Play Space

Little Man's play space.  Just ignore the air purifier in the corner!

So as I have stated several times previously, our house is rather small.  We have plans to move, but Scot has decided that now is not the time.  So I am left still trying to make things work and to make due with what we have.

Our house is a small three bedroom townhouse.  With Big Mac's arrival, came the first time that we did not have a nursery for our baby.  Unlike his siblings, Big Mac didn't get a nursery of his own.  He slept the first 5 to 6 months of his life in our master bedroom, then we moved him into Little Man's room to create a boys room.  However, this posed a problem that I never had before with my other youngsters. 

As Big Mac became more mobile, I soon realized that all of the little toys for the older three needed to go somewhere away from Big Mac's reach.  In the past, with the other kiddos, I would just move the older kid's toys into their bedroom as we always had a nursery.  This time that idea was simply not going to work as Big Mac didn't have his own nursery, but actually shared his room with his older brother.  Simply placing Little Man's toys in the bedroom was not going to work; because Big Mac sleeps and plays in there too, so I had to put my problem solving skills to the test.

I ended up placing the girls smaller toys and games upstairs in their bedroom, and I moved Little Man's toys into the dining room.  Yep, you read that right!  I decided to make a play space for Little Man in the dining room!  We have a sunken living room, so as of right now it is a great way to trap Big Mac.  Once he starts accomplishing the step, I will just use a baby gate to keep him in that space.  I removed Little Man's toys from the living room and the boys' bedroom, and gathered them into the dining room.  I grabbed the girls' pink, princess table that they hardly use anymore and I decided to put it to good use right now.  I organized toys and placed them into canvas bags and such to create a play space for Little Man in order to create a safe place for Big Mac. 

I used what I currently had to make things safe for the baby.  I do plan on getting collapsible organizers eventually. However, I am frugal in some regards and I am willing to wait to see what host credits I will get when I have a party in August with a bag etc. company.  I am looking forward to that, and I know that it will make my dining space look better.  Sometimes so many people are just so quick to buy big, new and/or expensive to make great spaces; and while that is all fun, and good, and needed sometimes, other times it is good to just learn to use what you have--like a pink princess table for your son! ;-)

I do look forward to having my dining room back to solely being a dining space eventually, but right now this is my life and this is my house.  And before you know it the kids will up and grow so quickly, that this play space will be gone in a flash, and I will probably miss toys in my dining, living and kitchen spaces (Yes, I currently have Big Mac's infant swing in my kitchen space!).  Perhaps when we do finally get our larger, elbow-room kind of house, I may actually miss this tiny house and what came with it.  I keep telling myself "delayed gratification."