Bedroom Upgrade

"The time has come" the Walrus said "to talk of other things...like ships and shoes and ceiling wax and whether pigs have wings." Forgive me if I've misquoted I typed that from memory. I simply mean it's been all party talk and now the reality of getting another year older is coming to pass. It has been a long time since we've had any need for a changing table (Thank Goodness!). Friday Mike and I scared up an actual dresser and small desk and made plans to rid ourselves of the last shrine to infancy.

We got the furniture in a box from Target/Kmart, but Mike spray painted all the drawer pulls and the shelf on top of the dresser pink. We got the two cube shelf and the owl and frog to go inside it. Riley thought after helping Daddy build for a bit, she'd get inside them. Silly goose. She's getting handy with a screwdriver though.

Timber! Down with babyhood. Just like that she has the basic types of furniture she'll do the rest of her growing up with. Bless stackable furniture. Bless whoever designed Circo's Nature Love Collection. Bless pink spray paint. Super bless my handy husband.

Here's the last picture I took of it still up. BEFORE

Drumroll please....AFTER

Obviously, the stuffed animals won't permanently live under the desk. I struck out looking for a hammock for them this weekend. I'm sure they're obtainable online unless I find an appealing DIY solution. Does everyone have trouble with stuffed animal population control? I love the new wall decals. Of course I do, they have a hedgehog.

Room Re-organize!

First some cute pictures post dance class yesterday. I took ballet twice in my life once briefly at about Riley's age and again in college. It was not my thing, but I have always loved to swim and swing. To be weightless with no concern for my lack of balance. To go fast, really fast. I totally get that. I think the swing set installment was as much for Mike and I as it was for the kids.

After the kids had been dropped off today I decided to attack Miss Roo's room. It was messy from several consecutive days of play without tidying, but there was some re-arranging to do to. Messy floors and mobility issues don't mix well. I had been stacking all her dollies in the wooden cradle and eventually stuffed animals joined them and it was a mess! It kept overflowing onto the floor and into the doorway.

I picked up everything that had a spot first. When all the books, clothes and little people were situated I pondered the dolls some more. We're about to upgrade Miss Roo to a real dresser since we haven't needed the changing table in almost a year. I removed the changing pad and put the animals up there. I figured the lack of a cushy place to sit might also dissuade climbing up there.

Then I moved the cradle and dollies to the end of Riley's bed so any errant dollies with fall into her room neither blocking the main path to the dresser or the door. I think it's going to be much more functional that way. I also upgraded her from eye hooks that had mostly fallen out to flower hooks (from the craft store dollar bin) for her bags. They were perfect colors. Much sturdier then my last three cute sets of hooks that all broke.

Miss Roo was beyond thrilled when she came home and discovered her room. "Thank you Momma! Thank you my room is so pretty. Thank you for recognizing(organizing) it." Toddlers are just like hamsters, she found the only new thing in the room immediately.

Thrilled by the yellow and pink flower hooks.

"Oh, my animals are upppppp dare!"

The new nursery. I put the baby dolls in the cradle and sat the big girl dolls on my Boppy ppillow in front of the cradle.

I still have to free up another shelf for books, but that was a project for another day. I also, asked Mike to put a second rod in Riley's closet this weekend. She currently has a rubber maid drawer busting with every dress up related item she owns. I want to hang dresses and tu-tu where she can reach. Yay, organized room Mom can walk or roll through. Phew.

Two Years Late

My lovely sister-in-law made me a shadow box for my baby shower. I insisted on revealing the gender at the shower for suspense and to increase the number of practical gifts. She used backing paper with greens and yellows. She used sparkly elephant stickers and ribbon. I was super excited when I opened it, see:

That shadow box sat the few remaining weeks of my pregnancy waiting for bed rest to end and the baby to come. It sat through Riley's weeks in the NICU. It sat though Riley's infancy and my back surgery recovery. After we moved and I got a craft corner I decided it was time to fill it up.

I used things I saved from my baby shower, her NICU days and her first month in general. Her hospital bracelet and the card from her isolet are already scrapbooked (although that's 17mos behind). Here's some close-ups:

This is the top left corner all these smallish black and white photos were on Riley's baptism invitation I made in paintshop. I ended up having surgery the day of our planned outdoor baptism, but the invitations were lovely. Also, they were against a pale blue and there was light blue ribbon in that square.

Here's the center box in the middle. I used a picture from Riley's 2nd day, she still had her feeding tube in. I call this one the "Riley-saurus" because she's got her hands up like a T-rex. It was really funny, but not helpful when you're trying to breastfeed! Stubborn little dinosaur, I tell ya!

This is the bottem left space. It has the "sunbathing" picture. After I was discharged I always went to the hospital at 7am to feed Riley and left for the night at 11pm. Mike who usually caught a nap during the day would go back to give her a bottle of pumped milk at 1am. The NICU has a lot of rules and procedures and one of them is that the baby's temperature be within a certain range before they eat. Apparently, the nurses had been complaining about the AC all day that day. When Mike took her temperature she was a degree too low so the nurse rolled out the heat lamp. Riley enjoyed it. Mike took this on his phone to show me.

Under that amazing photo is the measuring tape they used to track Riley's growth in the hospital. Underneath that is a baby hedgehog in a pumpkin. This was on my baby shower invitation. When it was folded it was just a stork carrying a pumpkin (she was due in Oct) and when you opened it the lid came off the pumpkin and a baby hedgehog bounced out. The baby in the peapod was a napkin from my shower. The dragonfly represents her original nursery theme. The little white plastic thing was the clamp from her cord and the "Riley Grey" was the pretty font I used on the baptism invite. Don't you love how her first and middle go together?

This is the bottom right corner, I call this picture "Riley Bug". She got her Daddy's long limbs and she never stayed swaddled long. She would sleep with her legs in the air or even Indian style for hours. It was so cute!

This is a picture of the whole thing before I put it in the frame. I don't have a close-up of the right corner (well, I do have one, but also computer issues). The right corner is a wooden spoon with a pink ribbon tied around it. We wanted a girl and there's an old wives’ tale that if you put a wooden spoon under your bed you'll get a girl. No idea why, I searched for the root of that and got nothing. If any knows, fill me in. We joked that if we had a girl the spoon would go in her nursery. It was all in fun, but I was sentimental about everything because I knew she was my one and only.

Here's the finished shadow box. Riley loved it. I don't think she understood that the baby in there is her, but she pointed out and named every item. I was super impressed when she said "dragunf-eye". Better late than never on this project.