Planning a toddler's room.. Part I

Husband's cousin staying with us moved out recently which leaves us with a room, planned to be baby girl's room. With so many "mistakes" I have made around the house, I wanted to get this plan right. Ok, not all are mistakes, half of them are just regrets to have done it this way or that looking at the beautiful pictures pinterest, blogs regularly throw up. And each time I look at the said item in my home, my heart aches as do my eyes.

This post is probably  to stop the whirl in my head and get it out so I can prioritize things that are really important.

• Storage: Evere since K was born, there has been a deluge of her stuff. It arrives in loads - clothes, books, toys, stroller, high chair... faster than I can pack it up to the loft as she outgrows it. This time around, I want to have space - a place for everything (ok, not everything) and everything in it's place (we'll see about that). So hopefully for the items I can foresee coming in, in the near future, I plan an appropriate storage. I have learnt this to be the secret of a neat (not necesaarily organized) house. Some good reads i found.

DIY Kids' Room Storage Projects

Toddler Rooms Ideas For Organization

Kids' Rooms Storage Solutions

• Space: K needs space to walk, run, lie around, mess and just be. It's going to be a thin line to tread with my aim for ample (and then some more) storage.
• Safety: K at 19 months is not at stage where she has learnt the inherent dangers of handling things the wrong way. So drawers, sharp protruding corners, unstable furniture, uncovered power points etc. still pose a danger, will have to take care of that.

And now coming to some cosmetic considerations.

• Theme: Should one have it or not? On one end, it gives the room a cohesive look, can be a source of joy for the child if it's of his/her interest and most importantly its SO much fun to put to together! On the other hand, it's very restrictive in terms of decor options, a child can outgrow it quickly (Heck, I am sure I will outgrow it quicker than her!). So here is my take - I am going to have a theme, a broad one like birds, flowers, jungle animals, Dolls or even Paris. I guess i can have this till she is hooked on to cartoon characters and wants them because, putting it mildly, I am not too much for them.
• Colors: I have seen pictures after pictures and this is how I divide them in my head right now. Mono toned vs. Dual toned (mostly complimentotary) vs. Multi toned; Pastels vs. Primary colors or Jewel tones. 



A single toned room.



A dual toned room



A dual toned room again, love the colors!

So, mono or dual toned are going to be very restrictive and difficult to maintain, I think its going to be multi toned. For the second question - I thought of the one word I wanted to associate with her room and for me it came out to be - Cozy! That nailed it to pastels. Tell me, who wouldn't want to live here?



Cozy!!



• A Nook: I want a nook for her, to read, to play house or just be. Ok, who am I kidding? I need a nook for myself and given the double duty the room is going to do as our Study and her room (however is that going to work out), I need a nook. For long I was stuck on the tent-ed sort of Nooks...



Of course, your whole room (or a good part of it) could be one cozy nook... but I dont have a  huge place in hand to take that risk..

Or it could be make-shift

Till I discovered window seats, my new love...

I got to have one!

The BIG mistake...

Guilt is an integral part of mommyhood. Whether you do the right things or not, one cannot escape its deadly claws. Questions on whether you did it enough, at the right time, in the right way and so on will keep plaguing you till something happens to confirm your belief. The guilt always finds it way with the candy offered to buy out peace at a mall, with the TV gawking allowed to shove the food down, with the coffee-gossip you allow yourself with a colleague as you are ready to leave office, it never leaves you... through the tiniest creek of doubt it finds in its way.

Sometimes you may find a reason to forgive yourself - a lack of knowledge (real or assumed); an oversight; an indulgence but sometimes you just can't - Today is the day. As i hear my girl, crying out my name and the help trying to put her to sleep, i am ready to cry myself.

It all started with the visit to the dentist today (long due at that!). Actually, it would have started much before that. For her front top two teeth we had noticed some gaps and took her to the dentist, it took her just a minute of peering down my baby's mouth and she pronounced "It's a cavity" with a clear unhesitant tone - my hear sank and sank. She blamed the extended breastfeeding rather night feeding for it - my death sentence on guilt's altar.

No matter how many excuses i give, i can't let go of how i failed my daughter and how she would have to undergo the torture of fillings and caps and regular dentist visits - such gross neglect. Truth be told, we had tried to wean her off the night thing, unsuccessfully, for two weeks - in the end, her will won over our groggy selves and we bought ourselves sleep with it.

For now, no more nursing for her -  I had not meant to end this beautiful thing like this.She wails in the other room for me and I hover outside the door with my heart in my throat. I am SO sorry.