Because Noah was born slightly early (and because I am a bit of a preparation freak), I wanted to have everything (or almost everything) ready for Mango by the 34th week. We started putting her room together in January, transforming Seth's desk back into a changing table and Noah's bed back into a crib. Most fun of all, we got to redecorate!
Below is a picture of Noah's room as a baby in Switzerland. (The photo was taken shortly before the movers came to ship our stuff all the way to Singapore.) We had kept most of the stuff - a lot of which is now in Noah's big boy room in Singapore, but not all...
We wanted Noah to feel involved with preparing for his little sister's arrival and (luckily) he wanted to help decorate. Since entering the "N2" class in January, Noah has had art class 5 times a week, mostly from 12 to 1pm (when I pick him up). The school hired a special art teacher and every day they play with a different medium and different techniques and Noah LOVES it. Noah wanted to put his favorite drawings/creations up on the wall in Mango's room. See below some of Noah's creations now in Mango's room.
On the opposite wall, we have three big bookcases filled with our books. We thought that might not be very kid-like so it would be fun and also pleasant for Mango if we hung some colorful origami from the various shelves. I was thinking of a few cranes and the like but Seth and Noah did some pretty amazing and fun origami. They started the origami project in January - doing a few a week for the smaller ones or one every few weeks for the bigger more complicated ones.
We also put up the cat mobile that Noah had above his changing table in Switzerland (thank you again Dana) as well as the little animal wall hanging I had found in a thrift store next to our apartment in Switzerland. It feels so familiar and yet strange to see them up in our apartment in Singapore.
And like in Noah's big boy room, a few small animals can be seen crawling on the wall.
We also put up some postcards like in Noah's baby room and current room.
... and we found (on Craigslist :) ) the same baby gym that cousin Audrey had.
We got also got a European style playpen for the living room (also from Craigslist - who knew it would work out here in Singapore!) which Lhasa decided to warm up for Mango (interestingly and luckily - now that Mango uses the playpen - Lhasa is no longer interested even when it is empty).
Below is a picture of Noah's room as a baby in Switzerland. (The photo was taken shortly before the movers came to ship our stuff all the way to Singapore.) We had kept most of the stuff - a lot of which is now in Noah's big boy room in Singapore, but not all...
We wanted Noah to feel involved with preparing for his little sister's arrival and (luckily) he wanted to help decorate. Since entering the "N2" class in January, Noah has had art class 5 times a week, mostly from 12 to 1pm (when I pick him up). The school hired a special art teacher and every day they play with a different medium and different techniques and Noah LOVES it. Noah wanted to put his favorite drawings/creations up on the wall in Mango's room. See below some of Noah's creations now in Mango's room.
On the opposite wall, we have three big bookcases filled with our books. We thought that might not be very kid-like so it would be fun and also pleasant for Mango if we hung some colorful origami from the various shelves. I was thinking of a few cranes and the like but Seth and Noah did some pretty amazing and fun origami. They started the origami project in January - doing a few a week for the smaller ones or one every few weeks for the bigger more complicated ones.
We also put up the cat mobile that Noah had above his changing table in Switzerland (thank you again Dana) as well as the little animal wall hanging I had found in a thrift store next to our apartment in Switzerland. It feels so familiar and yet strange to see them up in our apartment in Singapore.
Noah at about 4.5 months on his changing table in Switzerland with his beloved cats hanging just above him and the animal print tapestry in the background.
We also put up some postcards like in Noah's baby room and current room.
Finally, we were lucky enough to receive many many cute outfits from friends of ours who had daughters in the last year (and me being me - I cataloged them all so I would be able to return them at the end). Basically, Mango already had almost four full sets of clothes from 0-6 months if you include Noah's clothes! Lucky little Mango (and us - no need to buy any baby clothes). Below is a very small sampling...
From Celine
From Gwen
From Noemie
Thus, by 34 weeks, Mango's room was ready, her clothes all washed and neatly folded in organized bins and all ready and of course all the little things, diapers, wipes, shampoo, cream ... were bought . We were not expecting her for at least another four weeks, but always good to be prepared, right? She must have heard that things were ready for her....
J'espère que Maya apprécie tous les jolis dessins préparés par Noah :)
ReplyDeleteI remember Baby Noah's little room :) Quelle jolie chambre préparée avec amour, je suis sûre que Maya s'y sent(ira) très bien.
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