Nesting instinct refers to an instinct or urge in pregnant animals to prepare a home for the upcoming newborn(s). It is found in a variety of animals (both mammals and birds) including humans. (Wikipedia)

That "nesting instinct" is in full swing at our house at the moment - from cleaning to cooking to organising to sewing to literally making a nest for our new baby. 

Because we recycle many unused items at our house, I had sold our bassinet from Baby J. Now that baby #2 arrival is imminent I needed to come up with a sleeping solution for it. My bestie just had her baby and was really pleased with the "DockATot"(https://dockatot.com/) for her little one. I did my research and surprise... they don't yet sell them here in NZ! (sarcasm intended)

I decided I would pick my own fabric and make my own. 0_0 I definitely did not know what I was getting myself into. This project definitely tested my beginning sewing machine skills. This was not fun to make or easy, but I am very happy with the end result. 

Looking forward to placing our new wee baby in their little nest. 

Tutorial: www.youtube.com/watch?v=FroD9XeowwI

 NZ safe sleeping tips for newborns: http://www.kidshealth.org.nz/safe-sleep-your-baby

Stepping on a piece of lego - many parents have had this annoyingly painful experience. It often happens when you least expect it - creeping through the lounge to get a drink of water in the wee hours of the night. 

Trying to keep our duplo and lego off the floor is always a bit of an effort. And yes, even with our well-constructed table our duplo often gravitates to the easy play space of the floor. 

Although I am a strong advocate of child-directed play and we often end up with play items in every part of the house, I also like a well-organised lounge at the end of a long day of play. 

We had a low chest of drawers not really being used in our spare room. I bought a couple of $5 bins from the warehouse stationary and grabbed a few spare screws from our garage. I screwed the bins on either side for easy duplo/lego storage. I bought a couple of secondhand duplo baseplates to put on the top. I planned to screw them on, but decided just use them when needed, so that the table could be use for puzzles, dollhouses and other manipulatives.

The drawers are on rollers and easy to open and close. The top of the table is just at child play height. I can rotate the contents of the drawers easily. This handy wee table gets used everyday and is very versatile for all kinds of play. If you want to make one yourself, you could get more creative than me, but I enjoy the simplicity of this one. 

So, it is winter here in New Zealand. A rainy saturday presented the perfect opportunity for a little DIY during Miss J's afternoon sleep. 

My two year old has a very old school closet in her room with a very tall pole for hanging. She is also learning to be more independent - toileting herself, dressing herself, etc. We also have a new baby coming and need to make room in the closet for baby's things as well. I did a quick pinterest search, 2 hours later after being down the rabbit hole called pinterest. I emerged with a few ideas, that would cost me NOTHING! Perfect. 

I grabbed a crate and some scrap wood we had in the garage and along with a leftover bit of pole we had from our closet reno, I set to work with the saw and drill. Thankfully my husband was home and he helped me pick out the right kind of screws for securing it together. An hour later the result was a lovely little clothes rack with room for shoes, bags and hats on the bottom. Just don't tell my midwife I was sawing away at 32 weeks pregnant.

I hope to customise it a bit more with some paint at some point, but for now it will do very well. 

Miss J loves having her clothes at arms reach and being able to pick out her own shoes. 

One step towards independence and one happy Mama. 

What hacks have you done to make your preschooler's room age appropriate in height and accessibility? 
Do your children share a room? How do you make it work? 

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Pinterest can be my greatest asset or my worst enemy. In this case, I feel pretty pleased with my pinterest inspiration for my toddler's bed. 

A few months back I decided it was time to get rid of the cot (crib). We were away on holiday and a mattress on the floor was the best option. When we arrived back home, I decided to remove the rail of Miss J's cot (crib) and transition her into a "toddler" style bed.  Her room is very tiny and I couldn't bear the thought of putting a single bed in it's place, as it would basically be just that - a bedroom and no room for anything else.

​I thought about buying a toddler sized bed or even a toddler sized bunk bed. The builder's quote was $800. Ya, nah! Back to the drawing board... aka pinterest. 

How could I make her cot (crib) look more like a bed? 

                                          By turning it upside down of course!!!!!!

So I did just that. I removed one rail, turned the cot upside down, added a mattress and hubby installed a rail. 

Now Miss J has her very own toddler sized bunk bed. Perfect for those summer family sleepovers or for her very own reading loft. The bed is very stable. So stable, mummy can lay on the top. 

Total cost: $40 for a secondhand lightly used mattress. We had the wood for the rail already as it came from another bed we cut down from a queen to a double.

I call that an economical and functional venture. Good thing it looks cute and our little one LOVES her bed. 

Learning colours comes naturally for most people, but who wouldn't love their very own personalised Book of Colours. This was a 2 hour project in total from gathering the supplies, putting it together, and laminating the project. 

I basically followed the tutorial on this page http://www.teacherbytrademotherbynature.com/2015/08/diy-homemade-colour-book_7.html and here https://craftulate.com/2013/03/homemade-colour-book.html, but made a few small changes to suit J. 

Supplies:

Paint swatches (two of each colour) from Mitre 10 (FREE)
A meaningful photo to your child in each colour you include in the book. 
A range of stickers ( we had these at home)
Book Binding Rings (x2)
Hole punch
Glue
Laminator/laminating sheets (optional) - I took the pages to the Warehouse Stationary and they laminated, cut and whole punched for $8. 

I collected one large Resene paint swatch in each of the colours I wanted (pictured below): 
Red/Pink
Orange
Yellow
Green
Blue (not pictured)
Purple
Grey/Black
Brown
(I may add white later)

1. Cut the cards in half and glue them together so that they form a book with the matching colours facing each other. 
2. Add stickers and a photo to each colour and write in the colour name. 
3. Laminate.
4. Punch and ring.
Ta-da! A personalised book of colours. 

I think they key element for J is that she sees all the things that are important to her in the pictures and connects her prior knowledge to the colours she is learning.

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J loves to do many things, but her two all time favourites at the moment are reading books and swinging. I had a beautiful Peruvian woven wrap gifted to me and I wanted to make something cool with it. I did a bit of googling and found a great tutorial http://www.abeautifulmess.com/2014/06/hammock-chair-diy.html. I borrowed a sewing machine and whipped this little swing seat up in one night. I made it ages ago, but she is just getting into it.