Cora's Room: Wallpaper and Glue Removal

       I may have done a little happy dance when we started this project.  Goodbye hunting room!  As my husband took down the deer heads and moved the gun cabinet I realized some very sad news.  My husband loves borders.  The small strip of wallpaper basically was taunting me.  After some advice from some very smart bumpies, I attacked this first project of Cora's nursery.  If you have a border or wallpaper that needs removed, this is what worked very nicely for us.

What you'll need:  spray bottle, plain Dawn dish soap, white vinegar, a scraper, a sponge, and HOT water

Here's a before shot so you understand what was living down the hall from me.

First, we used Dawn and hot water in a spray bottle.  Spray small sections of the border then wipe with a rag.  Before it dries, use the scraper.  Once you get a good piece started, start pulling.  Repeat till done.  This room took my husband about 2 hours. 

Once he was done there was still areas of glue on the wall.  This time I used hot water and vinegar in the spray bottle.  Instead of spraying it on the wall, I just used a few sprays on a sponge.  A little elbow grease and the glue came right off.  Any normal human this would probably take about 30 minutes.  This anemic pregnant woman it took about an hour.

As a whole, it was a whole heck of a lot easier than I expected.  The end result:

Operation Keep Connor Busy

The past week or so, Connor has officially been acting like a toddler.  I spent the night researching on Pinterest, trying to find activities that would keep him occupied and lessen the whining.  This is what we did today.  I might add that all of this was done with a children's iheart station playing for dance party breaks.

#1 Pipe Cleaners and Colander

What a huge success!   He did this for 30 minutes straight.  It took him a little bit to figure out how to actually get them in the holes, but filling up the strainer was just as fun.

#2 fabric balls and cupcake pan
This one he liked to, just not as much as the first.  He "counted" as he placed each ball.  We practiced numbers and colors.  This kept him occupied for about 20 minutes.

#3 Play Doh
He actually liked playing with the cups more than the play doh.  Every time he would touch the play doh he'd look at me with this "ew" face.  I bought a set that had a truck which is a favorite of his right now so this was a solid 30 min plus of play.

#4 Stringing beads with play-doh and pipe cleaner
Big.  Fat.  Fail.  I saw this using fruit loops instead of beads as well, but he isn't quite there yet.  I ended up just stringing the beads myself and them letting him take them off and put them away.  This only gave me maybe 10 minutes.