When I found out I was pregnant with our second baby, I immediately thought of the crib that Fiorina was sleeping in at that time. She was happy in that crib. The thought of having to move her out of her comfort zone really terrified me. You know…all I’ve heard about toddlers wandering around in the house in the middle of the night once they are moved to a big kid bed. How they will start waking up again at night. If it’s not broken, why fix it ? was my thought.
The crib was a convertible, but then I really didn’t want to purchase another crib and we already had another queen size bed (I know it’s huge for a toddler, but still…). Between Fiorina and the second baby, there would be 35 months gap, so..really…Fiorina would have been out of the crib pretty soon anyway…and I’d rather deal with the horror of moving her out from her crib while the second baby was still all cozy in the tummy, instead of dealing with two at the same time.
Fiorina was 2.5 years when this room makeover happened. I told her she’s going to a big room in the basement. She had always liked our big bed and we had a queen size bed in the room at the basement already. She was excited. We removed the bed frame, so that the mattress was down on the floor just in case she rolled over and fell down. From day one though…until today…she never wandered around the house. She woke up in the middle of the night some nights, but she would put herself back to sleep again. Wow!!! I’m still impressed until now. In fact she will not leave her room or her bed for that matter until we come into her room to greet her in the morning or after nap. It is still like that as of today (fingers crossed) She will leave her bed only for potty and will go right back to her bed waiting for us to “fetch” her. Seriously right ? yeah…that’s my girl. I don’t think we’ll have such luck with Iven (but we’ll deal with that when time comes!)
The room that she moved into though, was really just white walls with no decoration whatsoever. It was the most boring room in the house to be honest! My husband said “White is a color” I just rolled my eyes at him. I had a mission. A mission to do a makeover on that room (just like how I did with the rest of this house actually ha!). I just went to home depot and got some paints and moved Fiorina back into her old room. She wasn’t very happy with that at first, but I told her I was going to do some magic to that room and that somehow agreed with her. I repainted the walls with some colors and some fun wall decals. She loves the idea of having a night light and so we went to IKEA to get the night stand, night light, and quilted bed cover. She chose the color of the night light and bed cover. I put up some of her artworks that she did too. When everything was ready….we showed the room to her and she was so thrilled that she said she would go ahead and sleep now ha..ha..! I wish I had the “before” photo, but I don’t. It is quite a transformation comparing to four white walls surrounding her before.
The basement used to be a forgotten place before I moved in once my hubby and I got married. I didn’t want her to feel “abandoned” down there. Another surprise for her…I repainted the whole basement and put some fun wall decals and transformed it into a little play area….. Can you imagine how excited how this little girl was ?? I just love that cloud lamp from IKEA too.
I think this is one of the best non-toy gifts parents can give to their children. It doesn’t have to break the bank really. A little paint and some fun wall decorations, bed sheets, etc can make huge differences into the whole atmosphere.