Showing posts with label boys. Show all posts
Showing posts with label boys. Show all posts

Saturday, October 25, 2014

Citrus Lane [toddler] Box Review: October


If my 2 year old could rate this box, he’s give it a million thumbs up.  It’s basically everything he loves packaged neatly into one adorable box (including the crinkly packing paper)- cars, maracas, and a dinosaur book!  We’re all very pleased with the contents this month.  He couldn’t wait for me to take photos to get into the box with the yellow taxi cab and I had to hunt them down this morning for their proper photo ops. 

Another small excitement was that box boxes arrived at the same time this month so both kiddos got fun, new stuff to play with.  Mostly, this means my oldest won’t steal tiny man’s toys, claim them as his own, and then get upset when he has to share them with baby brother.  This month he’s far too distracted with his new favorite wooden cars.  

I rate this box a 9/10.  The only thing lacking is the fact that I would love a Janod coupon for their store.  The only coupon code included in this box is for Chronicle Books.


The contents included two Story City Sets by Janod, two maracitos by Hohner Kids, and a dinosaur board book by Chronicle Books.

First of all, my son is *way* into cars.  Big, small, metal, wooden, big wheels, small wheels, even trucks - he doesn’t discriminate.  If it has wheels and he can drive it around the house, he’s content.  So this box is perfect!  The first set is the Taxi Story City Set, and of the two cars included in the box this one is his favorite.  He doesn’t care much for the man on the bike because the wheels on his moped don’t move, but he’s sure to carry around his yellow taxi all day and into the evening before nicely tucking it into his bed to go night-night.  

The second set is the Police Story City Set.  Again, he’s not very into the police man himself, so the police man is effectively left without any transportation.  He also ensures the blue car is tucked in safely for bed at night, next to the yellow taxi (and his favorite airplane, boat, and truck…). I actually think these toys are some of his most favorite CL contents ever.  And *I* like them because they’re wooden, don’t make noise, and are just generally simple toys that promote imaginative play.  Oh, and?!  They fit into standard train tracks!!  It took my tot all of 5 seconds to figure this out and it was quite the exciting moment for us all.  

As anyone with kids will tell you, they like to make noise.  One way to do this is by pulling out all of the baking sheets from under the stove and banging them against the tile floor.  A better way to do this is through instruments.  We already own several maracas of different quality, size, and color so this item wasn’t the most exciting content in the box, but I’m still happy about it because it’s something both my two year old and three month old appreciate.  And they’re a nice size, they’re not too big for tiny baby hands to grasp, and not to small for my toddler to a) eat or b) lose interest in.  They still make some decent noise, and really, what else matters in the eyes of a two year old boy?  Admittedly, he has not played with these since I helped him remove his precious cars from their boxes, but I’ll add them to our music box nonetheless.  

Anddd the dinosaur board book.  Dinosaurs are great.  Mr. Man loves PBS’s Dinosaur Train, so anything dinosaur related is usually a win.  This book incorporates dinosaurs AND shapes, so not only do we get to ROAR every time we turn a page, my son gets to point out different shapes (and colors).  It’s become a bed time favorite (and thank goodness for that, because sometimes reading the same 3 books every. single. night. can be, well, tiring).  








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Thursday, October 2, 2014

Big Kid Room on a Budget

My two year old officially has a big boy room!  It’s been in transition for quite some time.  He had a pretty sweet toddler car bed for a few months but it felt like it was time for a real bed, with a real mattress.  At the same time, I didn’t want to spend a whole lot of money since I plan on buying the boys some *real* furniture after our next move, probably bunk beds with matching dressers and all that jazz (a PBK bedding splurge will probably happen as well, woot!)  Anyway, little man needed an upgrade with a small budget and I’m pretty proud of the outcome.


We bought him a trundle bed that was on sale and came pre-assembled, much to my husband’s relief. The wood in no way matches the dresser he already had, but I think we can all live with that for a while.  I will say, I had daydreams of sanding and repainting that dresser but then we realized what bad shape it’s truly in when we went to move it and it all but fell apart on us (is this an ikea trend? I have to admit, as much as I love their store and their prices, their furniture does not tend to hold up well in big moves).  I’m pretty sure it would not survive a move outside to paint.  So in that corner it shall stay until 2016.  

I have two Pinterest projects in that room: the ikea spice racks as book shelves, and the photos on the wall I took of Mr. Man’s favorite toys.  I painted the unfinished Walmart frames blue and gray, it took all of maybe an hour.  The photos themselves are probably my favorite part of the room because, how cute are they!?  The original Pinterest post suggests having engineer prints made at Office Depot but, alas, resources are quite limited here and that just wasn’t an option for me.  Besides, the frames are adorable and bring some extra color into the room.  


His sheets are from Target, dinosaurs, and the adorable monster quilt was handmade by grandma.  It’s toddler-bed size but it’s still a great size for the twin bed, as well as for my son himself at bed time.  In fact, we don’t even actually utilize the blue comforter yet, he sleeps on top of it, choosing instead to use his three favorite blankets to stay warm instead.  This suits everyone fine because technically his bed stays made :)

Oh, and let's not forget the road rug.  Every child deserves a road rug.  This one happens to also be from Ikea.


All in all I think everything looks adorable.  His room is pretty small, so I was pleased to see the twin bed fit just fine.  This whole transition took only a few hours total and there have been no meltdowns over any of the changes to date (*knock on wood*), so I think it’s safe to say my son approves. 
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