growing boy

It was hard to have Milo move out of our room. I loved watching his sleeping face and being greeted every morning - plus I adore being in bed and don't like having to leave it in the middle of the night. But just as Sadie did (I swear, these kids are carbon copies of one another), he eventually craved some private space and I found two consequences that made me feel better about the whole thing: 1) I got to read again, which has been amazing, and 2) we could have fun putting his room together. Now, this all happened months ago but I took today off work and I'm home alone. The sun was shining and I finally was able to take photos.

It's our smallest bedroom, which used to be our bedroom, but the shape makes furniture layout easy (odd, because it's really hard in the bigger rooms). And by small, I mean this room is under 8' wide by just over 10' long. The sun streams into this room (it's above our kitchen and together they make up the only rooms that ever see natural light) and it has the best radiator in our whole house. It's aqua. It's awesome. So when I moved out my sewing stuff, I needed to paint but I knew I had enough cans in the basement to make it work for free. The result is 3 walls of Creamy White (kitchen paint) and one wall of Stoneware (our bedroom). I bet I would have chosen the same thing even if I could buy paint - it just feels right. Being a toddler, Milo doesn't have too much "stuff" yet, so it's easy to set up his shelves and keep things generally tidy. Jay got the Canadian pennants from Ebay and a little CN train car too so there's a wee bit of an old Canadiana theme going on. It should last until Milo drags his Bob the Builder toys upstairs.

The little bunny wall hanging was made by Jay's mom for Jay, so it's pretty special to have. There are a few special things in here (my Dad's childhood copy of Peter Pan for example) but Milo is so careful and gentle that I don't worry. He's 19 months old now and I keep expecting a rambunctious boy to emerge, yet every day he continues to be like Sadie. Again, it's so strange how alike they are.

I'll post the rest of the photos on Flickr, but I had to include the shot with Glen Miller. He sat ever-so-perfectly for the camera, right next to that rad. And the rocking chair (from my parents, it was in my house growing up) sees a lot of use. Luckily Milo is starting to sleep through most nights even though he isn't completely weaned, but this rocking chair certainly makes the visit more comfortable.

So there it is - a room fit for a growing boy. Sigh.