The Bear Cave, Part II

Right now in the bear cave, we're trying out a "less is more" look that is kind of similar to this Pinterest-inspired space.

Welcome to my humble abode bear cave. My name is Emma, and I will be your tour guide through these semi-blurry pictures.

Mama and I picked up a rug like the one in our inspiration picture and a huge white pillow from Ikea. I could handle a daily trip to that Ikea place; all their kids' products are on display, which means I get to slide there. Over and over and over again. Then I get to test out every chair. The rug we bought is actually pretty cushy, and the pillow, along with my bears, is plenty to lean up against while Mama and I are piled in the cave. Did you know that I like my bears? I do. I kiss each one before bed.

If you're having a hard time picturing me laying in the bear cave, wonder no longer. Yep, Mama, I think this will do.

So, there's our start to revamping the bear cave. Who knows what we'll try next!

Wordless Tuesday

The Picking-My-First-Tomato Edition

The Bear Cave

There's a little corner of Emma's room that's become known as the "bear cave" because it's where her big polar bear lives.

It's not a big corner.

And there's nothing fancy about it.

Emma's just drawn to it.

Maybe because it feels like a little fort?

A few weeks ago, before bedtime, we started reading books in the bear cave. Just for fun.

Now she wants to lay in the bear cave with Mama every night, after Da-da gives her a bath and she's squeaky clean and ready for bed.

It's quickly become my favorite time of the day.

I've been thinking that it would be really neat to do something more decorative with the cave to make it more inviting to bear-loving humans such as Emma, TB, and me. I figure it's a space Emma will only love more as she gets older and into forts and hideouts.

Most of my inspiration for the space is coming from Pinterest.

I like how this space has bookshelves at the little girl's height. It would be fun to do this in the cave because it's where we read before bed.

A curtain would feed the whole fort/hideout idea and I'm sure Emma would love it. I also like the pillows and what this mama has done with paint (or maybe it's not paint?) on the inside to give it a different feel than the rest of the room.

Then again, how neat would a canopy be? This is a DIY canopy in the first picture and I like that it's at a low height. I could hang one even with Emma's crib. The bases of both spaces look comfy, too.

Speaking of bases, this is a dog bed that the little one is sitting on. Brilliant? Mmm hmm. 

And, last but not least, it's understated (with just three pillows and a rug), but this is a cute and comfortable-looking space that would be easy to duplicate in the cave.

Emma and I went shopping at Ikea and Target this weekend and she "helped" me as I tried out a few of these ideas. It's still a work in progress, but we're getting closer to a finished product.

Friday Night

We decided to be way more exciting than we really are on Friday night by heading into downtown St. Paul after dinner to walk around, enjoy a drink, and go to the Children's Museum.

We love downtown St. Paul. I'm having a hard time finding the words to tell you why. I guess we like it because it's beautiful and historic, but at the same time it feels really quaint and liveable. Whereas a lot of downtowns are dying across the country, St. Paul's doesn't seem to be at all. 

We took some pictures on our walk from the restaurant where we had our drinks to the museum.

Emma discovered pigeons along the way. "Here, little pigeon! I just want to pet you!"

She must have chased the pigeons for 30 minutes all over the mall area that we were walking through.

At the museum, we played, and played, and played until shortly before they closed at 8pm. We practically had the place to ourselves. This time, Emma wanted to be a cardinal while we were there, so Da-da helped her put on the costume.

Cardinal, meet cardinal.

Having A 3 1/2 Month Old

One year ago today, we took some pretty cute pictures of our 3 1/2 month old.

I took these of Tyler and Emma in the morning. They were reading in the playroom and then stopped to smile for the camera.

Then, later that day, I was doing stuff around the house and Tyler snapped this one of me wearing Emma in my Maya Wrap. I could bebop around the house and do practically anything I needed to wearing her; she'd just kind of go along for the ride.

And, here TB and I decided to give ourselves a good laugh by taking my week 55 belly pic.

(Because this is where I stood to take my belly pics each week.)

(As you can see, I am a tad overdue.)

Many of our pictures never make it to our blog for one reason or another. These were a few. Hope you enjoyed seeing them...one year late!

Wordless Wednesday

The Someone-Might-Need-To-Pry-This-High-Chair-That-Isn't-For-Me-From-My-Bottom-Because-I'm-Kind-Of-Obsessed-With-Sitting-In-It Edition

A Little Older

Some mornings, I wake up and think to myself, "You, my love, grew over night."

An inch taller.

A pound bigger.

You're just...older.

I felt that way a few weeks back, on the day I took a picture of Emma and me outside of our house. I took a lot more pictures that day, and wanted to share them with you today because I've been thinking a lot about how our little girl is becoming such a big girl.

Sliding pictures. Cuz we're sliders. We slide.

Big-girls-sit-in-lawn-chairs pictures.

Neighborhood greeter pictures.

Shoe Fettish

Emma loves shoes.

She spends quite a bit of time sitting by our front door where her shoes are, picking out which ones she wants to wear out. Usually it's her Uggs, as you may have gathered from previous posts, and she gets away with wearing them a fair amount of the time :)

She also likes to go shopping for shoes. This weekend, she had her Grandma, MoMo, and Mama in stitches in the Target shoe aisles. She gladly tried on about a million pair, and it was really cute to watch her love certain styles and the way they felt on her feet.

Lucky for our shoe lover, TinyShoes ran a deal on Plum District (a daily deal site geared towards mamas) recently. You could buy $40 worth of shoes on their website for just $20. Because my Mom and I each bought one, I was able to order Emma $80 worth of new shoes for just $40. Yessss.

Her first pair arrived a few days ago, and they are her favorite in the entire world. She wants to wear them everywhere, all the time. Perhaps because they are guaranteed to keep little feet warm in up to -25 degree weather (which she just read in this picture)? What's not to love about that?

These are the other pairs I bought for her. They are all for this winter.

It was actually really hard picking them out because, unlike last year, she's walking and will probably face the elements a bit more. I wanted them to be cute, but way more than that, I wanted them to be functional. Winter here is pretty nasty; she needs comfortable shoes that will keep her feet warm and dry.

I'll let you know how our shoe connoisseur likes the rest!