the 52 project // 21

"A portrait of my daughter, once a week, every week, in 2014."

penny: as i attempt to write this you're currently in your room boycotting your nap. it sounds like there's a wild animal in there but you're not calling for me yet so i'll take this few minutes of free time and run with it. you're definitely letting your almost 2 and a half year old qualities be known lately. it's hard to predict exactly how our days will go. will it be a care free day where laughs are plentiful, or will you be you testing me every step of the way. you keep me on my toes, absolutely exhausted, but on my toes for sure.

linking up with jodi.

the 52 project // 20

"A portrait of my daughter, once a week, every week, in 2014."

penny: this week, while running along the sidewalk, you stepped on a rusty nail. it went through your sneaker and right up into your foot. you were very sad, and so was i. much of our week was spent taking it kinda easy as you didn't really want to walk on it very much, and your legs would easily tire from walking on your tippy toes all the time. thankfully, your dad hit it out of the park when he came home with these mickey mouse bandaids. you were obsessed with cleaning your "boo boo" and reapplying bandages, and because of that diligence your foot is now 100% better... though you'll still tell anyone you meet that you stepped on a nail and it made you cry.

linking up with jodi.

and naturally, here are a few extras...

the 52 project // 13

"A portrait of my daughter, once a week, every week, in 2014."

penny: this photo pretty well sums you up these days. no pants, skinned knees, and getting into something you probably shouldn't be. you are most definitely two!

last week we drove up to charlotte to visit our best buds for there little boy's very first birthday. it was one year ago that we were doing THIS. i can not believe how fast this past year went. the years fly by in regards to your own children, but i'm pretty sure they move at warp speed when it's your friend's children! on our trip we pretty much expected penny's terrible sleep patterns (mentioned here if you missed it) to continue right on as scheduled, but to our great delight she actually started sleeping through the night again, and even slept until 8am every day. that far exceeded her 6:30am wake up that she was having previous to this trip. she slept in a pack-n-play while we were there, and you had best believe we busted hers out when we got home to see if her new good habits would carry over. after a few rough starts we seem to have solved it... for now. we came to the conclusion that she was doing some extreme rolling in her sleep, probably rolling out of her floor bed, sort of waking herself up, and that's what was kicking off the night terrors. we never would have guessed that without going out of town because she's been in that bed since she was 4 months old. we'll for sure be keeping her in her pack-n-play until we know we're in the clear, and then probably go ahead and get her a real big girl bed... with toddler rails for this little mover!

linking up with jodi.

penny's room tour // a montessori toddler room

when we moved into our new place getting penny's room all set up was our first priority. i thought i'd take you on a little tour of how it's looking so far. we decided to keep it pretty similar to her room in our old house so that she would have a feeling of familiarity here. we've updated some things to make it a space that is inviting to her, and while still keeping in mind the montessori philosophies that we think are important. it's still a work in progress, but this is where we're at now...

some things about her space...

we repainted some metal hanging flower baskets and mounted them on her wall, low enough for her to reach, to hold her growing collection of 'lovies' // we also put a small coat rack at her level so that she could be in charge of putting away her own coat // we keep some toys hidden away in her closet and switch them out every so often. 1- it keeps down on the clutter. and 2- it keeps her engaged in her toys without needing to add new ones // we made a small reading nook with books easily accessible // this girl loves her dinosaurs & vintage little people, so they are always in reach as well // we are still successfully using a floor bed, the only change being that she now loves pillows. there were some tough nights due to the move, but things are going smoothly in that department again. we found that having a small lamp that she can turn on and off herself has really helped her feel comfortable in there

if you missed her first room tour you can see it HERE. she was so little!!!

the charlotte thanksgiving day parade

playing catch up on posts these days...