Stairs October 18, 2010

Mark

We're very happy with our new home, which feels like it's twice as big as our old apartment, although according to the square footage numbers the size difference isn't quite that large. For instance, in our new place we've divided the main living area into two parts, each of which is probably larger than our old living room. Although Elena tends to spread her toys out all over, in principle we'd like to keep them mostly on her side--that's where the toys get put away at the end of the day.

On the other side we have a functional fireplace, which we haven't yet put to use. The wall it was on looked too flat, so we took a trip to Ikea with the goal of finding something that would add depth. We decided on a simple shelf, not a full mantel per se , but it achieves the desired effect.

Elena's favorite part of the whole place might be the stairs. She likes playing on them with her beach ball, although I usually have to participate. We sit down at the bottom of the stairs, then lean our heads back so we're looking up at the top, but from an upside down perspective. I throw the ball up to the top, then we watch as it bounces down, and try to catch it when it reaches us.

With all the extra room, we're slowly retrieving all the stuff that has been stored at our parents' houses--for the most part, it's been there for at least a decade. Most recently, Jenny's mom brought another van load up, including Jenny's extensive ceramic mask collection. She and Elena had a great time unwrapping and looking at all of them, but the time has come to thin out the collection. Due to Elena's still developing spatial awareness, there were a few casualties, but they were on their way out anyway, so Jenny wasn't too heartbroken. She's keeping the ones that she really likes, but we're still looking for suggestions about what to do with the rest. Should we put them up on craigslist or freecycle them? Are there collectors who might be interested, if we just knew how to contact them? Suggestions welcome.



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