the best gender neutral bed linen for kids – Ikea, of course

It must seem like I’m a giant Ikea ad lately, but I promise this is just my own pure Ikea admiration – nothing more sinister. Have you seen their gorgeous bed linen for kids? Surely this has to be some of the best ever gender-neutral bed linen for children. Seriously good.

ONE/VANDRING RÄV | TWO/VITAMINER VIMPEL | THREE/VANDRING SKOGSLIV | FOUR/FAMNIG HJÄRTA | FIVE/VÄNNERNA LÅNG | SIX/TORVA GRÖNSAK

Daisy – twentythree/twentyfour months

We moved house.
You seemed to settle into your new house really well.
You call it the “big house”.
You also started at a new day care centre, close to our new home.
It took a bit of adjusting for mummy, but you settled in so well!
You ride home from “kindy” on the bike with Daddy twice a week.
And you love it!
You throw a few tantrums here and there.
I saw you have an argument with your dolly = “Mmmmmines!”.
But mostly you love to care for your dolls – you put them to bed, wrap them up, change their nappies, cuddle them.
You distributed a box of almonds through our wardrobe. Hmmm.
You quite liked eating chickpea pilaf.
But your favourite food is still fruit – any and all!
Sometimes you are cranky in the mornings and don’t want to eat your breakfast.
Mummy went away for five nights and you challenged your Dad during that time.
But unknown to him, you were beginning to teeth your final four molars.
It was a bit of a stressful few weeks while those teeth made their way up/down: you were cranky and you didn’t sleep very well.
But eventually you got through it.
You hung out with Meegs and didn’t want to leave her house because you were having so much fun.
You had your first “crazy hair day” at kindy and your hair had pink hairspray in it for days afterwards!
You don’t really enjoy being woken up early on kindy days, but you generally have a good time while you’re there.
In particular you like to look at the pet fish, and spend time in the big kids’ play area.
You are talking a lot more – lots of two word phrases.
It’s really nice being able to chat with you.
You’ve started singing – especially when you watch Playschool.
You like pink/princess/fairy things.
You love to run and jump.
And you have been enjoying the little park on our street.
You’ve been getting into some Disney movies, mostly Toy Story.
You like to eat: pancakes, prawns, eggs.
For your second birthday we gave you a teepee, and you had pancakes for breakfast.

Bedhead on your birthday morning. Happy birthday, baby.

Daisy – twentyone-twentytwo months

Oops… more than a wee bit late on this one. Sorry Dais!

You still really enjoy drawing, and sometimes now you draw “things” e.g. babies, fish.
You have decided you like eating cheese again!
You are able to put shoes on your feet by yourself (but not yet do them up).
Grandma V bought you a paddling pool and you LOVED splashing around in it.
You say quite a lot of words now – around eighty.
Some words get a bit mixed up. e.g. “tooshi” for tissue, “wiki” for kiwi, “battom” for bottom.
You enjoy playing with your tea set, your Magnadoodle, and you still love soft toys and dolls.
We went on a weekend trip to Canberra and you were very good in the car.
In Canberra we went to the aquatic centre with your cousins and you jumped in the pool about fifty times!
You obviously have no fear of water..!
Your are quite delighted by Christmas trees and lights.
And Santa, though it took a while to warm up to him.
And you still don’t want to sit on his lap! (Fair enough.)
You can count to three.
We went to a brilliant carols night at Bella Vista Farm.
You LOVED the animals so much and kept asking “animals animals” all night.
But when we left you said “animals in bed”. Good girl.
You can count to five.
You regularly sing “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” but in your words it sounds like “Crinkle High”.
Your cousins loved singing “Crinkle High” while we were away on holidays.
Speaking of which! We all had a brilliant time at Waymount Farm.
You surprised us by eating and sleeping SO well while we were away.
You spent a LOT of time in the pool, swimming around with your floaties on.
You loved the spa even more – you called it the “warm” pool.
Your very first favourite Disney movie is “Mulan”.
But you say it “Milan”.
Your other favourite is “The Lady and the Tramp”.
Both of which you ask to watch several times a day (we don’t always agree).
Your uncles and aunty came over from New Zealand, as well as your cousin Kaitlyn who you called “Baby Kaity”.
It was lovely to see you and Kaitlyn playing together and giving each other cuddles.

New house

Bedroom 2013 by lindseyclare on Polyvore

Lounge room 2013 by lindseyclare on Polyvore

Baby’s room 2013 by lindseyclare on Polyvore

We are moving house, which is exciting and a little nerve-wracking.

One of the best parts of moving is, of course, starting afresh with how your rooms look and feel. I did some quick mock-ups of how I’d like our bedroom, lounge and Daisy’s room to look. The reality is probably far from this, but a girl can dream.

Daisy – nineteen/twenty months

You cut the bottom two canine teeth.
Your sleep suffered a little in the lead up to Daylight Savings (and so did ours).
5:15am is NOT a good time to start the day. Just sayin’.
You have been doing a lot of “motorbiking” (i.e. your funny wriggle on the floor with Duckie) during the day.
But you still get frightened when you hear passing motorbikes.
New words: turtle, byebye, look, car, booky, pull, teddy, cool, girl, door, chair, “good girl”, eat, ear, nose, farty, hole, cuddle, water, towel, hand, wee.
You say “yep” a lot which is pretty cute.
You like to feed your dolls and duckie and give them drinks of milk from your cup. And brush their teeth.
You like to eat: sultanas, Cheerios, ravioli, yoghurt squeezies, jam on toast!
You have started to show a lot of empathy when Daddy has hurt himself, even if it’s just a cut on his finger.
Instead of your usual “yep”, you now say “yes” except you have a slight lisp so it sounds like “yeth” (very cute).
You love swimming (still).
We took you in the big pool at Waves, and you had so much fun… you actually got a bit mad that you couldn’t just swim around on your own!
We commonly have arguments about teethbrushing. You want to use other people’s toothbrushes, and you want to eat toothpaste. I don’t want you to do those things.
But when we took you to the dentist for the first time, you were interested and well-behaved and let the lovely dentist brush your teeth.
Sometimes you grab a shopping bag and farewell us while walking out the door… off to do the shopping I suppose!
You seem to recognise your written name (or at least, what written letters are): we were looking at some artworks you had created at kindy and you pointed to your name and said “Daisy”.
You read a book to Mummy for the first time – it was “Where is the Green Sheep?” and you made noises and actions for the different sheep as you turned the pages.
Toilet training has sort of started…
Well, you are interested. And you sat on the toilet a couple of times. But then we bought you a toilet training seat and you are scared of it! So we’ll leave that alone for a while.

 

 

 

Ikea Christmas roundup 2012

Each year, I look forward to Ikea’s Christmas offerings. This year seems a bit less impressive than previous years (2011 was pretty damn fantastic, don’t you think?). It makes me wonder whether more Christmas stuff will be added in coming weeks. But still, some lovely items this year already. I particularly love all the candles (though I’m wary of anything scented!). And I like the idea of a minimalist wreath of just greenery – too easy.

I haven’t linked to individual items as it’s so easy (and fun) to browse through the Ikea website. Have fun!

A most lovely giveaway at Che & Fidel

 

In all likelihood, you probably already have come across Che & Fidel, a lovely blog about life, babies, health, and, you know… life as a mum. Australian too, which is always nice.

Jodi is running what I think is probably one of the most nicely curated giveaways I’ve ever seen. Beautiful! Go and have a look, and fall in love with the Daisy Chain necklace just like I have.