Shaking it Up A Bit

Last year, we made an extensive To Do list of projects around the house. I can now say that as of last weekend one of them, making our living room look grown up instead of grad student, is about done. We finally bought the rug that brings everything together in the room. And even better, this 8x11" rug was only $238 from Lowes. Bwhahahahahahahahahah! I love that story! We've been looking at rugs for years and have found nothing less than $800 and most well over $1100. And this is a NICE rug for less than $250! Bwhahahahahahahahahah! Indeed, most of Lowes rugs are Cheap A$$. Who knew? We thinking of getting another one for the family room, which is this year's list of things to do.

The last thing we have to get are bookshelf speakers to take Dave and my electronic purchases up from the 70's and 80's respectively. Otherwise, with the two new chairs, the leather coffee table/ottaman, the new doors on the built-ins and the rug, we're calling the living room done!

Of course, once you change one thing, you open up the world for all the other changes you want to make, like switching closets around, moving bedroom furniture and buying your 2 1/2 year old son A NEW BED!!!!!! (I feel like Bob Barker right now).

Yes! We've moved to the Big Boy Bed in our household. What the HELL were we thinking???? The first night was great; Conor asked to get into bed and slept the whole night. The next night was a little bit more of a struggle; we had to sit in the room with him a little longer to help him go to sleep. The last two nights have been downright awful. There is the scurrying of little feet around the house when he darn well ought to be in bed. There is the screaming for one more toy--usually Thomas the Train or one of his compatriots--to put under his covers.

I know (hope!) it's just a transitional phase as he gets used to having more freedom and we figure out how to enforce the night time rules with methods that do not involve a) wrestling one's opponent and pinning him to the mat/bed or b) a variety of phyiscal restraints, the favorite one in my imagination involving a leash that allows some roaming but will pull him back to the bed should he get too far.

Mentally, I know he's just testing the new limits. Emotionally, I'm ready to bring the crib back and put him in it until he is 15.

Oh, and we are on Death Watch 2007 for Sergio the fish. He's taken to new positions of floating and swimming I've never seen before. For a while, he has been resting in his grass instead of swimming. Just sort of hanging out without expending any effort. Now he's taken to lying on the bottom of the first bowl or hanging vertically at the top of the water with his mouth right at water/air line. I know he's old for a Betta--3 years makes him above average in fish years. But still we'd hope for him to hang around a bit longer. The vertical stance, though. It's very easy to see him move one fin the wrong way, and he's belly up.