Cribz

I need some advice, input, opinions, etc. about what to do for sleeping arrangements for my soon to be two kids room.

Here are the facts:
1) Wesley is still sleeping in a crib. He can't climb out of it and occasionally he fights sleep and needs to cry for a few minutes in there before giving in. I'm not too anxious to switch him to a bed because he's really doing great in the crib.
2) We have a Moses basket for baby girl to sleep in for the first 2-3 months in our bedroom.
3) We have a pack-n-play with a bassinet attachment that she can sleep in when she outgrows the basket if Wesley is still in the crib.
4)I was given a crib/toddler mattress by a friend here so now it is set up on the floor of Wesley's room opposite his crib.

This is the crib that we have currently. We bought it from IKEA for Wesley and it has now dropped in price from when we bought it-- it's only $69.99. It also looks like they have upgraded it a touch because it says "One bed side can be removed when the child is big enough to climb into/out of the bed."

Our crib does not have that feature. It's just a cage really. 

So here's the question. Should I just buy another one of the same crib so that 

a) the beds will match

b) Wesley will be able to stay in his crib as long as he wants and I won't feel pressured to get him into a bed sooner

c) and when he is ready, I can just remove one side and it's still a familiar bed for him, just all grown up.

Or should I just get a toddler bed frame because who really needs two cribs? I think I'm leaning toward the 2 crib thing because of a-c above and also because buying the crib is only $10 more than the cheapest toddler bed I could find (Craigslist included. People sell their used junk for WAY too much out here). 

Originally my plan was to buy this bed from IKEA and move Wesley into it when he was ready for a bed. The thing is, I have a crib/toddler mattress and I don't have a twin size mattress. Wesley isn't quite 2 yet so I'm thinking that he'll be able to stay comfortable in the toddler bed for at least another year, maybe 2 right? So I won't have to buy the upgrade bed for a while.

So since I've never had two kids before and lots of you have, what do you do in this situation? Did you buy 2 cribs? I certainly wouldn't even consider buying a second crib if it didn't have the option of dropping a side so it can be a toddler bed too. Anyway, comments and emails on this subject will be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Snowmageddon 2011

I stole the title from my sister's Facebook post. It made me laugh. She lives in Texas and while I'm sure they are experiencing an unusual amount of snow, I think I can safely assume we've got more here. My friends with school age kids are pretty much losing their minds... 2 snow days a week for the past 3 or 4 weeks will do that to you. I think they are up to about 9 snow days total now. While that may not sound like a lot, that's 2 full weeks of school. I'm pretty sure they are going till nearly the end of June now. Suckers.

Anyway, Eric and I snapped a few photos of the storm we're getting today. Keep in mind, we're only at the start of this storm. We've already gotten about 5 inches today and we're expecting at least another 10 inches, plus a quarter inch of ice to top it off by tomorrow evening. Swell.

 Check out these icicles on our building. I was blown away when I looked up and saw these. Those are 3 stories long!! They start at the 3rd floor apartments and go all the way down the pipes to the ground floor. The ones on the right are even bigger, just hanging there... A full one story sheet of ice. It's nuts.

 I was trying to walk to the side of our front door and I got stuck. I sunk down into the snow to above my kneecap but I was still standing on snow, not the ground. That tells me that it is at least 2 ish feet deep right there and I was still in the shallow part.

 Here I'm on the sidewalk standing on our new 4 inches of snow. You can sorta see how the other snow is plowed on the side-- again, it's at least 2 feet deep. When Wesley walks down the sidewalk it's up to his shoulders and he's 2' 5" right now. Hehehe so little.

My favorite-- these light posts are right around 4 feet tall I think.

I've never seen this much snow in my life. I was thinking the other day about what if this is the beginning of another ice age... will Woolly Mammoths come back from extinction? And we'll all ride around on our saber tooth tigers and live in snow caves...

As I was walking through the snow today (I went to pick up a package from the apartment office) I was also thinking that this would be totally awesome and fun if a) I wasn't pregnant and off balance/ out of breath all the time, b) I had a snowboard, c) I could take Wesley sledding.  Pregnancy in the winter is wonderful because I have a built in space heater (and it is that same reason I don't ever want to be pregnant in a summer) but it's lame because you can't really enjoy the snow!

All and all, we haven't really minded the snow. It's been pretty cool. But I'm not gonna lie. It's getting OLD! I will allow this weather to continue through February, but by March I would like to see some melting going on. Just a little. If that's too much to ask then maybe just less snow dumping... And please don't let me go into labor during a blizzard. Thanks.

Handmade Goodness

I've been wondering about posting stuff that I've made on this blog... I feel like Blogville is inundated with craftiness and my stuff isn't really all that cool so why should I clutter up an already craft heavy place with more mediocre crafts? However, sometimes I get lots of comments on stuff I've made which makes me think people may actually be interested... Anyway, all that blah blah blah aside, I had a request to post the following on my blog so here you go.

For Christmas I made a few little things for Wesley, namely a new snuggly blankie and a hooded towel. I don't have a picture of the blanket, but here are the towels. Obviously, the girly one is for the new baby. Having 2 matching kid things makes me realize I'm going to have 2 kids, which is still pretty trippy for me.

Wesley's "big" present was a Toy Story 3 Mr. Potato Head set. I wonder about toys that advertise "52 pieces!" "184 tiny detachable pieces!" What they might as well say is "Good luck keeping these all together, not strewn all over your house, and not lost in less than a month Sucker Mom!"

We were very excited to introduce Wesley to Mr. Potato Head, but I was hesitant about how to keep from losing the plethora of accessory body parts and keeping them from just landing in the back of the toy chest, never to be played with. So I made them a home. Nothing too fancy really, just a drawstring bag out of a remnant of burlap. For the drawstring I used the hem of a t-shirt leftover from a quilt I made and then I stenciled Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head on the front with a Sharpie.

As it turns out, Wesley LOVES his sack of potatoes. He particularly loves dumping all the pieces out and putting them back in the bag. Over and over. He did this 12 times in a row once and I'm not exaggerating. I was amazed that he was still at it after 3 so then I kept counting.

If you too find yourself vexed by toys that have a billion detachable parts, whip up one of these little beauties. The nice thing is, Wesley can't un-cinch the drawstring by himself so he must bring the bag-o-mess to me first. I like to be able to control the chaos sometimes...

I used a combination of this tutorial from Purl Bee and this one from YarnGeek. Well and a little from Dana too.

As for the hooded towels, I love it! My boss made one for me right before Wesley was born and it was small and cone-heady and wonderful for a really long time. I knew I wanted to make one for the baby too so I started looking for a good tutorial and I found this one from Obsessively Stitching and I really really like it. I was skeptical at first, but it turned out marvelously.

So there you go. Another crafty post to the blogosphere. Maybe now you feel inspired to organize your kid's toys or make them a hooded towel for a Valentine's gift. :)