Katie's Room

Katie's room is just about finished, so I'm going to go ahead and post the pictures now.  There are two things still to be finished on her room:

1. Replace her crib.  After much consideration, we decided it was time to replace her crib with a new one.  I was reluctant to do so mostly because I am quite attached to this crib.  It was what my sister and I slept in when we were babies, and we also used it for Benjamin.  But when we reviewed the recent guidance from the CSPC regarding drop-sided cribs, we decided it was just too risky to continue to use a 30-year old drop-side crib that was getting a bit loose in the joints.  So on Monday, Mark is going to pick-up a new crib from IKEA.  For anyone else who needs to replace their crib, the IKEA has a very simple model for $100, and it feels quite sturdy!

2. The other thing I want to do is to put some pictures on the wall above Katie's crib.  Again, IKEA is the go-to source for these (and, really, just about 50% of our household contents come from IKEA) - as they are very lightweight frames with plastic fronts, so if they did happen to fall in her crib, they could not do much damage.  My plan is to put five small picture frames above her bed: one picture of our family, along with four baby pictures of the most recent generation of Griffiths (Katie, Ben and cousins Josh & Nathan).  I'll try to post a picture when I do this.

Here is her room!  Check out yesterday's post for a comparison to the before model.  When we remodeled after Ike, we painted 3 of the walls yellow and the window wall a dark blue.  Mark re-painted the wall pink.  Fun to have a little girl!  Sorry this first picture is a little dark.

Here is a picture that Aunt Tita (Katherine III) bought during a trip Cuba --- an original work with a certificate on the back.  Very cute --- thank you for sharing it with us, Aunt Tita!

The quilt hanging above the changing table was made for the "next great grandchild" by my Grandma Kate (Katherine II) before she died 9 years ago.  Benjamin happened to be the next great grandchild (born 6 years later), so we received this quilt shortly before Ben was born.  We hung it above the crib when this was his room.

We updated our dresser/changing table by re-painting the knobs in pastel colors, and adding Katie's name to it.

Here is the other side of the room, which includes a few sentimental pieces.  I didn't get a good picture of it, but you can see a little bit of a lace heart on the pink wall behind the rocking chair.  This was something I had hanging on my bedroom wall from grade school to high school in my parent's house.  The rocking chair matches the crib, which my parents bought before my sister was born.

My Aunt Lisa gave us this boat that my grandfather had engraved for my grandmother (Katherine II) during a trip to Egypt.  You can see her name "Kate" on the side.

My Aunt Tita (Katherine III) made this lamp for Katie. So fun to have things from Katherine's II, III and IV in Katie's (Katherine V) room!

These are fun whimsical pictures made by the same artist - one my mother gave to me when I was in high school.  The other I found in a thrift shop when we lived in Starke.

 And finally, here is the gift that Benjamin picked out for his little sister before she was born.

I think I am now up-to-date with our projects.  I'll try to post more pictures and thoughts about our kiddo's in the next post.  It feels good to be blogging again!