January's almost over

February really isn't any better than January, weather-wise, but I think of it as a pink month, with lots of sweet things involved. Also, it's short. So the end of January is very cheering: I lived through it once again.

I'm not feeling a lot better, but I am better. More functional. Since the kids went back to school on January 9th, Rocket Boy and I have been working on a big project that has both (a) made me feel very good, and (b) taxed me horribly and made me feel like I can't cope with life. It has both contributed to my depression and helped it begin to lift.

The project is to move the kids into our bedroom and us into the kids' bedroom. The kids' old bedroom is the smallest of our three small bedrooms, and you can't fit two twin beds in there unless they're bunk beds (or you put nothing else in there), which is why the boys, six weeks away from their 10th birthday, were still sleeping in their toddler beds, despite their ever-lengthening legs. I wanted to move the kids into the bedroom we use as an office (which was Rocket Boy's room when he was a kid), but RB thought that was a bad idea. He still keeps his clothes in that closet. I know he didn't want to give "his" room to the kids. And looking at the room, you can kind of see how it would have been hard to disturb. The five desks, for starters. And the four file cabinets.

Finally I said, OK, let's give them our room (this was months ago). Still nothing happened. But at last, in early January, RB -- to my great surprise -- agreed that it was time. So for the past three weeks we have been making this happen. I wish we could have done it last summer, when we actually had time, and there wasn't ice outside, but I'm still glad we're doing it now.

We got the big stuff moved in the first few days, but the little stuff has taken time and continues to take time. The photo shows our stuff crammed into their old little room. To achieve this, "we" (a euphemism for "Rocket Boy") had to take down almost all the shelves in the room to make way for my beloved bookcases. I gifted the twins with one bookcase and kept one of theirs (a big corner bookcase that doesn't fit anywhere else in the house). We've also been "thinning" madly -- I've gotten rid of about 100 books so far, and plan to get rid of more soon. And RB gave the kids his big dresser and took their little one (it's OK, because he has two dressers). But oh, man, we are so crowded in this room. Cozy might be a more positive word to use.

The kids have mixed feelings about their new room. It has a bare hardwood floor (their old room is the only room in the house that still has carpet) and it's colder than their old room, which was/is the warmest room in the house. (Such a great place for fat, menopausal me--the warmest room in the house.) Their room is in transition: as you can see, they moved with their toddler beds. We expect to move the loveseat into the living room eventually and replace it with a living room chair that will take up less space. But that will mean no more cuddling together on the loveseat to read picture books, so we're putting that off for now, even as we read fewer picture books and more chapter books at bedtime. Baby steps out of babyhood.

I started watching Craigslist for twin beds, and most of them were both awful and expensive, but I did see one that looked promising, with a bookcase headboard. We texted the poster to see if it was still available, and yesterday she texted back saying it was. So we all piled into my car and drove to Superior to check it out. It seemed great, so I paid her $100 and we drove back to Boulder with a bed. This is where the ice becomes relevant, because it was very difficult to get the bed pieces into the house without slipping. But we persevered, and now Kid A has a twin bed!

It seems gigantic compared to the toddler beds, and it's about twice as far off the ground as Kid B's bed (mattresses are so huge nowadays). We had to move the desk to accommodate the bed, and oh, so many things still need to be sorted out, gotten rid of, etc. But Kid A said he slept very well last night. "My new bed is so comfortable!" He is in the middle of a growth spurt, with most of his long-sleeved shirts suddenly too small (I had to do an emergency Lands End order) and his pants becoming too short almost before my eyes, not to mention jumping from size 2 shoes to size 4. So it was really time to do this.

Kid B says he still likes his little bed, but I think we won't keep it much longer (I'll keep watching Craigslist). He's so skinny that clothes fit him longer than they fit Kid A. But his legs are getting longer and it'll be time for a change soon. Kid B doesn't like change -- nor do I -- but when you have kids, change happens.