18 books you absolutely have to read with your 2 year old

We LOVE to read around here. We've been reading to Emma ever since she was born. When Emma was one, we read hundreds of books with her, and created this list of the top 100 books to read with your one year old.

But sometimes it's hard to guess

Best one year old gift ideas for a girl: our personal favorites!

When my daughter, Emma, turned one, a lot of people asked me for gift ideas for her. And one month later, at Christmas, everyone wanted even more ideas.

Back then, I had some ideas, but now that she's 2, I feel like I can do a better job of looking back at

What happened when I gave my 2 year old a digital camera

Last week my husband and I went camping with our baby and toddler. For backup, we also brought my parents, my brother and my sister. ;)

Before the trip, I was cleaning some shelves in our basement, and I found an old digital camera that my husband

10 tips to turn a nursery into a big kid bedroom

"All children, except one, grow up." -J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan

Well, Emma hasn't grown up quite yet, but the time is certainly flying by. I can't believe she's already 2!

And, as a 2 year old, we decided it was time to redesign her bedroom,

20 books you absolutely have to read with your 1 year old

When my daughter, Emma, was one year old, I put together a list of over 200 books that I wanted to read with her before she turned 2. And then we read them. All of them. And then some more. It was awesome.

A few weeks ago, I shared our favorite
100 of those books in a post

The 100 best books for 1 year olds

When my daughter, Emma, turned one, I started asking my friends and searching the Internet for the best book recommendations for toddlers. I compiled a list of over 200 books, and we steadily read through that list all year long. As we went, we added new books that we found and loved, and removed the ones we weren't crazy

An organized art station for kids

If you saw my post 2 weeks ago on beautifully organized art stations for kids, then you know that I've had art supply organization on the brain.

Even as a one-year-old, Emma has accumulated quite the art supply

10 Beautiful, Organized Art Stations for Kids

I miss our bar.

The one in our basement. It has been completely taken over by my one-year-old's art supplies.

It started out small: a bag of markers, a

A perfectly packed diaper bag: Toddler version

A few months ago, I published a post called A Perfectly Packed Diaper Bag. It's my most popular post to date. I dumped out all of my diaper bag essentials, photographed them, and created a free printiable checklist to keep you and your newborn organized

Creative gifts for one year olds: Part 3 of 3 (Photos of family and friends)

Note: This post includes affiliate links. Read my full disclosure statement here. 

Looking for a creative and personal gift idea for a one year old? Want to find something they'll actually play with over and over (instead of taking one look at it and spending the rest of the afternoon playing with the box?) As a mother of a 14-month-old, I have a few tested and approved ideas for you! 

(If you missed it, be sure to go back and check out my other ideas for creative gifts for one year olds here and here.) 

Today's gift idea is all about photos of family and friends. Emma LOVES to look at pictures of people that she knows. Plus, she's just learning to say names (Grandpa is "Pa-Pa," Aunt Amy is "Emy" and her cousin Blair is "Bay") so this is great practice for her.

For this gift, I have two different ideas to share with you. The first one was actually a Christmas gift from my parents. They printed out a bunch of photos of Emma with different family members and friends, and framed them using these foam frames from Amazon . 

The result was fantastic! We keep the photos in a basket on Emma's toy shelf, and she gets them out to play with all the time. 

She loves carrying them around, and spends a lot of time pointing at each person and practicing saying their names. 

The frames are great- they are perfect for Emma's little hands, and I love how soft and bendable they are. However, I do have to say that without any reinforcement, your toddler will be able to pull the photos out of the frames (something that Emma did within the first few hours.) I fixed the problem by using packing tape to secure the back of each frame, and haven't had any issues since. A dab of glue would probably be just as effective. 

Not into the photo frames? Here's another option: A printed "Family and Friends" photo book. We ordered ours through Shutterfly. 

It was a really simple process, and Emma sits and "reads" this entire book at least once a day. She really loves it! 

Each family member got one page. At the end I added pictures of some of her friends as well. 

So that's it! Two ideas for ways to use family photos to make a creative and personalized gift that your toddler will play with over and over. What do you think?  

Here's another post you may be interested in reading: 

Creative birthday gift ideas for a one year old: Part 2 of 3

Did you catch my last post on making a DIY makeup kit as a gift for a one-year-old? Today I'm sharing another super-creative gift idea for a one-year-old that you can assemble yourself, and they'll play with over and over.  

Update: Make sure to check out part 3 in the series here!

Ever since she was a few months old and first started picking things up, my daughter has loved playing with the contents of my purse. Wallet, keys, phone- she loves it all! So I decided to assemble a purse of her own for her first birthday. 

I found a small purse at a thrift store (I did clean it, but if you're squeamish about germs you could purchase an inexpensive new bag.) I made sure it was small enough that Emma could easily carry it around. I also bought a wallet at the same thrift store. This one looks a lot like mine, so I knew she would love it! 

Next, I added a pack of tissues, my old iPhone, and some keys on a keychain. The keys were new (I was attempting to avoid germs) but I did find that the newly cut keys had really sharp edges- so be careful if you decide to take that route.

Next, I found some things to put in the wallet.

I added some [expired] coupons, wallet-sized photos of my husband, Emma and me, and a bunch of "credit cards." These were any cards I could find that I didn't need anymore, including used gift cards and rewards cards that I had doubles of or no longer used.

And that's it! I packed it all up and put it into the purse. Emma loves it, and she's even found some new items to add, like a hairbrush.

What do you think? I had so much fun assembling this purse for Emma, and she plays with it all the time. Be sure to stay tuned for part 3 in this series- coming soon!

Creative birthday gift ideas for a one year old: Part 1 of 3

My daughter, Emma, (who just turned one) loves to play with "toys" that are not toys at all. One time she found a ping pong ball and refused to put it down for two days straight. I am not even exaggerating. She took it into the bathtub with her, she slept with it, and she did everything one-handed for 48 hours. 

This got me thinking. 

When I thought about it, I realized that all of my daughter's favorite things to play with have three things in common: 

1. She loves "taking things out." She likes bags and boxes, and little things that fit inside of other bigger things. She likes to empty things out, one thing at a time. I know this because she daily empties the tupperware out of the kitchen cabinet, the contents out of my purse, and clothes out of her drawers.

DIY first birthday party invitations: teddy bear theme

I can't believe that my tiny little baby is about to turn one! When we started to think about a first birthday party theme, it didn't take long to come up with the idea of a teddy bear party. Emma's third word (after "mama" and "dada") was "BEAR!" She loves playing with her stuffed bears, and often carries them around, giving them hugs and kisses.

Once we decided on a teddy bear theme, it didn't take me long to start envisioning invitation ideas. I never buy invitations because I have an invitation-making method that makes it sooo easy to DIY. Basically, I choose 2 types of paper to layer, print the details on the top sheet, and decorate however I want. It's really simple, but they always turn out looking great!

How to make inexpensive, customized thank you cards (plus a free printable)

This summer, we took Emma to visit Kevin's aunt and uncle who live in Northern California. When we took her to the beach, the water was a little bit too cold for her. . . but she LOVED playing in the sand! I mean, loved it. I've never seen her so intrigued by anything before.

When we got back, Kevin's aunt and grandmother decided that Emma needed a sandbox in her own backyard as an early birthday present, and a few days later, we received an adorable turtle sandbox in the mail.

(In other news, they still make turtle sandboxes! I had one of these when I was little, and am quite pleased that now my own little girl gets to play in one.)

Well, the novelty of the sand has not worn off, and we've spent a lot of time this summer out in that sand turtle. But why am I sharing this story with you? Well, when someone gives you a special gift, you want to send them a special thank you card. Something that will really let them know that you appreciate them. So I decided to make my own thank you cards out of (what else?) a photo of Emma playing in her sandbox. And now I'm going to share how I did it with you, just in case you're looking for an adorable (and inexpensive!) way to tell someone, "Thanks!"

Here's what you do:

Step 1: Print out this cute thank you sign (or make your own, have your kids make their own, etc.) 

Step 2: Take a cute picture of yourself (or, in this case, my daughter) with the gift and the thank you sign. Here's the picture I used for the sand box thank you. I love the look of intense concentration on Emma's face. She takes her play very seriously! 

Step 3: Get the pictures from your camera onto your computer. For me, this means importing them into iPhoto.

Step 4: Copy the picture into a word document and hit enter a bunch of times so that the picture is at the bottom of the page. Think about where you want the fold in the card to be. Leave a bunch of space on the other side of that imaginary fold. ;) Here's what my word document looked like: 

Step 5: If you want the card to fit into a certain sized envelope, right click on the picture to change the size.

Step 6: Print, fold your paper in half, and use a paper cutter to trim the sides. I decided to leave a strip of white on each side of the picture in order to make a little border. 

And that's it! You're DONE!

 

Vaccination and Heath History Record

I hate filling out medical history forms.  I find it to be very tedious.  At every new blank, I end up either searching through a file folder with about 200 papers in it, googling a phone number or address, or digging through my wallet to copy information from my insurance card or ID.  

The problem has been complicated for me since I've moved several times in the past five years, switched jobs, switched insurance companies, and switched doctors and dentists.  Needless to say, I've spent a lot of time filling out medical paperwork.  And I can't even imagine how much more complicated this would be if I had kids! 

So I decided to create a document for my computer where I can easily access all of this information.  It has already been a huge timesaver, and I have it here for you to download and use as well! 

VACCINATION AND HEALTH HISTORY RECORD: TO EDIT AND SAVE

VACCINATION AND HEALTH HISTORY RECORD: TO PRINT

I'm planning to keep mine saved on my computer for easy editing.  However, I'm also including a printable version for you in case you like to keep paper copies.  Just print out as many of each page as you need.  The document includes: 

Page 1: Basic Information

For those of you with kids, I included this cover sheet so that you can create a different record for each child, and easily keep them straight.

Page 2: Current Providers

This is the spot to write basic contact information for doctors, dentists, insurance companies and pharmacies.  There are two extra spaces to include information for others, such as allergists or dermatologists.  

Page 3: Past Providers

If you've moved or switched doctors a lot, this page is for you! Keep a record of your recent past providers and the dates that you used their services. 

Page 4: Vaccination Records 

Your doctor will have a copy of this as well, but I've found it very handy to have my own record on hand.  You can easily look down your list and find the dates of each vaccination.  

Page 5: Medical Events This is a catch-all page for easy access to dates and details about important events in your medical history.  These might include surgeries, hospitalizations, and important doctor's visits or procedures.  You know- the things that you're always being asked about when you join a new doctor, and can never quite remember the dates on which they occurred... 

  

Page 6: Medications 

This is a place for you to record prescriptions or medications you've taken, along with dates.    

I recently had to fill out forms for (another) doctor, and I was amazed at how easy it was with my new records close at hand.  I hope this document saves you some time and trouble as well. Enjoy!