Memorial Day Weekend 2015

We kicked off Memorial Day weekend with an outdoor concert at Planting Fields Park. I've never been there before, though I think we'll definitely go back now that we know about it because it's beautiful. Long Island, you're growing on me.

Planting Fields

James checking out the fountains

Lately, James insists Fudgie wants to go everywhere

My boys

The concert was a cover band called Kokomotion, and they played music that made me want to get up and dance, but the other concert-goers didn't seem to share my enthusiasm. I danced a little anyway. 

Miranda investigating the crowds at the concert

Goldfish are my "kid leash"

Brought me a dandelion to wish on.

We were really starting to pushing up against James's bedtime (he goes to bed early than Miranda because he refuses to sleep in) but we figured, oh it's a holiday, let's get the boy some ice cream!

He requested sprinkles. "Everyone has to have sprinkles."

Miranda eating ice cream with no sprinkles, like a little savage.

Even though Miranda didn't even go to bed much later than her regular time, she rewarded us by getting up much earlier than usual. James got up at about his usual time, but grumpier. You're welcome for the fun, kids!

Sunday we also grilled out, while the kids did the best they could to injure themselves on the one dangerous spot in the patio.

Grilling out!

The rest of the patio is full of grass you say? Sounds boring.

We like to live dangerously!

Messy hot dog disappearing act.

The actual Monday of Memorial Day was low key except that we all got to chat for a long time with Uncle Andrew who is settling in to his new place in Japan.

Snuggling with Skype.

Happy summer weather, everyone!

• Last year we had a lot of family over for Memorial Day!
• A quiet Memorial Day at home in 2013
• Memorial Day weekend in Ohio with Chrissy, Jason, and Owen 2012
• Memorial Day at Jon and Becky's place in Brooklyn 2011
• Memorial Day Weekend in Niagara Falls 2010

Baby Maxwell T. 2015!

Megan and Ed had a second equally adorable son, Maxwell. I'm counting down until I can get back down to the DC-area to meet him. Congratulation Megan and Ed!

Snoozing cutie!

Max takin a nap under the watchful eye of big brother Will

• Most recent visit with Megan, March 2015

Miranda is 13 Months 2015

Miranda says: dada, tickle-tickle-tickle, mama, go, and yesh (yes) in that order of frequency. How exciting! She's been saying tickle-tickle for a long time now, but it really never gets old.

 

She also understands some simple things beyond the words she says, like when we tell her to get something (Get a book! Get the ball!), tell her to dance, or tell her no.

Sly smile

She constantly brings us books to read to her. Usually it's the same book over and over again for days and weeks at a time: Dinosaur Versus the Library, and Hello Ladybug are her two favorites.

Reading before bed.

She loves to dance and does so every day. She recently became interested in Country music. It's become our little thing.

Dancing!!

Rocking the Iowa outfits Dada got for them.

I am so cute!

She has 5 teeth, the four in the middle and a bonus one on top. She really got chubby lately so we think she's about to growth spurt again. She can drink from a bottle or sippy cup on her own but prefers that we feed her.

Hiding with a stolen sippy cup

She enjoys bath, but we think she might prefer showers because she insists on standing in the bath.

Bathtime is the best!

She still sleeps well, from 8 pm - 7:15 am or so, but sometimes gets up an hour earlier when James gets up. She takes two naps but fights the second one most of the time, and sometimes we have to give up.

  

Sleeping

She and James continue to be best friends.

I don't know what this game is

How did she get over the gate?

By problem-solving! James is her stool.

And guess who goes down the slide now! Like James, Miranda started walking early (9 months for James and 10 months for Miranda) and so they both had the experience of being the youngest toddlers at the park. Being able to run around the park doesn't mean being able to get any use out of it though, and for a long time she just ate wood chips while James played. But she climbs up now and goes down the slide mostly on her own. Nonetheless, I took a ride with her, mostly because I would look silly going down by myself.

Wednesday:

Weeee!


James comes to greet us.


On her own.

Thursday:

Trying to hang with the big boys

Saturday:

Siblings on the swings!

Yay!

Excuse me, can I have your ball? No? Okay then.

KonMari- Kids' Toys 2015

First, a note: Please don't start with this category. Read the bottom of this post to see why.

So the KonMari book does not cover kids' stuff with any depth. Our kids, like many American kids, have too many toys. This despite the fact that Kevin and I have bought approximately 10 toys for the kids... combined. Everything else was a gift because we are blessed by people who love us and our kids. We are extremely appreciative, and we have never exchanged anything. If someone gave us something, our kids played with it.

But this happened:

Kids' Toys Part 1

Kids' Toys Part 2

Even with my toy-management tricks (more on that later) all of these toys became a full-time job. And now that Miranda is a year old, both kids have officially outgrown some stuff. So I waited until the kids were asleep because my kids are 4 and 1 and aren't quite old enough to make decisions regarding their stuff yet. If your kid is older, you might think about including them in the process- depending on the child's personality. Then I enlisted the help of my husband. Kevin had a few different opinions as to which toys he likes the children playing with, which he finds annoying, and even which toys he thought the children liked. All valuable input. 

We put all the toys on the guest bed and took out any that James isn't yet old enough for. Those went in a box I labeled, "James- Next Stage" and stored. Then we pulled out the toys that are too young/boring for James, but which Miranda is not mature enough for yet (this box had a lot of dolls) and labeled, "Miranda- Next Stage," and stored. Okay, two whole boxes out of the way.

We still had a lot of toys, puzzles, and drawing stuff. So we divided the toys into KEEP- MAYBE-NO. Our criteria was:

1) Does my child enjoy this toy? (Does it spark joy for him?) If no--> NO pile.

If yes--> 2) Do I hate this toy so much that I still want to throw it out (usually involved toys that were worn out, had a million annoying pieces, choking hazards, or talking toys with no off switch)

If we hated it--> No pile. If we liked it or could tolerate it out of love for our child --> YES pile. 

Pile of yes toys!

So we obviously still had too many! Enter my Toy Management System. I use a bunch of Ikea fabric boxes and plastic tubs to divide the toys. Puzzles and drawing stuff gets their own boxes.  All the other boxes have a mix of James and Miranda toys. I take out one such mixed box and leave it out for about 3 days. They play with the toys enthusiastically. After about 3 days I put the box away and take out a new box and they act like I just bought them a box of new toys.

This is because kids have kind of poor memories. Giving the toys a rest makes them new again. This is also why trying to talk a kid into donating a toy that "he hasn't played with in a long time" usually fails. The other good thing about my system is that if a toy is "like new" and she still doesn't play with it, then I can safely assume it's because she actually doesn't like it. Also, because each box only has about 20 toys in it, clean up at the end of the day is much easier.

All the boxes that are hidden in my living room
(not pictured/not in living room: puzzles, drawing stuff, easel, and
toy car which we currently keep in the office/playroom)


What the living room looks like with all the hidden boxes (in Ikea bookshelf)

* Note: 

I really don't think you should start with this category, or any category that involves stuff that belongs to other people. If you start with your own clothing, as Kondo suggests, you not only get a reduction in stress from not dealing with the stuff you don't like, but also an increase in joy from seeing only the things that you love. 

You don't love other people's stuff, and you only have limited control over how they treat it or put it away. Starting with this category is likely to lead to disappointment because you will still have a lot of toys, you don't love those toys, and every time things seem messy you might feel like KonMari failed. 

Whereas, if you attack it after you have done your own stuff, you will already be a believer; you will already be surrounded by what you love in your spaces. The toys can be a less-than-perfect cherry on top. And I think the kids will learn best from seeing how you take care of your own things.

Any other kid toy problems I can help with?

• See also, KonMari- Kids' Clothes
• Start with "KonMari- Your Clothes" so you can hone your decision-making skills
• Then do "KonMari- Books" 
• All my KonMari posts

Jon's 35th Birthday in Boston 2015

Kevin and Jon drove up to Boston for Jon's 35th birthday and met up with Casey and Jon's brothers-in-law that live in Massachusetts. They ate many dinners, watched a Red Sox game from the Green Monster, and drank beer until it hurt. Yay! Happy birthday, Jon!

Casey, Kevin, and Jon at Fenway

Just casually leaning against this bar

Jon stopped by to say hi to the little ones too

Rachel's College Graduation 2015

My cousin Rachel graduated from Virginia Tech! Congratulations, Rachel!

Aunt Maura, Rachel, and Uncle Nick

With her brother Graham who graduated VT in 2013

KonMari- Kids' Clothes 2015

This is not a post about how to fold kids' clothing the KonMari way. In fact, for reasons I'll explain at the bottom, I don't even necessarily recommend doing that to your kids' clothes. This is about how to manage an excess of kids' clothes. Think of it as a warm up for toys.

The reason we have too much kids' clothes is because when we had James, we hoped we'd have a second child so we saved all his clothing to pass down to his theoretical sibling. They were three years apart (exactly) so we had three years of extra clothes that didn't fit anyone. Plus then we had a girl so we also got gifts and girl hand-me-downs.

But I think the main reason we had so much was that there are A LOT of baby sizes. So once a child is 2 years old, they go up a size every year. This is reasonable. But from birth to two years they go through approximately 12-13 different sizes. For those of you not in the know, they are: newborn, 0-3 months, 3 months, 3-6 months, 6 months, 6-9 months, 9 months, 9-12 months, 12 months, 12-18 months, 18 months, 18-24 months, and 2T. Thank goodness for 2T!

I cannot emphasize enough what torture all these sizes are. Especially because no one in the universe seems to understand the hyphenated sizes. So for example, if your child is in "9-12 months" that means that she has outgrown size 9 months and it won't fit her anymore, though size 12 months will often fit. It does not mean, as most people assume, that she can wear both size 9 months and size 12 months.

And oh okay, one more wrench, seasonal clothing. You might have a beautiful 9-12 months sundress you are dying to put your baby but if it's snowing out, that's probably not going to happen.

Step 1: Took everything out of storage and drawers.

First off, I did this at night while the kids were asleep. You can't do anything when children are awake, especially something like this. I split everything up by size, regardless of gender or season. Notice the stickies on different parts of my couch with 12-18 months, 18 months, 18-24 months. I started with the largest sizes. I packed a box of things that were still too big for James. Things that were the right size for him went into his room even if it was out of season because the seasons are changing right now.

Step 2: Sort by size. Seen here: 12-18 months.

Step 2: 18 months, 18-24 months

Then I went through 3T and 2 T since no one will be wearing those for a while. I mostly just checked that everything was in good condition, folded it, and boxed it.

The big stuff is packed and waiting for 2016.

Finally, the hard part, stuff that Miranda will grow into soon, or that fits her now but is out of season. I tried to do my best here, but it's pretty tough. I reduced the number of boy things when I saw she had enough girl things in the size/season. Toddler clothes is ridiculously gendered. I try to let Miranda rock the dinosaur shirts as much as I can, but even the cut of the shirts is different for boys and girls. It's super mean to parents. Anything she couldn't use just yet I packed, but I'm keeping it most accessible in our attic. Everything that both children have outgrown but that was in good condition was donated to the Boys and Girls Club.

Why I don't particularly care about folding kids' clothes the KonMari way:

 

Miranda unfolds the KonMiranda way.

Remember, this is just the warm up for the hard one: kids' toys!

KonMari- Kids Toys!!

KonMari- Your Clothes

All my other KonMari posts