shelby's Profile

ndvheller, I can't say how it compared to the BB version, but I can sing the praises of the T2. And this up "until three" limit is (I think) a US guideline. When we bought ours I'm pretty sure it was 5. My daughter is 3.5 now and shows no signs of growing out of it. I actually read a review somewhere by a mother who crawled in her child's to breastfeed, and so on a lark (much to the delight of my daughter) I tried out the bed myself. Surprisingly roomy and comfortable.

There is no weight limit because the child sleeps on a thermorest style mattress that rests on the floor. The assembly takes a little getting used to but now I've lost count of the number of times we've set it up because we've grown so used to it. It's really well designed and tiny when it's collapsed and stored in its bag. I can attest to its durability as well, my daughter uses it every day for naps and (after six months of this daily use) it still looks as good as it did the day we bought it.

The one con I can offer is, on our model, there was a little pocket sewn into the inside of the "pod" as we call it, not sure of its purpose, perhaps to store the instructions between uses. At any rate, I'd never really thought much about it until my daughter mentioned that the "swing" in her pod was broken (turns out the stuffed rabbit she sleeps with had been doing some afternoon swinging before afternoon sleeping began). I checked it, and the bottom had come unravelled creating a potentially dangerous choking hazard. I'd imagine this has since been changed, but just in case, I'd cut out the pocket first thing if I were purchasing it now.

Hope this helps some.

My old upright went out in a blaze of glory (well, more like a huge depressing cloud of smoke) and things haven't been the same around here. It's replacement, a remarkably picky canister vac, refuses to pick up most things; it's driven me quite mad, actually. What a delight it would be to have an upright again.

Oh, Gregory. Sorry. I can only offer sympathy and a similar story. Our infernal light was installed a few feet beneath our third floor apt. Normally wouldn't have been a problem, but we lived nextdoor to a church with enormous and incredibly reflective stained glass windows. Suddenly our normally dark and wonderful bedroom shone like the surfaceof the sun. Too broke at the time to do anything more than drape more and more blankets over our windows, we finally reached a point of complete sleep depravation breakdown on the third night. At about 2 am, I began saying "can't take this anymore" over and over as I gathered the materials I needed to bring back the sweet darkness.

First effort simply involved leaning out the window and hitting the light repeatedly with a mop. Those lights are really well made. Then I spied the light sensor on the side of the light and inspiration struck. I grabbed a roll of paper towels from the kitchen, a mini-flashlight and a piece of string. Tied the string to the flashlight and had my husband hold my feet as I dropped as far out the window as I could and placed the roll of paper towels over the sensor, then I dropped the lit flashlight down into the tube and within seconds the light went out. There was much celebrating. In the morning we pulled in the flashlight, recharged the batteries and repeated for many nights after, until we realized that the light was to keep drunken undergrads from peeing on the church after they left the bars across the street. So we dismantled our system. By then, though, we could afford a set of thick, thick red velvet curtains that brought back the blessed darkness. Looked a bit brothel-like, but it was dark.

Later we found out the brightness of the light violated city codes, and we could have fixed it with a phone call. Perhaps something similar in LA?

Best wishes to you as you deal with your own light difficulties.

We made the Ricotta Spaetzle about an hour ago. Turned out beautifully! Called it Cheesy Poofs for our two and a half year old daughter (it should be a few years before she gets the South Park reference). Thanks for posting this and adding to our list of quick-dinner options.

I have friends who have done exactly what mariegael suggests above and it has worked out well for them. This may offer the perfect avenue to compromise: the shelves just below ceiling level can only hold so many collectibles without sacrificing visibility and stability.

Also, as JohnH suggested, consider an older, scroll-y china cabinet, and then paint it to match your own taste. I've seen many of those dark wood monsters mouldering away in antique stores, but with the right coat of paint they could be the best things in their adoptive rooms.

Best wishes.

While we eat together every night, I wanted to avoid what I remembered from childhood, my mother's stress at getting a dinner on the table by 6 when we were all exhausted, especially her. Since my daughter is still going to bed at 7:30, we eat appetizers while she eats at 6:30 and then prepare our adult dinner after she goes to bed. Weekends are a time when we all prepare and eat the whole meal together, but on weeknights we love our split dinners. Still get the lovely family time, just a mellower version of the evening meal.

Without a doubt, "Consider the source."

This has served me well when faced with everything from middle school gossip to years of reading literary criticism to the whirl of advertising messages that seem to be everywhere. It rings out whenever I'm about to take something at face value, or accept something just because it has a patina of authority.

Reading all these bits of autobiography and mother wisdom has been such an unexpected delight.

Such an inspiring room! The color contrast in the changing table photo, and the way your art is set off against those colors, is so striking. And what a great idea, integrating family collections into a child's room.

This space is lovely. Not my style, but when something works this well I'm no coziness partisan. Nice suggestion from joel maria pirela if you were inclined to treat the bed as a sort of jewel in a setting (riffing off the cherry on top image).

Blah. Blahish Beige. That is the color. We've been good renters, painting is forbidden, and we have such a good situation that we haven't wanted to rock the boat. But I'm beginning to contemplate rocking a bit. So we have a bit of a blank canvas right now. A summer project, the injection of some color and the transitioning of the room from infant needs to toddler ones.