Progress!

I think it's safe to say that we're as done as we can be with what we already have.  That is to say, everything "baby" that had already been purchased or given to us has been given a home in the new bedroom.  There are some minor details that will need to be taken care of eventually, but as of today, we're done.  D-U-N!  Done!  :D

Whew!  I feel like we've worked our rear ends off for the last two weeks, but it was so totally worth it!  I love London's room!  Both Pern and I find ourselves walking in and just sitting, looking around, at random times of the day.  We know it's corny, but we are just so happy with how it turned out.  Take a look:

We're still waiting on the bed frame from my dad.  I heard it's near completion!  Can't wait to see it!

We put the lamp up nice and high and secured the cord.  When London starts crawling and this chair is removed, we'll probably add a low mirror to the wall, but we haven't decided yet.  Still time for that...

The closet door is gone and has been replaced with a curtain.

This quilt is one of my favorite things about the room.  It was an end-of-the-year gift from one of the families in my classroom whose daughter was going on to first grade after three years with us.  It's a "Virtues Quilt."  Here's a close-up:

At our school we follow a program called "The Virtues Project."  Essentially, we are teaching the children to identify the virtues that are in us all, know when they are using them, know when they need to practice them, and identify the missing virtue when they find themselves in conflict with someone else.

For example, instead of just saying thank you for cleaning up, we would acknowledge their "cleanliness and orderliness."  If they're struggling with completing an activity and want to give up, we would encourage them to practice "perseverance and determination."  And if they are fighting about something we'll ask them to have some "patience, flexibility, or kindness" with each other.  Each day we do a "virtue pick" where we pull a card from the stack and discuss that virtue, what it means, and how to recognize it in yourself or others.  It has made a huge difference in our school!  The children now talk about orderliness, patience, creativity, peacefulness, and respect like it's the most natural thing in the world!

Anyway - I love this quilt!  All 52 virtues are listed (I counted!) and it's beautiful!  I can't wait to start introducing these concepts to London.  Thanks, Carla!  We love it!

But I digress...

These animal prints were the first decorative items we bought for the room.  They're so cute - we love them!  We knew we wanted to do a subtle animal theme (I'm not into over the top themey-themey rooms) and these were too cute to pass up.  We're going to add some pictures of real animals (photographs not cartoons - it's a Montessori thing), but we haven't bought the frames yet.  OK... so we're not done.  Le sigh...  

We bought these animal decals from a seller on Etsy.com.  They are parading along the baseboard on the orange section of the striped walls, at the perfect eye level for a crawling baby.  There are elephants, giraffes, bears, ducks, rhinos, deer, and more.  Once the chair is removed, they'll be more obvious.  For now, they're subtle.  And yes, I love them!

I made this pillow case (used a pillow form from Michael's) ...

... and also made the curtains.  I love them, too.  They were a pain in the you know what to make (the curtains, not the pillowcase) but that was just because I didn't measure properly and after I washed, and subsequently shrunk, the fabric, I had to be sooooo precise so as not to mess it up.  Me and precision sewing don't exactly mix.  There was also a lot of swearing at my sewing machine that happened yesterday.  Why is it that sewing machines always seem to act up right at the end of the project?  Am I the only one who has this problem?

The closet needs a little work.  We need to add a shelf so that we're not wasting so much space and I plan to hijack the label maker from work to replace the bright pink tags.  A few more baskets and it'll be finished.  The clothes we have have all been washed and sorted.  Never in my life have I had to remove so many little plastic tags!  You know, the ones that attach the price tags to the clothes?  Baby clothes are FULL OF THEM!!!  Every little sock (so cute!), every hat, every everything is attached to everything else with a little plastic tag!  Pern did the bulk of them and I still spent 45 minutes de-tagging the things he missed.  When the laundry was done there were still two hats attached to each other and a three socks hooked together as well!

We bought a large, sturdy basket for blankets and placed it next to the chair.  I made the one on the right a few years ago and had been holding on to it for that "some day" and my friend, Claudia, made the green one.  I got that one this past weekend - love it, Claudia - Thanks!

This corner is missing something, we're just not sure what it is.  Any ideas?

Last night I also put the stroller together.  We bought it on the recommendation of my sister, who like me, is tall.  She test drove all the strollers when she was pregnant with my niece and decided that this one suites us tall girls just right - nice high handle bar and no cross bar between the wheels to bang our feet on.  Thanks for doing the legwork, Dale!  Pun fully intended.

It's a Quinny Buzz and it handles beautifully!  I wheeled it around and around the island in the kitchen and didn't bang into the cabinets or the fridge or have to stop and adjust it or anything!  That's right:  I love it!!  

And Pooh Bear loves it, too!  :D