Yours, Mine and Ours

Before we start, yes, I know I need to clean my lens. I noticed that after the pool picture yesterday, just forgot...I'll get there. :)

If you've been following along, you know that we moved Noble's crib and assorted cr...stuff into Kayci's room the weekend of his birthday (yup, 2 months ago).  At the time, we were so busy with life and all that we just piled everything up in there and tried very, very hard not to think about the chaos and confusion.  It was BAD.  Real bad.  Black trashbags full of dress up stuff in the corners bad.  Ugh. I shudder thinking about it.  And look, there they sit beside me now...but that's another story.  

Noble got sick last Thursday night, which meant that we were homebound this weekend.  I decided to use the time wisely and get cracking on the kids' room.  You see, over the past 2 months it's become abundantly clear that for it to work, it's got to be their room--not just her room with him sleeping in there at night.  So, we pulled everything out of the room but the furniture and then we consulted with Kayci and moved the furniture where we wanted it.  Slowly, over the past week, we've cleaned and dusted and moved things back in.  Very slowly--both kids have been home sick all week.  Noble went back to school today, but Kayci is 0 for 4 this week.  Anyway, tonight James and the kids went to pick up my Mother's Day gift (I know, right?!) and that gave me some time to finish some of the nitpicky things in there.  So I did, and guess what?  It's done!  Well, until Kayci's birthday when she gets her new Dick & Jane bedding and curtains...then we'll do a little revamping with the color scheme and redo the kids' names/letters (I took them down this week because I'd rather wait and have matching ones this summer...that's just me).  Anyway, for now, it's clean.  It's organized (do NOT, under any circumstances, open either kids' dresser drawers.  It's not THAT organized.).  It's fun--for both of them.  And that was really the goal, once we got into it.  :)  So here it is...we went back to the room arrangement from this time last year, only we added the crib--pay attention.

Here's the room if you're looking in from the hallway. Making a room that's both functional and fun for an almost-6 year old and a 1 year old was a bit challenging, but we got a little creative and it works. You'll notice the bench, stool, chairs, etc. are gone (or hiding behind the bed holding up her lamp and special book/journal basket) because somebody just can't resist the urge. The urge to climb, that is. The CD player and lamp are both now out of Noble's reach. We tried to make sure that anything in his range is actually okay for him to have, both safety-wise and Kayci would cry if he hurt it wise. So far, so good...


Here's another view from the door (the wall with his bed hasn't changed, except I took his name off for now). Kayci's Hannah Montana house & stage are behind the dresser, and her wall cubes now hold Noble-friendly toys and doodads. The bottom three rows of her toy shelf now hold Noble board books and toys that are safe for both of them...it was easier than I thought to really find things that they both play with.

But where, you ask, did all of her STUFF go? Ah, that is a good question. A very large piece of furniture is missing from the room--it just made it too dark and crowded once we put the crib in, so I got a wild hair and moved the armoire into our room. It kinda works out, since our room felt so empty after the crib was gone. Sigh. So, the armoire is in our room, and it still had all of her dress up stuff in it hanging and organized, etc. But then I started thinking...we had tubs on Kayci's toy shelf full of fake food and doll stuff and just STUFF...stuff that isn't safe for Noble to play with, one, is annoying to pick up when Noble gets to it, two, and Kayci just never plays with, three, unless her friends are over. So...I pulled the dress up stuff out of the armoire and measured it. Sure enough, we can fit a TON more of the IKEA tubs that we currently have in there, so this weekend we'll pick some up and then in the armoire there will be tubs of dress up, a tub of food, a tub of Build A Bear, and so on. When Kayci and her friends want to play, they can grab the tubs and take them back to the kids' room (we do have the gate up for days like that...we're not totally nuts). I like the armoire in our room, but it was a little bare so I brought in the stuff that's been exiled from the buffet (Noble again) and stuck it up there. Makes me smile, so it can stay. :)

This one's just in because I was taking pictures anyway. We gave away the TV & DVD player from our bedroom a while back, and the dresser has just been sitting empty for so long. When I went in to get the stuff out of the green box that was banished from the buffet, I saw some pictures and decided to add them to the few things that were on the dresser. Much better!

If you look back at the armoire picture, you can see the pile of CRAP that's sitting beside it (you don't want to open it right now, either...yikes!) and the bench sitting next to it, waiting to go to storage. After we pack up the IKEA tubs and get the armoire organized, we'll set aside stuff for a garage sale, stuff to go to friends, stuff to go to storage, etc. But for now, it's all sitting in our room. Better than the hallway, so I can live with it for now. I'll feel a LOT better after we go to IKEA this weekend, though, and we're a little further along in the process. For now, it just feels good that the kids are sleeping in a clean, organized, happy place tonight. Did you hear that, kids? ALL NIGHT.

Good night. :)