New Adventures: Dining Room Edition

We took another step in independence this week and opened up the dining room to our roaming toddlers.

I was starting to feel like the walls were closing in on me, and the kids needed extra room to move around now that we aren't leaving the house anymore. My friend, Beth, came by to help me for a few hours on Friday, and I asked what she thought about removing the gate that blocks off our dining room so that the kitchen is the only thing still off-limits on this floor. I was partly hoping she would tell me that I was crazy, but instead she thought it was a great idea! So we went about toddler-proofing what we could, and then removed the gate to see what would happen.

No Gate!

It was extremely well received!

The kids have been all over it, and we are still discovering more things that we need to toddler-proof...many that we didn't even know would be a problem!

So far we've discovered that:

• The bottom brace for the table makes an awesome jungle gym
• The backyard is fascinating
• All of the labels on Mommy's well-organized bins are way cooler than any toys in the living room
• The wire racks that hold all of the bins are way easier to climb then the bookshelves in the living room
• Shouting across the kitchen to whoever is standing at the other gate (they can see each other) is fun
• Getting stuck in the folding chairs that Mommy and Daddy use (their space saver highchairs are on all of our real kitchen chairs) is not so much fun
• If they stand on the gate blocking the kitchen long enough, they can break it and send Mommy and Daddy scrambling to buy a new gate
• A hand towel duct-taped to the table is a necessity. Apparently the table edge is a magnet for bumped heads.

It's a pretty exciting new adventure, as you can tell!

We've also discovered something else new: Since the kids now have access to the dining room, that also means they have access to the kitchen table where I decorate all of my cakes and cupcakes.

I'm not sure that I've mentioned this on the blog before, but I really enjoy baking! I often take requests and bake for other people along with making sure my family always has bagels, muffins, and bread. I find it relaxing, and it's one of the only hobbies that I've managed to hang on to since having the babies.

All that to say, my kids watch me bake constantly, so it's nothing new to them. But what they really like is watching me decorate cakes and cupcakes. Up until now, it's been so cute to see them hanging over the gate watching the icing swirl out of my decorator's bag.

Yep, didn't fully think through this portion of opening up the dining room to the hooligans.

On Friday, I was working on some cupcakes for a friend, and the kids were running around underfoot in their brand new space. When I finished decorating the cupcakes, I made sure that everything was pushed back from the edge so that no little hands could sample the goods. I went to carry my leftover icing into the kitchen, and Elijah got very upset. I eventually figured out that it was because he wanted some of the icing himself, and he was frustrated because he was now so close, yet still so far away from something he had wanted for a long time.

So being the awesome (and insane) mother that I am, I obliged:

Haha! You know, I'm not normally the type to pipe buttercream icing directly into my kids' mouths. That's just asking for four toddlers to run rampant on a sugar high. But, I'm trying to live in the moment and make some memories. And long-term, the memories are worth more than the inevitable bouncing off the walls.

A little video for your enjoyment!

It's so nice for them to have a little more space, and I think it will become even more appreciated as the winter wears on.

My only question is: Do you think they will expect an icing snack every time I need to decorate now? Yikes! :)

This post may contain affiliate links. For more info, please see my disclaimer page.

We took another step in independence this week and opened up the dining room to our roaming toddlers.

I was starting to feel like the walls were closing in on me, and the kids needed extra room to move around now that we aren't leaving the house anymore. My friend, Beth, came by to help me for a few hours on Friday, and I asked what she thought about removing the gate that blocks off our dining room so that the kitchen is the only thing still off-limits on this floor. I was partly hoping she would tell me that I was crazy, but instead she thought it was a great idea! So we went about toddler-proofing what we could, and then removed the gate to see what would happen.

No Gate!

It was extremely well received!

The kids have been all over it, and we are still discovering more things that we need to toddler-proof...many that we didn't even know would be a problem!

So far we've discovered that:

• The bottom brace for the table makes an awesome jungle gym
• The backyard is fascinating
• All of the labels on Mommy's well-organized bins are way cooler than any toys in the living room
• The wire racks that hold all of the bins are way easier to climb then the bookshelves in the living room
• Shouting across the kitchen to whoever is standing at the other gate (they can see each other) is fun
• Getting stuck in the folding chairs that Mommy and Daddy use (their space saver highchairs are on all of our real kitchen chairs) is not so much fun
• If they stand on the gate blocking the kitchen long enough, they can break it and send Mommy and Daddy scrambling to buy a new gate
• A hand towel duct-taped to the table is a necessity. Apparently the table edge is a magnet for bumped heads.

It's a pretty exciting new adventure, as you can tell!

We've also discovered something else new: Since the kids now have access to the dining room, that also means they have access to the kitchen table where I decorate all of my cakes and cupcakes.

I'm not sure that I've mentioned this on the blog before, but I really enjoy baking! I often take requests and bake for other people along with making sure my family always has bagels, muffins, and bread. I find it relaxing, and it's one of the only hobbies that I've managed to hang on to since having the babies.

All that to say, my kids watch me bake constantly, so it's nothing new to them. But what they really like is watching me decorate cakes and cupcakes. Up until now, it's been so cute to see them hanging over the gate watching the icing swirl out of my decorator's bag.

Yep, didn't fully think through this portion of opening up the dining room to the hooligans.

On Friday, I was working on some cupcakes for a friend, and the kids were running around underfoot in their brand new space. When I finished decorating the cupcakes, I made sure that everything was pushed back from the edge so that no little hands could sample the goods. I went to carry my leftover icing into the kitchen, and Elijah got very upset. I eventually figured out that it was because he wanted some of the icing himself, and he was frustrated because he was now so close, yet still so far away from something he had wanted for a long time.

So being the awesome (and insane) mother that I am, I obliged:

Haha! You know, I'm not normally the type to pipe buttercream icing directly into my kids' mouths. That's just asking for four toddlers to run rampant on a sugar high. But, I'm trying to live in the moment and make some memories. And long-term, the memories are worth more than the inevitable bouncing off the walls.

A little video for your enjoyment!

It's so nice for them to have a little more space, and I think it will become even more appreciated as the winter wears on.

My only question is: Do you think they will expect an icing snack every time I need to decorate now? Yikes! :)

This post may contain affiliate links. For more info, please see my disclaimer page.

Boys will be Boys

The boys are the complete opposite of the girls. They are low maintenance, rarely unhappy, great eaters, and best friends with each other. I find them so refreshing because they are such easy babies and a joy to have around! However, I've discovered that their laid-back personalities make it easy for them to pull one over on me.

Elijah the Explorer

We keep our living room blocked off with a gate, toy box, and couch. Honestly, it's not much of a living room anymore. It's become a playroom. The perfect hang out spot that's filled with toys, we've baby-proofed it pretty well at this point.

The trick is when we open the barriers to carry kids upstairs for nap time. As of this week, no more leaving the blockade open! Elijah now moves so fast that he went around the couch, through the entry way, across the kitchen, and pulled himself up on the kitchen cabinets in a matter of seconds. Of course I took a photo because he was SO proud of himself for crawling so far. And then I deposited him safely back in the playroom. I'm now a little more careful about keeping all of the gates closed, even if I'm only walking out of the room for 30 seconds to carry a baby to the other room.

Caleb the Entrepreneur

Caleb asked me to blog about the new line of hair care products that he developed this week. His first product is a hair gel. Check this out:

-100% All Natural

-No dyes or preservatives

-Baby Safe

-Pure ingredients for a purely fantastical style

-Instant results

The formula he came up with is a very specific blend of single grain oatmeal and peaches with a secret ingredient for lasting effects (Okay, I'll just tell you. It's baby saliva.)

Caleb did his hair just especially for these photos so that you all could see how well it works:

(Believe it or not, this wasn't even the worst of it! He has thoroughly coated it, but I didn't take a photo of that one.)

Elijah the Cookie Muffin Snatcher!

I do a lot of baking when I can find the time. It is cheaper, tastes better, I can control what we are eating, and I find it really relaxing. When I bake, I try to make a bunch at the same time to cut down on the mess and then freeze the items so that I can use them over a few weeks. Today I mixed up 5 dozen Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins, 2 dozen Banana Muffins, and a loaf of Italian Bread. The muffins with chocolate in them are going to be shared with the family of one of Sean's sick coworkers, the banana muffins are for the babies, and the Italian Bread is for me! (Note in the pictures below how close the muffin in the corner of the table is to the play area.)

I was packaging up the muffins for our freezer and the other family and suddenly I realized that I was missing one.  I went back and did a mental count, but each of my gallon ziplock bags had the correct number of muffins in them. Suddenly, I realized that there was a very quiet little boy sitting on just the other side of the gate with two fists full of muffin seeing if he could eat the whole thing without me catching him.

You can see him carefully watching his muffin to make sure none of the other babies steal it. Lol! I removed what was left of the muffin, but did let him finish what he had clenched in his fists. Thankfully, he grabbed a banana muffin and not one with chocolate in it! I let him eat the rest of the stolen muffin with dinner. See? I'm a nice Mommy. :)

I have to remember that they are so much quieter than their sisters, and that isn't necessarily a sign that they are staying out of trouble. Mental note: If the girls make noise, there is a problem. If the boys don't make any noise, they are probably getting into something mischievous.

The boys are the complete opposite of the girls. They are low maintenance, rarely unhappy, great eaters, and best friends with each other. I find them so refreshing because they are such easy babies and a joy to have around! However, I've discovered that their laid-back personalities make it easy for them to pull one over on me.

Elijah the Explorer

We keep our living room blocked off with a gate, toy box, and couch. Honestly, it's not much of a living room anymore. It's become a playroom. The perfect hang out spot that's filled with toys, we've baby-proofed it pretty well at this point.

The trick is when we open the barriers to carry kids upstairs for nap time. As of this week, no more leaving the blockade open! Elijah now moves so fast that he went around the couch, through the entry way, across the kitchen, and pulled himself up on the kitchen cabinets in a matter of seconds. Of course I took a photo because he was SO proud of himself for crawling so far. And then I deposited him safely back in the playroom. I'm now a little more careful about keeping all of the gates closed, even if I'm only walking out of the room for 30 seconds to carry a baby to the other room.

Caleb the Entrepreneur

Caleb asked me to blog about the new line of hair care products that he developed this week. His first product is a hair gel. Check this out:

-100% All Natural

-No dyes or preservatives

-Baby Safe

-Pure ingredients for a purely fantastical style

-Instant results

The formula he came up with is a very specific blend of single grain oatmeal and peaches with a secret ingredient for lasting effects (Okay, I'll just tell you. It's baby saliva.)

Caleb did his hair just especially for these photos so that you all could see how well it works:

(Believe it or not, this wasn't even the worst of it! He has thoroughly coated it, but I didn't take a photo of that one.)

Elijah the Cookie Muffin Snatcher!

I do a lot of baking when I can find the time. It is cheaper, tastes better, I can control what we are eating, and I find it really relaxing. When I bake, I try to make a bunch at the same time to cut down on the mess and then freeze the items so that I can use them over a few weeks. Today I mixed up 5 dozen Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins, 2 dozen Banana Muffins, and a loaf of Italian Bread. The muffins with chocolate in them are going to be shared with the family of one of Sean's sick coworkers, the banana muffins are for the babies, and the Italian Bread is for me! (Note in the pictures below how close the muffin in the corner of the table is to the play area.)

I was packaging up the muffins for our freezer and the other family and suddenly I realized that I was missing one.  I went back and did a mental count, but each of my gallon ziplock bags had the correct number of muffins in them. Suddenly, I realized that there was a very quiet little boy sitting on just the other side of the gate with two fists full of muffin seeing if he could eat the whole thing without me catching him.

You can see him carefully watching his muffin to make sure none of the other babies steal it. Lol! I removed what was left of the muffin, but did let him finish what he had clenched in his fists. Thankfully, he grabbed a banana muffin and not one with chocolate in it! I let him eat the rest of the stolen muffin with dinner. See? I'm a nice Mommy. :)

I have to remember that they are so much quieter than their sisters, and that isn't necessarily a sign that they are staying out of trouble. Mental note: If the girls make noise, there is a problem. If the boys don't make any noise, they are probably getting into something mischievous.