Ages and Stages!

It seems like life is changing really quickly around here! Kids. They just grow up so fast. A-Dog turning 12. The twins turning 2. Agent P going to Kindergarten soon... Just so many changes. Every day Mini P surprises me with a new sentence. The girl is 2 and she talks all day long, but it's ok. Because one day she will be 12 and not have much to say. Agent P is now reading to me - small books, but he's reading at 4.5 yrs old. Monkey is Monkey - over reacting when someone even sneaks a peek at one of his treasured trucks.

And at 12, A-Dog is a budding tween so close to being a teenager. The dreaded teenager :- )! He is a humorous tween. His sense of humor is amazing and he comes up with some hilarious retorts. Most of all, he gets me. He understands my dry humor and plays along. Most of the time. Sometimes his lack of 'commom sense' takes over. But more often than not, he is quite funny!

I want you all to know and understand, A-Dog does not complain. Ever. Or at least rarely.  He has shared a room with Agent P for the last 2.5 years. A-Dog slept up in his loft and Agent P underneath in his toddler bed. It was tight, but it worked. There were many nights when Agent P was noisy and annoying. But never a complaint, never a plea for space, never. For that I am grateful. I think he understood I was swapping and moving and rearranging as quickly as I could given what I had to work with.

Yes we could move to a bigger house, but we are happy here. So here we stay and out he goes.

I have now lost my office. My home office where I paid my bills, I work on my Little League work, use my computer, hide from my kids...and now that is all gone.

Gone because I gave it away.

I gave it to A-Dog.

Honestly, I'm happy that I did! Happy I was able to give something to someone who really asks so little. And he does - ask for very little. So, this is what I gave to him. A room where he can go and listen to music, watch TV, do his homework, hibernate....so many things. I'm sure he is genuinely happy. Thankful for the space and a place for just him. I get how important that can be for a 12 year old.

I will live with the stacks of things in my room. I will find them new homes. I will declutter it and minimize it.  All for the A-Dog!!! For him, I am willing to sacrafice :- )

The Big Reveal

Ok, I know - you have all waited about as long as you possibly can - and I appreciate your patience! Please, don't just start dropping by because you are dying to see the new room. Please. Often things here are in a state of complete chaos and a good 15 minute warning is often required in order to clear a path and make it look like I have complete control of the chaos. Ok, maybe 20.

SO - here we go.

At little background because with me, no story is short! Originally our house was 3 bedrooms - then we put in the *man garage* in the backyard (if you have seen it, you know why it is called that) and enclosed the attached garage and made it into a bedroom and laundryroom (completed 3 weeks before Agent P was born over 4 years ago). The enclosed room became the "office/den"  and the 3rd bedroom became Agent P's.  Then the shock of the immenent arrival of twins wore off (barely) and we moved Agent P in with A-Dog and made the little room into the twins room and the office remained the office. 

The twins lived there happily squished. Barely room to walk between the cribs. They slept in our room for 3 months, in 1 crib until they were 6 months and so only 1 year of 2 cribs in that room. 1 year too many I say.

Until recently. You've already seen my new office - so here is the latest and greatest!


Here is us (by us I mean my sweet husband - I merely photographed the move!) moving them out of the "littlest room"

You can see from the pictures, they were both side by side. The wall on the right (when looking at the photo/bed) is useless slanted and serves no purpose in that room except to make arranging furniture in there impossible.  The only thing that fit in there with the cribs was a dresser and toy shelf from Ikea.

In their new room, here is what fits:

Both cribs along 1 wall (of course, try to envision it without all the mess on the floor - we are in the middle of some serious playtime.) The wall is set back a bit so that the cribs sink right in without sticking out. Very handy for not stubbing your toes!

This is panning right from the cribs - they have a baby crib (for dolls), lego table and chair, wooden table and chair (borrowed from some amazing friends), a wooden stove (made for me when I was a little girl) and a table from Ikea - plus the new rug!!!  Not very girlie I'm afraid, but she will learn to love it!

Panning right again this is in between the two windows. This is one of my favorite pictures of them, mostly because after this age, they absolutely refused to take decent pictures and I don't really have one with them both in the picture, much less smiling.

Panning right some more takes you across the wall - to the closet.  The closet is pretty big and has their dresser and a storage shelf inside (I will spare you the closet shots!) and then the door (you can see the handle. All in all - a very smart move. They absolutely LOVE their new room!

Cheers!
(oh, and I still don't have spell check - the new layout accounted for the pictures being inserted into the spot you choose, instead at the beginning of your blog. Very handy for long winded bloggers, but not so much for hurried typers)