the wall

The other day Cole was over for night (he actually is again tonight, come to think of it!).  It was quite wonderful to see both Cole and Cade, just sitting together on the couch, reading.  They did for a long time.  They didn't ask to go on the computer or play Wii - they just read.  I was fabulous (I meant to write "It"….. but as you know, both are true.)

Mia painted a wall in her room the other day.  We are going to do a cool little project on it, but I'll show you that when we're done!  She decided that paint was good for her skin.

Cade has become reimpassioned with his little hideout loft space.  He kind of left it for a while but now it is his regular spot.  He even brought my new Christmas dust buster up there to vacuum.  We've put a foam pad up there for him.  He usually brings up his pillow and blanket each day and it is his space.

Cade and I have discussed various tools or structures we could implement to make access to this space a little easier - not that he hasn't mastered getting up and down with easy…. as you will see later. He had already asked for a ladder for Christmas and I was all in favour of a cool looking library type ladder.  I've actually wanted a full wall of book shelves with a library ladder for years and years.  Then Cade thought of a fire pole.  We got pretty excited about that and had basically planned on cutting a hole in the floor and extending the pole all the way to the basement as well.  But then Eric came in the room.  Mr. Voice of Reason (aka: stick-in-the-mud) thought it would be too expensive and it would come down right through the centre of major duct work.  Poop.  

So then I suggested a velcro wall.  We could put industrial strength velcro on the whole left portion of the wall by the computer desk and make special gloves and shoes for Cade to use the velcro to climb up and down.  And we could make whole velcro suits and charge admission and have kids play till their hearts content throwing themselves up on the velcro wall to see if they would stick.  Party Pooper had something to say about that too - something ridiculous about holes in the walls and personal injury liability garbage.  Whatever.

So for now Cade will stick with his quick shimmy up the door frame.

Oh, and he made himself a little carrying messenger bag (box, in this case) type thing.  He made a duct tape strap on a box that he puts stuff in like his books or tablet or what-have-you in order to carry stuff up there.

I've been up there a few times myself this week.  Three in fact.  I painted that dark grey wall.  

I actually liked the colour of the wall - it is pretty much the same colour that I painted our bedroom in Fairfield way back when.  But it was so dark for a family room - I like these family and kitchen type rooms to be bright, cheering, light and airy.  Then when we got World's Largest Sofa Sectional Ever (I never did blog about that, now that I think of it….), also dark grey, it really was too much darkness for me.  So I finally got at painting it.  The end result will be shown soon - I just need to get some stuff on the walls and make it look fun and homey first.

I'm still quite seriously considering a library ladder or a fire pole - within the confines of the main floor, of course.  Who wouldn't want a fire pole in their house?  Especially now that I've painted the wall white (yes - white…. why is that so weird?  People think I am weird when I tell them that - well, at least they sort of look at me like I'm weird).  The white wall is not Cade-climbing-up-the-wall-with-his-apparently-now-obviously-dirty-bare-feet friendly.  With in one day - yes, 24 hours - the foot and a half of white wall above the door frame looks filthy.

Actually the latest - and this was thought of by none other than Mr. Voice of Party Poopness and Reason Himself - is cutting a whole in the wall up there and building a tunnel in the attic space that goes through to Cade's room.  That way he could go back and forth between his room and that space.  Pretty cool idea coming from That Guy.  Problem is, Cade will still have to find some method of getting up the the hole in his ceiling in his room.  Hmmmm.  Who's full of wisdom now??