Lay Baby Lay - Nursery Inspiration & Delights!

Before I launch into Vivi’s favorite things at two and a half, Darling Clementine is so kindly offering a giveaway of her number one – a little Maileg matchbox mouse (girl or boy, winner’s choice!)!  To enter, just leave a comment, and the random winner will be announced this Friday, May 3rd.Now, onto Vivi’s love list at two and a half: (1) The Ubiquitous Mouse: Lindsay of Darling Clementine so kindly sent this little mouse as a gift for Brigette when she was born.  In true big sister style, nothing plush for Brigette makes it past the Vivi filter, so she quickly claimed it as her own.  This little guy is a constant companion – he reads with her, eats with her, and sleeps with her.  She loves making him talk in an extremely squeaky little voice, and somehow he also is helpful when trying to get her to do things that aren’t at the top of her priority list, such as brushing her teeth or getting her diaper changed (I know, we are late on that train – was waiting to get through the transition of a new little person in our house!) if I use the mouse to talk to her in a squeaky voice.  He has helped me avoid quite a few toddler battles, amazingly enough.  I told Lindsay he has Gabba Gabba status, which you will know is the ultimate thing in her world if you have seen some of the pictures on Instagram.

(2) Holding Baby Sister: Ok, sometimes this makes me nearly have a panic attack, but my little sister survived my toddler affection, so I’m sure Brigette will be ok, too.  I like to indulge Vivi’s requests to hold Brigette when I can.  It’s the sweetest.

(3) Baking: This has become a new favorite activity.  I held out on this for a long time, because I pictured flour and sugar all over my kitchen in quantities so large I would never get it clean, but it has actually been really great, and I feel a little bad that I didn’t make it happen earlier now that I have seen how much she enjoys it.  I have found it makes cooking supper so much easier when I find little ways to enlist her help.  We make muffins, biscuits, and a favorite has been cheddar crackers.  These are pretty great because she can play with the dough as much as she wants and cut out the shapes herself, and best of all, she can taste it.  It’s like play-doh, but with the ultimate perk of putting it in her mouth.  They also make a fantastic substitute for boxed crackers.

(4) Playing Pretend:  I have really enjoyed watching her imagination come to life over the past couple of months.  It’s pretty amazing.  In this picture, she is pretending to skateboard. (Thanks to Yo Gabba Gabba and Muno.)

(5) Popsicles: Now that it’s warm again, I have gotten out the popsicle maker.  This thing is great.  I just use straight fruit, sometimes with yogurt, and she dances around the kitchen while eating it like she has a cupcake.  The instant gratification part is awesome for her little toddler self, and Vivi loves waiting for the kitchen timer to go off when they are ready after 6 minutes.

(6) Painting: I held off on this one, too, because I was afraid of the mess, but it has been a great distraction.  She loves painting her hands and putting handprints all over her paper.  The Crayola washable paint is so easy to clean off that it takes away a lot of the worry about mess.  We also do it outside as well, which is a great sunny day activity.

Do you have any two and a half favorites to add?

For BHG Style Spotters today, I rounded up a few of my favorite dressers from past style boards as inspiration for updating vintage pieces.  Which ones are your favorites?  Be sure to check out the post for links to the above pieces, as well as the style boards for additional inspiration!

*Be sure to check out my nursery planning tips on Tyckled Tales today!*

I was thinking about what Vivi’s favorite things are this month, and really it comes down to just one thing: her wagon.  It’s just a very inexpensive beach toy wagon that came with some shovels and beach toys that I bought at the beginning of the summer (similar to this one), but she LOVES it, and it has only grown more enjoyable to her.  She usually keeps an assortment of Little People and animals in it, with a regular rotation of books and her current sippy cup of water.  She loves taking it out every afternoon to check the mail, and her most favorite thing is taking it to the grocery or craft store.  This isn’t an activity for when I am short on patience, but I have found if I have a lot of errands in one morning, it’s a great way for her to get some exercise and expend some energy while I get something done.  It’s really fun, too, when we have a very short list of items or are shopping for new crayons and craft items for her – she thinks it’s really special.  The latest hit has been taking it to my doctor’s appointment.  She was thoroughly entertained with her little stash of goodies to peruse while I did my thing.

I haven’t done one of these in awhile, so I thought it was time to do an update on some of Vivi’s favorite things, and what seems to be working well for her at this age.  Below are a few notes on each item (you can find links in the pink margin to the right of the image above):

(1) Coloring: This has been a big favorite over the past few weeks, and I have found that putting down a large quantity of construction paper taped to the floor works really well, since it seems like endless coloring space to her.  We do our coloring in the sunroom, so I can easily contain the crayons and because of all the sunlight, it feels more like we are outside.  Since it is SO hot right now, this is a big bonus!  I’d definitely recommend the washable crayons (seriously, they are the best as she learns coloring boundaries!) and I wouldn’t recommend chalk at this age.  I thought it would be fun, and we tried it for awhile, but she has a tendency to want to lick it, which gets thick chalk paste everywhere, and the chalk dust sticks to everything!  Coloring has been the best activity I have found to hold her interest the longest, which is a big deal with a toddler!   (Note: be sure to use tape you can remove easily enough from the flooring.  We have tile in the sunroom, so it isn’t a huge issue.)

(2) Popsicles: Chip bought me a Zoku popsicle maker as a surprise, and I have loved it.  It’s super easy to use (although I’m sure the regular old ones are fine – it’s just super fast) and Vivi loves the popsicles. I just puree fruit together (her current favorite is raspberries + bananas) and she finds them to be a very special treat.  They are fun to eat outside, or in her high chair.  It’s great because they take awhile to eat and keep her interested longer than the usual snack.

(3) Breathable Shoes: I recently bought these two pairs of shoes for Vivi (thanks, Nana, for the precious pink ones!) and I love them.  They are great for playing, and let her little toes breathe, plus they are adorable.  When we first started buying shoes for her, I balked a little at the prices because she will outgrow them fairly quickly, but being a very active toddler, she squeezes every bit of goodness out of those shoes and puts them to the test, and it seems to be in her best interest to invest in at least a couple of good pairs per season.

(4) Gossie & Friends Books: These are adorable!  We have several in the series, and Vivi thinks they are so funny.  She has memorized a few of them and finishes the lines before I can.  They make me laugh, too, because the stories seem so familiar . . .

(5) Wheels: The shopping cart pictured above is a vintage Mattel Tuff Stuff shopper, so it’s hard to find, but they are so cute!  My mom has my old one, and Vivi loves playing with it at her house.  Here at home, she has a little plastic wagon that came with a beach toy set, and she loves packing it up with favorite items to tote back and forth across the house as she needs them.  (Thanks, Molly, for the tip!  It was a helpful comment on this post.)  It doesn’t seem to matter too much the vehicle, as long as it can hold favorite items and can be pushed or pulled!

(Please note that I use affiliate links with Amazon, which means I make a small percentage from items purchased off of Lay Baby Lay.  This does not in any way influence the items I curate, and it’s a small way to somewhat pay for Peanut’s shoes.)

Here is a little snapshot of our life currently.  This age is so much fun, and it really seems to be less about having the right toys and more about finding the right adventures.  I really appreciate all of your advice on my post about outdoor fun - it was so helpful!  I did get Vivi a water table, and she loves it, and we have tried out many of your suggestions!  We are usually soaking wet whenever we come back inside.  One of my favorite little details of our current routine is visiting the “turtles” at the grocery store.  Recently at the farm, Vivi’s Grandpa caught her some turtles, and she was just enchanted with them.  At our next visit to the grocery store, she started saying “turtle, turtle” over and over as we passed by the pineapples.  I was so confused, but after her continuous pointing I realized she thought the pineapples were turtles (she also thinks cantaloupes are another turtle variety).  I let her pet a few of them, but then told her we had to be quiet and give them some space because they were napping.  So now we have to pet the turtles and shush them to make sure they are getting good naps at every grocery store run.  It makes it extra fun, though.  Just about everything is exciting to her these days, and I love seeing her little imagination start to grow and her personality bloom!  We had a bit of a rough patch at 15 to 16 months because she had some teeth coming in, we were dropping her morning nap, and I think she was just changing really quickly.  I felt like every day when Chip came home I was just exhausted, but now it seems we are in a much better place.  She can do more things, she is more social and talking a lot more, and I really love our days together.  I always have to remind myself that everything is for a season.  She is only 17 months old, but things are always changing and I have learned when things are a little rough that it will be over before I know it, and when things are good, I should soak it in and enjoy it!  It seems every time I turn around another month has flown by!