In January, Ellie started her distructive rampage. She had already been moved into a smaller bedroom, and didn't have furniture, other than her bed. About 3 1/2 years ago, when Ashleigh moved in and we were a bedroom short, Mickey put up walls to split the largest bedroom. Matt and Ellie each got the split rooms. They had already both ruined dressers, so we took them out. We put up hanging sweater organizers, and only gave them five days of clothes at a time. They each got three cubes, for books, toys, and shoes. We also kept the closet locked, so they couldn't get to the other clothes and destroy them, or pee in the closet. They could only have the books that would fit in the bin, and only the toys that fit in the other, (Ellie currently hasn't earned her toys back).
After Ellie decided to rip off her wallpaper and write curse words on the wall, she lost her room. She slept on the playroom floor until she could paint over the curse words, because I wouldn't let her continue to be in there. Mickey decided to move Matt into the other empty bedroom. He now has a big room with a bed, dresser, desk, armoire, armchair, and a few bins of toys. We moved Ellie into Matt's old room. I got it painted and set up, and so far so good! She really disliked painting over the curse words in her old room. Probably because I gave her a 1" paint brush to paint a 3' x 5' area! Here's what her new room looks like.
Before she decided to destroy everything, she had a really cute room, with a Safari theme. She loves wild animals, so she had a woven grass look wallpaper with safari animal borders. I made the window shade, which also has animals on it. She had a safari comforter, it was so cute!
This is her fourth bedroom. The first two were like fairytale rooms. She had her toys, little kitchen set, tv with tapes. She had a cute princess rug (that she dumped printer ink on), and a nice long dresser (that she wrote on and stood on like a stage). I tried really hard to make her last room cozy and comfortable. Now I'm done with cute for her. I'm sad that our little girl can't handle nice things, but maybe in time.
Well now Matt is home, he has a half day every Wednesday. I'm hearing every single April's Fools gag that was pulled in his all boys fifth grade class! Those poor teachers!!!!
J was a destroyer too. It was never pretty seeing the destruction. Blech.
ReplyDeleteHi there. I'm a new follower. I hope things settle in time, but my artist partner did get a chuckle when she read over my shoulder about your paintbrush choice :)
ReplyDeleteGlad to be following your journey
Ashley
Corazon had her room stripped 3 times. She never destroyed the room entirely but she did destroy small items. When we moved into our new home and new state 8 months ago my partner and I decided that everyone was starting from scratch with minimal items. She suddenly took a big interest in her room and worked hard to earn things (like curtains). So far she has been able to play an active role in making the room her own. She seems to have finally reached a place where she treats her room well. I have one question. What kinds of personal items (photos, etc.) does she have in her room?
ReplyDeleteLast year I had bought some animal postcards at the Maryland zoo, to frame for her. I never got around to it thankfully. This time around I went to Ik*a, I love that place, and bought a bulletin board and picture frames with plastic instead of glass. I gave her the bulletin board first, which I painted pink, so she could put things on that instead of the wall. You would of thought I gave her a million bucks. She spends lots of time making new pictures to put on it.
ReplyDeleteThe first picture on the wall is a picture of her at 2, on her first pony ride, that I reframed, but had given her years ago. She has earned one animal picture from the zoo.
Right now she has her one and only soccer trophy, her bank, and two art projects from school.
I'm really liking her with Matt's old high bed (It was a loft bed that Mickey cut down), because she can't shove anything under the bed to hide it!