As I am slowly and painfully trying to design/fill/create Alexis’ playroom I am finding absolutely zero guides online as to how best to do it.

The truth is, while it is very personal as to what kind of playroom you design for your children, it is also important to make sure that you’ve got all your educational and creative basis covered, as well as make it a comfortable, safe and inviting environment.

So I decided to put together my own guide. It’s not a guide for OTHER people, it’s MY guide, though you can definitely use it to help you define your baby’s playroom areas, as well. I’ll be sure to put in a few finds for you guys, too.

PLAYROOM {in progress} GUIDE

Two years ago I was lucky enough to have a ton of time on my hands, a passion for photography and countless fun times. So when I participated in Ashley’s Memories, Dreams, Reflections, there was a lot to reminisce about. The next year that followed was all about my pregnancy and, honestly, I couldn’t even think about anything but the upcoming birth, so I skipped MDR.

This year, however, is perfect! It was simple, different, somewhat uneventful, but at the same time HUGE when it comes to our roles as parents and our baby girl. So here is a look back at what 2012 had in store for us, based on the prompts provided by MDR 2012.

Another photo dump! Skip it, if you’re not interested. This is mostly here for posterity.

Some 9-10 months photos

Seen in the photos:

A quick post about how our Halloween went. We have a love hate relationship with the holiday based on whether we are able to come up with an interesting costume idea or not :)
Those years that we hadn’t or had been too busy, we acted like it wasn’t even Halloween. On other years, we had more fun than one should be allowed to have. You can see our previous years’ costumes in this post.

This year we were invited to a friend’s Halloween party. After some searching I found the perfect family outfit :) I had to search the net for a green mushroom hat and a onesie with the mushroom graphic on it, but our two costumes were super easy.

Mario, Princess Peach and Lexi as our little Power Up Mushroom

Ok, so it wasn’t too bad in retrospect, however it could have definitely been better.

Featured in these photos:
Elena’s outfit
Nursing top: Boob Design
Skirt: Victoria’s Secret
Sparkly flats: Yosi Samra from MyHabit
Tree of Life  Bracelet: Tal Jewelry from Gilt
***
Stroller: Mutsy 4Rider
Carrier: Boba Soho
Alexis’ onesie: Boob Mama and Baby twin set

Challenge #1: Mommy’s “brilliant” idea to drive 40 minutes to the Botanical Gardens to see the Bunny and walk around and take pictures.

Result:

The gardens were absolutely beautiful and Alexis was initially very interested in surroundings (clue #1: overstimulated baby). By the time we got there, the Bunny was waving goodbye (which was fine, because I wasn’t crazy about putting Alexis in his paws anyways).

I really wanted Alexis to wear this cute dress that my friend Olga from France sent her, but my little girl had other plans, which were “pretending” to be falling asleep when we arrived, so we let her wear her owl onesie rather than change her into the cute Easter dress.

After a quick very distracted on Lexi’s part nursing, we strapped Alexis into her Mutsy stroller and went to enjoy the gardens, or so we thought…

A few minutes later, she started fussing because she couldn’t see anything due to the cover we had to put on the stroller, since it was very sunny. I figured I could get her into my Boba carrier with a hat and carry her so that she could look around.

That’s when everything started breaking down.

Challenge #2: Fussy baby who needs to sleep hourly and doesn’t just fall asleep, because there’s just WAAAAY too much stuff to look at (girly girl, how did you grow up so fast that you are already having problems sleeping due to being afraid of missing out on stuff?)

Result: Me having to rock and shush and try to calm Alexis down after she missed her nap time and had a meltdown.

After what seemed like an eternity and what, I am sure, were a few incredulous looks from people around ( I didn’t pay attention and I don’t really care, but before Lexi, I remember always thinking “Why did they bring such a young baby to a place the baby can’t enjoy?” Silly me thinking Lexi would just go along with it. So lesson learned. I tried. I failed. I’ll wait until she CAN enjoy it. Until then I’ll put my life on hold, what else is new? )

Challenge #3:  Florida heat of 90 degrees, eternal sunshine and no shade to speak of.

Calming a overtired baby in the 90 degree heat – not an easy task. Finally I found some shade and calmed her down. We put her back in the stroller with the cover and tried to pretend to enjoy ourselves and look at some plants. I don’t know how Andrew and my mom felt, but all I could think of is how upset Lexi was (I hate it when she cries!).

Pretty cool statue, huh?

So we finally got to an area with some chairs and a nice shade and we camped out there for a bit.

Soon Lexi woke up and we hung out taking pictures.

Do you see how cute she is post-nap, clinging to her mommy? :)

After a nap and a boobie, Alexis seemed to be  in a pretty good mood and pretty co-operative. We finally got ourselves some pictures with all three girls.

I really couldn’t resist posting all of these “daddy and Lexi” photos. They’re just too adorable together.

I thought this photo was hilarious. Andrew looks mad and Alexis looks scared :) He was just goofing around for the camera, he wasn’t really mad and Alexis wasn’t really scared, of course.

We also had a lot of mommy snuggles, along with a stretch session. She loooves a good stretch and makes the funniest monkey face.

Once we were headed back, and had to cover the stroller again, Alexis started crying, so I had to race to the entrance, so that I could find some shade and pick her up. *sigh* It’s really not easy being out with a 2 months old in these conditions.