Toddler Bulge

Tiny Space, BIG Personality

So I live in a 2 bedroom apartment and its a pretty nice size for NYC. But as Aryeh is getting bigger and busier I am starting to wonder how anyone manages to contain a toddler in an apartment AND all their "stuff". The funny thing is my neighbor who lives directly under has 4 kids...but maybe she doesn't let them own anything? I know she doesn't allow shoes in the house so who knows what else...
I am always looking for ideas but currently this is how we make it work.
Aryeh doesn't have the largest room and in it I had to fit crib, dresser, High-Riser (hello, grandparents), hamper and a toy chest. Everything is along the walls so the space in the middle I use for his fun stuff. I took the attachments off the play gym from when he was a baby and use it as a mat for the toys to go on top of. I keep mostly smaller size toys there and things that go missing easily (balls, blocks, puzzle pieces) since it is a small space and I have better chances of finding them. I find that as long as I get all the toys on the mat at the end of the day and the books in the bin the room looks tidy and its done pretty quickly.
In my room I have a mini-trampoline (our big ticket Hanukkah gift to him this year, the kid loves jumping.) This is  actually fold-able, but I knew that would never happen. I use the space underneath to store a couple other toys, like floor mat puzzle pieces and his toy guitar & piano. The nice thing about having this little "play station" in my room is that since he comes into our room when he wakes up it gives us a little time to stall in bed before starting the day - neither Eli nor I am a morning person :(
I have a large Ikea book shelf/ storage system/thingamajig in my foyer (funny story how I got this, when we moved into our first apartment a friend of Eli's happened to be moving out. He didn't feel like schlepping the bookcase so he decided that it would be our wedding gift.) I keep random books of Aryeh's in there to distract him from pulling out things we might not want ripped up. Bonus its right between desk and kitchen so he can read while I'm working in either place.
Then I've got the large toys in the living room/dining room. I've stuck them into open spaces along the parameter of the room. I have a smallish wicker basket that I use for all the toys that can fit in there. I also have his highchair in there. It folds flat to take up almost no space which I am obsessed with, so when having dinner guests we get that out of the way. Now I am thinking about buying a small table and chairs for Aryeh because I love those. It will give him a place to color and be useful for play dates. I'd also love to get a mini basketball hoop set. Winter is long and I have a feeling these additions will keep him busy and stimulated. The question is of course...where will these pieces go? I am always at a loss what to do with older toys to make room for new ones. I don't want to have to repurchase all these awesome toys when another little one come along but I honestly don't have the room for EVERYTHING!
Here are some photos that inspired me today while I scoured the web for solutions to my conundrums.

Love the baskets and the shelf idea seems awesome for a living room because everything fits either under or over. Oh and hooks. Need more hooks!

This "library" was made out of a vinyl rain gutter from a hardware store. Genius!

Should I stay or should I go now?

Sometime in December I began a long interviewing process for a prospective job in my field - marketing and PR. I went through several rounds of interviews, sample projects and DNA tests (kidding) before getting the offer. Finally the call came in and I thought to do what should have been done way before... ask about logistics. Salary? Oh we'll be giving you ____ as per your salary requirements (actually did not give them requirements, rather when pushed against the wall to state the absolute lowest salary I could work for spat out a number. Guess what I was offered?) Hours? 9-6 (With my one hour commute each way I'd call that 8-7). Still I was thrilled. For a day. And then I was overcome with a sense of dread. I literally could not sleep (and if you met my active toddler you would be surprised to hear sleep could allude anyone whose spent a day chasing him) and when I did I had strange dreams that left an awful feeling in my stomach (my son climbing out of his crib, walking  to me and tugging on my shirt "mommy! mommy!"). The main advice I received from everyone was that I needed excellent childcare. The problem was I consider Mommy excellent childcare and everything else in comparison just fell short. I explored the idea of a nanny share, and quickly saw it was not for me. Daycare seemed a better option, but it just felt cruel to pluck my child into a 10+ hour day after months of comfort with me. Everyone insisted that Aryeh would be just fine, would not know the difference. Honestly, I don't know about that because I seem to have a conversation with my son daily in which he goes "whee (where's) daddy?!"  and I have to explain to him all over again that he is at work and will come home later. Then he cries. Then I distract him. But I digress... At the end of the day what it came down to was what I felt comfortable with and what I feel rings true with my personal parenting. With Hub's support I declined the offer. Honestly, I felt relieved -  if the idea of being gone that much left such a resounding feeling of doom with me than clearly this was not right (or not right timing, as often is the case in life). And after the decision I tried not to question myself, because life happens as its meant to and my own happiness lies in remembering that. What is not fun is trying to explain decisions like this to people who go another route...lucky for me I minored in avoidance ;)

Here Comes the airplane!

Started him on rice cereal as per doctor's reccomendation. A few days later, while browsing some parent sites, I got a little nervous. Apparently, there has been a new campaign to get rid of rice cereal as a starter food for babies because its just plain white processed grains, totally unhealthy, they're calling it a "white-out". I went to look at the ingredients on his rice cereal and was relieved that the brand i purchased, Earth's Best was definitely OK. In addition to be 100% organic it is made from whole grain BROWN rice and is not as junky as the others. I like that the only ingredients on the package are the brown rice and added iron - that's it! The less ingredients the better, especially when it comes to tiny tummies.

Still, I don't know that these cereals are as crucial to babies as the veggies are so I got him started on all the veggies right away. Every 3 days we introduced a different veg (all from Earth's Best because they use only organic and have nothing added in). So far we've done squash (LIKE), peas (DISLIKE!!), sweet potatos (LOVE!!), carrots (LIKE). I haven't started fruit yet, I like that he's enjoying the veggies so I'm holding off introduction of the sweet stuff. Fruits: the gateway drug to candy!! kidding :)

Sitting High

So, my baby got the go ahead for solids and lucky for us we just bought a highchair! We weren't actually planning on buying a highchair that day, but we were in Babies R Us buying a crib mattress and found a great steal in the clearance section. Its a joovy nook, in white leatherette, and since its an online-only purchase that someone returned to the actual store we got it for 1/2 off! The highchair is great - very sleek looking, with modern stainless steal legs and and a leather seat. The tray swings out which is nice because you can do that with one hand and put baby in with the other - us moms love anything you can do with just one hand! Best part though has got to be the fold - completely flat so that it gets put away nicely and doesn't overcrowd my already shrinking apartment space!

Here is the nook in White leatherette which is what I have.

And that's the fold! tiny and light! Wouldn't necessarily bring it on the beach but its nice that the company would like to illustrate your many options here ;)

Sleeping through the night

So we're on the 5th day of Cry It Out and I'm shocked to say things are going smooth! For those of you unaware of the term, Cry It Out is a method of getting baby to fall asleep on his own without the aid of you rocking or nursing him to sleep. You put baby in the crib when he's drowsy and hope he'll fall asleep on his own. Its called CIO because most babies, and mine definitely included, do not want to do the whole sleep thing on their own and much prefer to fall asleep nestled in mommy's arm, so they cry when placed into the crib at bedtime.

I originally found the entire concept a bit cruel, I hate to leave my baby cry and I usually rush to his needs so it felt strange to let him scream in his crib. My opinion changed after his doctor's visit last week. My husband had to take him this time, because I had an appointment. Completely drained from having barely slept an entire week, he exasperatedly begged the doctor for some clues on why our baby at nearly 5 months could not sleep longer than 3 hours without waking up wailing for us. She told us it was because he simply did not know how to sleep. She told him to imagine he fell asleep on the couch with a beer in hand watching the game ( was she spying on him Sunday nights?!) and woke up in bed...rather disorienting, no? Our baby needed to fall asleep in his bed on his own so that when he woke up he'd feel comfortable in the crib and at ease enough to simply go back to sleep.

OK, so I was mostly sold, but what really drove in his need for proper sleep habits was spending the weekend at my in-laws. It was a huge family gathering and everyone was sleeping over. The next morning 3 different aunts came up to me and asked me what was happening the night before with my baby cuz they heard him through the house. That was it. My baby was going to start sleeping!

So Sat night we get home and start. It works like this You hold the baby do whatever bedtime routine you do, singing, hisses, etc. and then put him in. You say good night and leave right away and then if he is crying you go back in to comfort him at 5 minute intervals - but you can't pick him up! The first night I did horribly and kept picking him up, and I cried the way thru, until my husband sent me to bed and he handled the rest. After 40 mins like this he went to sleep. The next night was only 15 minutes of crying! Last night only 5! And the clincher - today my baby looked tired, we have a terrible time with naps, he fights them with intensity, anyway today as he showed signs of sleepiness I swaddled him, rocked him for 5 mins and put him in his crib. He cried for just 1 minute till I left the room and was fast asleep. Hence, I am actually able to blog right now!

I AM A BELIEVER!