Right now it's eerily still in the house, because my Miss B, age 7 3/4, has left for her annual trip to the US with her dad. She left yesterday morning, hugged me goodbye at the gate, then flew all on her own to meet up with her dear papa. This is her sixth summer away from me, and I'm pretty used to it, but it's still hard to let go. I mean, look at this face.
The paper tiara is pretty rad, hey? This photo was taken a few weeks ago, when the sun accidentally peeked out a little. The afternoon light in our front yard is lovely, when we actually have it. I know if you're reading this in Newfoundland you're already sick to death of people complaining about Juneuary, but if you're elsewhere, you might send us some warm-weather vibes. Or offer to trade places for a day or two. It's just so very disheartening.If I have to make do with bad weather, at least I have a project: Operation Bedroom Switch-up. Right now, Miss B has the biggest of the three bedrooms. Bear (that's Charlie-Bear to the world, these days), has a wee tiny room, and he usually ends up in our bed from about three in the morning on. Newby (who is not so new any more, and whom we call Joodles around these parts) has a crib in our room, and sleeps there for a bit, then moves into our bed by midnight, where he nurses pretty much all night long. We're pretty much at the same place with Joodles as we were with C-Bear back when I was whining and moaning about my sleep deprivation a year and a half ago. Only now, we've gone so long without sleep that we barely notice.
So the plan is to put Miss B into the wee small C-Bear room, which may involve annexing the art closet to the bedroom (if such a thing is possible - I don't think it's a load-bearing wall, but, then again, I'm not a structural engineer), then to put C-Bear and Joodles into Miss B's room, and then Hubby C and I can have a grown-up sized dresser again (we had to switch dressers with the boys in order to fit the crib into our very small bedroom). I have no illusions that this will lead to anyone sleeping through the night, but you never know, right? Once Joodles is big enough to move out of the crib and onto a mattress on the floor, maybe he and C-Bear can just curl up together like puppies when they wake in the night, and leave their snoring parents alone for a while. Please? Can't a brother help a brother out, and leave Mom and Dad out of it?
It's going to be a pretty big job, but nothing we can't handle, I'm sure. The most difficult part is going to be gutting Miss B's bedroom, which is packed to the rafters with Very Important Stuff. How one child accumulates so much stuff is a mystery to me, since I'm a very mean mom and I hardly ever give her anything. Just ask her: I'm horrible. Sorting the boys' stuff should be pretty simple, but Miss B's room is going to be a trial. She has requested that her room be painted this riotous Barbie-lipstick pink. I'm afraid she's going to have to settle for something a little more subtle. I can't imagine what painting over hot pink would entail when she eventually decides that she can't live on Barbie Lane one minute longer. It will happen one day, I'm sure.
