7 Simple DIY Home Design Ideas for Your Growing Family

I’m not an interior designer, a decorator, or an HGTV host but recently when guests visit my Brownstone Brooklyn apartment their jaws drop. The transition from unremarkable to inspired design happened organically, and involved my entire family. You see, I recently had a second child. My older daughter is nearly three. The NKOTB (New Kid on The Boob) is three months. I am currently a “stay at home mom” and I’m not using that phrase to publicize my employment status. I rarely leave the house.  But I’ve maintained an open door policy for visitors who stop by to see how fucked up I am after my latest c-section.  In the past when expecting guests I’ve placed fresh blooms on the table, fresh fruit on the counter, and fresh linens in the bathroom, but with a toddler and newborn running the home guests are lucky if I’ve placed a shirt over my nursing bra. In fact, my giant leaky nipples have been on display so frequently I feel like a Kardashian.

In the days after bringing home baby I worried about the state of my apartment. Like many of you, I would employ the “run and hide” tidy up method moments before the doorbell would ring. This involved ten minutes or less of frantically shoving mess, toys and clutter into the back bedroom and locking the door. It was when I finally said “fuck it” that the natural happenings of everyday life as a family with two under three transformed my home.  And judging by peoples’ stunned reaction as they enter the door, clearly we have managed to create a look that delivers. Unfortunately, there is no way any one can exactly replicate the look that we’ve perfected. Nevertheless, I am confident that by following the simple steps I’ve set forth below you too can WOW your family and friends!

1.      The Ikea Hack. I’m a huge fan of the Ikea hack. Traditionally this is where you take an Ikea product and customize it in order to hide the fact that you are in your thirties and still shop at Ikea. For this new take on the Ikea hack, take any piece of furniture in your home and have your toddler hack at hit until it is dented, and cracked.

2.      Remove all rugs. Take all of your area rugs – the ones you bought to add a pop of color to your room, or to perfectly frame out the living room from the dining area – and put them in storage. Now that you’ve got a potty training toddler they would only serve as a wee wee pad anyway.

3.      Floor flourish. Now that you’ve removed all rugs from your home the floor may look bare. To add some much needed flourish scatter your disposable nipple pads about. Be sure to leave some behind the cushions on the couch as an unexpected surprise for your guests to discover. 

4.      Add custom wall art. Step away from your toddler for just a few moments. This should be enough time for her to find a marker and cover your walls and possibly some upholstered furniture in a one of a kind design. And joy, it’s a sharpie, the permanent marker you’ve grown to hate and would swear had been removed from your home months ago when you last caught your toddler redecorating.

5.      The new scented candle. Newborns need their diapers changed on average 1200 times a day. I’m pretty sure I read that statistic somewhere. Either way, within a week postpartum you should be carrying diapers in a holster around your waist and be able to change a wet one singlehanded while posting a snapchat of this impressive new party trick. Instead of schlepping to the nursery to change and dispose of every diaper, change some on your bed and couch and simply toss the dirty diaper to a designated corner of the room to be taken out when convenient. The subtle scent of newborn pee and poo will fill the air with a bespoke aroma.

6.      Miscellany. For finishing touches to your home makeover build a block tower then whip the blocks across the room. Hide rogue cheerios, grapes and yogurt raisins under tables and chairs. Throw an entire roll of toilet paper and a half drunken juice box into the toilet. Take all the clothes that were hung on the drying rack and pull them onto the floor. Have your toddler poo next to the potty rather than in it.

7.      Hang a family portrait. Hang a picture of your family in a beautiful frame in a prominent place in your home. That one picture where you are all looking at the camera and even smiling. One that as you scan your barely recognizable apartment catches your eye and for a moment makes you feel at peace with your new surroundings, and beyond lucky to have the greatest people to share them with.  

I Let My Toddler do Bad Things and Get Away With It

It's 8:40 am and my terror, I mean toddler, has discovered two pieces of chocolate left out on a table.  She knows chocolate is a treat not to be eaten at just anytime of day. I am sitting not two feet from her and watch as her eyes widen and a smirk crosses her face as she reaches for the chocolate treasure. She's got them in her chubby clutches and takes a quick glance toward me before bolting out of sight. I sit up momentarily, fill my lungs prepared to shout after her but instead slump back into the sofa and re-fix my eyes on the magazine I have been halfheartedly perusing. Victory is hers. Go ahead and judge me. I'm too tired to care.

My day began at 5:30am - breakfast time for my two month old daughter. After she was changed and settled into a satisfied slumber I prepared to join her. But instead my alarm went off in the form of a tantruming toddler. So much for a Saturday sleep in. In the ensuing hours we negotiated over which plum she would eat, debated over the appropriate toastedness of her bread, bargained over whether she would sit on the potty, and argued over the mess she made on the floor. I reminded her that tables are for glasses not for asses (in toddler friendly terms), reprimanded her for trying to wake her sister by sticking her finger in her ear, and refused her request to color on the (formerly) beige couch. She whined, pouted, cried, and screamed in between each please, thank you and I love you Mama. I took deep breaths, kept my cool, explained good behavior expectations and tried not to over do it with the threat of time out.

As a parent to a toddler consistency in discipline is key but so is picking your battles. Knowing how to reconcile these seemingly contrary principles is a challenge. So is raising a toddler. It's a game of improvisation, a stay one step ahead, fake it 'til you make it type of job. So at times I let exhaustion lead the way as is the case with the runaway chocolate. I confess I even enjoy the thought of my daughter reveling in the fact that she got away with it and savoring her forbidden bounty. Moments after her bolt across the room, my daughter reemerged with chocolate on her breath and smudged across her cheeks. She approached me and said, "Mama do you want a chocolate?" She opened her sticky fingers to reveal the now melty second piece of chocolate.

So she took something shouldn't have taken, and ate something she shouldn't have eaten. At least she knows how to share. 

7 Reasons Why I Am Making A Gift Registry For My Child's Birthday Party And Why You Should Too

My daughters third birthday is not for another three months but today I've decided that when the time for birthday planning arrives, in addition to selecting invitations, entertainment and decorations I will also be choosing her gifts. And I don't mean just the gifts from her father sister and me -that's a given. I will also choose the gifts I would like the guests to bring. In the past, and only when asked, I would make general suggestions which hint at my daughter's interests (books, dinosaurs, art). This time I'm planning to go full on wedding registry style with it.

Registries are widely accepted practice for bridal showers, weddings, and baby showers but it's rarely done for children's birthdays. Every person I've told about my plan is instinctively put off by it. Birthday party registries come across as presumptuous, imposing, and a bit tacky. I won't entirely disagree. But they also make life easier for the host and the guests and benefit everyone especially the birthday boy or girl.

Here's why:

1. Returns, re-gifting and repeat gifts are a massive inconvenience.
If you have a kid or kids I can assume your life is busy. If your kid is still in diapers you can have a full day without ever leaving the house. Returning unwanted and duplicate gifts becomes yet another chore on the endless list of crap that needs to get done. Schlepping to various shops across the city to return these rejected gifts is low on the priority list and over time lost receipts and expired "return by" dates make some gifts non-refundable. In my home these gifts are relegated to the re-gifting box. And because kids gifts tend to be gender and age specific I then have to wait for a 2 year old girls birthday party, and hope that she likes the gift more than we did. I've had gifts taking up space in my closet for years waiting for just such an occasion.

2. Your gifts are great, they just don't fit in my small apartment
I am typing these words on my compact computer from my humble sized Brooklyn apartment which I share with my husband and two kids. I would love for my newborn to have a swing, excersaucer, jumperoo and kick and play and for my older to have a tent, ballpit, art station and all the latest kid gear to keep her stimulated and happy. I also would like to see the floor. Floor beats toys. So I put a ton of research into learning the essentials and that is what we buy and all we have room for. So thank you Aunt Susie, my daughter loved the life sized doll house, we just like having a couch more.

3. These gifts are a big deal so let's get it right.
I see toys, games, clothes and accessories my daughters would love nearly everyday. For several reasons I (mostly) resist the urge to buy them. Money is one reason. Space is another.  But the biggest reason I leave toy stores empty handed is that I do not want to raise spoiled children. When my daughters get a present it should be a special, memorable treat. If they get something whenever they go in a store they will begin to feel entitled to the same every time. And gifts will have to be bigger and more lavish just to impress them. No thank you. For that reason I try to give them gifts only for birthdays and other special occasions and I try unsuccessfully to have their grandma do the same. Which is why on the days when my daughters do get presents they should be things the girls have been wanting and waiting for.

4. Toy stores are often directing you to the wrong gift.
The toy store is laid out in a way to guide you in your gift selection. A pink section for girls, a blue section for boys and aisles divided by category and age range. Not only do I resent the way children's stores are divided by gender in a way that reinforces outdated gender roles but the layout often poorly influences people's purchasing choice. My daughter has only ever received gifts from the "girl" section of the store. And I'd wager some of your sons have only received gifts from the "blue" section of the store. This is a huge disservice to girls and boys alike. At two and a half my well-rounded girl loves architecture, geography, and marine biology. By creating a registry I can ensure that her gifts satisfy all of her interests and balance between being fun, educational and useful. And those gifts may or may not be marked as recommended for her "2+" age group. As parents we know better than toy manufacturers our children’s level of development and are better suited to select which gifts would challenge and amuse them.

5. We have better things to do with our time.  
The summer of 2010 was the summer of weddings. Every weekend ended with me digging through my purse in search of the tiny packet of Tylenol meant to cure the inevitable hangover left from a night well spent. The summer of 2015 is fit to be the summer of babes (think diapers not g-strings). My calendar is full of births, birthdays, baptisms and the occasional bris. So today I found myself pacing the aisles of Toys "R" Us in search of multiple gifts. After twenty minutes in the arts and crafts aisle I paced the puzzle aisle, board game aisle, wandered through the action figures and board books and took a forty minute break to feed and change my two month old daughter. Despite the age suggestions on many products I was clueless as to what would be appropriate for the kids I was shopping for and I soon realized I had spent the better part of my afternoon trying to figure out the right gift for these kids. I left the store defeated empty-handed and fancying a cocktail.  I will never get those wasted hours back but gift registries could help save countless more.

6. Avoid the last minute "good enough" gift 
I love the idea of giving the perfect gift. Something thoughtful, creative and personal and if I found that perfect gift I'm sure I would buy it whether the invitation mentioned a registry or not. But most of the time I lack the time energy and imagination to find the perfect gift and end up shelling out money for a gift I've deemed "good enough". I suppose "good enough" is good enough but giving a gift you know is wanted is far better.

7. It's a suggestion not a requirement
Registries are designed to ensure the guest of honor will receive gifts they want and to eliminate the guesswork for everyone else. They are not however a requirement for admission. If you don't like the lack of thought and element of surprise that comes with buying off a registry you could always get an unexpected side gift. If you found a gift you think the child would love there is nothing wrong with going off script. For everyone else the registry has got your back.

So to my family and friends here's your advance notice. When the invitation slips into your mailbox there will be an added line "registered at" for your consideration. To everyone else if you are in the process of planning a birthday party I hope I've persuaded at least some of you to register. Acceptance comes in numbers and although for all the reasons I've stated above I believe birthday registries are the best way to go I don't want to be the only asshole out there to do it!