small spaces on the internet, and there are tons of great ideas. I have big plans for the playroom and the kids' room, but I just haven't implemented them. In the meantime, I've come up with a few ways of storing things without feeling like i'm constantly tripping over toy clutter.

-Under-the-bed bins. These are great to store puzzles, out of season clothes, and things that I just need to get out of sight.

-Cube shelves. I bought this  shelf for the playroom, and plan to get more (another 6 cube, as well as a 9 cube). I put bins on the shelves to collect the toys with many pieces, and use the others for some of the medium sized toys.

-Plastic drawers. I use these for so much all around the house. For the kids, I put a set in the entry way for hats, mittens, and scarves. I use one for craft supplies, and one in the their closet for pajamas, pants, and skirts. (There isn't room for bureaus in their room.) I also plan to get one to keep all of Stephanie's kitchen toys. (She got a kitchen for her birthday.)

-Toy rotation. This is a great way to create more space, as well as keep Stephanie from getting bored with her toys. If there are things she hasn't played with in a while, I put them in our storage room. (We have a small room in our building where we keep bins full of holiday decorations, stuff we don't have room for, outgrown kid stuff, etc.) After a few weeks, I'll rotate these toys with others, and the ones I bring back in seem like brand new.

-Utilize every single space. There are diaper sleeves under the changing table, magazines lined up between the couch and end tables, DVDs stacked three deep in our entertainment center, etc. It drives me crazy because it makes it look cluttered, but honestly, using every possible space is the only way I can keep all the stuff from just...being in the way!

-Find a home for everything. This goes along with using every single space. Everything in my house has a place of it's own, and I try hard to put everything away at the end of the day. (It doesn't always happen though...trust me.)

-De-clutter! Several times a month I weed through toys (some to rotate), books, clothes, tupperware, the pantry, etc. I always seem to be able to fill a few bags of stuff to donate, sell, or trash.

These are a few of the ways that I've found to help keep the kid clutter under control. I'd love to hear any tips that you have for storing children's toys or cutting down on clutter! I know that even in a house, people deal with these issues, so please share your solutions!

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Clean Up, Clean Up

"Cleaning up with children around is like shoveling during a blizzard." - Anonymous

This was someone's facebook status this morning, and I just had to use it. It perfectly sums up the challenges of trying to keep a house clean with a toddler around. (Actually, i'm sure it applys to any age child, but my experience right now is with a toddler.)

Since we live in a small apartment, clutter gives me anxiety. It used to be so easy for me to run after Stephanie, cleaning up whenever she was done playing with something. I'm a big believer in "everything has a place," and I make sure that every time a new toy arrives in our house, it has a place to call home. But lately it's been harder and harder for me to keep up.

Part of the problem is that i'm trying to teach Stephanie to clean up after herself, and that once she's done playing with something it needs to get put away. She loves the "clean-up" song, and will help me clean up if I sing it. (She even sings along.) But she's only 18 months, so her attention span isn't always long enough to completely finish cleaning up an activity. Then by the time i'm done with it, she's taken 3 more things out...and moved onto something else. And of course, everything has a million pieces, which have often been strewn from one end of the apartment to another, so half of the cleaning time is spent searching out each part of a toy. (And try asking an 18 month old where something is. She'll head off to look for it, then get distracted and wind up making a bigger mess.)

I also lack the energy right now to really enforce the "one toy out at a time rule." I'm moving slower than usual, and it's hard to bend over to pick up toys. So what usually happens when I see 3 more things out is that I give up. (Such bad parenting, I know.)

By naptime our entire apartment looks like Toys R' Us exploded. We don't have a playroom, so there are toys in the living room and in Stephanie's bedroom. But they also migrate to the dining room, the kitchen, and the master bedroom. And if she's gotten into the bathroom at all during the day, there are bath toys flung all over that room as well. It drives me CRAZY but right now there just isn't anything I can do about it. I also tell myself that it's going to be worse than this when the baby comes, because we'll be sleep deprived on top of taking care of two little ones. Maybe if I can train myself to relax about the clutter now, it will help me not to freak out then.

The best i've been able to do is make sure that it's all cleaned up every time she goes to bed. I do one big "clean-up" sweep at naptime, and another when she goes to bed. Then I have a few hours of serenity when I think "wow, our apartment can look really nice." Until, of course, she wakes up and the cycle begins again.

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