Three tinies, Tiny space, Big Love

Chicago is a hard core place to live for some of us GRITS (Girls Raised In The South). But this Southern Belle brought all her charm with her and created a tiny home with a large heart right smack of the middle of the Windy City.

I met Courtney shortly after they began their family. She was soft spoken and grounded. I am niether, so I felt I had a lot to learn from her. I was pregnant and looked to her for registry help, planning the tiny nursery and just plain encouragement when I felt overwhelmed by everything that was going on in my life (if you are curious go to my original blog posts here)

I hope you are just as much blessed by her story. Especially if you are starting to have tinies in A tiny space. 

As I write this my youngest daughter, Savannah, is napping in our room in a pack-and-play that we transfer to our play area each night. My middle daughter, Caroline, is taking a rest in her room, and my oldest, Jack, is at school. When we moved into our two-bedroom apartment five years ago, I never imagined having three kids in this apartment! At that time, Jack was just six months old. He’s now five-and-a-half years old. Caroline just turned four and our “baby” is 18 months. Time flies. 

While there are so many days that I wish for more space and a backyard, I can’t negate the fact that this little apartment (that felt so huge when we moved in five years ago) has birthed this little family and knit us together. Sleeping arrangements have been tricky, but we slowly figured it out. Jack was our best sleeper and transitioned out of our room early on. I can’t remember transitioning Caroline out of our room, but I remember her crib next to Jack’s single bed. When Savannah arrived, we got my husband’s childhood bunkbeds and squeezed them in with the crib. We added a few more shelves to the closet and we were ready for number three.

Now each night my husband and I can hear Jack and Caroline talking back and forth in their bunk beds. Their room is about 20 feet from our den and their little conversations are priceless. Savannah spent a year sleeping in our room until we finally moved her to a little play area in the back. The kids named this area “the back and play” because of all the times we told them to go to the back and play. Savannah’s crib is in the kids’ room, but her transition to the kids’ room didn’t go so well, so it currently holds all of Caroline’s dolls. Savannah rotates between the back-and-play for bedtime and our room for naptime. It works for now.

We have made the most of what our apartment has to offer. The back-and-play is a little space, but it’s a great space forstoring all of the kids’ stuff and is the perfect place for train-track building, Lego creations, and tea parties. We also have a long hallway where our kids have logged miles on their scooter, scoot, tricycle, and “Pooh-bear” train. They just have to do so after 9am so they don’t wake the neighbors below. We have a mini trampoline in our den and that works wonders for getting energy out. My husband lets the kids wear his heart rate monitor as they sprint up and down the hall. They get a kick out of how high their heart rate gets.

Winters are tricky, especially in negative-degree temperatures. Screen-time calls their names and tempts me but I have found that if I say “no” and give them a few minutes to be bored, their little imaginations are sparked and off they go finding something to do. The china cabinet drawers are filled with crafts supplies and they both love to draw. Sometimes I give them mandatory “quiet times” to go off by themselves and do a puzzle, build legos or train tracks. It takes some creativity, but they come up with a lot themselves! But screen-time certainly has a place in our family, usually as I prepare dinner. 

I also love to get out of the house! We venture out no matter the temperature. In the winter we visit museums, coffee shops, and indoor play areas. In the summer we go to different parks, the zoo and the lake. Chicago has so much to offer. 

We have been talking about moving and finding a bigger place. It’s bittersweet. I do look forward to more space and a backyard, but the memories we have formed here are so precious. When we told the kids that they might get their own rooms in our next place, they got sad and didn’t want to be separated. So we will see what comes next, but I do know that having the five of us in a two-bedroom apartment has grown us so close, and I can’t be more thankful for that!

Courtney is a Stay at Home mom, Homemaker and Nutritionist