Making way for baby

I have posted on another of my blogs about a year ago about the state of our study/craft room/junk room.  I'm sad to say it only got worse while we renovated our bathroom.  Here's some more "before" pics:

Yep, pretty out of control.

With the news that Geekling is going to be a big brother, we have had to clear it out to become the baby's room.  We've given away some of the furniture, donated a lot of useful items to the Salvation Army, thrown out a lot of junk and finally the only things that are left in the room are those things that will be staying there for the baby:

When we get new drawers for Geekling, we'll move the old white drawers and wardrobe into bub's room and can start packing away the clothes that fill the two pink nappy boxes and the large cardboard box that is between the change table and the basinette.

I plan to make a cover for the glider as the fake leather has flaked terribly.  We also need to put up a curtain rail and curtains.  The cot will go where that box is, with the box providing some storage for unseasonable or larger clothes.

Will tidy the bookshelf when I work out where exactly it will go in the room.

There is still some ways to go and lots of little craft projects I've got planned.  Here's my Pinterest Nursery Board, if you're interested to see some of my planned prjects and inspirations

Geekling's bedroom - 3 years old

We've made a number of changes to Geekling's room around his 3rd birthday.  The biggest change was moving to a single left bed.  His toddler bed was getting too small, especially when he'd occasionally want one of us to lay with him for a cuddle.  We worried the new bed would be a bit high up but he had no problem climbing in and out, and manages to do so on his own at any hour of the day or night.

 View from the doorway - the loft bed.  Lots of storage.  There is a pull out desk part but at the moment that is in the far left corner, with the tubs stacked by it, as Geekling loves to use the cubby hole as a reading nook.  We bought a cheap LED touch light from IKEA that is a magnet and it sticks to the underside of the bed which is a metal frame.

New 'big boy bookshelves' - we previously used the bookshelves in our loungeroom but replaced them.  The bottom shelf holds his trains and balls, the next two shelves house his books.  Above is his basket of finger puppets, his money box, a photo or picture of his choice and his bug catcher.  Above is things that he needs supervision with.

The small table works wonderfully for a small train set up, matching games, using his zen garden and all manner of work.  We must replace the rocking octopus with a proper chair but right now he enjoys it as is. 

The white wardrobe and drawers will soon be replaced with a woodgrain color to match the rest of the furniture, and the white furniture will be transferred to the new baby's room.  

The room is starting to look quite cramped in photos due to the size of the bigger furniture and angle of the door but it has plenty of floor space, especially for a little person.

Previous posts about Geekling's room:
Geekling's newborn nursery
Geekling's new bed
Geekling's bedroom - 2 years old

Geekling's upcycled play kitchen

Firstly, apologies for the extended break.  I've got a mixture of excuses, most of which are pretty weak, and I won't bore you with them.

Those who follow me on Pinterest will see I've pinned a couple of TV-Cabinets turned into Play Kitchens, and I've been meaning to do it for Geekling for a while.  When I asked him what he'd like for his 3rd birthday he said "a green kitchen", so I knew it was time to get cracking!

Here's a before photo of the TV cabinet we picked up from Ebay for $10.  We've removed the glass cabinet door and cut the sink hole already.  Its less than glamourous surrounds is our storage/work area under the house.

We sanded, painted (with paint purchased from the tip recycling centre for $2), installed a new MDF 'fridge' door, installed an old metal bowl as a sink and old tap salvaged from my in laws shed, used paint and IKEA foam coasters for the hot plates.  We still need to put hotplate / oven knobs on but not sure how best to attach them.  We also plan to turn the cupboards below the sink into an oven and dishwasher down the track.

Here's the (mostly) finished product upstairs ready for use!

 

Geekling LOVES it.  His favourite thing to cook is "spicy chocolate balls" and cups of tea and coffee.  Its so sweet to watch him 'cooking'.  He stirs with a whisk or spoon then taps it on the side of the pot or bowl just like I tend to do and whispers to himself as he works.

Let's explore outer space!

Geekling has been loving stars and the moon for a while now, so I put up some of those old style Glow-Zone glow in the dark star stickers and a set of planets in his room.  I bought them second hand (but in unopened packets) ages ago and had planned to wait til Geekling was older and we could plot out constellations together, but I just felt in my heart it was suddenly the right time - and I'm so glad I put them up!  Geekling is enthralled by them!  I made sure to put the solar system up in the right order and put up a few of my favourite constellations so we will hopefully have fun finding them a few years down the track.

Since the stickers went up he's requested "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" and a lullaby book of his talking about catching stars, so I think I'll nip down to the library in my lunch break tomorrow and borrow some kids books featuring stories about space and maybe a couple of simple reference books.

So the next question is - what other space-themed activities should I gather up to feed my son's new obsession?

Counting Coconuts did a whole month's theme on it and have some amazing ideas - matching planets, a space sensory box, practical life activities pouring star-shaped pasta and sweeping star sequins, counting with star stickers, punching stars with a small punch... a fantastic resource!

Fairy Dust Teaching has a gorgeous looking Galaxy Playdoh - I must hunt down some black food colouring to make some!

First Schools has some printables and activities in a space theme.

Now... is it too soon to introduce him to Star Wars & Star Trek?

Stay tuned for our space adventures!

Geekling's bedroom - 2 years old

Now that Geekling is toilet trained, we've sold his nappy change table (for almost double what we'd bought it for! $45 second hand off ebay 2 years ago, sold for $80 on ebay recently).  We moved his chest of drawers to where his change table had been, moved his bookshelf to where his drawers had been and put up the play tent I made him for his birthday.  We've also now got an easel his Grandma gave him, and we blew up balloons for his birthday!

The playtent is just a hula hoop ($5), a queen bed sheet donated by Geekling's Grandma and a bunting donated by Lumpy's Mum.  The tutorial I followed is here.

Geekling LOVES the tent, loves his new Very Hungry Caterpillar bedsheets and pillow and his easel!

I love comparing photos and seeing how his bedroom has evolved.

Previous posts about Geekling's room:
Geekling's newborn nursery
Geekling's new bed

Eating neatly with cutlery

Geekling has recently mastered eating with metal cutlery.  It seems like it suddenly 'clicked'.  He cleans out a bowl of yoghurt at light speed with a spoon and he's just gotten the hang of a metal fork.

It is a good Montessori practical life lesson each meal, plastic forks are useless!  You will also see he uses a regular ceramic bowl - Now we must stock up on some appropriate sized glassware and be rid of those plastic cups.

Chicken pen

Two reasons its been a bit quiet on this blog lately:

1. My laptop is dying

2. We've been spending our weekends building a chicken pen for our chickens.  And here it is!

The frame is made from recycled pool fencing that had been sitting around hubby's parents place for the best part of the last decade.  While it is excellent to be able to use the gate part, I wouldn't recommend it as it is SOOOO heavy.  Or at least I would not recommend situating the new chook pen at the very far uphill corner of the yard.

The frame posts are secured with recycled star pickets donated by our neighbour.  It is covered with chicken wire and recycled corregated iron from the nearby Dakabin Tip Treasure Market.  We ran bricks around the outside to stop the dog (or anything else) digging under it.

The chook house is a dog kennel I purchased recently on ebay for $10.  The lid is on a hinge so lifts for easy access to the eggs (when they start laying) and for cleaning.  The ramp is made from a bit of pine with backyard sticks glued to it.

The chooks seem happy enough with it but they haven't yet worked out how to get up into the chook house which I find odd since I thought they naturally go to the highest point.

Chickens!

Geekling's daycare recently had a hired chicken hatching, and when the chicks reached 2 weeks old they offered them up to parents to take home for free.  We were told that Geekling LOVED the chicks and had been meaning to invest in some chooks for some time so we took 3 home.  And here they are:

We're still deciding on names.  I'm leaning towards "K", "F" and "C" but we might wait to see how many are roosters (which we'll have to get rid of) before we try themed names!

Geekling does indeed love the chickens.  Here he is reading one of his books on chicks with his Daddy.

They're still in a (bigger) box in the house and will stay inside with us for a couple more weeks.  When they are about 6 weeks old they will venture out into the back yard.  In the meantime we are going to fence off part of the yard away from the dog and build a coop :)

Upcycled Hula Hoop floor rug

I know - this many posts in one day is unheard of around here but I had to share this also, I found this awesome Hula Hoop Rug using old t-shirts via The Crafty Crow.

Hardware stores around here sell huge bags of old clothing and other fabric to use as rags for $1 or $2 which might also be useful if you don't have that many old shirts and other clothes hanging around.

Geekling's new bed

A while ago I posted about Geekling's newborn nursery.  There are so many things I would do differently since learning more about the Montessori Method but I don't have a time machine and even once I had become interested in Montessori concepts such as a floor bed, we were having so many other problems with sleep and illness for a while there that I was hesitant to make any big changes.

But Geekling had shown he was ready to move on from a cot.  He'd slept successfully at his grandparents place in an identical toddler bed, and begun sleeping on mattresses at one of his daycare centres.  He can climb in and out of the bed just fine so we decided to take the plunge.  Since Geekling can get in an out himself, we consider this getting 'back on track' with the Montessori method in his environment.  This is Geekling's room at the moment:

We have a large couch cushion sitting beside his bed in case he rolls out also, but of the handful of times he has wound up out of bed since moving to this bed he has intentionally gotten out of bed.  We have moved the rocker that used to be in his room out to the loungeroom where hubby has claimed it as a gaming chair, and in its place for some time has been a bookshelf full of books and toys - Geekling loves to grab a book, toddle off to an open area, sit down and 'read'.  We often leave him to his own devices to find him surrounded by books he has 'read'.

He is very good at getting in and out of his new bed, although sometimes he chooses to sleep in some odd positions...

Head down, bum up!

We have more changes planned for this room in the coming months to help it grow with Geekling - stay tuned :)

Geekling's Newborn Nursery

It won't be long before I am re-doing Geekling's nursery, so I thought I'd post about his newborn nursery (which is largely the same now aside from a few changes, such as a new bookshelf, new cot due to the first second-hand one being a nightmare of breakages and problems, new block out curtains, and dropping the cot height etc).

Here is Geekling's first cot.  I made the cot valance and nappy stacker myself from freehand patterns.  The balloons were put in the cot to keep our cat out.

The view from the door.

Here are some canvas I made and put above his cot.  Sadly, I think the effect is lost on redacting Geekling's name but I don't really want that appearing on the blog.

I painted the wooden letters white, then glued them on after having glued the material on.  The material I used matches squares from a quilt I made him (that is rather embarassingly still sitting waiting for the ribbon edging to be sewed on...).  I also began making a mobile of birds from the same material but never finished it.