Monthly Archives: October 2014
A wedding on the cards
I was talking to Grace while she played on the jungle gym at the end of the day, and she says to me, “Andrew and I are going to get married.” Andrew is in her class (he just started this term). Donné had been in contact with his mom when they were in the UK about the school, and they came over to our house in the holidays. Andrew and Grace got along really well, and they have been playing together at school since he started.
After Grace’s comment I was wondering where the seed for that thought came from, so I asked her, “Did someone say that to you?” to which she replies, “No, I thought that up myself.” She continues, “Andrew and me are falling in love, because we’ve been playing together for so long, nearly the whole year,” (two weeks actually). Uhh, hmm…okay…not too sure what to say.
Well, if we just…..
It all started with bunk beds. Eli is now in a big bed, which meant we needed to buy a new base and mattress. We decided to give Eli Grace’s base and get some bunk beds for her room. Grace’s room was an office before we moved in, so there were lots of office cupboards in the room.
Grace’s room when we moved in
We had already taken out part of the desk to get Grace’s be up against the wall (we took out the part with the pink water bottle on it), and needed to at least take out the cupboards above her bed to make space for the bunk bed. The floor also very unfortunately had carpet tiles stuck onto the wood which come off easily, but leave the sticky strips behind.
The bunk beds were scheduled to arrive today (Monday), so on Saturday I was up early and taking out the required cupboards. After we took the cupboards out, we looked and this and Donné suggested that it might be nice to have the bunk beds up against the other wall (where the desk and cupboards still were), and then put the remaining desk into the corner (where the bed has been).
Looking at it, this really made the most sense in the bedroom, as it would open it up a bit, and Grace wouldn’t be sleeping right next to the window.
Well….if we’re going to do that, then we should really just take out all these carpet tiles at the same time….and that means we’re going to have to sand the floor….and behind the cupboards and desks the walls are a different colour, so we’ll need to repaint them, as well as fix the large hole in the wall from a ventilation duct….and this also involves removing the duct’s blower electrics, and getting the intercom wiring out of the cupboard….and what are we going to do with the cupboards when they’re out of there? Well, we’ll put them into the outside room to use as a second office, and any left overs can go into the garage for extra storage…which also means we need to sort out the outside room and organise all the things in there, and organise the garage so that there is space for everything.
Sounds like we have a few weekends of work lined up for ourselves, all because we decided on bunk beds. But it is actually all quite exciting as Grace’s room is going to look great with the floors sorted out, and already feels much bigger with all the cupboards out, and we’ll sort out Eli’s room’s floor at the same time (also carpet tiles), and the outside room will finally get organised after standing static for the last two months, and the garage will get organised – all good things.
So we set about getting the cupboards out (which seemed to be held onto the wall with two screws, a prayer, and some compression keeping them in place), and clearing out the floor tiles.
This is how Grace’s room currently looks
Grace is now sleeping in the playroom on her new bunk bed which arrived today
And our house is chaos with cupboards and desks lying all over.
Sometimes one simple choice just spirals out of control.
Watermelon!
Donné went out to get some groceries, and shortly after she left Grace says to me, “Can we buy some watermelon dad?” I couldn’t think that I’d seen watermelon around in the shop, so I said, “I’m not sure if we can yet, watermelon grows now so that we can eat it in the summer.” She seemed okay with that, and on we went. Donné arrived back from the shops, and what should she pull out of a bag? A watermelon. Grace sees this and screams, “WATERMElOOOOOON!!!!” I think she was excited.
Don’t say cheese, say watermelon!
Summer water fun
Water + children = happiness (well, at least for our kids). Grace and Eli had a fun, laughing, splashing, spraying afternoon. Grace was happy for Eli to spray her with the water, although Eli didn’t think that being sprayed was much fun at all.
And eventually someone always gets naked
Sleep cuddles
Our little man is just loving his bed – happy as can be and still sleeping well
Sleep report
Eli’s sleep in his new bed went pretty well last night….just one incident of falling out of the bed. I was working and heard a doof! but no crying. I thought, “That must be Eli falling out of his bed.” I went to investigate and he had pushed himself up over the top end of the bed, and was lying sleeping on the floor. I picked him up and put him back in, and he didn’t even seem to register any of it at all.
He had three nights of sleeping through, and last night was borderline with him waking at 04h40. So far it is a good trend – I’m hoping it will stick.
The flower man – helping Aunty Mel choose something for her mom
Big boy bed
Eli is sleeping in a big boy bed tonight! We’re waiting for a set of bunk beds to arrive, but the mattresses arrived today, and Eli was very excited, so he is sleeping on the two mattresses stacked together. He just went through his usual going to sleep routine with no worries at all – well done Eli. He has always loved climbing into Grace’s bed and pretending to sleep, and he was so super happy to have his own bed.
Story time on the balcony
With summer weather on the way we can sit outside, watch the fish and read stories at bedtime
In other good news, Eli made it through two nights in a row….holding thumbs for good things.
Through the night!
753 days of waking up at night, and then last night – for the first time for the second time – Eli slept all the way through the night until 06h00, which is entirely awesome. Let’s hope that this is the start of a long and prosperous stretch of sleeping through.
Unfortunately Grace decided to wake up at 04h30….we’ll get there.
Eli has a happy day today, making plastic food, checking for all the things that fit into the phone plug, weeding the garden, and helping me to empty out one of the filters.
Root 44
We spent the morning at the Root 44 market, which is a pretty cool market. Grace and Eli had pancakes (happy children) and we had good coffee (happy parents), spent some time playing in the great play area, went for a train ride, and Grace “won” a prize in the kids area with a magnetic duck game (fish for the duck, then choose a prize based on the number on the duck). She was super excited about the duck fishing game and I’m pretty sure that will be happening again in the future.