Nursery New

Although this is Baby #3 for us, this is the first time we have been able to decorate a nursery knowing that we are staying in the same place for longer than a few months after the babies arrival. We did know when we started renovating that we were expecting another baby and so we planned out the nursery and painted it natural white with a feature wall of Periglacial Blue.

It was a nice color, but the longer we lived with it (mainly as a storage room over the last few months) the more it seemed a bit washed out and depressing, looking more and more grey. So on the wet Australia Day weekend, at 7 months pregnant, we repainted the nursery. I had started washing all my baby linen and discovered that due to never knowing the gender of our babies, we had bought orange nursery bedding. So was born the colour of the new nursery - Tangella.

Vibrant, rich and stimulating. We painted the blue wall white, and decided to paint the orange wall behind where the cot would be. The addition of the Walltat we were given after baby #2 arrived and the nursery was beginning to look much brighter and happier. It was especially cute that our number 2 baby was helping us put the Walltat up since it was originally gifted to him by his aunt after he was born.

We finally had wardrobes installed a couple of weeks ago after over 5 months of living out of packing boxes and clothes racks. What a difference wardrobes have made for me!! We also had a bookcase built in the nursery at the same time due to a strange design feature in the shape of the room. It was perfect except for the hundreds of holes up and down the panels to make the shelving adjustable. It really ruined the aesthetics of this feature in the nursery. My Sister-in-law and my Dad both suggested covering the panels with either paper or contact to cover the holes. After some hunting around specialty paper shops and scrap booking materials, we settled on an adorable, but fairly neutral paper with just a hint of orange to tie it into our nursery theme. I was planning to glue the paper to the bookcase, but I decided that would be difficult to remove at a later date when the baby grows up, or if we switch the boys rooms around and need a decor change. I sticky taped the A4 sheets of paper together on the reverse side to form a long panel, and trimmed the edges to the correct width (since nothing in our house appears to be straight or square this was a little challenging). I used a couple of 3M poster strips at the top of the panel and just insert the shelf tacks through the paper to keep it taught. It worked a treat.

Now it was time for some nursery art inspiration (thank you Pinterest once again). I love all the alphabet and number nursery art, but not necessarily the price tag. So I created my own in Pages using colours that tied into our orange-white-chocolate theme that was emerging in the nursery. I already had some chocolate frames I had previously used in the boys playroom which needed to be put to good use. I am pretty happy with the result and the printing at Officeworks cost me 75c for each art work. Bargin! The frames look lovely on the new bookcase.

Whilst I was gaining inspiration for the alphabet and number art I came across the idea/pin of using animal silhouettes for nursery art. I really liked this idea, especially as the paper lining the bookcase was animal themed with elephants, giraffes, bears and rabbits. After gathering a large number of silhouettes of different animals - giraffes, elephants and owls - we decided on baby elephants for the nursery. My favourite animal! I traced the silhouettes onto scrapbook paper and cut out the shapes before pasting this onto left over paper from the bookcase lining. This really ties the nursery colours and prints together.

These two artworks ended up being a little more expensive than the alphabet and number prints - $1.10 for each of the background prints and the scrapbook paper came in a book of about 50 papers for $6.00. So these cost about $1.11 each to make, plus a little glue. I'm still counting that as a bargin!

With all the baby clothes and linens washed and folded into the new wardrobe and after assembling the bassinet with the help of the two big brothers we are all just waiting for Number 3 to arrive now.

Stopping Traffic

Saks Fifth Avenue. A rainy Saturday afternoon. We take refuge from the weather outside in the hope of finding a dry, warm and baby-friendly cafe for lunch. When we enter into the cosmetics floor no-one takes much notice of the two drowned rats pushing the wet stroller. Even the concierge is too busy with two "muttons dressed as lamb" to tell me if there is a cafe in the store. Noah is looking disappointed that he can't catch anyone's attention from inside the "bubble" that is his stroller and rain cover. We find 3 options for lunch and head up to the 8th floor cafe - inside the infamous Shoes 10022.

After a great lunch, with much more attention being paid to Noah who sat up in a high chair and ate Mac 'n' Cheese, we head back downstairs. As we exit the lift back onto the cosmetics floor Nathan places Noah on his shoulders - Noah's favourite spot. I am walking in front of them with the stroller.

Suddenly, a commotion breaks out behind me. A couple of the staff in front of me call out, "Oh look! How cute!" I turn around to see Noah beaming and squealing and waving at everyone who is looking at him. And there are about 10 Saks employees stopped in their tracks waving and pointing at Noah. Noah is overwhelmed and doesn't know where to direct his attention - he turns franticly from side to side, alternating which hand is grasping onto Nathan's hair for stability, waving with the other hand. Eventually he decides he just needs to wave with both hands and has to abandon all hope of stability on Daddy's shoulders.

After briefly pausing so Noah can greet and charm those around us, we continue through the maze of cosmetic counters and perfume atomisers. More and more gasps erupt from the staff and customers as we pass by them:

"Hi there cutie-patootie!"

"Oh how adorable!"

"Do you have your camera? Your son is so cute! You need to take a photo of this!"

"Oh! Look at the baby!"

"Hi sweetie!"

"Adorable!"

By the time we reach the other side of the floor and get ready to exit, we have left a trail of destruction. Customers have been ignored. Staff are left staring after us in the hope that Noah may turn around one final time with a squeal and a wave. He did not disappoint.

Vintage Toys

Noah and I enjoy several of the wonderful "Mommy & Me" classes and groups that NYC has to offer, from a relaxed mothers/play-group, to swimming, to music, to yoga. I have found it an amazing way to meet other Moms and babies that are around Noah's age, and they have really helped us settle in quickly to the city.

It was at one of the these classes today, that I came the closest to complete disaster with Noah.

The class was at another Mom's apartment. This Mom is super artistic, being an artist and her husband an art-dealer, and probably not someone I would easily be-friend if we didn't sign up for the same class and have babies of the same age. Lets face it, I was the nerd at school, slightly obsessive-compulsive, a huge advocate for order and presentation. I put clothes together according to the layout in the store, the picture in the window, or what my big sister said was "trendy" (or later my younger sister). I was not the uber-alternative artistic type, who wore wonderfully eccentric vintage clothing in her very own style. This Mom, is just that sort of person, and I admire both the aesthetic qualities in her "loft apartment" and the vintage-sophistication of her clothes (and her daughters). I have always wanted to be the care-free artistic type, but no matter how many times I take it, the Myers-Briggs keeps telling me I am not that type of personality. Oh well.

I was particular impressed with the amazing array of vintage toys set out for this Mom's daughter on the toy-bench in the living room. From a vintage rocking-horse (actually I think it might have been a husky in its former years - it is a bit hard to recognise these days), to 30 year-old Fisher-Price toys - just like what we used to have as kids. Noah, and all the kids in the group love to play at the bench. Sitting up on their knees, grabbing down the unusual toys and objects perched somewhat precariously on the bench. The old cow-bell was a hit today, along with the old-style coloured pegs and board. And this is were we struck disaster.

Noah was playing, along with the 6 other babies, not more than 2 feet from me. He kept turning around to show me his latest find - a coloured peg, the cow-bell, an old Fisher-Price radio toy. He was very proud of himself (usually because he had beaten one of the other babies to the object). Then it was time to go, and I picked him up from the floor and saw a glimpse of something white in his mouth. Now I didn't immediately freak out. He eats everything, and at the moment his favourite is fluff from the shag rug and paper. This is what I figured I would be pulling from his mouth, like I do a thousand times a day to stop him coughing up a fur-paper-ball as big as his fist. But instead, today I pulled out a small white screw! A rather obvious choking hazard.

I turned to the Mom and showed her, to warn her that there could be others around and I didn't want her daughter to eat any. Her reaction took me quite by surprise.

"Oh yes, sorry about that. I did tell some of the Moms there could be a screw lying around."

I'm sorry? You knew there was a screw and yet were quite happy for our "mouth-fixated 10 month old children" to play there? And why tell only some of us? And...the questions kept racing through my head as I absently handed her the screw and said our farewells. Apparently the screw had fallen off one of the previously-admired vintage toys when the babies were playing with it, and she hadn't been able to find it.

No. Because Noah was chewing on it!

I had been feeling bad, that poor Noah only had new toys to play with. No worn-in, old-style, vintage-cool toys like his little play-mate. I no longer have that concern. There is a place for vintage, and it is not in my sons mouth.

Pediartician obviously failed Physics

Moving to NYC has had its challenges, especially with a baby in tow. Coming from LA, and before that Sydney, having your own car was almost a necessity. Certainly in LA, the city with more cars than there are people in Australia, your car is everything. As a mother, my car became a baby-accessory-storage-box. From diapers (nappies for the Australians), to wipes, to car seat, to stroller, to blankets and toys, and all that goes along with a baby when you need to go out. When I lived in LA, I hugely underestimated the convenience of having your own car (even if it was a 2-door VW Beetle - not the most family-friendly car a new Mother could own).

In NYC, I am car-less. When I need to go out with my son, I no longer have the convenience of already having the car seat and stroller in the car. I need to carry the baby, the car seat, the stroller and the diaper bag, find a taxi, pile everything in, argue with the taxi-driver about not taking off until the baby is strapped in, and then at the other end, repeat it all in a reverse order.

But I really shouldn't complain. At present the infant car seat straps into the stroller and is relatively compact and lightweight. What is concerning is the fact that in a few months, Noah will outgrow the infant car seat and need to move into a toddler car seat, which is both bigger and heavier. More concerning is the fact that I know of only 3 products on the market which address the issue of attaching a toddler car seat to a stroller so that I can get around once I am out of the taxi. Two look useless for negotiating the sidewalk minefields of New York, and the other retails for $1500!

This is the problem I took to our Pediatrician on our last visit, hoping she would have some pearl of wisdom passed on from her own experience or one of the many New-York-Moms she encounters on a daily basis. What do other parents do once their child has outgrown the infant car seat?

I had a number of questions for her actually at our last visit including when can Noah where a bike helmet so that my husband can buy a baby seat for his bike and take Noah riding? Nathan had been wanting to buy a seat for 4 months, and is getting impatient, but all the recommendations we've read suggested that babies shouldn't wear helmets until 12 months + because of the weight and the strength of their necks. Our pediatrician agreed. Definately not until after 12 months, as there are still significant spinal developments which occur up until 12 months, including strengthening and straightening of the spine. She said that whilst Noah was very strong, a bike helmet was still too heavy for him at this stage. It was the answer we were expecting.

What I didn't expect was the response when I asked about toddler car seats and strollers in NYC. The pediatrician said, that since there was no law in New York requiring children to be restrained when traveling under certain distances, most parents just held their babies and children on their laps and "hoped for the best".

This just didn't seem to follow from her previous answer. So Noah shouldn't go on a bike, traveling an average of 13 miles per hour, being restrained into a child seat and wearing protective clothing. But in a taxi, traveling an average of 20 miles an hour, "just hope for the best". Basic physics would suggest this is not an intelligent, wise, or logical answer - especially from one's pediatrician. After all, Newton's first law of physics suggests that if a car is traveling at 20 miles an hour, then any person or object within the car is also going that fast and will continue to go that fast until a net force acts on them to slow them down - such as a windscreen or another person. Furthermore, a child riding on a lap is at double risk - it is not only physically impossible for a parent to prevent the child being thrown into the windshield or dashboard, but if the parent is not wearing a seat belt, or they have the seat belt around them and the child, the force of the adult's body may crush the child. In fact, motor vehicle accidents are the second leading cause of death in small children in the US.

As far as I know, the physics, logic and parental caution that I apply in Australia, LA and every other state or country is the same that applies in New York. Newton's law certainly doesn't change in Manhattan. My arms didn't become super-human when I crossed the Brooklyn Bridge, and my parental concern was not checked at the airport. And surely, the spine I am protecting by not putting Noah on a bike with a helmet just yet, is the same spine I should be protecting in a taxi.