Moving Day

George is moving into his new bedroom in the almost completed extension of the house. The base boards or skirting boards have yet to be put in as well as the internal doors, but as the floor was completed on Friday, it was finished enough for him to move it. His now old bedroom will become the spare or guest bedroom and will house a great bulk of the bookshelves. (library/guest room)

It was when we started to organize George's things to shift to his newer, larger bedroom that I realized that George has been in his old bedroom almost all of his life. He certainly can't remember a time before he slept in any other room. Taking things off the door to his now old room was very telling. Underneath a poster claiming the room to be the site of alien autopsies were old Pokemon stickers. The other side of the door has been home to some old Thomas the Tank Engine postcards.

When George was about three, perhaps even younger, he was fixated on all things about the little blue steam engine and all his pals. We still have all the die cast metal toys stored somewhere in the loft. They're in a box with all his Brio trains. If my memory serves me, there was even a Thomas the Tank Engine Brio train.

Lego and Pokemon replaced Thomas the Tank Engine and there were vast new purchasing opportunities for George's parents. The evidence of this is also in the loft. We have saved all of the Pokemon cards and all the Lego in carefully organized boxes. George can either pass them on to his own kids later OR sell them for a small fortune on Ebay when he reaches his twenties.

When George was three, we decorated his room with an under the sea theme. It's going to break my heart to paint over the jolly under-sea creatures that have kept him company during his early childhood. When I was painting the happy crustaceans, Henry and George did the clouds and stencil sea weed. To make the stencil sea weed, George and his father cut up sponges and did "dab dabs" with the paint. I finished by outlining all the sea beasties with a big black felt marker. I thought it made them look more like proper cartoons.

On the left of the last photo you can see the stencil sea weed next to the jolly lobster in the centre. On the right is the giraffe height chart. That one has been on there for at least eight years, hence the tattered look. The height chart than went before was in the old kitchen.

The above photo is the first height charge we had in this house. It has all three boys heights marked on it on some place. When we came to remodel and modernise our kitchen, the wall inside the old pantry where we marked the boys' growth was getting knocked down. Being soft and sentimental types, we couldn't see the evidence of our children's growth be smashed into dust and put in the rubble pile. Each one of those lines was so earnestly studied when they were made.

"Oh! Look how much you've grown!"

"Mum, I'm a big boy now, aren't I?"

"Of course you are!"

The Man of the Place carefully scored around the bulk of the growth lines and removed the painted plaster all in one lump. This lump was taken carefully to the picture framers in Lockerbie (no longer in business) and put in a frame, behind glass.

When we had a brand new kitchen, there wasn't a place to mark children's height, so we continued on a paper chart. It's easier to save than chunks of actual wall.

His new room has nothing on the freshly painted walls just yet. I may forbid stickers on the walls and doors. They're murder to get off. I'm still scrubbing Pikachu and Jigglypuff off the old door.

Here is George's new room. It is painted a beautiful Wedgwood blue (his choice). You can see the guitar amplifier, tv, samurai sword and Hawkeyes football stuff. Its a far cry from stuffed bears and Thomas the Tank Engine. I guess this moves also marks the end of early childhood. It sure was fun for all of us.