Creative Kimpire: Clearing the Clutter

Quinn had his 18 month checkup last week. Philip took the day off work so he could go, since he hasn’t been to any appointments since Quinn was first born. When they called his name, Quinn grabbed Philip’s hand and walked him back 😂. He got to stand on the regular scale to be weighed and against the wall to be measured. This was the first time for these things, last time he sat on the baby scale and they measured him by marking the top of his head and bottom of his heel as he laid back on the seat in the examining room. As no surprise to anyone, he’s not a tall boy 🤪. Poor thing. He may not have much height but he’s sure got sass to make up for it. “No” is, for sure, his favorite word now.

Dr. Gary told us that the Covid vaccine is approved for those 16 and older and may possibly be available to children 11 and older soon, however, children Quinn’s age will not be able to get the vaccine until later next year. He advised us to both get it as soon as possible so that we can protect him. We plan to do that but I didn’t realize Quinn would have to wait so long to get it.

For two days following his appointment, we were in Toddler Hell. If you’re unfamiliar, that’s where they whine about EVERYTHING, hit, pinch, and bite. When we threatened him with time out, e.g. “You wanna go in time out?!,” he said “yeah,” and put himself in his chair 🤣🤣🤣🤦🏻‍♀️. I couldn’t look at him for laughing but Philip managed to keep a straight face somehow. When his time is up we tell him again why he was in time out and tell him to say “sorry,” which he does, and Philip makes him tell me I’m pretty 🤣🤪. Every time he gets vaccines he doesn’t poop for a couple of days and I’m sure that plays a part in why the toddler demon makes an appearance. I’d feel bad for him but it’s extremely hard to remain sympathetic when he’s being SUCH. AN. ASSHOLE. By the end of day two, everyone in this house had had enough of his shit, including the dogs. Time out is really effective most of the time but OMG, can it be exhausting. When we’re getting ready to nap and (I say we because, if given the opportunity to nap, I’m gonna nap 🤷🏻‍♀️), he lays down but decides to press his luck and smack me in the face, not once, but three times, after two warnings, I have no choice but to get up and put him in time out. This delays our already much needed nap. He didn’t always stay where I put him and placing him back 15 times was annoying as hell. Those fights were worth it though because now he understands he has to remain seated until I come back to get him, which is never too long. Experts recommend one minute per age of the child. We are laying the foundation now, hoping to avoid behavioral issues later in life. On Day Two of Toddler Hell, after his bazillionth timeout, when he was calm I talked to him about appropriate ways to release his frustration, such as hitting a stuffed animal or his bed, rather than us or the dogs. We practiced saying, “I’m mad!” and hitting those things. He thought that was fun. I haven’t seen him use that technique yet but I have seen him throw his lion and elephant 🤷🏻‍♀️. Luckily, he can’t throw far or high because not throwing toys in the house will be another lesson when the time comes.

This elephant, that used to look so much bigger 😢.

This was his face after being told he could get out of his self-imposed time out 🤦🏻‍♀️.

We’ve had two successes come from time out: once I went to get him and told him why he was placed in time out and he apologized without me telling him to. Another time, I put him in time out because he wouldn’t listen to me when I told him to pick up the toy he had just deliberately thrown under the couch and told me “no,” several times, when I told him to get it. When his time was up, he came into the living room and got his toy like I told him to. That’s not even a battle I usually fight that strongly just yet; typically a little manipulation goes a long way, such as asking him in a sad voice to do whatever it is you want him to do. However, on that particular day I had had enough noes, hitting, and jerk behavior. Bed time couldn’t come soon enough, ya feel me? 😂🤪. Day three post-appointment brought a poop and a major mood improvement and our fun, happy boy was back. We enjoyed him so much that day! I always appreciate what a great kid he usually is after a day or two like that.

This is the look of pure joy when he got his first homemade popsicle made from orange juice 😂. His reaction was so wholesome I can’t stand it 🥰.

How does this precious baby turn so evil sometimes??? 🤣

Quinn talks so much that he even randomly says stuff in his sleep. Typically it’s Dada, Mama, or Sansa, but sometimes it’s something unintelligible. If he actually does wake up during the night, either he hasn’t learned to use an inside voice yet or it’s just jarring to hear him speak at 2 am but he is the loudest kid ever. He gets that from his Uncle Greg, who has no regard for other people sleeping (💯 facts) . Usually he wakes up if one of us get up to go to the bathroom and when we come back in the room, he’ll say “Hiiiiiiiiii!!!,” as loudly as he possibly can 😂🤦🏻‍♀️. He still says “Mama” often when he wants something and now even says it repeatedly until I come to see what he wants. I’ve tried ignoring him but he’s the energizer bunny and I can’t wait him out, he’s too annoying 🤣. He has started saying, “that” when we ask him what he wants, which is my fault but it’s kind of funny. It started because he would say “Mom,” and I would say, “What do you want? That?,” and then point to something and he would tell me yes or no. Now I just ask what he wants and he says, “That.” 🤣. I’m trying to make sure I say the names of things now when I ask or give something to him. He is a mockingbird and repeats EVERYTHING he hears. We love to tell him big or funny words to say, such as “pervert,” 😂😂😂. Yes, we’re ridiculous and we know it.

He loves to empty the smaller trash cans throughout the house into the bigger trash can in the kitchen. If he finds something he wants to throw away, he yells “Trash!” because yelling is what we do now, and insists on taking it to the bathroom can, which he then has to empty in the kitchen 🙄. This is what we do every day. I live an exciting life, I tell ya 🤷🏻‍♀️🤪.

We haven’t had a successful potty use yet but he’s getting closer. He now brings us a diaper and says, “Pee,” and wants changed. However, if he doesn’t want changed, he runs away. Or if he doesn’t want to put clothes on, he runs away. Or if he doesn’t want to do whatever it is I want him to do, he runs away 🙄🙄🙄🙄. This game is especially fun when you’re getting ready to leave the house and trying to put his socks and shoes on 👎🏻.

Whenever we’re in the bathroom, he likes to sit on the sink and pretend (and sometimes, actually 🤦🏻‍♀️) to put on Philip’s cologne and deodorant by rubbing them on his belly, usually with the lid on but sometimes not. One day he grabbed my hairspray, took the lid off and threw it on the floor. I jumped all dramatic like and said, “don’t you throw that on my toe!,” which he thought was hilarious. I have a couple of videos of him giggling about this. It was a fun game for a few days until I wasn’t watching what he grabbed and the cologne bottle smacked my toe and made it bleed 😭😭😭. That game is no longer in practice. I think he realized he hurt me because he doesn’t attempt to do it anymore and I didn’t even yell at him or anything.

He hurt me but he got a way worse boo boo a few days ago. He was at the sink, like usual, doing dishes 🙄, and I was cooking some beef to put in chili. When I needed to strain it, I beeped him (I realize other people don’t use this terminology but whatever, that’s how we roll) away a little bit and told him not to touch it. He’s usually pretty good at listening about that but not that day. He reached right over and grabbed at the skillet. I tried to move but didn’t get away fast enough. I thought he just grabbed a handful of hot meat so I rinsed his hand with cold water and tried to calm him down. He only cried for a minute but then laid on me for over half and hour and eventually fell asleep. I told Philip what happened and that it wasn’t bad after examining his hand and not seeing any marks. A little while later when they were playing in his room, Philip called for me and rolled up Quinn’s sleeve and showed me he had a burn on his wrist from the skillet. I felt horrible! I didn’t even check his wrist because I thought he just touched it with his hand. I put some A&D ointment on it and we later washed it and put Neosporin on it. He refused to take any Tylenol the first night but yesterday he was showing us his wrist and sort of crying so we kept Tylenol in him most of the day. It has scabbed and appears to be healing okay. I told him the night that it happened that I was sorry he got hurt and he said, “yeah,” as if he understood and forgave me 😞. I still feel bad for it. It’s my job to keep him safe and I messed up. I know he’s going to have accidents but I don’t want them to be easily preventable ones. Lesson learned.

I was able to give him a second haircut and this one went much more smoothly than the first, thanks to that stupid song, “What Does the Fox Say.” He listened and watched it on Philip’s phone (which he’s never allowed to play with) on repeat about 15 times and that kept him occupied enough for me to cut it. Now he’s obsessed with that song and we made the mistake of playing it on YouTube on the AppleTV so he brings us the remote and says, “Ning Ning.” If you don’t know what that means, I’ll assume you’re one of the lucky people who haven’t heard that song 🤪. He also has a baby animals book that we look at several times a day and the last animal is a fox so that gets him started, too.

I’ve practiced cutting Philip’s hair, too. Haven’t touched mine yet but if the hack job I did when I was 13 is any indication, I should leave it alone 🤪.

I’ve been working (forever) on organizing my whole house but my latest project was my kitchen (again). We spend the majority of our time there so I want to like my space. Here’s some ideas for Clearing the Clutter:

Our entryway (that we use) is into the kitchen and there’s a huge window that makes decorating or functionality difficult. Until a few weeks ago we had a coat tree in the corner that was always covered with coats, hats, and random things. I just didn’t like it so I decided to make better use of the space. I bought and installed some hooks, which gives us limits on coats. That might seem like a bad thing but how many coats do you actually wear on the daily? Not 6, I’m sure of that, so you don’t need them all out at the ready. The rack above with the white bins holds our gloves and sunglasses and can be used for sunblock or other items in the summer. I hung two hooks above that for hats and masks. The white cabinet to the left holds our shoes. The less space we have to clutter, the easier it is to make myself put it away.

My second project was to coordinate all of our spice jars. I’m VERY into labeling everything right now. If there’s a label on it, everyone knows where things go and there are less reasons to put it anywhere else 🤷🏻‍♀️.

These are the jars from organic spices from Walmart. I made the labels and even if I buy another brand, I just dump it in there 😉. I made some for mixes we commonly make and use too, like Tuscan, taco seasoning, Southwest, fajita, etc. I still need a few more so if anyone buys these and just throws them away when they’re empty, I’d be happy to take them off your hands (and out of the landfill 😉)! I would probably have enough if I hadn’t let my nieces and nephews use my stash before Christmas to make snow globes, a craft that was my idea 😂 🤷🏻‍♀️.

I’m gonna add that this project happened because we got a flat outlet extension cord for Christmas from Nathan and Carly. So thanks, guys! 🤣. Our spices are now where the microwave used to be. The microwave got moved since we could plug it into the extension cord that goes flat against the outlet, that’s located behind a freeway standing cabinet. It couldn’t go there before because the cord being plugged in would make the cabinet stick out too far. Microwave moved, spices moved, dog stuff moved, and now everything is much more functional and pretty 😉. It’s amazing how one little thing like that can make such a big difference!

My third project was redoing my “stationary” area.

Again with the labels 😉. This photo makes the bins look extremely crooked but I promise it’s the angle 🤪. I installed a magnetic strip above them to use with the magnetic bins I’ve had for years and years. I have a cork board hanging on the side of the pantry with a plastic envelope that holds coupons and stamps.

One last tip I have is a repurpose (bonus! 🤪)

I love Extra brand gum and they come with these awesome cases that can be used for soooooo many things. This is just one example of what I use them for. Honestly, I’ve taken pics of other uses before with the intention of including them on here but I literally have over 23,000 photos so looking for them when I have no reference of when they may have been taken is not gonna happen. Maybe I’ll retake some again sometime to show you. Until then, use your imagination 😉. This is my Command hook box and the cases hold the strips for them. I should become a spokesperson for Command hooks, I feel like I talk about them all the time 😆 but they’re soooo useful!

Anyway, a quick Sophie and Sansa update: they’re the same as always, only maybe a little more ready for Covid to go away so Quinn can spend more time away from home. Sansa is a saint, as always, and Sophie is still in my way every chance she gets.

I love them though. Our family wouldn’t be complete without them!

Can you guess where I was just sitting, prior to taking this pic? 🙄🤦🏻‍♀️