Lucian’s New Room

It being 2015 now, and therefore the time of new beginnings and makeovers, I’m finally committing to an idea I’ve been toying with for months now: Splitting the boys up and putting Lucian in his own room. In case anyone is new here and hasn’t met my 3 year old, Luci (Loo-ch-ee!), this is he: IMG_8462

He shares a room – at least, theoretically although he often sleeps with me – with Gabriel, 5 who is completely obsessed with Space and is responsible for their bedroom looking like the Cosmos projectile-vomited all over it:

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Luci quite likes Space so he doesn’t mind too much, but only because he goes along with whatever Gabi does really. They don’t do much sleeping in there, it’s really hard to get them to sleep because they play and jump on their beds and get each other all riled up, or argue. Basically if one is sleepy the other is wide awake and their infectious energy wakes the other back up. It was my mum who had the idea of turning the playroom upstairs into a bedroom because when they stay with Nana Pip and Grandad in Cornwall, they sleep in separate rooms really nicely and seem to love it, and not miss each other at all.

I ummed and ahh-ed about it for ages, feeling too emotional to split them up when they’ve been joined at the hip both as brothers and best friends all of Luci’s life. I shared a room with my sister until I was 15 and I feel that it’s really bonding and I wanted that for my boys too, but gradually I realise they are already so bonded, they are the best of friends and now the differences in their personalities are starting to come to the fore and their different tastes and playing styles mean their own space would be good. Luci is obsessed with Jubilee line trains, cars and Brio train track and is the only one who ever plays in the playroom which is constantly an absolute bomb-site. Whereas Gabs reads constantly, draws and writes stuff, almost never plays with toys and really wants his own desk and quiet area to do his crazy physics stuff and play minecraft.

But mostly it’s the sleep thing. I want them to go to bed earlier and be calm at bedtime, and I’m pretty sure their own rooms is the way to go. Not that I won’t cry when they finally go their separate ways at bedtime. It will be the end of an era:

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So, anyway, *sniff, sniff..* enough of that soppy shit. I know, me and my first-world problems! We are very lucky to have enough space to give them a bedroom each and this just doesn’t seem a good use of it right now: IMG_4486 Plus, it takes me about two days to get it looking like this: IMG_4475 and precisely five minutes for them to make it like this again … IMG_7137 … after which no one goes in there again for ages. So, I’m decided and I have big plans to make it a lovely room for Luci.

Lucian’s Room

To start with, safety first, Remus has to fix a safety-catch onto the skylight window because Lucian can and WILL climb out onto the roof, and it’s freezing now, but in the Summer it gets boiling up there, and the landlord company has to put a new black-out blind in. We’re also getting shelving made for inside the toy cupboard (see above). Then, in goes his lovely wooden bed and bedside table which we got when we moved in last year, from Taurus Beds on the Finchley Road. I just ordered him this camper van bedding e6b9b8fa83d678146661e13ceef04816 I ‘ve got my heart set on this Rainbow star rug from notonthehighstreet.com because Lucian’s name means ‘light’ and he’s my little star. But it ‘aint cheap so I don’t know if I’ll convince Remus!… and I’ll put stars around his bed like this:

I already bought this poster from store.greatlittleplace.com and alphabet letters to spell his name (and for Gabi too) and some number transfer stickers.

I can’t wait to get him his own room in his own style and see if I can get him to sleep any earlier. Night, Luci… x

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NW6 to NW11: Two kids, a grand piano and a truckload of stuff

So it seems just ridiculous that we made our Big Move up the Finchley Road, from Flat to House two and a half months ago now and I still haven’t blogged it, but that’s pretty much my pace at this blogging thing. So here we are in mid-October, having moved on 2nd August and it’s time for a little retrospective….

You probably all know, because I whinged on and on about it, that we had to up sticks at short notice and move out of our three bed flat on Broadhurst Gardens, NW6 (and area I LOVE, by the way) and you’ll know if you read my bi-monthly posts that we found a great house just up the road in Childs Hill, with plenty of space, a playroom for the boys and a garden, for not a wildly different amount to what we were paying in rent for our old place! We couldn’t quite believe our luck, yet here we are two months later actually living here.

Meanwhile, we had to get all our stuff out of one place, and into another. So somebody had to pack. And that somebody was my husband. I was in Cornwall, sunning myself with the boys, attending my grandmother’s funeral and getting emotional about the move. Because that’s what I’m good at. My husband is good at packing. Now that’s teamwork 😉

Gabriel’s Space Party was really the last day we properly lived in the flat with our stuff around us and knowing this I took some photos around the place in the aftermath of the clear-up that evening (while watching Andy Murray win his Wimbledon Final). I had a good look around and tried so hard to take it all in and store it in my memory properly, because my God, we had a good six years here, and how many memories were made here and how much we loved this place:

The following day we packed for Cornwall and the next time I saw the place, it looked like this:

Watching the piano movers trying to squeeze our Steinway Grand round the spiral stairwell was nerve-wracking:

And then the amazing people from Alexanders Removals turned up. These guys were the best removal men I could ever imagine. They were quick, careful, friendly and when we bought them lunch and coffee half way through the packing they were so sweet and gave me a little pep-talk (I was very emotional that day!) and were really understanding. We couldn’t have wished for a better experience. Moving is a stressful nightmare, but if you have to move, use them!

Then we were left to lock up:

 

My eyes looked upon empty rooms, but my brain saw this:

 

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As if one goodbye wasn’t enough for the day, that morning I got a call from Gabriel’s former nursery mentor, asking was I coming to the “Graduation Ceremony” today for the ones leaving for Primary School? I hadn’t known anything about it!! But there was no way I could let Gabs miss it, it would have broken my heart so even though it was a major inconvenience and Remus wasn’t that happy for me to bail on him mid-move, I took Gabs for his last goodbye to all his friends and teachers. It was so worth it:

By the time we got back (to the new house, not the old!) the removers had unpacked almost everything and were about to leave and we were left with the very, very long road of unpacking and settling in ahead.

So long Flat 3.... Thank you for the memories.

So long Flat 3…. Thank you for the memories.

Off to Paris…

Remus and I are off to Paris on Monday, for a 3 day romantic-jaunt with no kids! I should feel excited, and I do… I am really looking forward to a rest and some time to wander the streets and drink coffees and most importantly talk to each other about what we want to talk about, not what necessity dictates we have to blurt out before the boys hurt themselves or we’re late for work. We’ll drink champagne, sleep-in, watch tv, have nice meals and be, well, really, really grown-up 😉 No lego, no Iggle-piggle and Tombliboos grating on our nerves, no food on the floor. It will be amazing, it will and we so need and deserve this! But I’m really not sure about leaving my boys for two nights, three days, in particular Lucian. We’re so bonded, we co-sleep, he still breastfeeds. He’s 21 months, I should so be able to do this! But I think I will cry and he will cry. I hope it’s worth it.

That’s not at all what I meant to write about. I mean to write: I’ve only just started my blog and I’m disappearing already. I won’t be posting for a while. (It’s bad form to take your laptop on a romantic mini-break, right?!)

Just so I don’t forget, here’s a few things I want to write about when I get back:

Reiki (I want to learn)

Jennie & Matilda Mae

Classical Babies

Gabs & Luci

My 2013 wish-list

See you all soon… xx