Mummy & Daddy helped me change my room to a more grown up room! And I love it.
He said
After the amazing time we had camping last weekend, this week folded into a lot of the usual. Most of that is tainted with the wistful thoughts of campfires and wishing we were still camping. Monday was still a day off for me which meant another Monday I was able to watch Emelia’s gymnastics practice. With the stress of the tryouts for next season out of the way, all the girls (Emelia included) have settled back into the regular routine of working on the basics as well as conditioning for the next season—wherever that lands them. Emelia continues to blow me away with her ability and athletics given that in addition to the four hours a week she is doing with gymnastics two nights a week, she has also being doing forty minutes of track & field practice after school, four nights a week too!
The rest of our week was intently and laser-like focus on updating Emelia’s bed room. Four years ago we updated her bedroom furniture to a set that worked for her as a big girl that she loved for some time. Now that she is a tween actually spending more time in her room, she first added a desk for homework and creative projects and had felt crammed in with the larger furniture we had gotten her. It was time to downsize to something that would give her more space be who or whatever she wants to be in that room. Danielle went to work finding people interested in buying the old furniture, in order to help offset the cost of the new stuff. By the weekend she had all that scoped out plus the new stuff – some of it on sale even – at Ikea.
A quick Saturday trip down and back to the Ikea in Burlington while I worked the open shift solved the new furniture problem. Then, after I was done work we hopped over to Home Depot for some more floor paint for room. While Danielle painted the floors, Emelia and I took to assembling the new Malm dresser from Ikea. By the time we were done, Danielle was done the floors. With her room out of commission, Emelia was off to bed in our room on the floor on her mattress, while Danielle and I finished off a couple more things.
The next day – Sunday – I was off to work again, and Danielle was off to meet up with our cousin and aunt to talk doTerra with Emelia in tow. This gave the floor in her room an extra whole day to cure before we started loading in furniture. However I got a message from Danielle as my day was just wrapping up and I was heading home that they were there, but just after they arrived Emelia had thrown-up. Seems she was off all day and quieter than usual and by the time she got home it had full on manifested into her getting sick. After Danielle got her cleaned up and sorted out we got her into bed to rest and watch TV. While she did that I got her bed together so we could her room put back together so we could get her to bed early and hopefully a good long night of sleep. After a nice warm bath we got her off to sleep and she had a big, long sleep and was in much better spirits in the morning.
Today being Victoria Day, we all had the day off together. With Emelia not feeling great yesterday, we certainly took the morning at a much slower pace. But, after it was clear that whatever that was bugging her was behind her, we chose to get out of the house and get some fresh air. With a lot of things closed, and the weather being beautiful, we chose to take the opportunity to explore the Sifton Bog. Funny how we’ve been in London over twenty years and had never been there! We spent an hour walking the paths and managed to put over four kilometres of exercise on our legs and then rewarded ourselves with ice cream cones.
Right now I am working on a pork loin roast on the BBQ and a beer (or three) between the house and outside with all this sunshine and fresh air in the house. It’s gonna be a pretty fantastic dinner to close out a pretty good week—especially since Emelia’s bug ran it’s course in her typical less than twenty-four hour span. There’s a hockey game to watch and a couch to hang out with Danielle on this evening’s itinerary. Seems like the perfect way to close out another great week ’round here at the ole TeeterPod.
She said
After a beautiful family weekend last weekend we had to adjust back to reality and settle in for the week.
For the last almost year Emelia had been wanting to change her bedroom around to make more space and move fully into a tween space. What was always the problem was her massive American Girl doll house along with her overside furniture. More than 4 years ago we had gotten her a full set from Ikea but it quickly became apparent with Emelia’s entire world if possessions gathered in one bedroom it was not the best scale for the size of her room.
After a lot of back and forth Emelia decided this week that she wanted to part with her much loved doll house. She didn’t use all the rooms anymore and without her own designated playroom space (thanks to the daycare) the doll house took up too much valuable real estate. She worried getting rid of the house would mean saying good-bye to her American girl dolls. When I assured her this wasn’t the case and she could just sit down with the house and really think about what she didnt play with and then we could find new homes for those items. She pared down a lot and with one of our friends/clients/neighbours having three little girls it was easy to find a new home.
What this meant was dismantling the doll house enitreley and taking it down in peices to its new home but I can tell you it has a happy new home and with this family being friends Emelia will still be able to see and enjoy her doll house in a new home. So the doll house was gone, now the next stage, what to do with her oversized furniture that she has wanted gone for a long time? Well I posted it online and mostly is already sold and Emelia and I could sit down and figure out what she wanted to replace it. Emelia quickly chose a very simple clean lined set from Ikea and we were set.
So next step, dismantle and sell her current set and figure out when and when to go get the new set. Friday night John and I got her dresser downstairs, I had a buyer already for the dresser so we had to move quick. Saturday once the dresser was picked up, Emelia and I left for Ikea. We got there around 11:00 and made our way around the store. Emelia adores going to Ikea and going through each and every room there. We eventually found the bedroom section and made sure the set she found online was in fact what she wanted. She was sold and so was I. We collected everything from the warehouse, paid and loaded up the truck. After lunch she and I were on our way home. Once John was home we went off to Home Depot to get some fresh floor paint, figuring this was likely the last time for a long time the room would be empty so we thought it was a perfect time to repaint the trim and her floor. We picked a bright white (that will be offset with an area rug we ordered online) that really brightens up a normally dark room. We needed to let the paint cure overnight and we still didn’t have the bed assembled so we made some changes to our bedroom and fit her mattress on our floor and settled in for the night.
The next day again John had to work and with the floor still a bit tacky we left everything alone and Emelia and I made our way to Dover Centre for the day. I had a lunch already planned for the day at Lisa’s place with she and Aunt Bonnie to talk over some doTerra. By the time we arrived Emelia told me her stomach was unsettled, I had attributed it at first to her being very overtired. We finished up after a few hours and Emelia and I made our way home. She was telling me she was tired and not feeling well the whole way home, she tried to sleep but wasn’t able to. By the time we got home she went upstairs and emptied the contents of her stomach in the bathroom. She threw up a couple times and then she settled in bed in our bedroom watching a movie. By the time John got home Emelia was settled in and I was shifting gears to take care of her while John started quickly to get her bed made so we could get her to bed. After a few hours the room was together and layout settled and Emelia crashed hard for the night. She slept for a solid 10+ hours and woke feeling a million times better.
Today we took the day at a lazy pace, working more on her room, ordering a rug for the floor and she started looking for ideas to change the artwork for her frames. Once we had the rest of the house in order we decided we needed to make the most of the afternoon with the sun shining and little on our agenda. We went back and forth with some ideas and then John suggested the Sifton Bog. We have lived in London and had never been. It is an amazing nature preserve right in the heart of the city and its amazing! I cannot believe it took us this long to finally discover it. What a perfect way to spend the day, in the middle of the city but in a whole different world. Perfect way to spend as a family – out in nature spending time outside!
I cannot believe how much we got done in three days but I feel like we got so much done and I feel happy that our now tween girl has a room that she adores, we purged out a fair bit of extras from the house and we even got to have a lazy day today to reconnect as a family. Other than a brief little virus that took Emelia down for a few hours it was a pretty fab weekend!