PhillyBaby
Our Wedding
Blogs I Love
Daniela is 1
I didn’t think Daniela’s first birthday would be emotional for me, but here we are on her birthday and I’m feeling all sorts of feelings.
Daniela is 1! We all agree that the last year has absolutely flown by. Someone asked me how the first few months were as a mom to four children. To be honest, I don’t remember most of it. I have a few vague memories here and there. Soon after she was born I was home alone with Daniela and my neighbor came over with a gift and to stay for an hour, and that chat was like a lifeline. Another day I remember a stranger stopping me at the grocery store to shame me for bringing a newborn out in winter. That felt bad. I remember going out to dinner with Trig and the baby and she slept through a three hour fantastic date and I felt so victorious. It’s so funny the things we remember.
I don’t remember the summer at all! How did I take the kids in the pool while taking care of the baby? I can’t remember!
Anyway, today is Daniela’s birthday and the kids had to hop on the bus before even seeing their baby. They made me promise to make tonight extra special for her, so Valentina, Daniela and I are off on a birthday party mission! We need balloons, a cake, and food for dinner. We also need to buy her a birthday gift! Poor fourth kid ha!
I asked each of the big kids what their favorite Daniela memory is from the last year. None of the kids could choose just one so I’m sharing them all:
Raffi, age 7:
He loves that as a newborn he got to hold and snuggle her every night while I showered. (I don’t remember this.)
He loves how mad she gets when they take a tiny toy away from her.
Alessandra, age 5:
She loves that Daniela loves her the most. (hahaha!!!! I’m writing these verbatim and I am cracking up.)
She loves how Daniela tries to eat everyone’s shoes all the time.
She loves that Daniela lets her put blankets all around her until she’s a Daniela-volcano.
Valentina, age 3:
She loves how cute Daniela is.
She loves that Daniela gets to go in her preschool class to drop her off.
She loves how Daniela attacks her all the time.
Here are some fun facts about Daniela:
- She will tolerate so much from all the kids. They dress her up, they make her join them in their forts, they try to put bows in her hair, etc etc and she takes it all.
- She is not walking. She is extremely cautious! She can stand on her own if she doesn’t know she’s doing it, but the minute she becomes aware she holds on to the furniture for survival lol
- Daniela is so attached to me, more than any of the other kids ever were. When she sees me she immediately reaches for me. She cries when I won’t hold her. Most afternoons I cook dinner with Daniela on one hip or attached to my leg.
- Daniela loves Hatchimals! She does not put them in her mouth and she will play with them, making similar character noises like the big girls do, for hours.
- She will put anything else in her mouth, but like my smart babe she will stare really hard at me before trying to eat contraband.
- The pool at our gym is Daniela’s absolute favorite place on Earth. When we walk into the changing room next to the pool she starts freaking out, flapping her arms and squealing. It is adorable!
- Daniela won’t drink cow’s milk. This is becoming a problem! She chucks it right off the high chair and won’t snuggle to drink it either.
- She loves the dishwasher as much or even more than Raffi did. After I empty it in the morning she will spend 30 minutes putting a single spoon in and out of it. Funny girl.
- Baby dolls might be Daniela’s favorite toy. She loves giving dolls, stuffed animals, and humans lots of hugs. You say “huggy” and she will hug you!
- Daniela’s eaten Lucky Charms marshmallows, an Oreo, a piece of homemade sugar cookie and some ice cream and she just turned 1 today! You can thank the 3 big kids for all of those treats!!!
- Daniela’s favorite foods: Baba’s pancakes, strawberries, cantaloupe, blueberries, cheese sticks, steak, hamburgers, raw green beans, grapes, peanut butter crackers, Goldfish stolen from Ali, bananas, applesauce pouches, salmon, and pasta.
- Daniela’s favorite things are her big fluffy blankie she sleeps with every night, her little Jellycat bun bun blanket, her sisters’ Corolle dolls, toy eggs, holding spoons, the Nugget couch, and being entertained by Raffi, Alessandra, and Valentina.
- Daniela hates: being left alone, when someone shuts off the music, being buckled into her car seat, being cold, the bath (like really, really hates it), dogs (she’s frightened)
Happy birthday Daniela! We love you!
Through the year….
Arts & crafts corner in our house
I realized that since we’ve moved to this house two years ago I haven’t had a good setup for toys. We renovated our basement last year and it is now AWESOME, but I have yet to give our toys and arts and crafts the TLC they need.
With two kids now in full time school I find myself wanting to go through and set everything up better. I finally have the time to do so. I also recognize that I need to set things up better for them at their current ages. They don’t always want to share toys and art supplies. Two of my kids have nightly homework now that sometimes requires scissors, markers, etc. And Valentina is three and a half now, the prime age for getting into arts and crafts a lot.
So this is what I did! I randomly, despite having a ton of things on my to do list, decided to tackle the arts and crafts situation. I took out all of our supplies from every nook of our house and laid them out. Then, using things I already have at home, reorganized it all. I took then closet doors off of our “guest room” closet and turned it into a more useable space for us. Without the closet doors the space is easy for all of us to access. Sliding closet doors never seem to work for me because I like to see both sides of a closet at once.
Here’s how I organized it:
1: Each child has a memory box where I store very special artwork, not so special certificates they might want to keep, etc. I keep those bins up high so that no child can access them without permission. I started one for each child at birth and we keep adding to it for the years.
2: Out of reach art supplies go on this high shelf. Valentina can’t be trusted yet to have access to acrylic paint, the glue gun, stamps or ink.
3: Each child has a school worksheet bin here where they can put the millions of papers they come home with each day. My kids feel pretty bummed out when they catch me throwing these worksheets out, so I’m letting them keep them for now. They can stay within reach because I don’t care if they get destroyed and would love for them to be repurposed as recycled paper for other projects.
4. My kids have been having a hard time sharing supplies, especially at homework time. I finally bit the bullet and set up each child with his own supply bin. Each one contains crayons, colored pencils, regular pencils, scissors, an eraser, a few glue sticks, their journals and anything art related that specifically belongs to one of them. For example, Raffi has a Star Wars workbook that is special to him. He doesn’t like to share it because Valentina rips out pages, so he will keep it in his bin.
I’m SO excited about this new setup. The kids came home from school today and immediately threw their worksheets into their bins and then took out their supply stuff to start creating. Clean up was easy too as they only have a few colored pencils, crayons, etc to manage.
What a win!!!
I know it seems so silly to write a whole thing about organizing their art supplies, but wow does it feel good. I am a really good mom when I have order and can maintain order, so I like to set myself up for success and set them up for success.
Now I need to tackle the basement… that’s next week’s project!
2 Comments