Baby Has So Much To Do

Schlake schlake* in The New Bed

This is a story of a growing pain.

Cora is almost too tall for her cot, being close to 90cm in height. So we decided it was time to get her a big girl's bed. We headed to a shop not far from our house in the middle of hurricane Emma on a bike (no kidding, the wind was so strong that day but we didn't realise it was actually a hurricane). We found a lovely little toddler bed and we decided to order it. Happiness is shopping done within 30 minutes like that.

On Friday we received a call that our bed is ready to be picked up, and on Saturday morning Chris rented a car to pick it up.

That was the start of the nightmare that the bed is, beginning from missing 14 plugs and screws, wooden plugs that are the wrong sizes, screw holes that just didn't lined up (later we found that's because we've got all the parts for different size beds), and they even managed to give us the wrong size of mattress. Very annoyed and on the brink of tossing the whole thing into the dump outside, Chris packed up everything and headed back to the shop today (they were closed on Sunday and Monday) and just asked to have the one they have as a show model in the shop in addition of asking for a 30% discount for that one. He came back home with a complete built in bed with correct size mattres. Happy ending?

No. Even the built-in version of the bed was missing one bolt and had one botched beam.

After five trips to-and-fro the shop and countless phone calls, we finally able to build the bed properly with all the right parts intact and get that into Cora's bedroom.

At least the little girl appreciates all the efforts. She loves her new bed and was very enthusiastic about getting on it. She didn't have any problem at all going to bed in it this evening. I'm wondering what's going to happen tomorrow when she wakes up. Will she climbed down and come to our room?

Anyway, the new bed looks lovely in her bedroom. Even after all the trouble I was quite proud we didn't just give up and buy something convenient from IKEA (though convenient it would have been!). I'm happy that we've decided on a junior bed and not a full size twin bed, since it would take so much space in her room which means less play space for her. In the mean time we've already found someone who'd buy Cora's old cot who'll pick it up this weekend.

More pictures of Cora's big girl room. The last pictures were taken in the dark just after the goodnight kiss (you can see she's trying hard to pretend to sleep without grinning). After the pictures were taken, more kisses were given, and mummy left her on her own, Cora fell asleep in minutes (even though I have no idea how many minutes exactly does it take for her to fall asleep).

*Schlake schlake: Cora-speak for sleeping

Yay! New Camera!

We finally got a new camera. The last one broke when Cora smashed it onto the floor. They should make these things more sturdy.

Anyway, I would let Chris fill you on the geeky details of the camera. I took it for a little test drive and managed to took some pictures where Cora wasn't too blurry from too much wiggling. There are some pictures of her during a walk on the park on a windy (and a bit drizzling) afternoon. Cora, being the proper little Dutch miss, wears the weather appropriate wellies, which she chose by herself for the occasion (she picks her own shoes now, whenever we go out, and I let her... they're her shoes anyway).

I only managed one pictures of Cora and Alistair, a son of friends visiting from Edinburgh. Those two are basically the same Energizer Bunnies that makes taking pictures extremely difficult. That one surviving picture was during the time the two are playing nicely and not fighting.

The last pictures are of Cora's chilling out in her Hobo Hut, the play hut I made from the 'For sale' board. You could read more about the Hobo Hut in The Nursery Project.

To the pictures.

Invasion of Baby Gadget Continues

When we bought the apartment, we didn't really put a baby into the equation. So we bought a proper yuppie apartment with only one bedroom, spacious living area and floor-to-ceiling windows that are definitely not child-friendly.

Then we had Peanut. And ever since, our little Love Nest has suffered from a steady deluge of baby gadgets. First we had to give up our working area to give space to her crib and wardrobe, and as she grows and acquires more and more baby gadgets and toys, the living room is converting rather involuntarily more and more into a nursery rather than a living room.

The latest of this invasion is the highchair we bought her last weekend.

Peanut's been eating solid for about 5 months now, and it's high time for her to start learning to feed herself. In order to do that, she needs her own table and proper chair. We've looked for a highchair that we like for several months now. Apparently, while the rest of baby furniture is going modern and sleek, the design of highchairs available in the market is still confined between the traditional wooden aparatus that looked like some sort of Amish orthopedic thingamajiggers, and super cushiony-multi functioned-godzilla sized chairs that make sure every mess the child makes will be contained within the chair by the merit of its own sheer size.

In short, we're not happy. We want something that fits into our decor.

At the end of the day, we narrowed down our favourites into two; a E500 Mozzee Nest Chair, or a E15 IKEA one. They both have the minimalistic design we want, and an attached table she could mess her food on. Of course, when your choice is down to something that cost a fortune and one that costs 3% of that, it's obvious where you'll end up.

So yes, we bought Cora the IKEA one. It's white, it's simple, it's cheap, it blends nicely with the rest of our interior. You can't beat that! Peanut loves sitting in it. It's just the perfect height, and it doesn't strap her too claustrophobically into the seat and allows her some wiggle room (and everybody knows she loooves to wiggle!).

We did sacrifice a bit more space in this tiny apartment for her gadget, and I suspect it won't be the last. But we love seeing her laughing while eating.

The album.

Thank you to my fellow colleagues at Blackboard

Thanks to all my colleagues at Blackboard in Amsterdam who bought our little girl her first designer outfit. As promised earlier, I made some pictures to show you how the clothes look on her. It is really sweet that you all chipped in to get Cora something nice. One day she will be able to say thank you in at least 3 languages J.