Giant Ball Basket

In preparation for the school year I went on a rampage through the play room. Rearranging, removing, and reorganizing everything in sight! One thing that has been a constant source of mess was the giant basket of stuffed animals. It took up so much room and spewed animals all over the play room (well the kids may have had something to do with that). But still I had to get the animals out. I just needed the space! 

So after sorting the animals I was left with a giant basket, an almost empty set of bins, and the train table that needed to go back into the play room. In the train table went, I decided to use the bins in the school area, so it left some room for the giant basket. Now I just had to find something to put in it! That's when I spotted the balls. Crammed up on top of the bookcase was a milk crate full of ball pit balls. We had used them in a baby pool with the girls, but at the time we had a lot more room. The basket was perfect. I laid down a towel and threw in the balls, and in no time a toddler was in there too! 

He loves balls, and he can climb in and out of the basket while containing most of the mess (except for the balls he decides to throw all over the room).

I am hoping his excitement for the ball basket continues, and we will be able to use it as a source of entertainment while the girls do school work!

Where Are My Batteries?

Battery operated kids toys, most of us have a few (or in our case way too many), and now they are all made safer by adding the lovely little screws that keep the battery area shut.

For the most part these little screws are only an inconvenience.  Until you go to the trouble of unscrewing the screws, as your hopeful child looks on, only to open it up and discover you are out of batteries!  Usually this doesn't happen to me with common battery sizes like AA or AAA, but it happens a lot with the bigger sizes.

Now with my little label maker I can just glace at  the toy and know if I can "fix" it right away or not.  That's right I have labeled all the battery operated toys (or at least those I have had to change batteries in) with the size and quantity of batteries needed.

A quick look at the toy and a quick look at my batteries tells me if it is worth getting my screwdriver.

I keep my batteries in a little craft box like you would use for beads.

New batteries=happy baby!

Outsmarted the Diaper Tornado

Eli is terrible when it comes to changing his diaper.  He has been since he was around 7 months old, and now that he is stronger it is worse.  He used to just wiggle and kick. Now he kicks and flails and flips himself over  grabbing on to the changing table in the process, so you have to physically remove his hands from the table. Of course in doing so you also lost where you were in the changing process and have to start over especially when he kicks everything onto the floor.  I finally got tired of everything being kicked to the floor and hung up a little bathroom organizer above the container I keep his diapers in. (Everything used to sit on the diaper container).

It currently holds cloth wipes with two bottle of wipe solution, teething medicine, tea tree oil for his diaper pail, baby vapo rub, and a cup with the little velcro tabs I use on the diapers.  I need to buy some more diaper rash cream (we like California Baby), and then it will go in there too.

In case you are wondering those are peri-care bottles from the hospital with wipe solution in them.  I just squirt some on wipes as needed.  My wipe solution is warm water, a few squirts of baby wash, and a couple drops of tea tree oil.  I used to measure it, but I guess I got lazy.  The velcro tabs are used to keep my diapers from sticking together in the wash.  Changing little tornadoes is hard enough without throwing snaps in the mix (we have a couple snap diapers, and they take at least 5 times longer to get on this crazy kid), so I am really, really glad I chose the hook and loop closure 5 years ago when I started! However, the laundry tabs do start working after a while. so I just cut up velcro to the appropriate size and put the little tabs on before throwing the diaper in the pail.

At least for now, this little organizer has prevented my little tornado from scattering velcro tabs throughout the room!

My Secret Organizational Tool

You may have noticed I didn't post a review of this week.  Well I don't think a whole lot has happened that can't be summed up in all the posts over the past couple weeks.

 Here is a complete list:

Scented Play Dough
Spice Painting (with Edible Glue)
Self Portraits in the Mirror
Indianapolis 2012
Colored Ants
"Glass" Sculptures
Dino Dig
Dinosaur Sensory Bin

Today however I did get some unexpected organizing accomplished.  While the girls were cleaning their room I came up with the idea to make a rib organizer on their door.  There was a  shoe organizer (which I use for everything) on the back of the door, so I thought I could hang the ribbons from the hooks.  So I did one side and realized I still had ribbons to hang.    A reason to buy another shoe organizer! Now I had to decide what to put in it.  That's when I noticed my mess of tissue paper. The result was quite exciting!

And the girls hairbows:

When I said I use shoe organizers for everything I meant it.  Shoes (of course), ties, gloves, hats, and random pany supplies.

In the past I have also used them for art supplies and small toys, but they all had to be put away thanks to one grabby baby.  Basically, I love them for using space that is otherwise ignored. Especially being in a fairly small space with so many people!