Let’s talk about books! H really loves books, whether it’s a book she looks at after nap time, or wildly flinging all books off of her shelf (which happens a lot 😂). When I got pregnant, I knew that I wanted to give my kiddo every opportunity to fall in love with books the way I did. So we started reading to her every night once she was a few months old. She started remembering stories; we could read her stories we had memorized, and she laughed at all of the funny parts. She really started interacting with them on her own within the last couple of months, and it’s been such a great experience watching her grow in this manner.
Here are her daily reads: 🔹 See, Touch, Feel 🔹Baby Faces 🔹First 100 Words 🔹Llama Llama books 🔹Babies ❤️ Opposites 🔹Babies ❤️ Chunky Flaps (Little Green Frog, Little Yellow Bee, Little Blue Boat, and Little Red Barn)
We keep the rest of her books in her room, and have a bedtime collection in a second one of these IKEA Flisat book displays.
H’s favorite part of all of these books is the mirror in the back of See, Touch, Feel. She loves playing peekaboo with herself. It also has a fuzzy teddy bear tummy, which is a close runner up.
I was browsing Pinterest one day, when I saw it: a tiny bathroom sink set up in someone’s bathroom. Everything in me lost it when I saw the tiny cups with tiny baby soap, a tiny baby toothbrush, and tiny baby wash cloth. I knew I had to do this. Yes, part of it was just because I wanted to see something so tiny and adorable in my house, but most of my longing for this set up was for my kiddo. I’m short, and struggle with bathroom counters; I can only imagine how difficult it would be for her.
The search started with the perfect base. I had seen an example with an IKEA Rast nightstand. When my husband and I moved out of our apartment, we donated our two. I was kicking myself. However, the power of thrifting came through, the spirits of secondhand shopping prevailed, and I scored a used Rast table from NextDoor. With some vision and a Magic Eraser, I was able to revive the dirty garage nightstand. I began to see my concept come to life.
It was dirty, it was used, but it was mine
I originally intended on setting the bathroom station up much later, closer to when H was 14-16 months. She, however, had other plans. Up until now, our post-meal hand cleaning routine involved setting her on the bathroom counter, pouring water on her hands with a cup, and dry them off with a washcloth. Recently, she decided that hand washing time was torture, and would screech and flail nonstop until we were done. Then she would run off, babbling happily. I ended up covered in all the food it had removed from her. It was then that I knew we had to move to the next level of hand washing routine. She had forced my hand.
As of today, we are three days into the bathroom station setup. I grabbed a bowl from the kitchen to use as a basin, and stuck a spare IKEA mirror in a frame, and hung it above the station. I still need to buy the necessary parts for finishing. Our trials have been (mostly) a success. The biggest issue currently is the extremely attractive temptation of dumping the bowl of water over, so we’ll have to address that. H has dumped it once, so far. I also have to figure out how store her belongings in a sanitary manner. At some point, I also want to hang up a shelf below the mirror.
We have H’s station right next to the counter in the bathroomThis glass bowl has been a good trial bowl, but we’ll replace it with something not so fragileI keep this bar of baby-safe soap nearby so I can add some soap to the waterThe sink in action
I’ve been working on my shelf rotating skills lately, but it’s difficult when nothing in your house is organized. H’s room is a disaster since we never properly arranged it after changing it from a former office into a baby’s room. Her room gets cleaned next, but in the meantime, here are the toys we keep out frequently!
Top row: soft building blocks, lamp, stacking rings and mushie stacking cups, Infantino textured balls Bottom row: 8 inch floor drum, Melissa & Doug wooden blocks, mystery basket with various small toys, Green Toys car carrier and ferry
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