A Cardboard Doll House

I needed to create today. Like, really needed to. I was tired, brain was foggy, and I just had that restless feeling... Monday I'd thought of things that would take at least a week of uninterrupted time to do, and all I usually have is an hour or two at best when both have naps that overlap, and usually - pretty much always these days - chores take precedence.

But this week, most of our friends are gone, traveling for the Chinese New Year holidays, so we don't have any get-together days scheduled. Sure, the bathrooms I've been procrastinating cleaning for far too long and there's dust in corners that should be swept, but I just had to do something creative.

I've known I wanted to make a dollhouse out of cardboard boxes since we moved here, and planned to do one since September, when I knew my mom was buying these sweet dolls for Hadassah's birthday. But I also knew it would take a while, and long stretches of time are rare!

So once Ellie joined Hadassah in sleep-world, I raced to do lunch dishes and hang laundry, and then let myself make a mess and create. It actually only took less than two hours to do all of it, and the brain clearing and attitude lifting it did for me is amazing. I forget how wonderful creativity like this is!

I've always enjoyed little dolls. My older sister Miriam made me an amazing doll house when I was a girl (complete with an elevator!) and I collected just about everything miniature I could find. One day I want to get a more sturdy, lasting dollhouse for my girls (or even use the one that was mine as a girl), but here in China I don't want to invest in things on a larger scale, knowing we aren't planning on being here long term. And I realized that for a toddler, cardboard is great and you can do a ton with hot glue and paper and felt. Yes, she may destroy some of it, but I also saved on mess and clean up by hot gluing all the accessories to the box house. Saves on frustration too, as things don't move as she tries to put her dolls in.

 Instead of making a huge house with lots of rooms, the whole family sleeps in the same room. :) Adding trim to the blankets was a last minute addition that made them so much more fun (they were pretty bland before). The crib took the longest to make out of popsicle sticks, but I knew that as much as Hadassah enjoyed her crib, she'd want one for the baby (and I was right). :) I would have enjoyed making more furniture out of popsicle sticks but I was short on time.

And it's far from perfect. My blessing (and curse at times!) in being creative is that I'm not a perfectionist. Helps when I'm trying to finish things quickly!

 Being a toddler, I knew Hadassah would enjoy having a bathroom. And I was right. She took the little girl potty and gave the girls a bath in the bathtub together like she enjoys with her baby sister on occasion. She is so enjoying stories and acting things out these days, that it's fun to see her have a chance to do it with these dollies! Before she had a house for them, she hardly ever played with them, but now I see a lot of play in her future!

 Half of a carton that had fruit in it worked perfectly for simple couches. And felt turns into a nice rug when you make fringes! The pictures/windows are simple and hurried - I could do a lot better, but knew the wake-up time of the girls was fast approaching, and it just looked so much better when I put something on the wall!

 I didn't make chairs in the kitchen (save the bouncy chair for the baby, which Hadassah loved having!) because 1) no room, 2) saves the hassle of her trying to get her dolls to sit in them, and 3) they would have been tricky to make! So the family can stand at the table. :) Another half of a fruit carton in the back has a sink and stove, and of course there has to be a window above the sink for the mom when she does the dishes!

And I loved watching Hadassah decide what the dolls would do. :) She put them to bed multiple times. She put them all down on the living room rug to play together (as she likes us doing as a family). She even had the mom nurse the baby, then had her say, "I'm going to take you outside in the ERGO." Then there was a pause and a high pitched, shocked, "We have no ERGO!!" She got her big doll stroller as a substitute. :)

A Cardboard Play House

It all started with me trying to build a tunnel into Hadassah's climbing gym. She's been loving climbing under things (like the kitchen table) so I thought giving her an outlet would be good. I got it all taped, only to realize if she climbed on it and fell, it could be more of a fall. So, I pulled it apart and remade the old one.

Then the idea for a house came up. If I used two tall boxes and draped a blanket over it to make a roof, would that work? Hadassah liked climbing in, but soon pulled the boxes over as she tugged on the blanket.

So then I put a box on top, to make it more sturdy and provide the height for her to stand up. Not the most impressive looking thing, but she loved it!

 We colored it with crayons to make it more inviting. She's loving hearts and stars right now, pointing to them and saying the words whenever she sees one. So, I decorated it inside and out with them, which thrilled her to no end as she kept pointing to them.

It doesn't have the cool cut-out door you can make from huge boxes big enough to be a house in themselves, but Hadassah really likes the blanket. We played peekaboo for a long time with it, and she likes the feel of crawling through it. Maybe it will satisfy her urge to feel fabric around her so that she'll stop playing in the big drapes...

 Inside there's room for her and her friends, and even room for mommy to climb in and read a story with her!

The back window doubles as a great stage for a puppet show! Hadassah loves puppets these days, and this makes it even more fun.

Oh the wonderful fun of simple cardboard boxes!

We're on day 2 of sickness, just diarrhea and fever now... She slept last night from 6 PM to 4 AM, and then after nursing and getting water and tylenol for her fever, until almost 9 AM! She barely stayed awake 2 hours before she was so sleepy she went down again. So unlike her... I'm missing my little companion and playmate. Praying she's well soon so we can have more fun in her little house made the day before she got sick!

Cardboard Box Climbing Gym

A few weeks ago Hadassah started trying to climb everything. Everything that was unstable, that is! Knowing it was important to let her get out her energy and develop her climbing muscles, but not wanting to have to hover over her as she attempted on things too high or too wobbly, I decided to give her a safe outlet.

I briefly searched for toddler indoor climbing toys online, but quickly decided I didn't want to spend hundreds or even a thousand dollars on something that she'd grow out of and would take up space. But, the pictures of what I saw gave me some ideas...

 It's nothing fancy. There are 5 boxes, held together with masking tape, down the middle and around the edges. She's pulled some of that off in the past few weeks, so it will need to be retouched soon, or I may just make a new one. That's the beauty of making things for free!

The box at the end is turned so she can climb into it. She LOVES it!

Almost every time we've been out, as soon as she gets inside, she'll go and sit in it for a few minutes. She brings her favorite dolls and stuffed animals in with her, and sometimes I see her just playing or cuddling with them as she sits in it. So sweet to see her have "her" spot.

 At first she didn't climb on it much, so I thought about moving it - after all, it's not that pretty and takes up space. But now she's on it multiple times a day, allowing her to move and get energy out, which is especially nice on the days we can't go outside.

 She's learning about depth in getting off of things, and how to climb things of varying heights. Through it she's learned to back down stairs, though she still goes head first plenty of times too. And it's not too high, so that if she does fall (which she did once...) it's a bump but no lasting damage.

It's a blessing to be able to turn something that arrives free (with online orders) into something Hadassah enjoys more often than any toy we've bought her new!