Put Him to Work!

         It was time for a small change after cleaning out Mark's room of all the toys and cleaning up the storage room and garage last weekend and thankfully I have a great husband who can be convinced every once in awhile to do things my way and be a bit inventive. 
        I've had bookshelves for years now and I've also had toddlers for years and those two do not mesh well.  The time spent putting books back on shelves after the toddler has had their fun is incalculable so I decided it's finally time to put up a shelf out of reach of little hands and Mark's room had the perfect spot for this shelf.
        Of course Greg was ready to just do a little shopping at IKEA or something and find a simple shelf that could quickly be installed but Greg doesn't run the finances and doesn't realize that really wasn't an option but I was willing to make do with pretty much any kind of shelf.  I was even ready to go so far as to dismantle our cheap bookshelf and reconfigure it some how to be hung up on the wall but after discussing it for a bit Greg realized he had another option, use the old wood fencing he's been stashing under the deck out back for who knows what.  Rustic shelf, sounds good to me!!  We were even so lucky to have an old nail gun and nails that worked in it so literally no money was spent to assemble this shelf and I couldn't be happier to have the books out of reach and now Mark has an even better spot for his desk in his room.

Here's my man prepping the boards.  (Really just brushing off all the dust, cobwebs and dirt.)

Lay them out and doing a little measuring.

Starting to nail it all together.

Here's the before of Mark's little "nook".

And this is how his room was before.  It's such a tiny room that this was really a great change.

And here's the shelf installed and stacked with most of our children's books.

And here's Mark's room with a little more space around his bed.

And the final look for the "nook".

   Also this week we've had a little fun.  McClane is really becoming quite a skilled little boy.  He's climbing up on everything and is even able to climb down too.  I found him climbing down from my bed today without any problems, not even a scared look of "where's the floor" on his face or anything.  Before we know it he'll be riding around on the wiggle cars.

    

     He's also had his first nap in his high chair.

    And then there was Father's and Son's this weekend.  It was half tent, half the back of the car for sleeping arrangements and Greg said it worked great.  He didn't love all the weapons that were brought and used around the campsite but after they ate dinner and got away from the "Shoot um up" area things weren't so bad.  He did not take McClane for some reason but just having him and Kayli home with me for the night was still a welcome break.

Ready to go and McClane luckily doesn't realize he's being left behind.

    So that about wraps up the week.  Next week my family is coming and I can't wait to see them.