We’ve been hoping for a while to get Ben out of the portacrib in the office and into the crib in the girls’ room. The first step in that process is to get Sophie out of the crib. And for that to work in the limited space we have, we needed bunk beds.
Finally we had a little extra money come in and we could afford to do what needed to be done. Last Saturday we went to Ikea to get the bunk beds for the girls. It was a major expedition for the whole family; that took the whole morning. The girls were in heaven, though. Ikea is fun for kids as long as you stick to the kid’s furniture sections… and the food!
This past Saturday Dom and Bella went back while Sophie and Ben and I stayed home and they got two big bookcases. Since they will be holding mainly things other than books, I suppose I should call them shelving units; but that is so cold. So bookcases it is. The bookcases will replace two dressers the girls’ clothes were in and a small bookcase that held books. They give us almost twice as much storage space because they are so much more vertical. Also it doesn’t hurt that I pruned the girls drawers quite drastically. I’ve been needing to do that for some time.
While Dom and Bella were out shopping and getting free breakfast at Ikea, Ben took his nap and my sister and I rearranged some furniture and did a quick clean out of the girls’ room. (I’m actuall not sure what Sophie was doing while we were rearranging things. Not getting underfoot too much and being generally not a nuisance, I suppose.) Yay for sisters! With her help, it didn’t take much time at all.
I am so excited because we finally have room to put all three kids in one room. We also finally have room for there to be a space for all the toys and books and clothes. (Well, except for the boxes and boxes of baby clothes and out of season clothes for the girls that I removed from the closet. They will be sorted and reboxed and given away or stored in the shed.)
I still want to get baskets to contain the girls’ clothes; but I do think this looks very nice as is. Ben’s toys are on the bottom shelves. Then Bella’s clothes are on the left and Sophie’s on the right. Bottom shelf for shorts, pants and skirts; top shelf for tops and dresses. Top right shelf is for pajamas and spare sheets.
My rocking chair is in it’s old place. For a while I thought it wouldn’t fit with the new configuration. The closet behind it hold the girls’ Sunday dresses. And on the top shelf are some puzzles and games with small pieces that I don’t want scattered all over the place. The girls can play with only one thing at a time. Since Bella can reach them by standing on the chair, only Sophie really has to ask to play with them.
This shelf has about the same footprint as the old bookshelf; but it is twice as tall. All the books fit easily, plus now there is space for so much more! Bella has a little spot on to to store her treasures.
At the other end of the bed there was a little space. We didn’t really want to pull down the hooks to shove the bed all the way into the corner. Also, I realized that it made a nice little nook that is the perfect place to park the bassinet and cradle. A little dolls’ bedroom, if you will.
Here’s a close-up of the inside of the closet with the chair pulled away so that you can see the former bookcase now re-purposed to hold toys. Formerly this space was jammed with bins of baby and toddler clothes. Those bins are now all over my living room waiting to be sorted. I guess I traded one mess for another! Since they are in the middle of the room, I now have a much greater incentive to actually deal with them.
Here’s a closer look at the top half of the bookcase. I love the way stuff that was formerly crammed on top of Bella’s dresser now makes a neat vignette. Bella loves that she can so easily access her stuff.
And here’s the bottom half of the bookshelf. I plan to replace the floor fan with something smaller that can sit on top of one of the bookshelves so this space will be a bit easier to access. It’s cozy but not hard to get at the books when the fan is not there. I’m thinking the board book basket might better be moved down to where Ben can actually reach it.
If you click through to the Flickr album, I’ve added additional notes to some of the photos.
I can’t believe I had the energy to do all this. I also can’t believe how much finishing this project has energized me to do more around the house. (Also, having a new vacuum cleaner has improved my housecleaning drive tremendously.)
Ben looks very cute.
Haircuts are awfully expensive. At the beginning, we did take our oldest son to the barber. I am not brave enough to cut hair. However, my husband’s mother had five sons and hated paying the barber, so she bought haircutting equipment and learned to do it. My husband hated paying, too, so he bought the shears and started giving our sons crewcuts. Fortunately we like the look. Crewcuts are also wonderful for the lengthy time (about 12 years per boy) when the boys got into dirt (they are and ought to be dirt magnets) but hated soap. And often hated showers. Sometime I will include a comment about my oldest son’s long-running bathroom baseball games. Anyway, the crew cuts were our solution. When they got sick of them, we made different haircuts (also administered by Dad) conditional on (1) keeping the longer hair neat and (2) keeping it clean. We are on the third son now and nearing the end of crew cuts, but not Dad cuts.
Thanks. Do you do crew cuts as young as 1? Do they sit still for that? I’m not sure I want to go there yet as I do like the look of slightly longer hair. However, I’m willing to consider it when he gets a bit older.
I cuts my husband’s and older son’s hair with clippers, so this summer I started doing the one-year-old, too. He does not sit still on his own, but he sits in my husband’s lap and my husband hold his hands. With the clipper guards on you can choose different lengths (or several if you want to, say, leave it longer on top and shorter on the sides), and it is also a lot easier to do an even cut on a squirming child’s hair with clippers than with scissors. One advantage to the shorter hairstyle- when he gets food in his hair at mealtimes I can just wipe his head clean with a damp washcloth!
Ben looks cute. No blood and a big smile, so I’d call that a successful haircut.
If you want a scissor cut: Wait till they are sleeping and do it (carefully) then. You may have to do it over a couple of naps in order to get all sides.
That being said, a set of clippers will more than pay for itself after a few haircuts. I cut even my (short haired) girl with them.
I don’t personally prefer crewcuts on little boys, especially babies, so when Blaise’s hair started looking mullet-ish a while back, I did a scissor cut myself.
I actually asked my stylist, who cuts kids’ hair, if it was worth bringing him in to see her, and she said not unless he would sit still. Which he definitely wouldn’t. So she told me how to do a scissor cut myself.
This is what has worked for me: give him a lollipop or other treat to distract him. Spray his head down with a spray bottle, because it’s easier to cut wet hair. Then, as quickly as possible, and starting with the longest sections, pull pieces of the hair straight out from the head and trim. The point of the scissors should be pointing straight toward the scalp at all times.
This is the crucial part to pulling off home haircuts: you have to cut *into* the hair, not across it. It’s nigh on impossible to get every hair the same length, in a blunt-cut fashion. Leave that to the professionals! If you cut up into the hair (and this is true for longer cuts on little girls, too) then every hair will be a slightly different length and you’ll get a much more natural look. The smaller the tip of the scissors, the easier this will be.
Obviously, there is a LOT of trial and error involved with cutting little boys’ hair. When I did Blaise’s, I was noticing errors and fixing for a couple days after the initial cut. But I was pretty happy with the results.
Good luck, Melanie! I know how hard it is – I had plenty of angst over Blaise’s first haircut, and I feel like there’s no way to be 100% happy with a haircut on a little boy. But Ben is so cute, his hair doesn’t matter so much anyway!
Thanks, everyone!
Sarah, now that you mention it, I do see the mealtime advantage. Ben’s personal sign for “all done” at a meal is slapping his right hand to the side of his head. Of course that hand is usually covered in food!
bearing, that’s a good idea; but I don’t think it will work in this case. He is my baby whose extended nursing strike became being weaned at 11 months (much to my horror and chagrin) and he refuses to be rocked to sleep. I put him down in his crib after reading him a few stories in the rocking chair. Then he snuggles with his blanky and goes to sleep on his own. So getting at him while asleep would be a bit tricky as it would involve picking him up and moving him.
Same problem with cutting his nail. The pediatrician, when I mentioned it offhand, said do it while he’s asleep. I so wish I could!
Arwen,
Thanks for the advice and encouragement. I’d never have thought to do it that way, but it does make sense that it will look more natural. I suppose that’s what I was going for. His hair wasn’t even to begin with and I didn’t hope to end up with it that way. I just wanted the same look but shorter.
I was able to do a little clean up this afternoon while he was drinking from his cup while sitting on my lap outside. But there’s one patch on the forehead that’s a bit longer that he doesn’t want me to get.
My son’s first haircut took less than 5 minutes at the barber – he doesn’t sit still well but he sat on my wife’s lap and the barber was able to get it done quickly.
I have always cut all my boy’s hair by myself. I use clippers with the #2 attachment and they all get crew cuts. It’s clean and easy. When they are small enough to struggle, my hubby just holds them on his lap and I go as fast as possible. We did lollipops too. I cut their hair outside and then they go straight in the shower. With a crew cut, you really can’t mess up as long as you run the clippers everywhere. Then I take the attachment off and trim the back of the neck and around the ears. I even cut the hubs hair when he lets me! My oldest boys just asked for a mohawk, so I let them have a faux-hawk by keeping it a little longer in the middle on top. OH! I do remember one baby boy being scared of the sound of the clippers , so we just made a vroom vroom noise while it was off, and “cut” his hair, then turned it on and did the real thing.
OK, I had WAY to much to say about all that
Sorry!
Uneven? It’s asymmetrical. That’s style, baby!
Seriously..it’s cute.
I cut my boys hair at age one just like Arwen. It is also the way I trim the girl’s bangs, or fix a self induced haircut from a child.
Love it!
We are all about home hair cuts here – I started cutting my husband’s when we first got married because he wanted it cut every 2 weeks (military style is easy…) I even watching the “Wahl makes it easy” video. When the boys were little I cut their hair over a series of a days because I kept finding stray hairs. Straight fine hair like Ben’s appears to be is harder to cut because every line shows – cutting on an angle is good advice. The good thing is that boys don’t usually care.
I use clippers like they are scissors – meaning I don’t press the clippers against the head, I just pull the hair away from the head and trim it with the clippers (with a guard on). This is much more safe and forgiving than scissors, and it works – I even cut my mom’s hair this way and it looked good! Oh yes, and distraction is key – a cookie or a video while strapped in a highchair are my current methods.