our home: the boys' shared bedroom

Looking in their room from the hallway.

The canvas print you see when you first open their bedroom door.  From Target. I love it.

This is looking to the left when you walk in the room.  

Looking back at their bedroom door from the opposite side of the room.  The changing table... I rarely use it.  Dexter is pretty much too big and the thought of putting Theo on there is hilarious.  But it's where we store diapers, wipes, sheets, some blankets, etc. We'll keep it until we are ready to sell all of the nursery furniture as a set.

Their messy but large closet.  It could use a lot of reorganizing.  Theo's clothes are on the right and Dexter's are on the left.  Tubs of toys and clothes.  So. Much. Stuff. 

Dexter's bed. Opposite of their bedroom door.  The hamper gets used for stuffed animals now since we have a laundry chute. It will be a sad day when we no longer have a baby in a crib...that day is probably coming sooner than later!

Toy storage between Dexter's crib and the dresser.

Just another view. Dinosaur canvas print from Target.

Cutie pies over the dresser in the corner.

Nursery furniture is from Burlington Coat Factory/Baby Depot.

Curtains from Target.  Curtain rod, holdbacks, and finials from Pottery Barn Kids.

Cute kids by me & R.

Theo's big boy bed and the inspiration for the paint colors in the room.  My mom painted the room.  She did a fantastic job, didn't she!?

Bedding from Target.  Canvas print from (SURPRISE!) Target.

Closer to how it usually looks. :)  I feel like this long wall needs something on it. Maybe a better way to display their art (than taping it to their closet doors), but then I worry Theo will mess with it.  Have to be careful what we hang above his bed.  I think their room turned out super cute.  I love the colors.  I can't imagine having this large of a room for one child.  Sharing a room has been great for them so far!

What's that you say?  Not impressed?  Maybe I should have showed you the "Before" photo first.  I just wanted to save the best for last. 

I can assure you -- this is the same room in the same house in the same decade. 

xo,

~C~

Dear Dexter (18 month letter)

Littlest Dexy,

Here we are in the middle of November and halfway to your 2nd birthday already.  On 11/13/12 at 7:05 a.m., you will be 1 and a 1/2 years old!  You are so happy, easy going, and such a joy to be around.  You're also a mischievous little guy who likes to flash a sly grin when you're doing something you know you're not supposed to do.

You're FINALLY getting some more teeth.  You'd had the same 7 since you were about 10 months old but now you're getting the fourth on the bottom and your incisors on the top.  You've been a little wild and crazy and sometimes grumpy lately, which I attribute to these mean teeth coming through, but overall you're handling it like a champ.

You love to eat. Period.  You like your milk. We still give you milk in the mornings and before bed because you love it.  You gulp it down and sometimes, if we're lucky, you'll go back to sleep in the morning afterwards.  Sleep - that's what we need to talk about.  You still wake up EARLY!  Not 5am early like you used to every day, but sometimes 6.  Here recently, you've started occasionally sleeping til 7 and maybe that will become the norm over the next few months. Please and thank you. 

You started sharing a room with your brother over the past couple of weeks and so far I'm really pleased!  You guys get along and play together better than ever and we haven't had much trouble getting you guys to go to sleep at night.  Usually we put you to bed a few minutes before Theo or else... you'll be up yelling and wanting to play for 45 minutes!  I can hear Theo through the monitor telling you "Dexter! It's bedtime!  Go to sleep!"  He's one to talk, isn't he? 

You're talking more and more and saying things I've never heard you say before.  You say "I want" followed by the thing that you want all the time.  Whether it's "to eat," "a bath," "to play," "down," "up," "to read," "Neee" (our cat Niko), "potty" (you don't really do that...you just watch your brother sometimes), etc.  The list goes on and on.  You will repeat anything and everything that we say (or at least try).

Boy, you want to be JUST like Theo.  Wherever he is, there you are.  If you're not there, if I wait long enough, you'll show up.  You want to play what he's playing. Read what he's reading. Watch what he's watching. Sit where he's sitting.  You two are too cute.  Watching you guys together makes mama a happy gal.

You like our new house. You've got lots of toys and lots of room to run around.  Your favorite thing is probably playing on the slide in the library.  Yes, the big plastic slide is in the library until we finish the basement or find some other place for it.  You are brave and like to stand at the top of the slide and take off running down it.  This does not always end well.  You should stop doing that, or at least learn something from it.

You're so brave. You know no danger.  You know no stranger.  I was just telling your dad the other day that I don't think I've ever seen you bleed.  Your brother was only about 9 months old the first time he busted his lip...and he's done this several times since then. He's had various other boo boos.  But I can't think of a single time you've had a cut or busted lip.  I hope I didn't just jinx you!  I guess you're somewhat cautious in your adventures...you haven't led us to the ER yet.

I still love that you have blonde hair and blue eyes. We call you Blondie a lot.  And Dex. Dexy. Deezy.  Deezy von Weezy.  My sweet.  And again...the list goes on.  You're wearing mostly 18-24 months clothes.  Still in a crib. You've never climbed out (yet).  You still like 2+ hr naps in the afternoon.  You still have the biggest smile and brighest eyes of any little blondie I've ever known. 

I'm really looking forward to the next six months to see how you change and how your vocabulary grows. How your independence and relationship with Theo grows.  I'm looking forward to watching you develop your own interests and talents even more and fostering those things for you.  I'm looking forward to holidays and lazy Saturday mornings with cartoons on the couch.  I'm looking forward to being with you and just being your mama for the rest of my life. 

You're my sweet.  You're my baby and you always will be. 

xo,
mama

feels like home

I've really neglected the before&after pictures of the house, I know.  But mainly it's because they wouldn't really be "after" pictures yet since nothing's totally done. (I'll let you steal a couple sneak peeks in the pictures below).  However.  As I mentioned in my Halloween post...we DID officially move in!  We started staying at the house on Sunday 10/28.  Three months + 1 day after closing.  After we made this decision I started thinking it was super dumb because Theo is transitioning to a big boy bed AND both boys are transitioning to sharing a room with each other.  On a Sunday night.  Genius.  Seems like something you'd want to get a handle on starting on a Friday, right? Eh.

As it turns out, so far it has been fine.  Our big boy really has proven to be just that so far by staying in his bed, not partying all night, and not keeping his brother up all night.  They are fine if we put them to bed at the same time, but they will talk/yell to each other for about 30-45 minutes.  It seems to work better if we put Dexter to bed about 20-30 minutes earlier than Theo.  He has been really good about staying quiet when he knows Dexter is asleep.  Theo is a pretty sound sleeper, so even on the days Dexter wakes up early for milk (yes, we still heat up milk for Dexter at 5:45 am most days), Theo sleeps in.  Saturday both kids slept til almost 8.  EIGHT!  Couldn't believe it.

So the big bed and room-sharing is great.  The mom/homemaker/nurturer in me has been happy as a clam for the past week.  Theo and Dexter have been getting along so well.  My heart bursts every time they hug each other.  Every time I catch Theo trying to teach Dexter something.  Every time I sneak a peek into their room because it's too quiet and see them sitting on Theo's bed playing with something together.  It feels amazing to just cook their dinner and give them a bath here and do the most normal, ordinary, mundane, boring things.  That's all I wanted.  They love this house.  It's far from done, but it's home.  It's already our home sweet home.  Blood, sweat, and tears have all been shed here to make this place our home.

The OCD person in me still sees unpacked boxes and piles of tools and unpainted cabinets, etc.  But those things can wait.  We're home now.  We're with our kids every day.  I never have to miss a bedtime or dinnertime or storytime.  It's all I've been wanting for the past 3+ months.

Best friends.  Two peas in a pod.

It's home.

xo,
~C~

am i totally crazy for this?

One of our non-negotiables when looking for a house was that it would have four bedrooms.  All my close family and best friends live out of state so it's always been important to me that my guests have a nice place to lay their heads at night when they are visiting.

We bought a house with three bedrooms.  

It seemed natural at first that the older child would have the bigger of the bedrooms - we're talking about 30 square feet bigger - but that didn't feel right.  They're only 14 months apart anyway.  After thinking about it, we've decided to see how it goes, letting the boys share a room.  The room is about 13.5' x 13.5' and has plenty of room for two cute toddlers.  I guess my instinct is telling me that they play wherever the other one is, they go to bed at the same time, they get up at the same time...so why not?  Does this seem like a disaster in the making? 

Since we bought a house with just three bedrooms, this seems like a simple solution until the boys are older and express a desire for their own space.  There are some possibilities for a fourth bedroom either in the basement or unfinished attic space later on down the road.  

The only thing I worry about is bedtime.  When we move, we are giving Theo's crib to Dexter and getting rid of Dexter's.  Cold turkey.  Theo will have a new house, a new room, and a new bed.  Oh, and he'll be sharing his new room with his little brother.  Too much at once?  Anyway, I anticipate putting them in bed and then Theo getting out of bed 500 times while he is getting used to his new freedom.  Maybe I'll be wrong, I hope I am, but that's what I worry about the most.  

With them both being boys, playing with the same toys, and being so close in age, it just seemed like a good idea.  We shall see...I'll have to keep you posted on that one.  

Here are a few pictures of recent progress, starting with Dexter's crib bedding (from Amazon, last year's Kimberly Grant Zoom Zoom collection) and the new twin bedding I picked out for Theo (currently at Target).

The base colors - light gray and blue (with one row of tape, getting ready for stripes.

A couple of visitors came by to supervise our work. 

They approved.

They had fun playing with the used painter's tape.

Momma working on those stripes.

Finally - finished paint job and the old carpet is gone.

Momma working on the master bedroom.

Going to paint those window walls some other color - just haven't figure out which one yet. The color of the walls is a light aqua shade.  So pretty!  I'm thinking maaaybe red.  Too much?

If you google "red and aqua bedroom," there are so many inspirational images...oh my.  Here's one that I love.

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Just realized I was ALL over the place with this. So here's the recap... am I crazy for making/letting the boys share a room?  And is red/aqua awesome or what? 

xo,
~C~