lifestyle Archives

DIY GENDER NEUTRAL DOLLHOUSE

September 12, 2021 by Kristin

LBH… I do not have the capacity to post regularly enough to have a true niche. But! If I had more time for DIY, I’m almost certain my niche would be “future proof” kid stuff. In construction (my day job), we think a lot about how a space could be used for the next 10/20 years. And as a mom, I’m noticing first hand how the life of toys/decor is very… short! So here goes, my first DIY post, the DIY Dollhouse.

The inspo behind this DIY dollhouse came from trying to find the best wall mounted gender neutral dollhouse for a narrow space. As I was working through a solution, I came up with using a regular bookshelf that can be used for displaying or storing toys/books/decor when the kids are over playing with a dollhouse.

Below are links to for a complete dollhouse set up as well as optional hardware if you’d like to mount yours to the wall. All in, the DIY dollhouse components were about $75 and mounting hardware was another $15 or so. Not bad considering many dollhouse room set ups can range between $28-$30!

“Dollhouse”/Future Bookshelf

Furniture for Five Rooms

Doll Family

Potted Plants (haven’t arrived yet, so not in pics)

Z-clips (for mounting on wall)

Molly Anchors (for mounting on wall)

Day Trip From Austin – Bob Wentz Park

August 15, 2021 by Kristin

If ever there was a time to explore natural areas your city has to offer, it’s during a pandemic with a toddler. Today we ventured to Bob Wentz Park, about 30 minutes from our home in Central Austin. We seem to finally have all the gear for a successful “beach” day and leave most of it in the car for max efficiency with weekend exploring (links below). Between perfect weather, short travel time, having the right gear, and a well laid out park – we had such a wonderful day! We arrived around 10:30am, but I’d love to shoot for before 10am next time so we can get a parking spot closer to the Point.

As a native Floridian, Texas lakes and beaches can’t compare. But when it comes to kids, you don’t need the best of the best, any water and sand will do. We have to make the most of what we have! With that said, we really liked the “beach” at Bob Wentz Park. I thought about it all day and I actually think I like this lake spot better than Galveston. I loved the shallow pools on the rocks so that Ezra could play with water without being IN the water. And he loves rocks so much, having rocks, shells, and coarse sand were just as perfect for loading up his trash truck as they were for making pretend ice cream.

I had a mini fail with lunch packing. I stopped for sandwiches, but the water got through the plastic wrap the sandwiches came in and the sandwiches were soaked. But I had plenty of other snacks to fill us up until we got home. Harvest Snaps, Hippeas, grapes, blueberries, and some un-pictured hummus. We also brought a few Electric Jellyfish, which made up for the fail :).

Ez and I were super covered up in SPF gear. I’ve really been loving long sleeved and legging UPF gear for him. And I finally bit the bullet and ordered a long sleeved suit for myself after a recent pre-cancer freezing at the derm (!!!). When we’re both all covered up, it makes sunscreen application so much easier.

Here’s a list of all of our tried and true products for the beach. All of these items were purchased (none gifted or sponsored), but I am utilizing affiliate links for some of these items when possible.

Pop Up Canopy – We’ve had this pop up beach tent since Ez was a baby and it’s held up super well for the past three summers. I love that it folds into a thin disc that we can keep in the trunk. It’s currently out of stock but here are a couple similar pop up tents: tent 1, tent 2.
Beach Toys – We bought this beach toy set for our trip to Galveston. At such a low price point, my expectations were pretty low. But they’re a pretty thick plastic and provide everything baby needs to form, pour, spin, and roll.
Beach Toy Bags – These bags remind me of going to the beach with my Gramma when I was little, which is initially what led me to purchase them. But they’re really great for beach toys because they hold everything together, they’re easy to stuff full, water and sand can be shaken out of the toys while they’re in the bag, and it’s easy to carry several of them.
Ezra’s UPF Shirt – We have these shirts in several colors for both kids. We bought these in addition to rashguard type shirts we have from Target/Gap because they aren’t made for just water play so they don’t get as hot if we’re going to the park or playing in the yard without water.
Ezra’s UPF Leggings – A few weeks ago, Ez’s legs got pink when we played in the yard with sprinklers. I bought these leggings for going to the park and playing in the yard, but they quickly turned into our fav bathing suit bottoms too.
Ezra’s Hat – Ezra has been using this hat since last summer. It has an adjustable head strap as well as neck strap, so it grows with baby. I like that it stays on well and that it’s easy to toss in the wash while still keeping its form.
Puddle Jumper – We kept Haven’s puddle jumper for Ezra, but Ez is really narrow and it would fall off easily. If your baby is on the tall/narrow/skinny side, this puddle jumper is where it’s at because the straps tighten more than others and it also has a vest that keeps the float in place.
My Swimsuit – This suit… I wish I had it sooner. I love it partly because it’s so flattering and stylish, but mostly because it allows me not to have to reapply sunscreen. There are few things I enjoy less than putting sunscreen on a wet and sandy body.
My Hat – I am not a hat person (or maybe I should say I wasn’t a hat person until this hat). When I bought this hat, I had expensive Anthro and Gap hats sitting in my closet. It was an impulse $9.99 buy during a trip to Costco last year and I ended up wearing it ALL THE TIME.
Family Sunscreen – We started using ThinkBaby/ThinkSport mineral sunscreen for Ezra when he was old enough to wear sunscreen and then ended up using it for the entire fam. It ranks highly on EWG.com.
My Face Sunscreen – I stopped wearing make-up early in quarantine. But I do wear this CC Cream when I go out in the sun as my face sunscreen. It’s ranked highly on EWG.com and provides the perfect amount of light coverage.
Reusable Storage Bags – We’ve pretty much kicked our plastic bag habit thanks to these and glass storage containers.

Nutrient Dense Banana Pancakes

August 10, 2021 by Kristin

Oh hey! Starting this out with… It feels really wonderful to be creating content again. Fancy meals are rarely a thing over here, so I’ve struggled to find my place over the past year. But after surviving over a year with the most toddler-y toddler, it’s been brought to my attention that I have some valid content to share (thanks supportive family and friends!). So here goes! And a few recent pics of Ez fun 🙂

I’ll touch briefly on where Ezra is at in his food journey as it’s easy for things to look extra perfect on the ‘gram. Ez is a much stronger personality than Haven was at this age and thrives when he feels in control and is given notice when transitioning from one activity to the next (especially when the current activity is fun and the following activity is… not). The kid is a breakfast monster and loves pancakes, french toast, steel cut oats, yogurt, and fruit. He definitely front loads his calories! Lunch gets a little trickier, but is still fairly easy. We’ve found that the earlier the lunch, the lower the potential for hangry, and the best chance of a pleasant meal. He’s pretty open to whatever we serve, but he def has a strong presence for cucumbers or fry shaped veggies during this time. Or soup… he lives for soup! Dinner has been difficult. Remember that calorie front load blip? Between breakfast, lunch, snack, and nursing on demand, he’s front loaded his calories pretty well. Dinner brings new challenges as activities are winding down and, it’s becoming clearer by the day, that bedtime is near.

Our solution for this has been low pressure dinner, which falls in line with both the Feeding Littles and Big Little Feelings courses that we love. It is not a big deal for us if Ez doesn’t want to sit at the dining table the minute we sit in the dining table. Often we’ll leave his high chair pulled out and he’ll climb up a few min after we start eating (see where that control thing comes into play?). We apply the “always provide a safe food” rule, especially when serving new foods. And that’s where this pancake recipe comes in. Pancakes are devoured over here 100% of the time (by both kids)! And we will often serve him what we are having as well as some fruit and a green smoothie to drink. Sometimes he works his way through the plate, but sometimes he doesn’t. But since we are low pressure, we don’t sweat the food waste that comes with not forcing foods. The important thing is exposure – providing food and letting Ez decide (“You provide, they decide” per Feeding Littles).

But in addition to exposure to foods, it’s important to me that our safe food feel relatively complete from a nutrient standpoint. I loved the idea of the Feeding Littles pancake recipe, but they were a little flat for my taste and had so much potential. Adding almond flour and hemp hearts really helps fluff up the pancakes as well as add a ton of good fat and protein. And zucchini adds fiber, Vitamin C, Vitamin B-6, among several other nutrients. Serving a more complete safe food ensures that Ezra is fuller longer, getting the nutrients he needs, and feels in control of his meal. They’re not a bad “complete” snack for mama either!

What are some of your toddler’s safe foods?

Are meal times more challenging than you anticipated during these toddler years?

Cloth Diapering For Working Parents

February 27, 2020 by Kristin

When I was pregnant and would mention that we were cloth diapering, I was met with the same skepticism as when I discussed my desire to exclusively nurse into the toddler years. So many people assured me how impossible it would be when I realized how challenging parenting a newborn/infant is.

So here we are, we’ve passed Ezra’s first birthday, and cloth diapering and exclusive nursing are still happening {more about my breastfeeding journey here}. After the initial hurdles of learning how to do both and then learning how to do both while working full-time, they’re both not only do-able, but have become close to effortless. That’s not to say I haven’t forgotten cloth diapers and pump parts at home a time or two causing momentary panic. But 99% of the time, both things are just part of our daily routine.

Quantity of Diapers

I’ve found that 24 to 30 diapers is the magic number for doing laundry every other day to every third day. At almost one year old, Ezra goes through about 7 diapers per day. But I like having a couple diapers in his diaper bag and I like the ability to throw in a load while having a few clean spares.

Type of Diapers

My favorite all around diapers are the Bumgenius all in ones. We tried another brand early on and they didn’t wick moisture away well. Those diapers became our “quick” diapers – diapers we put on knowing we’ll change them within an hour, before a nap or before we leave the house. When Ezra was around 6 months, the Bumgenius (even with a doubler) weren’t cutting it at night, so we ordered a 6-pack of Mama Koala pocket diapers that we could stuff extra full for long night time stretches. It took a little while, and some dependency on disposable diapers, to get our stuffing “formula” right, but we ended up using three layers: the insert that comes with the Mama Koalas, a hemp doubler, and a bamboo insert (in order from closest to farthest from baby). Most cloth diapering supplies can be found on Amazon, so it’s been super convenient if we needed additional supplies.

Wipes & Accessories

Something I learned from our midwife was that urine is sterile and you don’t need to use wipes for urine diapers (who knew!). So we use cloth wipes (dampened with warm water) for BM diapers at home and Water Wipes for BM diapers away from home. As far as accessories go, we have a half dozen small wet/dry bags for packing diapers for daycare and keeping in our diaper bag for dirties. And we have two large, hanging wet/dry bags with zippers that we store our dirties in at home. I found that a diaper pail and drawstring wet/dry bags made things more difficult than they had to be!

Laundry

I’ve gone through a couple natural detergents before landing on what really worked for us. Our previous detergent worked by getting diapers clean, but as soon as urine hit them a strong smell of ammonia appeared. We now use Biokleen powder detergent (I’ve read that Seventh Generation powder also works well) and Biokleen bac-out as a stain remover for BM diapers. And, thanks to some informative mom message boards, we now have Mighty Bubbles on hands to strip our diapers in the event the ammonia issue makes a come back.

For wash cycle, I have a super straight-forward top loading washer, so I don’t have a ton of options. I do a regular or heavy duty load size, with the pre-rinse before washing cycle and a hot water setting. And we initially purchased a sprayer for BM diapers, but found that it sprayed BM everywhere! So we’ve just been scooping the BM out with toilet paper and flushing down the toilet. It’s not my favorite part of parenting, but it’s not terrible either.

There are a ton of cloth diapering resources and groups out there, but this is the groove we’ve fallen into and what works for us. I also can’t stress enough that cloth diapering, similar to breastfeeding, isn’t an all or nothing thing! Replacing any disposable diaper use with cloth diapers is helpful for your babe and the environment. And who knows, you just might prefer it!