My Little Decorator

After the dump truck of toys stopped by over Christmas, Pat and I were throwing around the idea of turning our front room into more of an official playroom.  There have always been toys in it but it's not exclusively for toys.  After deciding that I didn't want to do that, I couldn't sleep last night and kept rearranging furniture in my head.  I'm trying not to be afraid of changing things and moving furniture because all I have to do is move it back if I don't like it.  It's funny that I shouldn't naturally think that considering the number of times I moved my furniture in my bedroom growing up.  Anyway, by the time I went to sleep last night I had come up with some good furniture arrangements and thought I might just go for it.

This morning I didn't really think about playrooms all that much given that we actually had to get up, get dressed and leave the house today to get Jack to school.  I think I could have used another week of vacation.  The kids weren't even getting on my nerves yet.  Sometimes a big infusion of toys is all they need to get along a little better.

While Casey was napping this afternoon, I was trying to get some things done on the computer, like reading other blogs and looking at great projects other people have done and thinking, 'I should do that someday.'  I paid some bills too.  Jack decided that it would be a great time to bring a Lego creation over to disassemble, placing the pieces strategically around the mouse.  And that was my inspiration to do a little reorganizing.  I ran upstairs and dug our 2nd coffee table out of the upstairs toy closet and brought it downstairs.  Before I go any further, there are no pictures of this process yet because it's still a bit of a disaster.  It had to get worse before it could get better and it's just now making the turn.  Pat has asked me twice already if I plan to keep a 6 foot tall bookcase in the middle of the living room.    

I brought the coffee table downstairs and moved Jack's pile of Legos to the table.  He went and got himself a Buzz Lightyear chair and happily sat creating a new airplane for his aircraft carrier.  I was able to get back to blogland without a pile of Legos and child under my elbow.  I wondered why I hadn't thought to bring the table down months ago.  When Jack was a baby we baby-proofed this table and stuck the spongy rubber stuff around the sides so he wouldn't bump his head on the sharp edges.  We're a little past the baby proofing stage around here now but I decided that rubber stuff is staying on.  It's primary purpose now is to keep Legos and puzzle pieces on the table.  Brilliant.

From the coffee table to moving a 6 foot bookshelf to moving a bunch of toys around, the room is now more of a playroom but I didn't move any major furniture beside that bookshelf.  (And a small kitchen.)  In the midst of this Jack thought he would help me.  He just started pulling things out of cupboards and shelves and saying, "I'll put this here and this here and this here.  See how I'm fixing it Mommy?"  When I took some old frames and knick knacks out of a cupboard he asked where they were going.  I was planning to put them back in a different cupboard but I asked him where he thought they should go.  And boy, did he have some opinions.  More like steadfast confidence in his decorating ability.  He knew exactly where things needed to go and how to do it.  I've already signed him up for the next season of Design Star on HGTV.

"Mommy, what rocks do you want to put in this jar?" he asked as he pulled out a bag of rocks and a clear vase.  It was obvious that he didn't even need me to answer that because rocks were already going into the jar.  He was very serious about his tasking and his end table was decorated in no time.  I'm afraid to move things now.