Definitely a little girl's room now

I had to go check my old entries, and I can't believe it's been over a month since we started this project... "What project?" you ask. Well, I'm so glad you asked. We started off intending to rearrange Ari's room and make it more into her own room, a toddler-proof place she could play when she's upstairs. Phase 1 involved moving 2 gigantic bookcases out of her room and downstairs, which I already posted pictures of. Phase 2 was completed today--we left Ari with Pastor and Dawn for the day, and got to work.

To refresh your memory, here is a "before" picture.



Awful, isn't it? You can see why we couldn't just let her roam around in her room unattended. Heck, I could barely walk around in there without stumbling on something.

And now, with great pride, I present to you... the "after" pictures.



Off to the left, you can see the very corner of the computer desk, and the filing cabinet, which are the only office-y things left in the room. We actually got rid of the computer stuff--a friend of ours has had the tower portion of the computer for a long time now, intending to fix it, but never getting around to it. In the meantime, we got the laptop, and since that's all we use, we got rid of the bulky monitor and the keyboard and mouse, so there's nothing on the desk that Ari can hurt.

So now there's the rocking chair, Ari's toy box, her bookcase (you think she has enough books?) and her new Princess table and chair set, complete with tea set (both Christmas gifts).

And since I couldn't fit the whole room in one shot, here's the rest of it. It's not much--just the changing table/dresser and the edge of the crib.



And here's a closer-up shot.



As you can see, there's no real "theme" to this room (unless "various" is a theme). The blanket on the rocking chair is part of her crib bedding set (and note the Belle doll on the chair, too). Sitting on top of the chair is the Build-a-Bear we made for her before she was born. Above the rocking chair is a painting of a mother and daughter. Then on the shelf, there's a couple Willow Tree figurines, a couple framed pictures of Ari, and a Belle doll (that Tony insisted on buying when we went to see Beauty and the Beast in NYC when I was pregnant). And under the shelf is, of course, a princess poster (girl needs to start learning her Disney princesses--it's a priority). Next to the shelf is a framed "artistic interpretation" of Beauty and the Beast, signed by the people who played the parts on Broadway (we got it for making a donation to charity at the end of the show). Then on the next shelf is her piggy bank (a gift from Tony's mom). So, yeah, no real theme going on here, but who cares? The point is, it is now her room, a safe and fun place that she can play.

When we brought her home tonight, of course we brought her right upstairs to show off our work. She went right to the table and started playing with the tea set. I sat down with her (yes, I can fit into those chairs, thankyouverymuch) and showed her how to play with the set--I picked up my cup and pretended to take a sip, with an enthusiastic "Mmmm!" She immediately grabbed my cup and peeked in, as though she was thinking, "Hey, yours has something in it? Mine is empty!" I continued to show her how to use the set--I poured tea, stirred it with my spoon, and pretended to drink. The next thing I knew, she grabbed the teapot and poured me some tea. But then she swiped my cup to take a drink. Apparently, we still need to work on proper tea-time etiquette.

It feels so good to finally have this project done--it was a lot more work than I thought it would be. But most of all, it feels good to finally be able to give Ari a room all to herself.