Mom, D & I are going to see Hunger Games tonight. After a search far and wide - i.e. waiting for babysitter #2* to text back - we located a sitter for tonight. I'm quite excited, mostly because it feels like a bonus date night since we expected not to have a date night this week due to the move (hence the reason there was no pre-arranged swap with the Gs).
New Subheadings
* I want to note that she's only our second choice babysitter because of our loyalty to the first neighborhood sitter we use. Avery also prefers our first choice because "she wears sparkly earrings."
Spring Break
Avery's on Spring Break next week. I'm rather pleased with myself as I have activities schedule for all days but Tuesday. Tuesday is when Mom's moving truck is scheduled to arrive, so I need to be here to help with that effort. I'm also rather pleased with myself for getting not one, but two playdates scheduled with kids (both who happen to be boys) from school with whom we've not had playdates before. I asked Avery if she'd like me to schedule playdates with any of the kids from school during Spring Break. She immediately replied Lennon and Eamon. The teachers have told me several times that Avery and Eamon are like two peas in a pod, so that wasn't surprising. And Avery talks about Lennon a lot. She thinks he's very funny.
Playroom
I schedule the handyman to come yesterday because I needed some shelving reconfigured and moved in the garage to prepare for the arrival of Mom's stuff. I arranged it on Friday afternoon. I realized it would be nice to have him assemble and install the storage for Avery's playroom while he was here. So off to IKEA Mom, Avery and I went on Saturday morning. Went went as soon as they opened, zoomed through and were in and out within 20 minutes or so.
After brainstorming lots of potential creative ideas for playroom storage and its configuration, I decided that the smartest thing was the simple, large Expedit cube storage from IKEA.
I have also decided to hold off on making it look all pretty with matching storage cubes or bins. The playroom is all about function for me. I want to have a place to put the toys, but I also don't want to feel guilty if I haven't gone and restored it to perfect organization. Here's what it looks like now:
It's certainly not a picture I'm going to put on Pinterest. And that's what I've realized. If I make it a room worthy of Pinterest, then I'll be more obsessed with making sure the kids "play right" in it. I'll care when Avery decides she wants to rearrange things herself. I know myself well enough to know that if I want to let Avery have this room to be creative and play in, then I need to not get obsessed with the aesthetics of it now. So there you go. That's how I'm justifying this not-so-beautiful, but oh-so-functional playroom organization.
FYI on the other side of the room is the crib (with the front removed) where Nolan sleeps on date nights, along with some pillows. There's a good chunk of floor space between that is clear for any sort of play the kids may come up with. Oh, and the closet is stuffed with Avery's princess dresses.
I wish our playroom looked that nice!
ReplyDeleteThe only reason we're trying to use bins for most things is because we have so many pieces to a toy, and the kids will not keep all the pieces for one toy together on a shelf or in a cube. We were hoping that bins would help, and they help a bit, but not enough. I feel like we'll never solve that problem.