Sunday 26 February 2017

A Harry Potter Inspired Room

When Parker was moving into his big boy room, I thought it would be really neat to do a Harry Potter inspired room.  Parker is obviously too young to choose what he wants in his room and I knew I didn't want to be buying him character bed spreads or anything.  And obviously I love Harry Potter and am really hoping that I can push that love onto my kids if at all possible.

I'm hoping it's not overwhelmingly Harry Potter.  I think that everything in there is kind of neat, but maybe that's just me!

I started with the decal that I bought off Etsy.  There are a few Dumbledore quotes that I love and I was going to choose one of those, but then I came across the one that said "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good" and nothing could be more fitting for our little trouble maker.


He also has "Whoo Whoo" on his bed, his very own owl for him to take to Hogwarts. 

I also bought a lumos/nox decal for the light switch.  For those non-Harry Potter fans, Lumos is the magic word to turn a light on your wand and Nox is how you turn it off.

Then I did a little gallery wall.  I didn't want it to be a whoa! Harry Potter! wall, so I tried to mix things up a bit.  I bought two pictures off Etsy, the Harry Potter glasses and the Hogwarts version of Starry Night, which I thought was really neat.  Then I added a couple of Parker's newborn pictures.  The double frame has a picture of the Hogwarts Express that I took at Universal Studios and a picture of the train tracks that are used in the movie that my cousin took while in Scotland.  I love that I was able to throw in a few real photographs that are still related to Harry Potter.  Then I arranged all of the frames around my wand, which is actually Ginny Weasley's wand.





One of the first things that I bought was this chest for the room that is supposed to be the type of chest that Harry would take to school with him.

On the shelf I have Parker's illustrated Harry Potter books, a Marauders Map, a white owl or Hedwig Scentsy and a Gryffindor scarf.

Finally, what has been holding this room up is the DIY items.  These things always take me longer than expected!

First up is my Free Dobby sock holder.  For those who don't know, Dobby is a house elf.  House elves must serve their family, unless they are freed by being presented with a piece of clothing.  Harry freed the Malfoy's house elf Dobby by presenting him with a sock.  But this also serves the useful purpose of being a place to hold mismatched socks.  Too bad I have about 20 of those right now and there isn't actually enough clips for them.

My second project was a flying keys mobile. I cut out wings from a Harry Potter book, glued them onto keys and tied them with fishing line onto the mobile.  


I really like how everything turned out and hope that some day Parker thinks it's neat when he finally understands Harry Potter! 
And this is real life.  So his room does have a mess of toys in the corner and a playpen, because some days the big boy bed just doesn't work out for us.

Hogwarts Starry Night - Etsy
Harry Potter glasses print - Etsy
I Solemnly Swear decal - Etsy
Lumos/Nox Decal - Etsy
Ginny Weasley's Wand - Universal Studios Orlando
Picture Frames - Homesense
Scarf - My Mother-in-law :)
Ceramic Owl - Scentsy
Marauders Map - Indigo 
Bed Spread - Ikea
Chest - Antique Warehouse
Keys for Mobile - mixture of Amazon and actual antique keys found at an antique market



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Wednesday 15 February 2017

Bed Time


Bed time routines.  We have never had much of a routine with Parker because he always did fine on his own without having a strict routine that had to be followed every night.  But now the routine is just hilarious.  

Tuck him in, give him kisses, say night night, take his temperature, line up all of his animals, and he knows when one is missing.  Give him milk.  Say night night, close the door.

5 minutes later he's likely knocking on the door because he ran out of milk.  Fill up his cup, more kisses, say night night, close the door, hope he stays in bed.

It's not really so bad, mostly just makes me laugh.  
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Tuesday 14 February 2017

Baby Smiles


Despite the sickness that has taken over our household, this guy is smiling more these days.  You still have to work for them, but I love getting smiles out of him.  And I love how much his big brother loves him.  I'm pretty sure he won't be the bigger brother for long though since Cooper weighed in at 14lbs yesterday and Parker is probably around 18.5lbs...

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Monday 6 February 2017

Cooper at 3 Months

This big fella is already 3 months old!  I feel bad for the second kid.  He doesn't get the same attention as Parker did or have pictures taken of him constantly.  His first year photobook might have a few less pages than Parker's did.  But I absolutely love this kid.  I could stare at his face all day long.  

I call him chunky a lot, because look at him.  He's actually not that fat, he's just a lot fatter than what we are used to!  And he's a solid little fella.

And is this outfit not the cutest thing you've ever seen.  I want to buy it in every size, forever.  Until he's 20.  (It's a one piece so he might fight me on that.)
Weight: Around 13lbs.  He was 14lbs with clothes on last week, so I estimated that his clothes and diaper weighed a pound but I have no idea.

Height: About 23 inches (these are my measurements since he didn't go to the doctor this month)

Diapers: I have moved him up to size 2.  The size ones weren't leaking yet, but I bought a ton of size 2 and the weight limit is really small on them so I'm afraid I might not even use them all

Clothes: 3-6 months.  The pants are too long, but everything else actually looks snug around the mid-section...

Feeding: Like usual, Cooper feeds on demand.  But he's typically pretty good at spacing out his feedings and will often go 4 hours between, especially if we are out and the stroller or car is putting him to sleep.  When we are at home he's more likely to eat a bit more frequently, but that might be partially because at the first sign of fussiness I just feed him.  He also tends to snack a bit more at home sometimes, so he will eat for 5 minutes here and there.  He eats 6-8 times a day usually.  Sometimes he only eats for 10 minutes, sometimes for 40.

Sleeping: He is sleeping pretty well at night.  The past little bit he has gone down a bit easier at night and can put himself to sleep.  Every once in awhile we still have a lot of cluster feeding before bed, and it's definitely not uncommon for him to basically eat from 8pm until 10pm.  After that he will usually sleep until at least 3am, sometimes 5am.  The other day he slept until 5:40.  Then I usually get another 4 hour stretch out of him.  

He sleeps a fair bit during the day, but has some awake time as well.  I feel like I'm not stimulating him as much as I should because when I'm not feeding him I'm often busy with Parker.  So that's definitely what we need to work on.

Milestones:
He's really tracking us now.  I just gave him a bath and when I went up to his head to rinse his hair he was turning his whole head to watch me.
He smiles, just not a lot.  The past few days I have seen an increase
Cooing and making more noises especially if he's on his own on the floor or in his crib and isn't hungry or upset that he's not being held
Puts some weight on his legs if I stand him up on me


Likes:
He likes the bath now!  Since I started actually putting him in the bath rather than on the sling that sat over it, he calms down as soon as I put him in the tub.
His brother.  I see him tracking Parker and smiling at him.
Lights or the tv draw his attention
Looking outside - probably because the snow is so bright
Boobs - let's be realistic, this is his one true love at this point in his life 

Dislikes:
Not being fed.  Kid likes to eat
Being put down.  He does like to be held.



I'm loving being at home with both of my boys.  There are days (like this morning) that are really hard, when Parker only wants to watch Paw Patrol, constantly wants food but then won't eat it, and Cooper just wants to be held and refuses to sleep (all day long...), but I'm lucky that I get this time with them and wouldn't trade it for anything.
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