Beautiful signs of children in your home

[Howsweetisthenight]

What are some of the beautiful signs of little people’s lives in your home?

In our home there’s a train track running through the hall leading to a castle made of magnet tiles populated by various little figures. One windowsill has been designated the Sticker Window and there are shiny little stickers all over it- achievements from nursery or from trips to the dentist. There are mucky hand and nose prints on the window. The Yoto player is still jingling away from earlier this morning and there are blankets pegged up around his room to make dens.

Mine are all married and gone but the dining room door still has the height marks with names and dates from 5 children on it. I guess it is time to start adding the grandchildren now. If we were ever to move house I would want to take the door with me.

dinosaurs and dino books everywhere. Pinecones on shelves, glitter, tonnes of kid fridge magnets even though both can read and don’t need the letter ones anymore. Love it.

My kids are long grown up but you can still spot the odd beanie baby or stuffed monkey hanging somewhere as well as children's books kept for grandchildren.

My children are older now but I still find old cards that my daughter made that have been used as book marks in recipe books, reference books and travel guides. They always make me smile.

Empty fridge and signs of snacking everywhere. Craft everywhere. Hairdryer and other hair tools left in random places. Make up bag open with items missing. Full laundry bin seconds after emptying it.

can you tell I have older children…😉

On my landing carpet I have some small black footprints. From where DS trod in some glue when the bathroom flooring was being redone then ran onto the landing. About 15 years ago when he was about 6. I’m never replacing that carpet!

Mine are grown up now.

Little names marked out by their fingers in long dried cement on the paving down the garden. There's bushes hiding them now but every now and again I go look.

DGC are here a couple of days a week (childcare) so lots of lovely signs of them being here; potties, toddler toilet seats, teeny tiny underwear and socks drying in the boiler cupboard, dried pasta found under the sofa this morning along with a worse for wear Jammie Dodger. A toy box in the living room. They're having a sleepover tonight so little toothbrushes in a pot by the sink and pyjamas and sleep sacks draped over travel cots. 😊

Fridge full of magnet alphabet letters, pictures and certificates for “Being the Best Reader in EY2”. A tiny kids table and chairs in the kitchen. Stickers on doorframes, random lego pieces in the sofa, many many many brightly colored water bottles everywhere. Liquid soap all over the bathroom sinks. I love it and hate it equally 😅

A den made of the sofa cushions is currently in my living room. Several balls everywhere. Books scatrered on the dining table.
A robot arm on my bedside table.
A castle den for the cats made of cardboard in the hall.
And the lego.....

A whole row of wellies by the front door in descending size order.
A trail of tiny smudgy handprints over the patio doors.
Bits of playmobil, lego and barbies popping up in random places.
A washing machine that never stops.
A chalkboard in the kitchen pantry covered in random notes and drawings.
Nerf bullets. Need I say more.

When kids were very little there was a tide line a third up the walls of the family room with hand prints, smudges and scribbles! We had a changing gallery above the kitchen units of their artwork.
Now I have framed the best of their work which I’ve hung in the hallway and my office.

I will also add when you open my pantry cupboard you'll see copious packs of mini raisins, breadsticks, fruit shoots and Skips.

The bathroom sink is normally covered in toothpaste but I've just cleaned it so that doesn't count today .

And when we got into bed last night, I fished out a toy tractor, 2 biff & chip books and 1 magnatile from under my covers 😆.

Awww this is so heartwarming 🥰
It's the colourful toys and rainbows everywhere that do it for me ❤️

It was the hand and nose prints that I loved when mine were small and the rows of ‘little’ shoes in the hall. We also had monolithic marblerun structures and wooden Thomas train tracks than traversed multiple rooms and ran under the sofa and out again.

Miss those days.

Now it is floordrobes, undies/socks chucked under the bed and unflushed loos. Sigh.

The nice unit I bought for the back room that was relegated to the landing to make way for a desk in COVID is never coming back because it is now the Lego display unit.

I have trains and toy dogs everywhere.

I've just noticed tomato sauce on the blind.

One day my house will be tidier but it will also be emptier. I may even miss standing on the wooden train track built across my bedroom doorway.

I just bought a new expensive rug with a toddler, and it reminds me of my rug when I was little. It looks its best covered in toys!

Also it has flowers on it and my 2yo likes to fly his toy bee around eating from each one.

Various sensory needs mean you may need to stumble over the trampoline/yoga ball/punch bag /treadmill. Lots of baking from home ed DD too. Great at baking, "working towards" clearing up.

This is quite a lovely way of framing the general chaos my children scatter around the house. The things I do like though are their painted rocks by the front door. For some reason it makes me smile. We also have a wall of their art work. It desperately needs repainting but I’ll be sad to take the pictures down. We also seem to have a hefty collection on conkers and stones.

The slightly less heartwarming stuff include hair bands everywhere but the hair band box and random beads/loom bands.

Brace elastics and tiny bits of black rubber from the football 3G pitch. Oh and the potato that gets hidden around the house (hasn't been since early Oct....I'm worried)

OK - he's 16 and a great lump so maybe I should start a Beautiful signs of teenagers thread, but this one is sweet.

My one and only is long grown and gone but my notice board proudly displays my portrait which was drawn by my friend's four year old and various other art works she has gifted me. Always makes me smile when I look at them. I remember the days of intricate lego constructions, Sylvanian figures turning up in strange locations and a long lasting game of pretending to be a bird who nested in the ironing basket

The cleaning and scrubbing will wait till tomorrow,
For children grow up, as I’ve learned to my sorrow.
So quiet down, cobwebs. Dust go to sleep.
I’m rocking my baby and babies don’t keep.

Stickers on every surface
A re-enactment of the end of the Lion King with little plastic animals on the dining table (Scar is on the floor with the hyenas)
shoes and shoes and shoes

My grandmother gave a framed copy of this when I had my first - there's more to it but it's a lovely poem.

Acorns, pinecones, conkers and leaves all over the place along with random bits of snipped paper!