10 Simple Toddler Hairstyles.

Raise your hand if you have a busy, wiggly, adorable toddler! [raising my hand]

Raise your hand if your busy, wiggly, adorable toddler refuses to sit long enough for you to style her  hair. [raising both my hands]

I have some advice. And it's what has worked for us. Here it goes:

1. Turn on cartoons.
2. Be quick.

Really. My daughter's best hair day is a day that cartoons are playing, I'm fulling prepared (spray bottle of water, comb, hair ties a plenty, etc.) and I flip, twist, part and tie like I'm racing the clock. Which I sort of am.

My daughter will be 2 next month and I started doing her hair early. Granted, she came out of the womb with a mop that made John Stamos jealous, BUT she had a headband on her head from day 2. Literally.

Also, as soon as her hair was long enough for a ponytail you bet I was using baby-safe hair ties and working that sprout. My girl is no stranger to her mama torturing her tugging on her locks every morning. So, that has a lot to do with it, I'm sure.

I've taken pics the last few months and gathered my top 10 favorite go-to hairstyles I have fashioned for Miss C. They're all quick, simple and using the rules above should produce cute "keep that hair outta your face, last all day until naptime" hairstyles for any toddler with enough hair.

Please excuse a couple that are blurry. She sits still for the styling, but I can only ask so much of her when I need to document. 

10 Simple Toddler Hairstyles

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10. 

And... BONUS!

11. When all else fails, there's always the Alfalfa. My personal favorite during bath time. #momscanenjoybathtimetoo

Happy Styling!

Cheerios necklace.

My daughter loves Cheerios (uhhh flavored oat cereal? Eh, I'll just say Cheerios) She also loves "pretties" aka necklaces.

I had this brilliant idea to make her a necklace of Cheerios to keep her busy and for snacking. I had all the supplies on hand: Cheerios (you could use any flavor), string, a large needle and scissors.

I threaded enough Cheerios to make a large necklace to fit her (age 1) and I alternated Frosted Cheerios and regular Cheerios.

From beginning to end it took me about 20 minutes. I found it most efficient to stack a half dozen or so at a time and then slide them onto the string.

I tried it on her and she really liked it. In hindsight, I'd let her snack on this OUTside since I ended up with about 25 halves of Cheerios on our carpet, but it's okay.

Whatever makes her happy! Cheerios necklace is Caraline approved!

Happy Stringing!

Make a life-size ruler.

Hello?

Can you hear me?

Is anyone still reading? No? Well I don't blame you. I sort of disappeared for a while.

I blame it on that cute little 1 year old I've got stealing my attention.

And I'm perfectly OK with that!

Last weekend I finally finished a project I've had on my list for about 6 months. I made our life-sized ruler that will be used as a growth chart for Caraline and any child(ren) that may follow.

This way, when we move we can take the markings with us and not have to leave those memories behind on a wall!

It was really simple to make. I stained a 1x6 plank of wood then painted it. I used a stencil for the numbers and VOILA!

I know I say this a lot after my projects, but seriously, I'm so happy with how it turned out! I've already added Caraline's 1st height at 28 inches. Our little lady is short, but her personality is HUGE.

Happy measuring!

Six months.

Miss Caraline Grace is 6 months old! Wowza! She is such a ball of joy and we love seeing what we can do to get her to flash her gummy smile!

Starting on solid food has been a fun adventure. I've been putting veggies and fruits in a blender and making her different foods. She does pretty good so far!

I also thought it'd be fun to get a picture of her with all her stuffed animals. She just loves telling stories (bah bah bah, gah gah gah, etc.) and here she was doing just that! So funny!

The photo was taken in our living room against one of the walls. I had to do some tweaking to get it to look how I wanted it. Here's the before & after. It's not perfect, but it's better than what it started looking like!

Happy 6 months!

Five months.

As Caraline approaches her 6 month milestone, I realize I never posted her 5 month photo!

Shame on me!

She's absolutely the best thing to ever happen to me. Most of the time, she's a smiley, happy, cheerful baby and one can't help by smile back at her. She's so curious about animals and other babies and looks so deep in thought (if only I knew what she was thinking) when she's studying them.

Every day brings a new adventure with her and I am so thankful she's part of my life.

So here is her 5 month photo - and hopefully it won't take me a month to post her 6 month photo after I take it next week!

Happy memory making!

Baby boy neckties.

My friend Karen gave birth to their son, Colton, 2 months ago. She loved the idea of documenting his growth each month (similar to how I document Caraline's, see Here and Here). She wanted something geared for a baby boy.

So, she asked me to design some neckties for little Colton. She plans to attach them to onesies each month and take a picture of him like that.

I love any chance to design and be creative so I said ABSOLUTELY! & I'm happy with how they turned out!

Little Colton is such a cutie! He and Caraline have awesome hair in common, as you can see. Maybe some day they can swap taming secrets with each other!

Happy babies!

Daddy Rocks.

Happy Father's Day to all you daddies, grandpas, uncles, grampies, papas, etc!

As usual, I've been doing some crafts in my "free" time. Though, now Caraline is included in that time! I love it.

This year for Mother's Day we made our gifts. Father's Day it was the same way. I think handmade gifts are more special than most things I could buy in a store.

Now, to warn you, any craft involving a 4 month old and paint can be tricky! (Does that surprise you?)

The handprint project we did for the Mother's Day canvases was challenging. I learned my lesson and made two changes when doing a new craft with paint for Father's Day.

1) I switched to a footprint instead of a handprint (more stable)

2) I put her in her Bumbo seat, so she was stuck!

My adorable slobbering assistant.

If you ask me, it was pretty genius. And it totally worked better.

We started with a few rocks that were about the size of softballs or baseballs. I had four: One for Mike, one for my dad, one for Mike's dad and one for my grandpa.

I painted them all a different solid color and let them dry. I then painted the cute little foot of my daughter and pressed each rock up against her foot. She just sat and gave me funny looks. I'm sure it felt strange to have paint on her little toesies.

The blue rock that was for Mike turned out the best. It was the cleanest print out of all of them.

After all the footprints had dried, I added glitter paint to the white prints and later wrote with puffy paint. And even though the other prints were not perfect, I still love how they turned out. 

My friend Kristi did the same thing for her husband with her daughter Kinley's hand print. She gave me permission to use a photo of how hers turned out. I love the polka dots she made! So cute!

The footprint craft wasn't the only gift I had handmade for Mike this year. I also commissioned my friend D'ann with Creative Metals by D to have a keyring made for him.

I just love it. And it's so special. D'ann is so talented.

Happy Father's Day, my friends!

Four months.

Caraline is four months old.

FOUR MONTHS!

"Time flies" sure is accurate. It seems like just yesterday we brought her home from the hospital.

She's so fun these days. She giggles at surprising things (like her cousin Audra saying "boo" to her) and she gets so excited when she sees daddy and me first thing in the morning and when I pick her up from the sitter after work. Her gummy grin captures me like nothing else. I just love her so much.

Happy four months!