My interior decorator

The move is complete and we're all settled in at the new house. But there was one final bit of decorating to be done this week -- the walls in Kellan's room. The room is brightly painted with an adorable sheep border, but it looked very bare without any pictures on the wall (aside from his big map of the physical world). So off we went, Kellan and I, to choose some pictures for his room. I immediately wanted to do the room in Winnie the Pooh, a favourite of mine, and the prints matched the room colours perfectly. How tasteful and cute it would be. But as I showed the pictures to Kellan, he registered no interest whatsoever, having only stumbled upon the yellow bear and his friends in the occasional storybook or toy. I realised that I was fulfilling my nursery decorating dreams a bit too late and that my son, now 15 months old, really isn't a baby anymore.

So, we went to the non-Pooh boxes and I started showing the prints to Kellan. It was obvious after only a few moments that he had an opinion. For many prints, he simply registered nothing and for others perhaps a slight interest. But then you'd hit upon one that, for whatever reason, truly appealed to his sense of style or wonder and he would squeal, bounce up and down, and point at it saying, "I want that, I want that, I want that". And this is how we decorated Kellan's room. Kellan chose a giant long puppy poster with three frames depicting different puppies, a deeply coloured drawing of a moon and cow, a cartoony classic American type picture of a city with a steam train, and, this one we had some debate over, a collage of animals that says, "All the Animals in the Zoo". The idea was good, but the poster is really cheesy looking and the animals aren't pasted together very well against the black background which also doesn't work at all. But no matter how many other choices I gave him, he was adamant, he wanted that animals in the zoo poster. It is his room after all.

I did have some say in the matter though. I selected white frames for them all, as that would match the light colours in the room and at least bring a bit of cohesion to the decor. And, in the end, I also grabbed three Pooh prints for the far wall. I couldn't resist. He is still my baby after all!

I wonder how many other one year olds have been permitted to choose the pictures that hang in their rooms? It was something which just happened naturally, and I'm so glad that it did. Kellan felt proud, excited, and involved. And I watched my son grow up just a little bit more.