sarahbeth's Profile

i'm in love with this room! you've done a wonderful job of mixing all of the various elements. the bright colors are perfect--i think it's so important to include a variety of colors in rooms for kids of both genders, since it helps to get away from the idea of certain colors being only for one gender or another. having 2 boys myself, i've found it challenging to reinforce the idea of 'all colors for all people,' but awesome room decoration like this would help :)

I love Mary B C's comment and agree that's a great thing to teach kids about receiving gifts. I also like the idea of giving an age-appropriate amount of cash, as this serves both to make the kid feel more grown-up (getting one's own $$ always does), and also help them learn how to manage that money. Personally, my husband and I were having trouble keeping track of all of the gift requests from the large # of nieces and nephews that we have (and also were running out of toy storage ourselves) and decided on a policy of giving a contribution to each of our siblings' kids' college funds each Christmas, and requesting only the same--however small an amount--for our kids from their aunts and uncles in return. We understand that this definitely makes us the non-fun aunt and uncle, since we don't come bearing toys, and while the kids have been too young to notice thus far we also accept that there may be some disappointment (either vocal or not) from the kids in the future. We do hope, however, that both the kids and their parents will eventually understand the value of the gift when it comes time to pay those education bills, and when our kids are old enough (we have an infant and toddler now) we hope to teach them why this type of gift is valuable and how to express gratitude for the thought behind it.

i agree with everyone who's said that all babies are different, so it's really hard to tell. my son (who is now nearly 14 months) was and still is an extremely light sleeper. we lived in an apartment for a short time while transitioning to a new house (from the time he was 7-11 months), and both bedrooms flanked the living room. even with music/white noise and him in his own room we were constantly adjusting the volume of our conversations and the TV to keep him asleep... now he's in his own room with plenty of quiet, but we still whisper and tiptoe past his room on the way to ours at night, and occasionally our creaky wood floor still wakes him briefly :)

i love california baby, too--we use the head-to-toe bath wash. for diaper cream we also love weleda, especially since it's ok to use with cloth diapers :)

we have a lovely long rectangular midcentury coffee table and matching two-tier end tables that were my grandparents'. unfortunately our dog destroyed one of the legs and scratched things up a bit long before our son arrived, so by the time he came along we knew that we'd have to get the tables fixed/refinished anyways. now we're trying our best to prevent further damage, but we're also more relaxed than we would have been had they been pristine when he was born. we're moving soon and will have multiple rooms calling for coffee tables, so fingers crossed we can get these finished and put in a more 'formal' space--then we'll get used or more kid-friendly tables in the family/play room.

i have to agree with rhowan regarding the curse of the 'popular' name. my parents named me sarah elizabeth--a perfectly lovely name that i actually really like. however i now work in an office with 15 or so other sarahs (at one point they sat two of us next to each other and we never knew who was supposed to respond when someone called our name), and in school i was in a homeroom that topped out at 7 in a class of 25-30.

the lotus pattern is gorgeous in both the blue/brown and green hues. either would make an absolutely lovely addition to my living room.

Mostly vanity (which keeps my home beautiful), with a little bit of gluttony sprinkled in thanks to my boyfriend's amazing cooking.

these look very nice, i'd definitely use it all the time.