New Bedroom and Updates

We have a three bedroom house. Sounds perfect for our family right? Well, it would be, but the third bedroom is in the basement. There is a fourth bedroom in the basement too, but it can't technically be a bedroom since it has no windows. We use it as a storage facility.

The basement bedroom is the biggest in the house, and right beside the bathroom we use for ourselves. It makes complete sense to have our bedroom in the basement and have the kids' rooms upstairs, with their bathroom between their rooms.

We thought vaguely of staying upstairs and making the kids share a room, but sadly, Cailin's room is too tiny for two occupants. Now that we know we're having a boy, it seems cruel to saddle him in a itty bitty chocolate brown and raspberry pink room with his sister. So, we took the plunge and fixed up the basement room yesterday.

The room was previously painted two different shades of what I can only call 'rust'. Whoever painted it did a fairly awful job as you could see through to the paint underneath - a very unsavoury red tone. I cleaned out the room, washed the walls and baseboards and started painting. When Ryan got home and Cailin went to bed, we tackled the room together. Ryan painted the ceiling, baseboards and door; he also installed the new light fixture. I finished painting the walls, applied a second coat and did all the cutting. And touch-ups. Goodness, I'm not a very tidy painter. I used a really good paint with primer built in and it was very forgiving, especially on the patches of rust and red paint. For some reason at one time or another, someone decided to spackle one wall with the stuff popcorn ceilings are made out of. It was a real pain to paint, let me tell you. We worked until after midnight, but we got it done.

It's nice and bright in there now, and it hardly looks like a basement room. We are both really happy with the results. So is another member of the family. Bailey can now jump on the bed due to the extra grip the carpet provides. Of course we brought down her doggie bed, but she climbed in it for all of five minutes before she realized that the big bed was once again in reach. I predict a puggle sneaking into the bed when she thinks we're sleeping.

Of course, there was piles and oodles of things that needed to go in the storage room. It is such a mess in there that we dread having to go in fishing for an item. I managed to fill one garbage bag of junk before throwing my hands in the air and giving up.

Luckily, once Cailin went to bed tonight, Ryan and I tackled the Pit of Doom together and managed to be victorious. It seemed an impossible and frustrating task this afternoon, but we got everything to fit in the storage room, even the elliptical exercise machine. Eventually we'll have to empty the room and organize it, but for now we're pretty happy with the result. In fact, we're pretty pleased with the whole basement set up. So far, the only issue we have is that there is no room for any of my clothes in our new bedroom. However, I can now proudly say we have same level laundry.

In between sessions of organizing the basement into order, Cailin and I managed to get outside for two walks. We didn't go far from the house, but Cailin doesn't mind. I'm not sure how kids instinctively know how fun it is to splash in puddles, but Cailin headed right out to the puddles and waded right in with her rubber boots. And she did it without any prompting from me. We walked up and down the road in front of the house and played in all the puddles we could find. Cailin had such a good time. Even after falling in and getting her pants wet, she wasn't interested in going back to the house. I had to carry her in and she cried when she realized puddle time was over. Fresh air does her good though; she slept for over three hours after playing outside the first time.

The second walk was much the same, except for how much snow had melted off in just a few hours. I couldn't believe the difference. Cailin loves to be outside. I can't wait until I can turn her loose in our backyard. As yet, it is completely choked with snow and completely unusable for little feet. I won't have to worry about her as much when she's safe behind our fence.

Cailin now grabs a chair and pulls it up to the counter to help with anything I'm doing. She has a huge issue with me standing at the sink and washing dishes, so when she pulled up a chair, I put it in the corner and let her help me rinse. It was a good idea in theory. In reality, there was water everywhere in a 3 foot radius. I had to soak up the ocean of water off the floor and out from under the sink. She had such a good time. I'm guessing a water table is in her future this summer.

Other things she's been doing this week:

- says, "Da!" (ta da!) and throws her arms out wide

- says the three part when we count up to three with her ("Fee!")

- when asked where her bellybutton is, she lifts up her shirt

- when asked what sound a puppy makes, she makes barking noises

- still howls when talking to Bailey

Twice this week, Bailey has failed to haul her bottom out of bed to greet Cailin in her room. For some reason Cailin gets fairly insulted by this. Not insulted enough to not finish her bottle though. She points at the mat where Bailey usually sits and asks, "B? Ahwoo?" Once the milk is down the hatch, she goes in search of her dog. Usually she crawls right into Bailey's bed with her. Or tries to push her out of bed while madly grunting. Bailey reluctantly gets up and follows her kid around at that point.

I pretty sure Bailey would never sleep through breakfast.