Sophie's Big Bed

Sophia made a big transition over the weekend!

She moved into her big bed on Sunday at nap time!

{Isn't that book cute? Casey got for her awhile ago and we just started reading it again this weekend.}
This has actually been a little overdue. For awhile now, she's been crawling out of her crib several times every time we lay her down for sleep. She'd fall asleep on the floor by her door or she'd lay down on the changing pad that we kept beside her dresser. :) So she was clearly ready and it was pointless to keep her in the crib.
This crib has served us well (and matched the furniture we already had) for four years. I remember very clearly the day we put it up and the excitement I felt in seeing our unborn baby's nursery coming together.
Actually, the crib wasn't the only thing to go this day. We also gave our high chair to my mom and officially put Sophie in a travel booster seat at the table (like Will). And, because her new bed is a full and takes up much more room, the glider had to move out too. :( That is the thing I'm saddest about. It's hard to see all the baby gear transitioning out of our house, but I love Sophie's new bed (and she is so excited too) and that helps ease the difficulty of the change. But the glider is not just a piece of furniture. It was "our spot". It's where I knowingly rocked my baby girl for the last time on Saturday night. Now we read books in her bed and I either rock her in my lap or I stand and hold her for a few minutes while singing to her. It's not the same. I think for awhile, the glider will reside in the play room downstairs. So we'll still get to sit and read in it... but I'm not sure how long it will last in there either. The crib is currently in storage and I have no idea what we'll do with it. So if you know anyone that's interested in a crib... ;)

Okay, now onto the good stuff!

Ta da!!! Isn't it so cute?! This was just after getting the bedding on. I hadn't played with the headboard decor yet. This is the bed Craig slept in during his childhood and goes with the rest of the furniture already in her room. Craig also used the bed Will sleeps in for a short time during college, but it's SO NICE to have two complete bedroom sets to use in our home. We actually have the furniture that goes with Will's bed up in our room because he doesn't need/have room for dressers.

The headboard on this bed is deeper than the average. Behind the big pillows, there are two "cupboards" with pull-down doors on either end and an opening in the center that serves as a shelf. On top, there is another shelf that is approximately 10" deep or so?

Isn't the "S" pillow so cute? I just love this bedding! It's the Brooke set from PBK.

For a long time now, Sophie has loved climbing up into Will's or our bed and pulling the covers up to her chin. She'd pretend to sleep and then pop up with a big grin. I was afraid she'd think this bed was just another place for her to play her sleeping game but she has actually done very, very well with the transition. Sophie is older than Will was by almost five months in making this big bed transition. Soooo, we decided to not even bother with side rails this time.

Oh, I am so thrilled with how these new fabric bins look on her headboard!! I found them on Etsy and my mom got them for Sophie's birthday this year. When Sophie was a baby, I found some cloth pillow book ends with birds on them on Etsy. I wanted them for this very reason but never ordered. And finally, they disappeared. I was so bummed. So I began a mission of finding some sort of cloth bookends for her future headboard. Nothing was catching my eye... until I saw these. They're sturdy (but collapsible) fabric bins and those round, fabric flower decals reminded me so much of the shape of the trees on her quilt and on the wall decal behind her bed. There were a few color choices, but these looked perfect with her room colors and they sell as a set. To give you an idea of their size, the interior is perfect for storing our Sandra Boynton board books among other small books. And when filled, they work perfectly as bookends!

Books are such an important part of our lives. I want them to be available to our kids in lots of convenient places so that they see them often and always feel that there are comfortable places to sit down and read. I like using books as decor too! Sophie's room doesn't afford us any extra space for a book/toy storage unit like Will's room, so I love that she has this bigger headboard for some of her books. The bedside table that used to sit beside the glider is now in her closet and storing many of her books in it, but she still can't open that door knob yet... thankfully. We have GOT to finish the playroom before she figures that out or we will have a constant mess in there.

We're also going to start working on a project in the kids' rooms and play room once the play room is finished. (There's been a major stall down there, unfortunately. We've just been putting it off and finding other things to keep us busy.) I'm am ridiculously excited about this project. Like, super duper excited. :) Can't wait to show you. But don't expect it for a little while.

Another thing my mom got for Sophie for her birthday is that Little Hoot book by Amy Krouse Rosenthal. Such a super, cute book and definitely a good one to display in this naturey/owley bedroom. I decided to stick it up on her dresser though because I'd like to keep it protected till she's a wee bit older. ;)

Books as decor. I love it!

(Oh, and it's driving Craig crazy that I haven't put a picture in that frame yet. I have a lot of frames around the house that need new pictures. Right Casey?)

Here's just a glimpse of the cut-in shelf in the center of the headboard. The owl bank is from Aunt Casey. The turquoise bin is probably not staying there but I love it and I thought it'd be cute to store some of her favorite treasures in.

And her stool is now at the foot of her bed to help her climb up. :)

This is currently how the bed and headboard look. Craig is adding Prudence as a final touch.

I am so in love with her room. It makes me so happy to walk in there and I love that the bedding really helped pull together the two wall colors.

You can see on the floor by her tall dresser is the book bin that used to sit beside the glider. We moved the changing pad to slide right underneath the long dresser (the old changing table) and we just pull it out when we have to change a poopy diaper. Hopefully we move forward with potty training so that we can get rid of that too!

More books.

"Thank you, daddy, for setting up my big girl bed!!"

Oh my gosh - Sophie is soooo excited! She loves her new bed and I'm so pleased with how well she has transitioned. I only removed the books and things for the first nap time. Since then, she leaves them alone. She still gets up and turns on the light a couple times. But she just stands by the door sucking her thumb until I come in and put her back in bed. It's usually only 2-3 times and then she goes to sleep. Sometimes she doesn't get up at all.

She looks so tiny in that big bed!

This was at one of her naps over the weekend.

And now for bedtime, she jumps under the covers and we read books in bed.

And then we rock and snuggle and I sing to her and recap all the things she did that day before saying prayers and tucking her in.

Can't believe she's getting so big!

Raspberries!

The kids and I drove out to Pullins Raspberry Farm in Haskins, Ohio on Saturday morning for this year's turn at U-Pick raspberries. It's funny how I've been noticing the quick passing of time this summer based on the transitions from one seasonal food to the next. :) Instead of just "June is over already and now it's July"... my mind is thinking "Wow! Strawberry season is over... [insert sad face]... and it's raspberry time already!" But that's the nice thing about summer. With each passing week, one food closes it's seasonal peak with the open of another. And raspberries are definitely something to look forward to. Very shortly, it'll be blueberry season and then into tomatoes and peaches in August. Our garden should also start producing in August if this freaky weather hasn't stolen all it's chances. I kind of wish I'd started a gardening journal to keep record of the time I planted, the weather we've had and the future bearings of each plant. I'll have to remember that for next year. I figure this year is just a trial to get on my feet with a new hobby.

Anyway, last year when we picked raspberries at Pullins, we only picked red ones. Black raspberries were not something I was quite as familiar with. They grow wild and I think I've only had them once in my life at Craig's Aunt Cathy's house over ice cream. At the time, I didn't even know what kind of berry I was eating. :) All I knew was that they were DELICIOUS! Also last year, Sophie had just started walking when we went and I remember being so excited that I could finally take pictures of her standing up! Good memories. :)

So this year we picked both red and black raspberries. Reds were/are not as abundant and took quite awhile to pick the quart that we went home with. The kids were only mildly helpful. Haha! It got very hot that day and their little cheeks got very red from their efforts (not sunburn). Thankfully, we brought ice water bottles for both because they were chugging them!

I was helping Sophie pick a good looking red raspberry. Like I said, many weren't looking ideal so we had to be careful to be choosy. It all has to do with weather because they ripen every day. Allen (the farm owner) told us it's best to come after a good rain because the picking traffic is lower and more berries are ready to go. When you tug on a berry, it should remove easily from it's stem leaving behind a white cone that was it's center core. If it doesn't remove easily, it's not ready and will not taste as good. So with reds, you need to pull gently and pull one at a time.

My taste-tester... as usual.

Don't you love her little, hand-me-down jumper from Cora? I'm bummed that it won't fit her long. The girl is just TALL!

Love these pictures of my little U-Pickers. :) The series of expressions crack me up because Sophie is looking at me... and then down in her carton (which is probably empty 'cause she just eats them all)... then sort of accusingly at Will like "Did you eat my berries?" Haha!

Haha - did you see those eyes?

At this point, the kids were just done. They had put up with my determination to fill a quart of reds. Their cheeks were flushed and they wanted to go home. Thankfully, my car was parked in the closest spot to the first row of black raspberries and Allen let me pick in that row. So the kids sat in the air-conditioned car watching Letter Factory while I picked two quarts of black raspberries in less than half the time (probably one quarter of the time) it took me to pick one quart of red.

This pic is of Will pulling a few black ones off the bramble to taste. Oh! Also, something to note here is that the red raspberries here do not have prickers on the stems. (Craig was surprised about that.) But the black ones do. So the kids could pick with ease on the reds and then I'm the one that got all scratched up picking blacks. ;)

A view of the other black raspberry bushes/brambles? behind the row where I was picking.

I didn't ask this question... but I think the black raspberries start off looking red and then turn black when they are ripe. ??? Don't quote me on that, but when you pick blacks you can just pull ripe, black ones off the cluster by the handful holding your carton just below your hand to let loose ones fall into. However, as you are pulling, the black ones come off SUPER easy and the still-red colored "blacks" sort of stays put. Hence, my theory. By the way, these are completely different bushes/brambles (?) than the reds. It's not like they are intermixed.

I LOVE how pretty they are! And don't they look patriotic? Such a perfect 4th of July weekend activity! I think this will become our tradition. :)

In summary, the folks at Pullins are (as usual) super friendly and accommodating. They have a little "check-out" sort of hut at the back of their residence where you park in front of all the fields. Then they direct you to where the best place to pick is and offer golf cart rides out to the further picking areas. At the check-out building they have a water cooler and little cups. And there's also a port-o-potty nearby if needed.

Upon check out, I had 1 quart of red and 2 quarts of black and my total was only $10.20!!! That is incredibly cheap! That's why I like to U-Pick too. The experience is so fun, but the price makes it so worth it! We have been eating them plain and in just a couple of recipes so far (I'll share in a future post) and they are soooooo good. I'm disappointed weren't able to get more reds on that day, but I've been talking to Allen on the phone this week as to when another good evening would be to pick based on traffic and weather. I'm actually hoping to go tonight (Wednesday) if it rains and then stops after work hours. That would be perfect. I want MORE! :)

Here are my fingers post-picking:

(not too bad)

And this doesn't really do it justice, but I sort of looked like I was attacked by a cat on my hands and a couple places on my arms and legs. Okay, it's not really that bad and it doesn't really hurt... until I stupidly put an alcohol-based hand sanitizer on later that day. :( Oops.

Here's the (literal) fruits of our labor:

Black raspberries should appear shiny when they're ready to pick. And I was thinking while I was out there how I'm sure most kids/people (myself included) have had something "black raspberry-flavored" without ever having tried an actual black raspberry. Then our idea of the expected flavor is so contorted by pure sugar and artificial flavor that you may not appreciate the simple goodness that they offer. They are wonderful! And we are in heaven this week eating them daily. :)

Recipes coming soon! But maybe after I've gone back for more red and made more recipes. ;)

Swimming & Dinner at Nana & Papa's

More scenes from our dinner date with Nana & Papa:

The froggy float vest.

The kids always like to "swim" in the hot tub (which is left unheated normally)... so it's more like a deep baby pool. There's seating around the outside edge of the circle and then drops down in the middle. Will can't touch in the middle, but they all do well with the floaty toys and we just hang out in there with them.

Love Sophie's face in this one. That girl has such animated expressions sometimes. I love it!

More pics from dinner:

For dessert, Nana made rice krispy treats.

I love this series of pictures. While Sophie ate her treat, she and Papa were making silly growl noises at each other across the table and she found this HILARIOUS! :)

Papa came over to give Sophie a kiss...

...and she shared her treat with him. :) Sophie is always good about sharing her food. Haha.

Thanks Nana & Papa! It's been too long since we've gotten to do this and we had so much fun!