A Bed.

When it came to getting his bed I honestly believed he'd be 'okay' for one at about 18 months but every time I would pray about it I felt like it wasn't a good time, or that we needed to get through other phases first before introducing such a huge change. When he turned 2 I kept thinking 'we should get him a bed' but again the cot stayed. He was happy to stay in the cot, we were happy to have him in it. A few months ago me and Bryan were talking about Christmas and we decided that if we were getting any money at Christmas that we'd save it up and buy Roman a bed - a really nice, sturdy bed with a 'good' mattress.

Well a few weeks later Bryan got a call from a friend asking if he'd like to buy a hardly used bed from him at a very decent price. When the bed arrived I was surprised with how new it really looked and how sturdy it was. We just had to buy a mattress. When I visited my sister I told them all about Roman's new bed and my aunt offered to buy the mattress for Roman's Christmas. Brilliant. I was very happy she bought him a really great mattress that arrived today - I set it up myself and Roman bounced all over his new bed. He's pleased with it and so are we. And I'm also beyond glad we waited until now to do this because there is no strangeness around this for him; he was outgrowing the cot and couldn't properly stretch out so I think he's happy to finally have his own comfortable sleeping spot.

Hippy Mama: Floor Bed for a Toddler.

Those who know me know a few things about me and my parenting style. 

We breastfed beyond one year (beyond 18, 19, 20, 21 months, even) and it wasn't a big deal. We tried cloth nappies, they worked out for me but didn't work for B so we compromised and did them PT, kind of. We're home schooling. We follow a vegan diet.

I suppose you might consider us 'different' if this style is different to your style and way of parenting...but to me, to us, to my family it's natural, normal and comfortable. I'm all too aware that this style and way goes against the grain of most parenting styles around me and sometimes I really do wonder where I worked up the desire to be this kind of carer.

My own upbringing wasn't too different from how things will be for Roman, with a few tweaks added here and there. I try not to put the word 'hippy' into people's minds when they think about me because it brings negative associations along with it, but I often wonder what people would label me - what they do label me/what I would label myself if I could somehow see this slice of life 5-10 years ago.

I don't act or dress like a hippy, I just want that independent, strong yet care-free lifestyle for Roman. 

I've been doing some thinking and some research on different beds for Roman. The one thing I had hoped for - co-sleeping, that is Roman sharing our bed from birth until he was ready for his own bed - was to share our bed with Roman. That didn't happen. He was a part time co-sleeper and eventually navigated to his own crib and at 5 months (eek!) his own room. That was tough but I was willing to let that go; it wasn't what worked for us and it wasn't what he wanted. 

In my search for a suitable cot to bed leap for him I've been given advice on what works for some people's children and what doesn't. Surprisingly I've soaked in a lot of that info and gone on a search for the things people tell me about; toddler beds, single beds, cot beds...every bed possible. Even those car shaped beds. 

None of them seem a good 'fit.' Then I happened across a blog post on floor beds. I'd seen them around and thought they were great...but the trouble is that I'm not ready for him to single handedly wreck his room and - are they even safe? We won't be supervising him in the mornings and apparently this is kind of the point of these beds.

The child can go to bed when they want (ahem...yeah, that won't be happening) and can wake when they want, being free to play with some toys and whatnot in their room allowing the parents to sleep on/in.

My concerns firstly come from the point of view that he has a sizable bookshelf in his room, along with drawers full of clothes - I don't want to be tidying a crazy amount of toys and clothes every single day. We don't own a stair gate and we can't attach one to his door because we're in a rental property. Also, our doors are old and massive so I'm not sure they're suitable for stair gates.

But wouldn't all these concerns equally exist if he had a single bed in his room? After all, the floor and the off the ground/single beds just have height differences. There'd be no stopping him no matter what bed he had.

I also feel the happiest about beds when I think about floor beds - they seem so ideal. And perfect if we ever had guests, because he would be used to sleeping at that level and it might be easier for him to sleep in a pull-out bed. It also seems more child-like and magical to have a floor bed - and the kind of thing I would have loved as a child.

I'm going to keep my eyes peeled for examples of floor beds and would love a perspective of a parent or carer whose used a floor bed before - pros and cons?

Little Boy's Bedroom: A Do-Over Story.

We've lived in our new house since July. It is everything I've been craving for three years. A reasonable sized kitchen. Check. A garden. Check. A reasonable sized garden. Check. Huge bedrooms for all our nonsense to be stored. Check. Storage a plenty. Check.


Mould free? Not lately. Mould and I have a bad romance. It's followed me to three properties thus far - our last two rented flats, which were horribly ventilated (if at all) and were usually old buildings with a lot of underlying problems.

So when I saw this place up for grabs I knew we'd be saying bye bye to mould for good. Um, think again. The windows are pretty old and we had some seriously awful rain storms all winter. The storms+ old windows + no window vents =  recipe for mould.


When I spotted the water pooling on the window ledge I mopped it up immediately, re-painted the window sill, scrubbed the mould from the wall and felt quite happy that it wouldn't return. We'd also bought a very expensive high end dehumidifier, to keep us ticking over the winter months and to stop any re-occurance of mould.


Not the case. Even with our fancy de-humidifier, the mould grew back. Oh yes. So we're now going to have to face the landlord about it as the wall paper has actually started to peel back on one of the walls - not looking forward to that in case he blames us (when we clearly did everything to avoid that) and makes us pay a stupid amount to fix it. 


I cleaned the mould today (all gloved and masked up) and blasted the de-humidifier close by, with the window open and blinds pulled up. Fingers crossed it solves the problem! If you have any tips on this kind of thing, I need all the help I can get and would appreciate the advice - at this point I'm willing to try a lot of crazy things if people have had success with them. This can't be good for any of us to live in, surely?


Anyway...here are some 'before' pictures of the little boy's space:

Half-way through the clean-up process.

In the middle of the room; his drawer, cloth nappies & my scrap-booking stuff.

I surprised myself when we only filled one rubbish bag.

To get everything dusted, polished, vacuumed, organised, binned and put into it's place took around 2 and a half hours. The room was completely finished off. We've also tried to do an hour or so each day for about a month - on and off, and more off than on ;). But...we did it. Roman has a space where he can roam, play and more importantly read his much loved books to himself. 


And we now have a home for his kitchen we bought at Christmas time - although, I'm waiting to see what the situation with the mould is first before putting it in there. Letting the walls breathe for a long time before I put anything near them.


The best part of all this was his astonished look when he saw it completed. He was so excited to have so many 'new' books (new because they have been stored in boxes for months) and to have so much space.


I didn't have my camera on me, of course, but I can show you the 'after' (after we sorted and cleaned) photos:

His quilt cover was in the wash. The duvet is doubled over here and it is a beast of a duvet!

Lots of books: and lots more where that all came from! Small books smooshed between two fire engine book-ends and the bigger books smooshed into a little football storage basket.

Sideways view from the door: a make-shift 'box-robe' (an over door hanger put on the edge of  a  box filled with  clothes to weigh it down). A bookshelf and Jesus. A plastic drawer filled with clothes. Pile of books. Box of books.

A closer look at what's on top of the drawer: a box full of cloth nappies. A bear photo frame and money box...for our little 'bear.'

My scrapbooking stuff has a new home. A basket full of 'stuff.' A bed. make-shift bookshelf with 'nee naw' book-ends, smooshed in books and some donated canvasses from an arty sister of mine - she thought I'd like them to decorate so gave me them! So sweet.

It plays 10 minutes of lullabies. We used this heavily when he was a baby, ashamedly (or not.)

So, as you can see - being organised is next to Godliness. They say it's cleanliness, but that's not true at all. You can have a clean room but it could be all cluttered or disorganised. And that is a headache waiting to happen. No, make that a migraine waiting to happen.


Also...here's that fancy pants de-humidifier: 

You might have also noticed a lot of make-shift bits and pieces. That's pretty common around here. We've make-shifted a spare sofa from a punch bag, a table from a cardboard box (as well as a coffee table, even though we don't drink coffee) and well Bryan is a dab hand at making weights for babies, a weight thingy-me-jig for himself (we called it the 'home gym' and he was quite impressed) and I do love to recycle ice-cream cartons, Pure cartons and any other sturdy plastic bits and bobs for using to keep things in; medication, kitchen utensils etc. 


We're mend and make-doers. 


Anyway, I am happy that my little guy has a space to just be himself in, you know to play, run about...do whatever. It was seriously a big burden on me since we've lived here and I don't know where the strength or willpower came from today but I am most thankful for that, too. A weight has been lifted. And now Ro can enjoy the fruits of our labour.