It's the last day of Summer already, how did that happen? The year is flying by. Astrid is now 2 years and 8 months and Soren 4.5 months! These photos are from about a week and a half ago.  Another week, another cute sibling photo.  Astrid does love to give her brother cuddles, and he certainly doesn't mind the attention, and is always laughing and grinning at her!

D7000 with Nikon 50mm f1.8G

ISO 500 focal length 50mm

Exposure: 1/320 @ f2.2

D7000 with Nikon 50mm f1.8G

ISO 500 focal length 50mm

Exposure: 1/125 @ f2.2

D7000 with Nikon 50mm f1.8G

ISO 500 focal length 50mm

Exposure: 1/80 @ f2.2

D7000 with Nikon 50mm f1.8G

ISO 500 focal length 50mm

Exposure: 1/200 @ f2.2

A nursery fit for a Soren.....

Up until a week or so before he was born, Soren's room was our junk room....... full of many things we hadn't used in quite awhile.  A couple of years back it was our gym room, with lots of exercise equipment. It was also the general dumping ground for all things we didn't want to deal with, including boxes we hadn't unpacked since moving in 8 years ago and many, many, bags of alpaca fleece.

Since Astrid came along, it hadn't had a great deal of use for exercise and was gradually accumulating more and more junk.  Over Winter last year, we began cleaning out the room to the point where we could actually get into it (this seemed to involve a lot of decluttering in every other room to make space to store all the items previously stashed in this room).  Then the gym equipment was largely shipped off to Mikl's house Who has time to exercise with 2 small kids to look after?......

When I was pregnant with Astrid her nursery was pretty much done a couple of months before she arrived. It was well and truly planned from the moment we knew she was (most probably) a girl.  Second child syndrome hit though and I had no real plans for Soren's room, despite knowing he was a 'he' from 20 weeks.  I had a few vague ideas, but nothing definite until I went shopping at around 7 months pregnant and found a heap of material I liked., and a plan formed.

The only spanner in the works was the ongoing water leaking problems we had in that room over the past few years.  About 18 months earlier Anto had ripped the plasterboard off a section of the room to dry out the walls and try and find where the leaks had been coming from. We had been a bit busy with overseas travels and life in general and had totally neglected fixing it. We finally had some tradies come and look at it a couple of weeks before Soren was due and they started working on fixing the leaks the day before I was due.  Cutting it a bit fine, but we knew we weren't using the room straight away. So here is how it looked the week before  my due date:

It got a whole lot worse after these shots were taken, with most of the plasterboard on 2 walls gone and a whole heap more mess.  The day I was due it was an utter bomb site!

We won't talk about the shoddy job our original builders did necessitating the many thousands of dollars of fixing but the waterproofers finished the day I was due.......... nothing like the pressure of a pregnant woman about to pop overseeing your every move, and Anto started re-plasterboarding the day I went into labour (and while I was in labour I got to help, just for fun/distraction).  Over the next couple of weeks the room was plasterboarded and re-painted and the decorations were put into place with the help of Anto's parents and brother, while I juggled a newborn.  My Mum had made the curtains and cot bedding and decorative pillows while she was visiting in the late stages of my pregnancy. Anto also made some pelmets for the windows and few finishing touches were added and the room was done! So, a few weeks after Soren was born his room was finally ready to roll. He is of course still in our room, and up until now it has been a pretty place to store his clothes and toys, but he is now starting some sleeps in his cot (much to his utter disgust!).

This is the finished product

I decided to go with a red, grey and white theme.  The curtains are a stripe incorporating those colours and a beige to match our existing wall colour and charcoal carpet.  We then painted a feature wall in a matching grey and added the circle wall decals to complement the curtain stripes.  The cot quilt is the same colour palette with different animals and letters on it and my mum made lots of cushions for the room in matching fabrics. Soren inherited Astrid's cot and change table but we bought a new IKEA Poang chair for his room (the same as in Astrid's room) and made new change mat covers in the red and bought a matching red valance. He was also gifted some cute grey toys to match in with the room (and snuggle up to when he gets older)

 Going with the red and white theme, we bought IKEA units with red (and some white) drawer inserts for one wall of the room. The room has a ton of cupboard space but more drawers and book shelves are always welcome. Yes, that is an alpaca outside his room.  No baby or toddler should sleep without a camelid staring in from time to time!

 We have started filling the units and drawers up with Soren's books and toys. Like Astrid, he got his own bean bag, which came in handy as a newborn to lay around snoozing on. He also has his special grey 'Ethan' bear he got from his Aunt Sue, who  gave Astrid her 'Ruby' bear. The grey cat was a present from Granny and the name puzzle from Uncle Mikl, and some special money boxes that he got when he was born. I'm sure even more special things will be added soon.

So that is Soren's room. He is not a huge fan of his cot, don't let the smile fool you...... he might be cute but he is resisting his move to his cot like a champion! Someone should explain to him that his room is very nice, and he might like to spend more time there!

Astrid's toddler room......

I previously posted about Astrid's nursery.  I did a bird and owl theme and while it has evolved over time the room is still similar to what we started with (although with a lot more stuff!).  When I originally planned the nursery I wanted something that wasn't going to be too baby-like so that we could adapt it to a toddler room and then a little girls room.  So far it has adapted well!

Just after she turned two, we took the side off Astrid's cot and then shortly after moved her to her toddler bed (upon her request).  We knew we weren't going to need the cot for awhile since Soren was always going to be in our room for a number of months, but Astrid was keen to be a big girl.

We bought Astrid a convertible toddler bed from IKEA and have set it up on the smallest setting, but she has room to grow!  Of course once she moved to a bed her lovely cot quilt I made for her didn't fit well any more. Here is what her room used to look like, first set up with the cot and then her new bed:

Luckily Granny came to the rescue and helped make a new doona and pillow set for the bed.  I was very pregnant and over everything at the time so my mum was a sewing champion!

We made her a full sized doona so it will still work when the bed is extended. For now it is a little big for the bed but gives lots of room to snuggle up! Here is the new bedding and bed all set up:

A lot of the original bits pieces from the room are still in there but we've added lots of toys and trinkets over the last year or so.  I still love the birdy mobile I made and the original pictures and beanbag we had.  Her owl picture holder now gets regular use to display paintings and drawings she had done. Now that Astrid has developed a fear of the dark, the nightlight I made for her also gets regular use.  Not just for show anymore it would appear!

After our Paris trip we came home with some other bits and pieces for her room, a lovely pink birdcage and jewellery holder (which is now used for hair bands). She now also uses her jewellery box and money box she was given after she was born.  Anto repainted an old dolls cradle I used as a kid, and that is now a fixture in the room (along with my childhood doll, Victoria) as well as another birdy themed box we picked up, which seems to get used to hold dolls clothes and Astrid's shoes! I also found an old teddy music box I was given by my grandparents as a child, and Astrid adores it and plays it every night as she goes to sleep.

 Astrid still has her favourite owls I made her (stuffed with alpaca fleece) and her Ruby bear. They do move around the room a bit, and the owls often get put to bed under her old cot quilt on her toybox, but they are still well-loved

 

 So here is what her room looks like at the moment....... fit for a cheeky little toddler!

 

Next up is a post on Soren's nursery.  Stay tuned!