It's amazing how, slowly but surely, every room in the house gets taken over by baby-related items. My two are so little, yet their stuff is already everywhere. Let's take a room-by-room tour of the Young & Younger house...
Kitchen: Two highchairs. These fold down flat but they're still pretty bulky and I have to shift them everytime I need something from the cupboards they live in front of when folded. Then there's all the feeding gear - bibs, plastic bowls and spoons, steriliser.
Living room/dining room: We recently shifted our dining table into the kitchen, leaving the dining area of the living/dining room free for the babies to use as a play area. So it is now accessorised with a multi-coloured foam playmat, and toys in various boxes, baskets and other containers. The living area is almost baby-free, but there is a baby monitor on the side table.
Stairs: Always adorned with a pile of baby clothes and odd toys ready to make their way back upstairs. The red Bumbo seat sits at the bottom of the stairs, opposite the front door, perfectly placed for me to pop one baby while I'm ferrying them out to the pushchair or the car.
Snug/Spare bedroom: We use this room in the morning for breakfast and in the evening for the bedtime bottles so there are two bouncy chairs, another foam playmat and various toys scattered around and bedtime books piled up on the side table.
Bathroom: Rubber ducks, rubber frogs, a hand puppet, a wind-up plastic boat (one of Young Daddy's recent purchases for bathtime!), the babies' towels and a change mat. This is the smallest room in the house, so I need to think up some creative storage to hide all the baby bits away, as I'm sure their bathtime paraphernalia will just grow and grow.
Nursery: Speaks for itself!
Our bedroom: Stacks upon stacks of clothes the babies have grown out of. These need sorting into stuff to keep (I may be adamant there will be no more babies, but a girl's got to be prepared for the unexpected!), things to give to friends, and stuff for the charity shop.
Garden: Our neighbours must think we're bonkers, because a plastic slide took up residence in our garden shortly after we annouced we were pregnant. Young Daddy's boss passed it down to us and I'm sure the babies will love it when they're a bit busy.
And I know what you're going to say. It's just going to get worse! I should just accept now that my house is going to be taken over by kid-related objects. Just as our lives have been taken over - all part-and-parcel of that wonderful and exciting package that is family life.
