It's all a thing of the past

When we decorated the nursery for Liam, we were mindful of keeping it fairly gender neutral. Even then, we hoped that a new tenant would be moving in within a couple of years, and realizing that we'd be busy enough doing a big kid room for Liam, we didn't want to have to redo this one, too. Initially, there were several aspects of the room that seemed almost too girly for Liam. Although I am trained now to see only the blue, the bedding has pink and purple in it also; the rug has pink. It was easier to overlook that once the blue blinds and basket liners and lampshade and wall letters and picture frames went in... that's when it started to feel like a boy's room. And it felt that way even more once Liam had moved in, too.

Now those things - including Liam - are all gone, or on their way out the door. A couple of days ago I went to the fabric store, and $7 and a few hours later, I am midway through doing new (pink) basket liners. I also caved and bought some pink roller blinds (I sewed the blue romans myself, but I know my limits, and don't think I am feeling up to repeating that task right now!) The new prints are out being mounted. The letters have been replaced, the lampshade has been replaced, even the picture frames have been replaced... and while I like the way it is all coming together... I look back at pictures like this one and almost want to cry. I loved Liam's nursery. Even though I caved and went with Chad's choice of bedding, which wasn't what I originally wanted. Even though I disliked how the blue accents made the walls look too yellow (they were supposed to be cream, and I have to admit that the pink accents make them look more true to how I originally pictured them). And, even though I love the new big boy room Liam is in now... it's still hard to kiss the old room goodbye.

Looking at this photo (from December 2005) now, it's easy for me to see that it's already gone. I know that once the new tenant has moved in, my feelings will change, and it will seem like the perfect first home for her. Once we get a couple more things in place, I will take some photos of the new room to share. I know I will also want them for my own future reference. After all, it's hardly been more than a year since I took them, and I'm already thankful to have these shots from when it was Liam's first home, too.