My Baby is Growing Up

This past weekend, my youngest Princess decided it was time to clean up her room. She had about 8 Build-a-Bear animals with 20+ outfit sets. She had a highchair for them, a stroller, and a crib/rocker. All these items were stored under her bunk bed. It was a little "House" area where she and her friends would play.

We went through some things cleaning house last week sorting out things we no longer use or need. She felt like she was ready to upgrade her room to a "teen" room as she is just about there.

She took out all the doll items and got rid of almost all the build-a-bear stuff. She asked for a bed side table and decorated that and took a few things off her dresser and put them in the window. She took one of the white boards from the wedding and used some Duct/Duck Tape to change the color around the outside so it would match her room better. I had already put up the little curtains on a curtain rod and hung them to give the area its own "room" feel.

She asked "When Princess number three goes to college, can I have her room?" but she wanted to keep her bunk bed and put it in the other room. She loves the area under the bed and wanted to keep that but have the larger room. She put a bean bag chair under there as well so she could sit and watch movies, (as there is a tv/dvd player) read, and do homework.

After getting it all spruced up, she tried to do homework there and found it was too dark and was sad about that. She put on her thinking cap and asked if she could use some Christmas lights to help light up the area under her bunk bed.

I told her to go at it. However, when I passed her room, she was slowly pulling the lights over the bars that cross under the bed. I offered a suggestion and we quickly used bread ties to wire the lights to the bars which made them tight and made the job very quick.

She thanked me over and over and LOVES her new "room" under her bed. She is the envy of all her friends and now that it is lighted, I think she will be more excited to get her homework done getting to use the little lights she hooked up.

It is sad in a way to see the doll era go as I have been in that arena for many years now. I must say that the joy of watching them grow outweighs any sadness of what is left behind. I did have an odd but somewhat truthful thought that perhaps I should keep the "dolls and clothes" for my grandchildren. It won't be that many years when I will have little one's about I am guessing.

I think the best solution would be to keep a few and weed out the toys that may not get played with as much and keep the treasured few that will for sure be the hit of grandmas house. Hot wheels and Barbies are probably on the "keep" list....

It is amazing how quickly time passes..... Goodbye baby, Hello Teen!