New Year Girls' Room Redo

It was back to reality for us this morning, after the nice, relaxing long break during which I slept in every day until usually 8:30.  Tim was home with us from the day before Christmas Eve all the way until today.  In the mornings the kids would get him up without me being aware, they would eat breakfast, and I would come out as he was getting ready to go running or to the gym.  I had some leisurely mornings, that's for sure.  I wasn't even staying up late at night either.  I was just catching up on sleep, to the tune of nine or ten hours a night!

When I wasn't being a sloth, I felt so rested and energized.  I ran every other day, at whatever time I felt like it, almost always the same four-mile loop around base.  I did some organizing projects that I'd been putting off forever.  I went through the storage closet, the one that has everything from extra kitchen chairs to kids' art supplies, to books to appliance boxes and basically everything.  While our current house is very spacious, what it lacks is storage.  This one closet, along with a much smaller closet in the hallway, are the only storage we have now.  In our house in NC, we filled up a huge attic with stuff.  But when you have less space to put things, it's amazing how many things you can find that can either be sold, donated or tossed in the trash.  So I did that yet again, finding used up art supplies and weeding out the broken crayons, purging and organizing.  We'll see how long it stays nice and neat this time.  I did the same thing with my side of our walk-in closet.  There's something about this spring-like weather, when the windows are all open and the breeze is coming in, that inspires me to get things like this done.  That AND the 10 hours of sleep.:)  

The real highlight was finally getting around to fixing up the girls' bedroom.  I'd been waiting forever and ever, it felt like, to do that.  But life is busy and Tim wanted to wait until we had a "real plan", which we never did come up with.  I threw together a list of things one night and we -- mostly he -- went on a few shopping trips to get everything we needed.  I don't like shopping but he doesn't mind, so he'd go to a store, text me pictures and I'd say yay or nay.  For example, he wanted to get fabric bins for the toys and I said "baskets!"  It was kind of thrown together with a mix of new and old things, and I am so pleased with how it turned out.

At first I tried to fight the pink and purple, but eventually I gave in.  Why fight it?  This room is all-out girly and proud of it.  They only get to be this little once, and they've got the whole rest of their lives to use sophisticated and grown-up color palettes in their decorating.  Maybe they'll be able to help me with grown-up colors since I am inept.

My biggest priority in their room, maybe even more important than making it pretty, was establishing a place for everything that they could easily find and remember.  I wanted to give them easily accessible storage, and take away any excuse they ever had for not picking up after themselves.  This was always necessary, but even more so after all the new toys they got for Christmas.  It's also a good time, with the start of a new year, to really focus our efforts on teaching them good habits like picking up after themselves.  Toward the end of last year I found myself very sloppily enforcing clean-up, and then getting frustrated when they kept leaving messes every time I turned around.  So this room redo also served to hit a reset button, with everything neat and organized, and me being consistent about making sure that they're putting things where they belong.

This room is like a fresh start.  It makes me really happy.  I have no before pictures, but it was just a blank slate.  Nothing on the walls, nothing on the windows.  The bedding from TJ Maxx provided the only color the room had.  The windows have the base housing standard-issue, ugly, I-didn't-even-know-there-was-a-such-thing-so-cheap-and-flimsy vertical blinds, but they long ago lost their functionality because they come out too easily at the hands of kids who don't know how to be gentle.  When closed they look like a smile that's missing teeth, so we've been forced to keep them open, thereby letting our neighbors see our entire life through these windows.  But again, we didn't want to get curtains until we knew what we were going to do with the rest of the room.  We debated curtain color right up until Tim showed these ones to me at Target, but now I think they're perfect.

I am still not completely done in here.  I'd like an actual area rug to go between the beds and the bookshelf, probably something white and fuzzy but we'll see.  I'd also like a different french bulletin board.  The old pink gingham one that we've had since Delaney's nursery in MA is pretty dingy, and I think they could use a bigger size.  I'm also not overly attached to the bedding, although I love the green ruffly pillows.

It was Tim's idea to move the bookshelf he built into the closet, and then I took out this little cube storage thing that used to sit in the closet and hold shoes, and put books in it.  That big bookshelf Tim built with the really deep shelves is better storage for other things besides books, as you will see.  The shelf is also from Delaney's old nursery, and I finally had a place to display one of their Precious Moments birthday trains from Auntie Gayla. 

The bulletin board is at their level so they can update it with pictures and notes as time goes on.  I rescued most of these pictures from my mom's 2014 Shutterfly calendar which I'd already tossed in the recycling bin.

The hands-down best thing about this room, and it was MY idea, is this closet.  

I really wish I'd taken a before picture, but it all happened so fast once I got Tim come around to my vision.  Picture a couple of gigantic heavy sliding doors that were now dangling from the top of the doorframe because they'd come detached from the floor.  Ugh.  Their school clothes were on the left, their dresses were on the right, the shoes were in the middle, and we had to keep sliding the big dangling doors back and forth, back and forth..  But it never would have occurred to me that those doors needed to go were it not for this blog post by Deme, who is actually a former coworker of Tim's -- small world.  

The first couple of times I told Tim, "I read this blog, and I really think those closet doors need to go," he tried to put me off.  "They don't come out," is what he first told me.  Then it was, "Where will we put them?"  Probably a better question.  But eventually he gave in to my nagging perseverance, and he popped them right out and put them in Timmy's closet.  Timmy doesn't need his closet the way the girls do.  When I saw that closet without those big, unwieldy doors I was like, 'Finally I can get to work!'

Tim found the crushed white sheer panels at Big Lots and they are hung on a pressure-mounted shower curtain rod.  We have warned all three kids repeatedly how easily they can tear it all down, and so far we've had no incidents.  The vinyl quote above is from Target.  (It gave me a chuckle when it finally came to me where I'd heard those words before -- in an Aerosmith song! -- not where I would think to go for inspiration for a  little girls' room.  I'm revealing my age with that one, huh?)  

Inside we have the baskets for their American Girl doll stuff, Lego Friends, and other toys.  The chevron bin on the bottom right is for stuffed animals, and I've told them they get to have as many as will fit in there.  Any more and something has to go.  Top shelf on the right, hidden by the curtain is where we keep games, puzzles and Rainbow Loom.  They have to ask for one of us to get them down because until they can prove themselves consistent at picking up when they're done, they have restricted access to those things.  On the top left are my keepsake boxes of their baby stuff, and birthday train boxes.  The basket at the top middle is where I will toss clothes as they outgrow them, another idea from Deme.

Delaney picked out the "Your are My Sunshine" canvas to the right of the closet at Home Goods.

For over their beds, we had tossed around a few ideas.  One was another vinyl tree decal like they had in NC, but I'm glad we didn't do that because these textured walls make it kind of difficult as Tim found out with the little quote over the closet.  Another thing I thought would be nice was some kind of framed initial over the beds, maybe one of their old wooden letters with a frame around it.  Another thing I'd seen in a search of shared girls' bedrooms were starburst/sunburst mirrors over the beds.  I had a Pinterest board full of these ideas.  Tim found this mirror at Lowe's and actually brought home two of them so we could see which way we liked better.  We decided the mirror was big enough that we only needed the one to go in the middle.  I was really happy with that purchase.  That mirror is a good thing to have in our repertoire.

That wine holder in lieu of nightstand is also from Delaney's old nursery.  At some point a real nightstand would be nice, and a little lamp too, but not a priority right now.

Even their new robes and slippers have a designated spot.

We got everything done in just two days, and all that remained were curtain holdbacks, which we really needed.  These curtains are wide and blackout-lined, and they didn't want to want to stay open and let any light in during the day.  But to my surprise, holdbacks were not easy to find at all.  Tim went out and came back two different times saying he couldn't find them, and I was like, 'What do you mean you can't find some holdbacks, they're the only thing this room needs to be done!'  I looked online and found some I liked on Bed, Bath & Beyond's website, but they were $20 apiece.  Then we went to Walmart to see what they had, and theirs were hideous.  We thought that surely we could make something this simple ourselves, even if only as a temporary measure.  I found some stretchy ribbon (used for making headbands?), cut it into 12-inch lengths and tried to reinforce the edges so they wouldn't unravel.  Tim put hooks in the walls, and there you go.  

Time will tell how long they last but they will do for now.  I found another great idea for DIY tie-backs on Pinterest that maybe I'll try when these are done.  Minus the Command Hook of course.  Tim looks down on Command Hooks being used in decor (he can be kind of a snob about certain things).  I can't find the source for this photo, but looking at that textured wall that's the same color as ours and the curtains identical to ours, I wonder if it's another base housing dweller.

And that's it!  I think that, short of painting, we did a great job transforming this room into something functional, pretty and suitable for a pair of five- and seven-year-old sisters. 

Girls' room update

I've realized lately that I haven't posted an update about the girls' room since Annie moved in with Delaney.  This is my favorite room in the house, so I decided I'd better record it for posterity (if such a thing is possible with Blogger).

We haven't made any major changes to it since it became solely Delaney's room soon after we moved in almost two years ago.  We moved Annie in there right before Tim deployed last March.  At first she was in a crib, but we don't have any pictures of that.  She was in the crib until Karen converted it to a toddler bed when she visited last June.  Then, soon after Tim came back this past February, he set up the other twin bed for her, and here's how it all looks now.  These pictures stink, but they're the best I could do.

Normally, two pink robes are hanging up, but one seems to be missing.

"Mr. Clock" -- My Tot Clock -- deserves a post of its own.  I love that thing.

This pretty little girls' room is the scene of a lot of shenanigans.  We also read stories in here every naptime and bedtime.  Just looking around this room makes me smile.

And there you have it, Delaney and Annie's room, at least for the next year or so! 

Timmy's room

One of the things Tim and I couldn't wait to do when he got back from deployment was decorate Timmy's room.  We searched for inspiration in blogs, Pottery Barn Kids, Etsy, and Land of Nod.  Making a huge fuss over our kids' rooms is something we really enjoy doing together.  Then I discovered Pinterest, and had all kinds of fun pinning all of our ideas on a board and seeing them come together in one place.

Here is Timmy's room before:

At this point, it was just a blank slate.  This room has been through a couple transformations in the year-and-a-half that we've lived here.  First we turned it into Annie's room, not knowing at the time we would be moving her in with her sister in only 6 months.  It would have been practical to put the girls in a room together from the start, since we knew we'd be adding to our family soon.  But I was very reluctant to do that, and with good reason -- those two started making all kinds of trouble once they started sharing a room.  When Tim painted the room again last March, we picked colors that would be suitable for both a guest room and a boy's room.  We were trying to use a little bit more foresight this time, as Tim doesn't enjoy painting all that much.

We settled on an old-timey sports theme for Timmy's room.  It was an easy choice since we already had a few sports-related knicknacks.  The baseball clock was made by Tim's godmother and aunt Jayne as a gift for him in 1981.  It is signed and dated by her.  Tim had to order some special parts for it to get it back in working order, because when he got it out of storage at his parents' house, the hands were gone.  I think once we dusted off that old clock and got it working again, our minds were made up we were going to design the whole room around it, as tiny as it is.  

  

The piece de resistance is the scoreboard.  Tim got the idea for it, as well as the 'how to' from a blog called That Village House.  It took us a couple weeks to complete, and was a lot of work, mostly done by Tim.  I was an extra set of hands and eyes.  (Thanks to me, the tail on the apostrophe is on the bottom.)  First we got a big old piece of half-inch thick plywood, and Tim found the size and font of letters and numbers to make.  We did not have a Silhouette machine, like Lindsay from That Village House.  We made our own stencils after the kids were in bed, with X-Acto knives and card stock.  That part was pretty tedious, and I might have complained a lot throughout that process.

I was laughing because Tim said he was taking this photo as evidence that I'd done any work on this project.:p

Next, Tim painted the board dark green and white.

Then Tim became violently ill and we had to take a hiatus for a day or two.  After that, it was time to trace the letters and numbers onto the board and paint them.

Tim had to remind me that this was supposed to be made with love, not with curse words.  I had a lot of trouble painting in the lines, and for some reason the paint was drying mid-brushstroke, making it very rough and bumpy looking.  I felt better when I took a step back and looked at it, and saw that it still looked really good.  This was a two-day process, and even though it took a lot more patience than I normally have, I had to admit I really enjoyed sitting down at the table with Tim and working on this.  I wish we did stuff like this more often.

After we'd put a couple coats of paint on the letters, it was time for the finishing touches.  Tim put little hooks next to 'visitor' and 'home,' and drew and painted on the little "lights" at the bottom.

Tim also made the little number cards for the "score" and hung them on the hooks.  We both thought about having the numbers be of some significance, like "725", but in the end Tim picked them at random.  We decided not to overthink it.

It has many flaws when you look at it closely -- or even from far away.  But its flaws give it charm and make me love it more.  

A 36" x 48" sheet of half-inch thick plywood is no small thing to hang on the wall above a baby's crib.  Tim was ready with the drywall anchors, but then surprisingly, when he went to drill holes in the wall, he found studs.  Tim said, "That's crazy.. you can never find a stud when you're looking for it."  I couldn't resist saying, "Where's a good stud when you need one?"  (haha)

Then he made the baseball stitches.  He took a nail and string with a pencil at the end to draw an arc at the top left and bottom right corners of the wall.  He painted the line black.  He wanted to make small red stitches along the lines with the edge of a paint brush, but I felt the stitches needed to be big.  We looked at the vinyl wall decals we'd seen on Etsy to get an idea how big they should be and what shape.  Once we knew what we wanted them to look like, he Googled an image of a boomerang, then printed it off and made a cardboard stencil.  I guess cardboard isn't the best material to make a stencil out of.  Tim was very frustrated at how much paint oozed underneath.  Then he had to try to wipe off the stencil before coloring in the next stitch, so it took a little longer than he thought.  He'd tell you not to look too closely at them, but when you take a few steps back, they look perfect!

And here it is all done!

The sun shining in makes the curtains look pink, but I promise they're red!

The pillow was made for Timmy by his 8-year-old cousin Alexa.  The sheet is from Pottery Barn Kids.

The quilt was made by, Grandy (my mom).  The pennants are from The Land of Nod.  The painting is from Etsy.

We're really happy with how it turned out.  It is a little boy's room more so than a nursery, and will grow with him a few years.  Everything in it is something we can take with us when we go and enjoy for a long time.  At one point I asked Tim, "I wonder how old he'll be when he looks at the scoreboard and goes, 'Ugh.'"  Tim said eventually it can go in a garage or maybe a finished basement family room.  Wherever we wind up, the scoreboard will have a place.

Starting to freak out a little

The reality of Tim's looming departure is really setting in for me now.  We've been scurrying around all week, trying to get things done around here, with only one break for Saturday night "date night in."  I've been having trouble sleeping, and occasionally out of nowhere I get teary.  I picture certain scenarios in my mind: driving home with the girls after telling him goodbye; thinking about the way the girls' faces light up when he walks in the door every day, and they yell, "Da-da!" I can't believe I'm staring a 10-month deployment in the face.

I've turned to cleaning as a way to cope (and blogging).  I know that on Sunday we're supposed to relax, but as soon as the girls and Tim were down for naps, I started cleaning the windows inside and out, and it took me four hours.  For some reason, I feel like having clean windows will make this easier for me.  They're still not completely clean, but professional window cleaning isn't in the budget right now.  I cleaned our bathroom too, and between the two of us, we must have done 10 loads of laundry this weekend.  I kept getting frustrated at the state of our house, and they way I can't ever catch up with the housework.  And these past couple weeks, we've made it worse with all our rearranging.  It seems like once we took one thing out of its place, it all snowballed from there.  I'm not a clean freak unless I'm stressed out.

Here are the results of our efforts -- alright, mostly Tim's efforts:

What was Delaney's room is now the girls' room.  

What was Annie's room is now the guest room.  I was going to have to paint, but since it turned out Tim was here this month, he did it.  I think it turned out really well.  The bed is Annie's converted crib.  I think Annie's teeth marks on the foot of the bed add charm.  Doesn't it look nice and cozy (albeit lacking any decor)?  The mattress and bedding are brand spanking new.  Now all we need is a guest!

We celebrated our 4th anniversary on St. Paddy's Day.  Here are the flowers Tim sent me.

I told Tim earlier today we're going to have to get all caught up this week on everything that needs to be done so that we can spend our last weekend together doing something relaxing and fun, instead of running around like chickens with our heads cut off.

Annie's room makeover

Finally, the Annie's room post.  First I had to wait on her vinyl decal to arrive, and then after that, I had to wait for a sunny afternoon for the best lighting to take the pictures.  I couldn't believe how long that took.  Finally, the sun broke through the clouds this evening, and we could take some pictures.  It was still a challenge, and they aren't the greatest photos, but they'll have to do. 

Once Delaney's room was done, our euphoria was short-lived.  Annie's was next, and we had no idea what to do with it.  We argued discussed, went to Lowe's, came back and talked some more.  I got so sick of talking about it that I started to not even care -- I just wanted it done!

We had made a half-hearted attempt at a nursery for her in Quantico, and bought a few things for her with a "Goodnight, Sleep Tight" motif.  Moon, stars, sheep, bunnies rubbing their eyes, all set against a twilight sky.  (I know, very cheesy, but this is the one time in their lives I get away with this.)  I wanted to keep those things, but I was no longer happy with the main colors of blue, yellow, and green.  It was as if we had picked them out while we were pregnant, and not knowing what they were having.  If we were to stick with those same colors for paint and everything, then we would have  a blah unisex nursery for our little girly-girl who is already trying on high heels and brushing her hair.  For awhile I was stumped and frustrated, thinking I either keep the whole theme with all the pieces we'd already acquired, or throw them out altogether in favor of something more feminine.

Then I had this great idea.  We have this book sitting on her hutch.  Ta-da! as Delaney says.

With this as our inspiration, we got to work picking paint colors for Annie's feminine lullaby-themed room.  This required several trips to Lowe's.  Tim would say to me, "Would you quit saying 'periwinkle'?"  He'd never heard of 'periwinkle', and when I showed it to him, he said, "It looks like blue to me."  We settled on a darker shade and a lighter shade.  I think once the colors were on the wall, they looked more purple than blue.  As you'll see in the pictures below, the room looks more blue or more purple depending on the lighting and the setting on the camera.  We almost decided the darker color would be the color right under the title of the book, and we found a good match.  I'm glad I decided against it, because it was too bold and too bright.

I was in favor of keeping it simple, with maybe three lighter colored walls and a darker accent wall; but Tim wanted to make sure he put has much sweat into her room as he had into Delaney's.  Otherwise, he would have felt guilty.  To assuage that guilt, he decided to paint the bottom half of the room one color, the top half the other, and put up a white chair rail.  What a difference that made!  I think his appreciation for chair rails first happened when he looked at our master bedroom here.  It is painted floor to ceiling "restless seas,"* which is a blue-gray that does look just like the ocean.  We love the color, but without the white chair rail in the middle, it would be really be too much.

Here is a 'before' picture:

This room was a spare room, I believe, so it's pretty dreary.  "Roasted garlic" was the wall color here.

And here are the after pictures.  I think we accomplished what we set out to do.  Mostly.

Tim showed me how to make the letters with Mod Podge, and I did them myself.  My big contribution!

Another vinyl decal found on Etsy.  "Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star.  Do you know how loved you are?"  Took its sweet time getting here, and in our haste to put it up, we stuck it on there a slightly crooked.  I wish I could have a do-over.

You can't tell, but the pink curtains are gingham, inspired by the gingham on the book cover.

I'm not completely happy with this last wall.  I agreed with Tim's idea to put up the shelves instead of just hanging up the wall art, in order to "break up" the pastel-ness of the whole thing.  However, something is bothering me here.  Not so much the gigantic wicker basket, supposedly to put toys in, but really just to take up empty space.  I don't know if I like it, but something has to go there, right?  Maybe the small pink "Prayer for a Little Girl" needs to move..?  

There was this whole other idea I had for this wall, and that was to take four or five pages out of Sleep, Baby, Sleep, and frame them and hang them there.  I love the pictures that are currently on the wall, but they're not working, for some reason.  I'd rather use what I have, and not go out buying new frames to hang up different things.  I'm stumped and open to suggestions.

*If you're wondering how I know that, it's because our landlords left us a "turnover binder" for the house.  Mr. Landlord is a Marine lieutenant colonel, and Marines like turnover binders.  The binder contains lots of helpful information, such as trash and recycling pickup days, important phone numbers, and manuals for the appliances.  I love this binder, and I find myself referring to it a lot.  What did we do as renters before we had something like this?  It also has a page of paint colors for every room, complete with paint cards.  I have noted the changes we've made so far in the binder, carefully taping our paint cards over theirs.:)

Delaney's room makeover

First off, I want to say how thrilling it is to be making changes in this house.  We didn't make any changes in the Quantico house because it was base housing and we were only there a year.  It was really frustrating living in a house that was painter's beige all throughout, and hardly anything on the walls because why bother?  I think we've both been  looking forward to having a place for long enough to be able to make it our own.  There wasn't much we need to do paint-wise in this house -- just the little girls' rooms.

Delaney's room was item number one on the agenda when we got back from Massachusetts.  I love this room with the high ceiling and the big pretty window.  Before we came along, this room belonged to a set of two-and-a-half-year-old boy/girl twins.  The soft blue color worked for them, but we knew we wouldn't be keeping it around for long.

Before:

After:
This was several days in the making, and truly a labor of love for Tim.  We decided to stick with the ladybug theme, since we still have all the pieces for it, and we still think it's so fitting.  Tim thought stripes would add a new twist, and I agreed.  The plan was to do three of the walls with stripes on the bottom and a pale green on top, with a painted pink border in lieu of the ladybug wallpaper border that we'd used for her nursery in Massachusetts.  The fourth wall, with the bed, would just be solid green from top to bottom.

Yikes, sorry about the dirty window.  We cleaned the inside, but I guess the outside needs it too.

The stripes were very time-consuming.  Tim got so sick of taping.    The colors worked out well, but we found that the pink border looked awkward somehow.  Tim got the idea to use a thin pine molding painted white on the edges of the border to break it up a little.  He had never done anything like that before, so he had to learn as he went.  From time to time he laments that he was 32 years old before he ever picked up any kind of tool.  I think he's catching up quick, though.  It was a lot of work, and there were a few mistakes along the way (like bang!  bang!  crack!  uh-oh!), but when he was done it looked really good.  We thought about stenciling something in the pink area, but after we'd put the rest of the room together, we concluded that would be overkill.

These are my baby shoes.

The letters over her bed are the same ones Tim made for the original nursery, with wooden letters from Michael's, scrapbook sheets, and Mod Podge.

The vinyl tree decal is something completely new.  I just decided I wanted a tree for Delaney's room, so I looked online and I found this one on Etsy.  It was a little departure from the theme, with its owls and orange butterflies, but I love it.  I spent Annie's morning nap putting on all those leaves individually.  Delaney's not as impressed as I thought she'd be, but she likes it.

All in all, I think this is the perfect bright and sunny little girl's room that fits Delaney to a T.  It's still kind of a nursery too, I realize, with the baby shoes and other baby-ish details.  She'll be 6 by the time we leave here, and I don't know if she still needs to have an ultrasound photo hanging up in her room when she's that old.  But those are small changes.

We're waiting on a couple finishing details for Annie's room, but otherwise it's finished, and I can't wait to show you what we did there too.

A cell fit for a princess

Who remembers what a cute nursery Delaney used to have?  It was my pride and joy in Massachusetts, the one room I took a good long look at with a lump in my throat before the movers came.  Delaney's ladybug nursery that Tim had conspired with his family to surprise me with its completion when I was six months pregnant with her.  When we moved here, we transferred it over as best we could, but without paint and wallpaper, since we were only staying here 10 months.  I even added a couple of things I thought would make it nicer, as she got a little older.  There was the sling bookshelf to hold all her books in her reach, with the covers facing out.  I'd even stuck leftover ladybugs and dragonflies to the side of it.  There was the little wooden rocking chair we made off with from Tim's parents', that was the perfect size for a munchkin.  Sometimes at story time, I would sit in the large wooden rocker, and she would sit in the small one, since she usually didn't like to sit in my lap anymore.  I even added a little toy box of sorts, with a couple puzzles in it, so she had her own little space to play.  That was the first thing to go when the insanity started.

Then we converted her crib to a toddler bed a few weeks ago, when she learned how to climb in and out of it.  Now her entire room is only a couple steps away from being converted to a padded room in a mental hospital.  She's losing her nice things one by one, but only Tim and I seem to care.  First went her little rocking chair, that Tim had lovingly repaired after it broke during the move.  I got tired of listening to her toss it around, and I didn't want it to break for good.  Next went the bookshelf I love, after I heard a crash one day during what we now refer to as "quiet time", and came upstairs to find it knocked over.  A few days ago, Tim came home from work and was sad to see the large wooden rocker in the middle of the family room  instead of beside her bed.  He remembered how he used to read stories to her with her on his lap, her drowsy head on his chest.  She'd used it to climb on top of her bureau, and that was that.  Her armoire is strapped to the wall, and the knobs are removed from the drawers.  I dearly hope she doesn't find another way to hurt herself with it, but there's nowhere else in the house to put it.  Her bureau is a low, squat, heavy thing that I couldn't even manage to pull over, but then again..

Oh, and then about an hour ago, I used the same threat with Delaney that Tim had used before, successfully.  "Delaney, if I hear any more noise, I'm coming in here and taking all your books and toys."  I felt so sad and defeated as I went back up there a half hour later to make good on my threat.

Every day I go through the same routine with her that I always have.  "Naptime" or "quiet time" is nothing new around here.  It's an important part of the day that I refuse to give up on because experts say kids this age still need naps; and even more importantly, Mama needs time to recharge her batteries.  But my batteries do not get recharged.  I cringe at every noise I hear now, and dash up those stairs every 20 minutes or more, afraid of what I might find.  I live in fear.  What's next?  Blinds broken?  Room-darkening shade ripped off the rod? Her head busted open?

I've tried niceness and meanness, and consequences.  During non- quiet time hours, time-outs are very effective with her for discipline.  But obviously that won't work, if she views quiet time as one long time-out.  I told Tim, if there was ever a time I thought she deserved a spanking, it's when she's wreaking havoc when she's supposed to be resting, and then waking her sister, to boot!  But Tim and I agree that spanking is not for us.

The other day, she slept for once, and so did Annie, and then so did I for a little while.  It was like heaven.  Why can't it be like that every day?  What am I doing wrong?  The Sleep Lady can not help me here.  Or maybe she could, if I was willing to pay $300 for a phone consultation. That'll be the day, when I pay someone $300 to talk to me on the phone!

I remember how, with care, love and joy, Tim and I selected every piece of furniture that went into that room.  We wanted the best.  Now we know, we could have thrown a mattress into the middle of an empty room and saved ourselves the trouble.  I realize now that every last detail that went into her nursery was really for us, not for her.  I still have the pictures, and it was lovely while it lasted.  If I have tears smarting my eyes right now, at least I can comfort myself with the fact that all of these nice things never mattered much to her.  They were all for me -- the big surprise, the nice furniture, all of it.  The only thing she ever needed was a quiet place to rest her head.

And now Mr. Clock is probably saying it's time to "wake up," and I hear the thud-thud-thud at the door.  I might be looking into a padded room for myself here soon.