Toddler Turmoil

New posting coming soon but in the meantime here is my life these days...aka the trade off for 5 minutes uninterrupted peace...

Have a great weekend!  

If You Can't Make It, Fake it

I'm not gonna lie. Before Livia was even born, I was dying to get a play kitchen for her. The play opportunities are endless and they probably rank on the cuteness scale somewhere around small puppies and newborn toes. This past Christmas I couldn't resist any longer. Pinterest (curse you Pinterest and your wily, addictive ways!) was chock full of the most adorable DIYed play kitchens known to motherkind and I just could not say no any longer. Livia I had to have a play kitchen. Always the one to make things simple on myself I decided that I especially needed to have a DIYed one. There are lots of premade ones out there that get the job done but I wanted one that would be uniquely ours. Visions of entertainment centers or nightstand tables turned genius play kitchens began to dance before my eyes. And thus came my first snafu: I don't own a saw. Nor do I really know how to use one. Nor did I want to go to the effort of acquiring one and attempting to keep all my limbs in their original places. Sigh. It took awhile, but rather than accepting DIY defeat it occurred to me that rather than starting from scratch (or practically) I could start with a base and go from there. Thus, lil' red came into the picture: 

Now while very cute in it's own right, there were two things it just didn't have going for it. For one, it was just a little too generic for my liking.Why make it simple when you can make it complicated, right? Number two, it's red. Not that I have anything against red, but nothing in my home is red these days and I didn't see making an exception here happening. The beauty of ordering it online however was that when it all arrived in pieces, they were just begging me to put a little DIY stamp on them. So before putting it all together, I started changing pieces to my liking: 

I began by painting all of the red parts either white or gray (a bit more living room friendly). I decided to leave the knobs and handles the original color to give it a little extra pop of color. The backsplash was made with some leftover wallpaper that I had on hand from the kitchen redo I did awhile back. I just traced out the shape of the backsplash onto the paper, cut it to size and duct taped it on. (And poked some holes for the knobs/shelves to screw into later) 

The happiness print I found randomly by doing a Pinterest search for free kitchen printables. It was so fitting so I decided to go for it. I made the towel (yes, that's correct--I actually sewed something successfully) was made from some fabric I already had on hand from back when I was toying with the idea to make an infant skirt for Livia (you can see how on top of that idea I was). Then I just swapped out the salt/pepper shaker for some pretty wood ones and added in a few Ikea appliances to add a little bit of shine to her pots and pan collection. 

I look forward to adding to it as time goes on--I'm thinking I might attach a chalkboard grocery list on the side at one point. Also, more storage next to it would be nice so maybe I can find some fun vintage crates to stack or whatnot. We'll have to see!

This kid loves it. So far she does a lot more pantry organizing than actual cooking but hey, not all master chefs happen overnight, right? Livia is also modeling a lovely reversible apron given to her for Christmas by her bestie Julia and made by Julia's grandma, Joyce. Needless to say she loves it and even though the photo doesn't show it, it has definitely been put to good use, currently being covered in cookie crumbs. 

My little cooking cutie, hard at work! 

Oh Happy Day

                           

 

Oh happy day. It's Easter. Fabulous, soul-saving Easter.. I love Easter. I really do. Have you ever  noticed that everything around you screams Easter at this time of year? And I'm not talking about the chocolate egg aisle at your local grocery store either. (Although I admit those screams are pretty tempting...) In France, more so than in Oregon where I grew up, I feel like you can especially feel it. We have enough evergreens in Oregon to not make nature feel butt-naked but here in the Paris area life outside feels very dead during the winter months (and when you think that the majority of it is paved in concrete, I guess it kinda is...). In an oceanside state where you differentiate 3 seasons out of 4 by the amount of rainfall people learn that you might as well just throw a raincoat on it and call it good. In fact the first few months I lived over here (oh let's be honest--it lasted longer than that) I had to hide a grin every time I saw Frenchies frantically running for an awning to hide out under during a downpour. Until I realized that it actually makes sense here. In the Pacific Northwest, if you tried attempting that, you'd be waiting all day for that rain to let up (and maybe then some). Weather changes rapidly here so when it's nice out you seize on it; when it's not, you hibernate. When spring rolls around, those first tentative buds practically scream new life. Matt and I joke about how we get to know our neighbors again every year once spring hits. People venture out. Cafe's put out patio furniture and you can even find bikini clad sunbathers taking over the local parks (never really understood that phenomenon btw). Every spring Paris is reborn.

I love how everything around me reverberates with fresh new life come March and April. I love the cherry blossoms, the wild bulbs that sprout out of the most random places. I love how I come to life with every fresh start and each new time I take to soak up the life bringing message of Easter. The truth is I don't deserve the kind of grace that God has lavished on this brittle heart of mine. But just like my butt-naked trees I know that he will bring about something organic in all that brown and black should I choose to let him. Happy Easter to all of you. 

Happy Holidays Part 1

I'm thinking that if I say 'Happy Holidays' maybe some of you won't notice that I'm posting about Christmas on the 26th. Maybe someday that magic Christmas will swing around when I do everything on time, even a blog post. At this point, I just consider getting presents under the tree without losing my sanity to be relative success. Speaking of trees, we finally have one! Would you consider it pathetic or economical that this is our first Christmas tree in 5 1/2 years of marriage? I'm not counting the foot tall one that we bought a few years back for our old, even tinier, apartment. 

To be truthful, you can basically chalk it up to just plain moping, really. I found myself stuck in that phase where you're secretly hoping that you'll wake up on Christmas morning 10 years old again surrounded by that Christmas magic that only mom knows how to make. I think I would self-pitied my grown up responsible self to the end of time if something hadn't come along to kick my butt out of that grinch-like hole. And that something was Livie. Suddenly I am now the mom who is supposed to make the Christmas magic and while I was able to still retain a slight grinch-like inclination for her first Christmas, I figured this one as a toddler might be slightly less acceptable to skimp on. Considering my stress levels just before Christmas break, I probably went just a tad overboard (proof of that in my unfinished advent calendar below): 

But overall I am glad that I got out of my grinch mode and started/continued a Christmas tradition or two... 

One of the things I got super excited about was finally getting a nativity scene! I have awesome memories of following Mary and Joseph along in our house as they "made their way" to the stable and awaiting manger (aka a spot on the living room shelf). I wanted that kind of experience for Livia as well--something that I enjoyed looking at but was easy for her to interact with; a nativity that she could play with to her little aggressive toddler heart's content. Enter peg dolls from Etsy! Seriously, I'm in love. They're super cute and I don't have to worry about her breaking anything. The "stable" is a wall shelf in the shape of a house that I found at a craft fair. 

Then I indoctrinated Liva in the ways of the motherland (aka Albany) by making our family's Christmas sugar cookies with her. Of course, in real life she doubles not only as a professional baker but also food inspector so here she is "testing" the merchandise. We tried decorating them together but that resulted in lots more eating while I decorated. :) 

 

A frenchie Christmas tradition that we started up a few years back is to make the annual hike to our local marché de noël. It takes place in a business district called La Defense (hence the skyscrapers) every December and is a fun warm up to Christmas.

I mean, where else do you get to see a giant pink pig on top of a wine barrel, right? 

Yes, French kids write letters to Santa too, just in case you where wondering.... 

This, though, is the reason we go to the Christmas market. Vin Chaud and French hot dogs. Vin Chaud, which literally means 'hot wine', is like the Christmas grown up version of spiced cider here. I am literally salivating just thinking about it. Red wine + mulled Christmas spices = fabulousness. 

So there you have it: some of the Christmasy things we've been up to lately. Currently we're in Nantes soaking up the rest of the holiday break with Matt's family (more on that next time!) before it's back to the daily grind. Hope you're having a fabulous holiday season! 

I'm sick of sick

         Motherhood can hurt. Literally. No, I mean literally--just today Livia has already tried whacking me in the face twice. But let me back up to the Tuesday before last, Nov. 25th. I was dreaming that I felt sick to my stomach when I woke up. You know that huge feeling of relief that it was all just a dream and now you can get on with your life? I love that feeling. Unfortunately, that feeling lasted about the length of time it took me to get my hiney out of bed and stumble into some workout clothes. Once again I felt sick to my stomach. My daughter missed the memo and instead of waking up at her usual time, decided that a half hour early would be a better decision. Nature waiteth not, even for toddlers, and she ended up getting quite the show, first thing in the morning. It turns out that puking up sweet potatoes, just two days before Thanksgiving, is a bad thing. The rest of the morning was a bit of a blur as I did everything I could just to stay up until Matt came back from a meeting to work from home. Thankfully, just as I was contemplating the merits of super gluing my eyelids open, Matt walked in the door. 

        As it turns out, the low point of my day was just the beginning. The fun was just getting started :) Feeding Livia later that evening I got up from my chair to take off her bib, a giant fuzzy blanket wrapped around me (yes, this is the stay at home mom version of a sick day). Forgetting that I'd scooted back the chair, I went to sit back down and of course, missed completely. So there I was on the floor: a tangle of fuzzy blanket, one very dirty bib in me and a smarting elbow (the result of whacking it sharply on where my chair actually was on the way down). Livia, startled from the commotion (I had made quite a bit of noise on the way down), got so scared that she tossed whatever she could find at hand off of the table. 

        The problem was, this was her unfinished dinner plate and her flinging target happened to be my face. Once I'd gotten over the initial shock of it I managed to get her down, reassure her and laid myself out on the carpet to recuperate. She grabbed her sippy cup and headed over, convinced that she now needed to keep a close eye on Mom. Unfortunately, just as she was taking a swig of milk she happened to spot her pacifier. Dropping the sippy cup, she reached for it. What I didn't mention before was that she happened to be just above my head when this happened and that very full sippy cup hit me smack on the jawline. Whenever the going gets tough I try to remember that Momma said 'there'd be days like this' but I have to admit that Momma didn't warn me that there would be a single day where I'd puke my guts up, feel as if I'd been run over by a tractor, topple to the floor, have luke warm peas thrown at my face, and then get punched in the jaw by a sippy cup. So I did what any mature, grown, hormonal woman would do: I rolled over and cried like a baby. 

        Surely, I thought, this was the worst of it. Light started glimmering at the end of the week. It had been a hard week, I was still weak from my stomach flu but life was going to get better and on Saturday we got to celebrate Thanksgiving with good friends. Take that: Life 0 Tal 1. That night Livia had trouble sleeping. Lots of it. When she was no longer comforted by me holding her I started to panic. Matt was gone and at first I couldn't reach my mother in law (a doctor). And then she puked a couple of times. Wait a minute, this is all too familiar, right? We just did this dance earlier this week. The next morning Livia was up at 6 crying. It was too loud to go for a 'selective hearing' approach and since it was my morning to get up with her I slowly complied (I say slowly because we'd been up most of the night with her and my body was feeling it). When I shuffled out to the living room I just stared dumbfounded. In an act of solidarity, the cat had thrown up all over the living room. You have got to been kidding me. Seriously? 

        And so it continued. Livia, sick and grumpy all day every day--no more throwing up at least, turns out that that had been caused from excessive coughing--sick and grumpy all night as well. One night she was up just about every hour, sometimes multiple times. One day in the haze, her and I were going through the box that contained her new play kitchen for Christmas (more on that later) and had just arrived by special delivery. Trying to be helpful, she turned around to give me a longish wooden rod, only to whack me smack in the forehead with it. Later that day she had a tantrum (one of many when the girl is sick apparently) and tried to scratch anything in a toddler arm radius. This just so happened to be on my neck and sternum area, leaving behind scratches that are horror film worthy. Thankfully it looks like hope might be on the horizon and I'm going to attempt going to work tomorrow. All this to say, however, that one lesson has been imprinted on my mind over the past two weeks: parenting is definitely not for wimps. But it might make one out of ya! ;) :) 

Life With Livia Lately

As I type this post my daughter is currently decked out in the the sweat pants and shirt she slept in, Hello Kitty pink rain boots, her polka dot rain coat and a fur lined Christmas cardigan (which is on top of the rain jacket of course). We won't even talk about what her hair is doing at the moment. What can I say, she got my fabulous fashion sense ;) Yep, parenting is an adventure! (Dommage that my camera is currently at school!)

I'm loving this new stage that Livia is in though. She's all about becoming more and more aware of the world around her and imitating it. If you ever need a good laugh just have a toddler. (Of course it comes with a few good cries--both you and her--so be careful what you wish for) She's also currently discovering the function of the garbage can so I just took a break from writing to rescue some pinched fingers and explain why we can't chuck Papa's bible in the bin.

The best part about this stage is that she loves to be Mama's lil' helper. This form of free slave labor helpfulness comes in many forms: scrubbing the kitchen sink, "folding" clothes with me on laundry days, even cleaning up toys (when she's in the mood of course!). The Montessori teacher in me  just hasn't been able to resist (Montessori is all about encouraging children towards independence and personal responsibility) and I've already gotten Livia her own Livia-sized sponge (I happened to find some small ones but you could just use a normal sized one or cut one in half) and later this year I plan on getting her a pint-sized cleaning set (broom/dustpan) to go with the play kitchen that Matt and I will give her for Christmas.

Washing dishes :)

I figure now is the best time to teach her basic life skills while she's willing and just dying to be included. So what if she's a bit more of a hindrance than a real help at times (okay, let's be honest, just about all the time!). We've all got to start somewhere right? I figure, better now than at 25 :)

For anyone who is interested in Montessori for tots and can read in french, here is a great book that gives you lots of ideas and  pictures about all the things you can do.