Pepper Design Blog - Page 49 of 438 - A Little of This & That... Renovating, Decorating, DIY Projects & Family

60 Minutes of Dedicated Play a Day

February 3, 2015 by Morgan

I read somewhere that moms should have a goal of spending 60 minutes each day in dedicated one-on-one play. I’m talking down on the floor, in the sandbox, crayon in hand or in general fully engaging yourself in whatever little activity your child is focused on.

At first I dismissed the article. One hour? Of course I spend at least one hour playing with the girls (especially while on maternity leave). But then as the day wore on I began to realize how many distractions I encounter on an hourly (minute by minute?) basis and I began to question if I really do spend sixty minutes of uninterrupted kid time as I had suspected. Turns out I don’t necessarily do. Kid time right now means that we might go to the park or the library but my phone is in tow (and emails are being written or answered). Or I’m pushing the girls on the swing but also chatting up a neighbor. Or maybe at home I’m helping with an activity book but am also folding laundry and cooking. Dedicated and fully focused one-on-one time? Not broken up into chunks of five minutes? Challenging. Maybe even impossible.

I’ve shared before how much I struggle with pretend play and the truth is I’m so grateful Liv and Taylor have each other because they can play kitchen or house or babies for hours together.

But my observations resulted in some serious disappointment with myself. Part time attention for hours isn’t nearly as grand as one full hour of FULL time attention. So I’m putting myself to the test this week with the goal of logging some serious child’s play.

I’ve decided that might mean 30 minutes with each (like when T naps), maybe I’ll break it into three chunks of 20 minutes with both girls or it could be 60 minutes in one stretch. (I’m not forgetting Marley, but she and I make googly eyes at each other all day long). For my challenge (and only because I have the luxury of maternity leave), I’m not going to count walks or reading books or cooking together or any of our usual activities. This challenge really is focused on Liv and Taylor-directed play.

What do you think? Am I a very lame mom for even wondering if I spend sixty minutes dedicated to kid play or do you feel the same? Is the whole idea just crazy? Even though we all do the best we can with what we’re given, I like the idea of remembering to put down the iPhone and to pick up that sand shovel if so invited. How do you like to prioritize your momma time?

Master Bath & Bedroom: Let’s Get Started

February 2, 2015 by Morgan

It’s been a while since we have done any major construction on our house (the last was the clearing out and building of our outdoor space, before that the guest bathroom). This blog sort of began (or really evolved into) as a way to document the renovation of our 1930s fixer upper (we were lucky enough to buy a home in need of a lot of updating love in a really wonderful neighborhood right around the time when home sales were at their lowest).

95% of the renovation work has been completed by Kevin, keeping costs to a minimum and almost all projects right in line with the design intentions that we initially set out for them. We have hired out some big and small pieces (an electrician would be on the big side, a drywall and plaster sub on the smaller side) when we were crunching time.

Amazingly, almost all of our BIG projects have coincided with the birth of a child :). Nothing like a little motivation to get things rolling.

Let’s jump right into our current BIG project.

There’s a nice little panoramic of what our master bedroom/bathroom looks like right now (sorry for the odd perspective, I wanted to capture the fully gutted room in one image). This is our bedroom/bathroom while standing in the bedroom – so exciting!

As a walk down memory lane, here’s a shot of the room when we first purchased the house:

And another of what it looked like just prior to this past weekend:

And here’s the before and after of the side wall:

And full circle to what she looked like as we were clearing it out on Saturday. Boxes and boxes (and boxes and boxes) later, the master bedroom and bathroom were ready for demo.

Oh man, it feels good to be back on the sledgehammer/fresh palette side of things.

Those are the future french doors! and here’s a peek inside of that giant hole:

And out of the giant hole looking back towards the guesthouse/rental that’s in our backyard:

Our bedroom had a hidden half bath that was in terrible shape. Both of these back original bathrooms have been pretty much out of commission for a full year (!) so I’m all smiles seeing them finally torn open.

Here’s a look at the demo from the bedroom into the bathroom (the two rooms will now be one large space).

Here’s my old bathtub. Last date of use perhaps four years ago? It’s been out of order since. The fabric is a very sweet story – Livy was just a few weeks old and all my tired body wanted in the whole wide world was to take a warm bath. But we had no bathtub at the time with the exception of this guy. This guy was in fine, clean, working shape with the exception of a torn open wall to dissect a few plumbing issues. Kevin surprised me by lining the torn open wall with fabric from my stash so that I could take a bath :). That was the last time she was used. He picked a gorgeous fabric, right?

Let the madness begin! And just in case you’re wondering what the heck we’re doing starting a huge project two weeks after Marlowe’s birth, we are using our maternity and paternity leave very strategically ;-).

PS here’s a look at the inspiration board for this bathroom, as well as the Pinterest board that keeps us motivated. Credit goes to Katie for the after photos of our bedroom.

6 Things That I Have Forgotten About Newborns…

January 30, 2015 by Morgan

Two weeks! We made it! Yesterday marked our two week anniversary of Marley’s birth. These two weeks have been some of the most hectic days of my life but we’re working through them one by one. Not necessarily a bad hectic. Just a wow-my-head-is-spinning hectic.

First, I can’t even say that I’m going completely solo at this whole parenting three thing yet. I’ve had so much help from so many people that we love (family coming to visit, nana coming by the house frequently, my ‘mother’s helper’ stopping by for a couple of hours for the older girls, nearly all of our meals made for us…) that I can count on one hand the days that I’ve actually been out numbered by littles.

I think part of the crazy factor is just the change in rhythm around here. Having my work hours carved out of the middle of the day has always been a helpful break between the busy-ness of parenting. Work has its own challenges, but it usually doesn’t involve reasoning with a toddler, cleaning up spilled milk for the fifth time, wiping walls free of honey-covered finger prints or negotiating tantrums. (usually). I think that once we develop our rhythm over these next six remaining weeks of maternity leave we’ll be in much better shape (these guest mom posts on motherhood have been really helpful).

I think that I expected this transition to work as seamlessly as Taylor’s addition to our family. Going from one to two wasn’t so challenging (two arms, two kids?). Going from two to three feels very different mostly because I expected to just keep on keepin’ on (Marley would fit in, Marley would go with the flow baby-wearing style) when in reality I have in my arms a newborn. And we are doing the newborn phase right now. And they are a different but lovely breed.

Six things that I have forgotten about newborns:

1. Your schedule goes out the window. Establishing a routine to our lives is part of what makes our family days work pretty seamlessly. Adding a newborn means that life is jumbled (errands, sleep/wake time, get-stuff-done time, playtime…) and that feels cra-zy. Working on subtly sneaking Baby Wise and Baby Whispering into the mix. :)

2. How much stuff they require. I’m pretty laid back when it comes to diaper bag packing. I’ve actually sort of abandoned the diaper bag for a spare diaper and wipes in the car with Taylor, and now we are back to almost fully loaded. Because there’s nothing like realizing that you forgot an extra pair of socks after the middle steps in mud at the park or an extra cap for the little after the third grandma at the store comments that her little ears must be cold. I don’t like extra baggage but I really ought to make myself an out-the-door checklist!

3. How awesome and intimate baby wearing is, but how much it hurts your back! Strong trapezius, here I come. Marley doesn’t love the swing (bah!) and has terrible acid reflux, so in general lying down does not make her happy. Upright on my chest though? All day long.

4. What a lifesaver a Wubbanub and a miracle blanket are.

5. How much time it takes to do anything. Everyone’s finally ready to go, but let me fit in a quick nursing session and was that an exploded diaper? Dang it.

6. How sweet they smell (sans exploded diaper), how Marley loves to cuddle in my neck (her favorite spot!) and how cute their little toes are. Oh man, smitten bliss.

Enjoy your beautiful weekend! Life’s always just a wee bit easier with an extra parent in tow (yay for weekends!) even though this Saturday Kevin is demoing our master bedroom and bath. I’m so excited that I’ll happily be a solo mom with three while we all watch from behind the plastic wall.

PS my favorite baby products (including this round up for the first three months).

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