A Room of One's Own

"Welcome to my house!"

We recently refinished a room downstairs that will become Oliver's bedroom. It used to be our bedroom and originally contained the entryway to the stairs. After we remodeled the upstairs and redirected the stairway, it became our entertainment room (meaning we watched TV there). Finally, we finished a bunch of plaster work to repair things that happened with the remodel, fixed the old windows, and repainted. For now, its a good a place to keep Oliver's toys and give him room to play. Eventually he'll sleep there.

A big play rug sits in the middle of the room. Jenny picked out some colorful collapsible toy bins which he enjoys emptying over and over again. The bins and his books are kept on a deep sturdy bookshelf against the wall. Our futon makes an ideal spot for relaxed parental supervision and is a perfect height for Oliver to cruise along.

The picture above is his toy walker. He surprised us last week when he pulled up onto it and just cruised across the room. It was the most like walking independently that we'd seen him do. Once he reaches a wall, he can't really turn around without some help. He can, however, crawl around and mount the thing backwards so he can push back in the direction he started, but it's a little more difficult to use that way.

A few posts ago, we showed Oliver's gummy smile with a note that we're still waiting for front teeth. In the last couple weeks, his left front tooth has broken out and grown to about 1/3 it's full length. It's pretty cute to see some top tooth in his smile. I'll try to get a good photo once it really shows.


And in our "Adventures in Solid Food" series, here's a vampiric picture of a bad case of ravioli tomato sauce face.

Yesterday at the nearby park.