LaughingSara's Profile

Another consideration is opportunities for sensory input - my son is on the spectrum, and his room features beanbag chairs and two twin mattresses on the floor, because he craves "crashing" and being squished between beanbags.

Having a crash/squish spot has helped keep those activities contained to his room (i.e. he's not trying to jump off the coffee table onto the sofa anymore). Being able to safely get the sensory input he craves has made a huge difference in his ability to self-regulate.

He also has a mini-trampoline in the kitchen, which I'm hoping is the Next Big Trend.

Big fan of the Snuggle Nest. Ours went all over the house with us, since it was great on the sofa as well as the bed. We also used it as a travel bed, it went to Grandma's house a few times, even though we weren't staying overnight it was a good place for him to nap.

We had a wee little preemie boy who rolled over late, so we used it far longer than most people would have. And when the baby finally outgrew it, the cat moved into it for a while...

I recommend NOT getting too many cars for a small boy; you can always add more later. When we had too many cars available my son would make giant trains that covered the whole track and then get frustrated when they would come apart under their own weight if he tried to move them. If I only had 5-6 cars available, he would play more appropriately.

There's a nice Thomas starter figure-8 set available, and sometimes you can get it with a 50% off coupon at Michaels or AC Moore.

It seems like something that should be an app instead of a whole device.

But what do I know, I've somehow become a co-sleeper. Not what I had planned, but eh. I'm getting sleep.

I pick up cracked or lidless cookie jars at garage sales and plant succulents in them. I make drainage holes in the bottom with my drill's tile/glass bit and the plants do just fine.

I bought a box of generic wipes (to avoid the embossed Pampers logo problem) and spray painted it metallic silver. It looked good, but then I remembered that I had some silver leaf left over from another project, so I leafed it. I wasn't sure how well it would work out, but three years later it still looks good.

A silver-leaf wipes box is a completely ridiculous object, but it makes me smile.

I have these and really like them - they're big!

http://www.dolcemiastore.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=299

We have some of the kid's drums from Remo, and they're great. You can play them with your hands or the mallet or a stray maraca or whatever.

Our biggest drum, the floor tom, is currently on "supervised use only" status after I caught the 3 year old monkey using it as a stepstool to get to the forbidden toaster. It's quite sturdy!

Overall, though, I think tambourines are probably the favorite rhythm instrument @ our house. We have them in graduated sizes, and when you stack them all up and beat on the top one with a mallet - well, that's good noisemaking.

I've just lost 20 minutes playing with chair fabrics. I'm threatening to order our next sofa in the "concerned deer" fabric.

I love this!

I buy old kid's science books for the illustrations/covers, and recently went nuts with a 2" circle punch and made a ton of circles thinking I would make them into a garland, but maybe a mobile would be even more fun!

I don't feel bad about destroying 50-year-old science books, since the information is so outdated.