Purrty in Pinky Purple

Another unveiling!

Walls are taped, spackled and primed...

Manny and Rafi attempting to lift the ugly tile. Seriously, who covers beautiful hardwood floors like this with that cheap crappy stuff? 

(Hmm hoping my landlord doesn't read the blog...) 

Our old-living-room-turned-our-new-bedroom was the holding room for just about everything in the house. At one point, we had the old armoire, the kids' white closets, our bed, Anna's bed, shelves and diaper changing table all in one room. Safe to say we were losing our minds during that phase.

Ahh... Deep breath. Her room is finished and beautiful and perfectly functional for all of her therapies and equipment! This is her new table/desk where she has her ABA therapy/classes 20 hours a week. She has two ABA therapists/teachers, 1 comes for 2 hours in the morning and the other comes 2 hours in the afternoon, Monday-Friday. Anna has improved a lot since starting ABA. While I have my doubts about "scoring," when she began at 22 months, state testing said Anna was cognitively between 6 and 9 months. Well, we all know that wasn't true, but on her last test, she "scored" between 15-18 months. I am sure on her next test, she will keep adding on those months. I know she knows more than Gabe did at 2 1/2, and shows off that she knows her colors, letters, and shapes. We are learning eye gaze and photo identifications, and the other day, Anna used a purse, and filled it up with some of her favorite things! 

Since the kids' room-switch, Gabe has naturally been using the closet in his new room, and we were able to give Anna his former closets, since whoever built NYC apartments in the early 20th century must not have worn clothes, or used closets anyway... We added cute door handles and cleaned off Gabe's pre-existing "artwork" like swirlies and circles and other fun things he drew with his Crayola's when he was younger. They fit everything of hers perfectly, and we feel much more organized. Whew.

Anna's new daybed is perfect for her and even has extra storage space underneath. We had to add the railing as soon as possible, because the girl literally escaped from her bed the first night we had her in there! She was hooked up to a night feed and not happy about it, so she kicked off a clearing way, rolled herself to the side, flipped her legs off the side of the bed, and eased herself onto the floor. We found her at 4 in the morning, after hearing some commotion, on the other side of the room, having rolled over to the pole that her feeding pump is attached to, pulling the extension tubes, trying to turn it off! Daddy about had a heart attack until he picked her up and she started laughing at him!

These shelves hold most of her med supplies, which is nice because it's close to the bed and we change her and do g-tube cleaning, etc. there. The shelves aren't "finalized," meaning, they look kind of disorganized now but only because we are getting a television to go on the second shelf, so when Anna wants to relax, she can watch one of her videos or DVD's in her room. She also has to be in her new freestander (bottom left) up to 4 times a day, so we can stick in Sesame Street or a princess movie for her while she works those legs and torso. 

Overall, Anna's room has been a huge blessing, her therapists love it, and it is a great open space for them to work and for Anna to also. (I guess photos of the 4 corners don't do it justice. The center of the room is pretty big and all open.) It gives us peace of mind that we don't have therapy overflowing into our living room and kitchen, and everything now has a place.

***

Anna also inherited her own bathroom in the switch. We wanted to be able to keep her new bath chair in the second bathroom so we weren't constantly stepping around or moving it, and then carrying her from end of the apartment to the other. So her bathroom is also right next to her room, which means less stress on her and our backs.

We installed what I call a shower sprayer, with an extension cord to bathe her more easily, and took off the shower door and put up a curtain, so we could easily get in there and bathe away. Of course, we had to go for princess pink!

I'll post living room pics next for those who've asked! (a.k.a. my dad)

:)