jlwood's Profile

The way I see it, 1/2 the people who live I our house are toddlers, (twin 2 year olds) so the fact our living room is home to a train table, a mommy-built play kitchen and a million toys is completely OK. They're only little once. Let them be little and enjoy it.

I have twins who just turned 2 and they still sleep in sleep sacks. (We have the Halo brand ones, always have since they were newborns. They currently use the XL ones with feet holes for walking/standing.)
We changed our thermostat so that it didn't drop down at night when they were newborns. Since they were born at the beginning of winter, they were 6 months old before it was nice enough not to wear a sleep sack. We usually have footy PJs and the sleep sack, they won't keep a blanket on even still. As far as their hands/feet, my boys' hands and feet were purple pretty much constantly until they were almost 7 months old, which the doctor told us repeatedly was completely normal, but they looked freaky and scary. We were told they regulate the body core and until their systems are more mature, the hands/feet aren't essential to the warming process.
We live in Chicago, so winter here can get pretty brutal. I am happy to say they survived and the no longer have purple appendages.

We literally just got that exact same stool last week for our twins who will be 2 next month. They love to wash their hands and can even fold and unfold it already. Hoping for no pinches.

We love TJs in our house, in fact we just loaded up a cart there today. It's literally the only place we shop regularly and 90 percent of our food is form there, but every time I have ever seen a list of TJs top finds, they are NEVER things we have bought. Goes to show how many amazing treasures there are there!
Will have to try the Mango Cream bars. Our faces are the Creme Yogurt (best yogurt ever for toddlers learning to use a spoon, since it is so thick it says on the spoon.) and their frozen veggies. We always grab about 20 bags of various veggies so we always have something to add to a quick meal, organic mixed veggies for under $2 a bag, yes please!

Love the robots. Seriously cute and very nicely done. I like the contrast in the closet but as a mom of two one-year-old boys I can't imagine not having a door. Aesthetically awesome. Practically questionable. (at least in our house!)
Love the room.

Thanks for the tips. So far we have had success just keeping the library books in a different room and visiting them one at a time, supervised. We have a pretty extensive book collection, many board books, but I am hoping to introduce them to a wide variety of topics, many of which we will find in the library. We use about 8-10 books a week on the theme, so lots and lots is greater than zero, since we never checked out books before this.
As for preschool for one-year-olds and the notion not letting them be toddlers, I think it's a lot less structure than most daycare kids probably get. We read books, which we were doing anyway, but pick a different theme each week. And they get to do cool stuff like see butterflies and go to the beach. They are learning and leading the way. So far it is great.
Appreciate the tips on the books, thanks!

We too feel stuck in a house that doesn't fit our family. The house is fine, the location is the issue. Mediocre schools, ridiculous property taxes, traffic, low quality of life. We did what we were supposed to do though. We put down 30 percent. We bought what we could afford. But now we have lost all our equity and can't afford to leave. We have so many foreclosures in our area no one is buying, can't imagine anyone would want our house, even at the deep discount over the price we paid.
It's one thing to say lose on the sale, gain on the buy when we wouldn't have ANY money to put down on a new house.

We got the peapod tents for our twins this spring for a road trip. I was sick of the pack n plays and how heavy/bulky they were in the car and to carry in and out at our destinations. Plus they were getting snug for the boys who aren't even 2 yet. It took some getting used to but they LOVED the peapods. The tents fold up really small and will fit the boys for years. My extra-tall 4-year-old nephew fit in them just fine! And, cheaper than the pack n plays.

Love it. Especially the cake. Too cute.

Our Playhouse was featured last week on this site, and I feel that while a wooden house would be lovely, ours was more environmentally sound since it was literally a discard saved from a destiny in a landfill. Sure, buying new wood would seem greener, but there is no shortage of used plastic ones for cheap (or, in our case, free!) that can find new life with a new family.

http://www.ohdeedoh.com/ohdeedoh/my-great-outdoors-2011/two-tremendous-little-tikes-makeovers-my-great-outdoors-149379