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| Just waitin' on you, Mama. |
Problem is, I have no clue what to do to prepare for our little one. I never baby-sat. (Didn't like small children, actually.) Never lived in the same area as my niece to learn about the day to day life of parenting. Avoid eye contact with people who ask for nursery volunteers at church. All my knowledge is textbook knowledge, and let's face it, I'm in for an AWAKENING.
I know that no amount of preparation will really prepare me. But, I am going to kid myself into believing I can be ready for the changes that are coming.
I need to know the PRACTICAL tips of the trade. Things like this - double stack the sheets - from my friend Jodi @ meaningfulmama.com. Or, from my friend Kim - put a clean diaper under the messy one before taking it off.
How much space in the kitchen will I need? Can we get by with only one car that is kid-friendly? What's a practical way to store toys? Do I really need to remove all break-ables, or can she learn to not touch them? What baby gate is the best?
And most importantly, what questions should I be asking that I have no clue to ask?
Practical tips of the trade? (Hopefully, Lainey will be a year old - give or take a month - when we bring her home. That's explained here).
Thanks!
Use the diaper as the first wipe. Diaper pails don't work in my opinion. Keep a garbage outside for that. Disposable changing pads are fabulous. Keep hand sanitizer at your changing station. That's all my potty advice.
ReplyDeleteThe dishwasher baskets that fit on your top rack are super useful. You may like the signing times DVDs to help with communication (they really helped Joey). We love Ikea for kid furniture especially toy organization and the little blue table for art projects. eBay for books. Little Melanine plates are excellent, buy the target salad sized plates intended for outside dinning when they go on clearance. The "bumper" you stick on furniture leaves a nasty sticky strip when you take it off so don't use them on anything nice. The "combi cocorro" car seat will probably fit in the back of your mini and has a high safety rating. Have fun shopping.
ReplyDeleteJulie
First of all, you are going to be an awesome mom! Love is the most important thing and you and Ty have that in abundance. Other questions, we did fine with one "kid friendly" car, we just switched if Josh was driving the kids. We bought a unit from Ikea that had open cubbies with baskets for the toys. The idea was to separate the toys by category but really they all got jumbled, but they were out of the way. We had the unit in our family room. One of the best things for us was a DVD called signing time, it is basic sign language for kids, pictures with signs set to music. Our kids could tell us what they wanted before they could talk. This might help Lainey as she learns English as well as how to speak. Night shifts worked well for us but I imagine Lainey will sleep through the night.. I am sure I have other info.. But that is probably enough for now! Maybe we can get out next summer or fall...or sometime to meet your sweet girl!
ReplyDeleteI have so much to say, don't know where to start. I think we should just have coffee instead of me writing a novel on your blog... :) But just in case we don't get around to it (but I hope we do!) I will write 3 things:
ReplyDelete1. Breakables: I would remove them only because it will be one less thing you have to say "no" to Lainey about. In the beginning you want to be able to say "yes!" as much as possible! Later you could bring them out and start teaching her how to stay away from certain things.
2. Baby gates that can be opened with one hand are key! I've even seen some with foot pedal openings - awesome!
3. Always keep an extra set of clothes in the diaper bag! Oh and those little bags that hold dirty diapers (diaper sacks or something) -- those are great to have in the diaper bag too.
Let's have coffee! I'll fb message you. :)
- Ikea for kids' stuff (super durable and cleans up nicely).
ReplyDelete- find a low spot for sippy cups, Lainey's plates and bowls etc so she can learn to be independent and get her own things as she gets older.
- I wouldn't buy a terry cloth changing pad cover. Any velcro or hooks will snag it.
- We are kind of relentless on keeping toys sorted out. It drives me crazy to find a rescue hero in the cars. The bins from Ikea and the cloth cubes from Target are the perfect size for sorting.
- I split the kids' books in half and rotate them each month. They get excited about titles they haven't seen in a month and I don't get annoyed reading the same thing over and over.
- You can get great toys at Goodwill and just bring them home and wipe them down with Clorox wipes. However, they never sell the Little People with the house/farm/school bus/airplane/zoo/etc. That's totally annoying.
- We had a gate at the top of the stairs that was permanent and had a door you could open with one hand with the latch on top.
- If you buy zip up pajamas make sure to get ones that have an elastic band at the ankle. If not they'll slide over her feet and she'll trip.
And...we have some great toys that would be perfect for her that are in storage (shape sorter, stand up little piano, wooden bead toy, etc). Let me know if you want to borrow any of them!
:) Meredith