The Big Girl Bed Adventure

Today was the big day! Bright and early, my husband rose to go meet two guys with a truck at his parents' house to get the crappy bed they wanted to give to Raelynn.

You want to see it, don't you? Of course you do! Because I promised a duct-taped mess. At least that's what I was expecting. But there's no tape. I KNOW! How odd, right? My friend Lynnelle was right when she surmised that my FIL hadn't done a thing with it. I don't know why in the world these 2 birdbrains took so long to deal with the bed situation that they BEGGED us to be a part of. So this is what I get, and what you will too if you marry a Chinese person. I don't regret it. I love my husband but I cannot even wait to move him and our children away from here.

So, let's check it out, shall we?

First, a look at our living room while in the midst of this bed moving. Here's the crib which is hanging out for a moment in the living room before being shoved into our bedroom. It makes this house feel even smaller than it did before. At least we can wheel it around and at least it won't be forever that this kid will sleep in a crib in our room. Dig all the toys and the bicycle strewn about as they sort out the situation in Raelynn's room. MIL of course did her very best interfering at this point, trying to put things where we didn't want them and that sort of jazz. Jeremy had my back the whole time. He urged me to just chill and as soon she left, we'd fix things properly. He did keep trying to stop her though, which was fun to watch.

Ok, take a moment to digest this if you will. MIL insisted on using this bedding. This old lady flower-vomit bedding. I'll give her points for freshly laundering it but geez, MIL! Raelynn is 3, not 300. She doesn't want this ugly flower shit all over the place. Also, let's discuss the size of the bed. It takes up the entire room. No more playing in here I guess. My living room is doomed to now be a minefield full of toys. Oh, and did you notice there's no railing to keep her from falling out? Yes, thank you for listening to me when I specified what I was looking for in a bed and completely fucking ignoring it. This was a MUCH better solution than allowing my husband and I to purchase the bed we'd found for 1,000 rmb. Or even the one another expat in the expat email group was selling for 500 rmb. Bravo.

 Sigh. I cannot allow this. Sure, I'm stuck in this stupid situation but I'm creative. I can and I will fix this crap. And that I did. Follow me to see how I managed to turned farts into sunshine.

 Now would you look at this? I've found a solution for the giant stuffed animals and made use of all the built-in shelving.

 And you'll notice that barfy flower crap is gone, gone, gone. As soon as MIL left, Jeremy helped me shove it away in the closet. Thank you, Honey!

 SO much better, right? Our only concern is the window. Not that we leave it open but his parents do. Jeremy's next task is to put a block or something in the track to ensure that when we're in the hospital having the baby, Dumb and Dumber and their penny-pinching cheapassness that would turn off the A/C at the end of July won't cause our daughter to fall out the window. In the meantime, I've been telling her the window will eat her if she gets too close to it. She seems to be terrified of it now. Either I'm a genius or I'm the worst parent ever.

Our living room was filling up fast with her larger toys like her drum set and dollhouse so I worked this play kitchen back in here and she's thrilled. I also laid out those big foam tiles so that if she does fall out of the bed thanks to the lack of a rail (which I'm still perplexed as to why no one put one on there when that's what they said they were doing but whatfuckingever) she won't get hurt.

She was still a little unsure about the big girl bed, even though we'd been talking so much about it. So I gave her butterfly stickers and let her decorate it herself (after I took this photo). She's much happier about it now, especially since the ugly flowers are gone. Here's hoping our big girl stays in her bed tonight so Jeremy and I can enjoy our evening together. If not, here's hoping she gets used to it very quickly. Wish us luck!