not so extreme makeover

It's time to get serious about getting the house ready for the company coming for Thanksgiving. Step 1: Remove the toddler bed from the middle of the living room. I am happy to report that I have accomplished Step 1 now. The toddler bed has now moved into Dennis' room. I thought that this would have to wait until we had enclosed the garage so that we could move the playhouse out of his room, and then we'd have room to put the bed in there, but his room has a larger capacity than I first anticipated. I spent the day rearranging it. He was pretty excited about it, and we actually like the flow of things much better now.

The crib has moved to a spot in front of the window, the only drawback to the new furniture arrangement (as he likes to reach through the crib bars and smack the faux wood blinds because it makes such a satisfying noise). The toddler bed occupies the corner where his crib was, and the end of the crib is pushed against the end of the toddler bed so that it provides a barrier to prevent him from falling off the end while he's getting used to the bed. The toybox used to be in front of the window and is now in the nook at the end of his room, where his chest of drawers used to be. The chest has now moved to a spot beside his changing table, so now all of his clothes are located in the same corner of his room--much easier for changing him! Everything fits just fine and he still has the same amount of open floor play space in the center of the room.

He is very excited about the new bed. He climbed in and out of it, and I kept having to remove him from the bed frame so that I could put the mattress on it. Then I had to remove him from the mattress so I could put on the sheet and quilt. He climbed on and off and on and off lots of times. We practiced tucking Froggy in under the quilt. He climbed up and jumped on the bed. He did everything but sleep in it, but I don't expect that to happen for a while. We just wanted it in there for him to get familiar with it. We're so glad he loves it! This is another hallmark of the rapidity of the growing up process, but we are looking forward to his being able to get out of bed in the morning by himself to play instead of yelling "moo" and "car" from the crib until we get in there and set him free to play with his toys.

He is so thrilled with the new arrangement of his room that he kept his toys put away this evening. He put things back after he played with them, for the most part. Let's hope that's a trend that continues. He picked up another new word today: "cake", as it is his Grandma's birthday and we baked one for her. He knew what that yummy smelling rectangle of aluminum foil contained, and David tells me he followed his Grandma and her cake into the kitchen, repeating his new word several times. And he has the cutest new habit (as do most toddlers his age) of picking up his shirt and pointing to his belly button when you ask him where it is. He does this with great enthusiasm, stabbing himself excitedly in the stomach near the region of his navel and then applauding his brilliance. He also knows the name of that boy appendage in his diaper, and likes to point and name it whenever we're undergoing a diaper change. He's very interested in learning the names and purposes of everything around him. It's an exciting time in his life, and so fun to watch. I can't wait to see what he learns tomorrow, when we are due for a doctor checkup and flu shot. He may spend tomorrow learning how to cry at excessively loud volume, but I can always be optimistic that he won't.