Slowly but Surely...

It's taken a while, but things are finally getting closer to tolerable around here, at least as far as the organization goes.  It has taken a lot of effort and patience, but we're close.  Of course, just when I was feeling better about things, Jacob woke up with a stomach bug Monday night (following a couple days of the general blahs) so now we're sort of waiting for the other shoe(s) to drop to see who else gets it.  I was running on two hours of sleep yesterday (and had to work), so it's been a bit rough around here the last few days.  Luckily, he only got sick three times over about four hours, so while it was awful for him, and awful to see, I know it could have been so much worse. More of that story to come, though...

Anyway, when I left off with the massive reorganizing project, I had just finished Jacob's bed but didn't bother photographing it because it was already a mess and I was waiting to fix the scratched dresser anyway.  The replacement drawer fronts came Thursday and I successfully installed them on Friday.  Here is the finished product...

Ignore the mess surrounding it...some things are still a work in progress!

And here is the bed...simple but effective!

It definitely changes the look in his room a bit!  In addition, we moved over Jacob's table and chairs to Carter's room, in hopes we could move Craig's old desk into Jacob's room.  He's giving us a very hard time about that, though, so most of the contents of his table are lined up against the wall in his room at the moment. But one or two underbed bins should alleviate that, at worst.  He seems to like the new look, though, and I think he's really enjoying the extra space to play lacrosse in his room.

Carter's room, in the meantime, is a little on the full side now that the table is there, but he already seems to like sitting at it so we'll keep it for now.  It's not too full, but let's just call it "at capacity".  At some point when the toys start getting weeded out for good, the table could move down to the living room and get replaced with one more shelf that fits a bit better.  But for now, we're fine and Carter loves his space.

Over the weekend, Carter and I went to visit my parents.  My dad had some minor surgery last week and there was a surprise joint 70th birthday party planned for my aunt and uncle.  Jacob and Craig were already planning on staying back because of lacrosse, but then Saturday morning Jacob woke up with a light sensitivity and a headache.  I thought it might be a migraine, but then the body aches and congestion started so I assumed it was the same thing Craig and I had around Christmas.  Until last night, that is.

Anyway, we left Saturday after lunch and had some time to hang out before the party.  Once we got there, Carter was happy to eat snacks!

Goofball!

The surprise went well--it was mostly a surprise from what we heard, with my uncle getting an inkling something was up.  But there was a bunch of out-of-town family on my uncle's side, so it was very exciting for them to have them there!  I love this picture I got of them while waiting to blow out their candles :)

We ate dinner and they opened their presents (lots of gift cards and a few sentimental gifts), and Carter was in his glory hanging out with my cousins' daughters and running around the gym where the party was held.  He had a blast and impressed everyone with his considerable energy!

On Sunday after church, Carter became interested in a toy stashed in my old room, a set of clear, colored plastic discs.  They are in the shape of octagons and have a number of slits that allow you to connect them to each other.  He brought them in to show Grandpa in his bed (he's feeling OK but still quite sore, so he was laying low).  At first they played around with shining a flashlight through them and looking at the colors, and then with Grandma's help they built a giant tower of them!

From Grandpa's belly up to the ceiling!

Such pretty colors!

We stuck around for lunch and then Carter had a major meltdown as we left because he was insisting he wanted to stay!  Had it not been for a busy week, my parents would have probably considered it, but we all guessed he'd probably change his mind really quickly once I walked out the door.  He continued to whine through the first part of the car ride, but he was asleep before I even hit the Thruway!

Back home, Jacob was feeling a little better (the calm before the storm, I guess), and I made some lasagna for dinner.  I used gluten-free noodles for the first time.  They were fine but the boys were not into it.  Sigh.  After that, I looked around my living room and started to lose it a bit.  I finished taking the Christmas tree down on Friday night, and vacuumed the area and rearranged furniture on Saturday morning.  So our full toy storage setup was back and I was suddenly determined to get things more organized.  I had made room in Carter's closet for "parking" for some of his larger vehicles, like his Mega Bloks dump truck and bus, as well as a few other ones.  Once I had those moved, that opened up space on our eight-cube shelf in the living room.  I rearranged things there a bit, then put a few things on the coffee table in the corner that makes for a nice play surface and some storage.  Puzzles and the little hockey rink on the shelf, and his Paw Patrol playset on top.  I selected one drawer under his bed for all of the superhero figures and vehicles, then picked another for a handful of dress-up clothes.  Hot Wheels tracks went into a big basket in the living room.  Finally, I emptied out every bin in our cube storage and every basket elsewhere, along with everything in the bookshelf cabinet in Carter's room, so I could group the toys better.  All of the random toys and Happy Meal toys have a bin in Carter's room, all of the Hot Wheels cars are in one bucket, all of the other medium-sized cars are in a basket in his closet, and there is a basket of random balls that still needs organizing as indoor and outdoor balls, because somehow we have a little of everything everywhere.  It was a ton of work but it went more smoothly than expected.  I did some editing Tuesday night to get all of the Little People back in the same area and shift a few more things, but for the most part things are good.  And inexplicably there is still space.  Not that we need anything else to fill it, but we do have a birthday coming.  I personally feel so much better now that it's like this, even though I know it won't last.  But in the meantime I hope that Carter is more motivated to put away toys now that there is a designated spot, as well as more motivated to play with things now that he knows where they are and all of the pieces are in the same spot.  I know it won't go as well as I'd like, but I'm hopeful it will be an improvement. 

Next step: Drag my butt on to the elliptical a few times a week.  Assuming I ever feel like I have the energy...or the idea of wearing a bathing suit in April is motivating enough....