Room for Baby

Now that the baby is home and we are all settling into our new routine, I think we finally managed to finish baby's room! I had originally thought we could just "do whatever" and move forward without an official "baby room,".....but ultimately I admitted to myself that this is the first baby! Of course I want everything to be fun and perfect, and feared I might look back with regret if I didn't put my best effort into everything for him :)

[Noteworthy ~ In Taiwan most rental apartments have all white walls. It is fairly uncommon to find a rental apartment here with brightly colored walls or a landlord that would grant you permission to paint. Luckily for us, we have negotiated with our own landlady and she is very cooperative (as discussed in previous post).]

I wanted to be sure we have some pictures to show baby Gerock when he's older what his first home looked like in Taipei!

Wall at Entry: Freshly painted room, Super challenging puzzle completed by Yours Truly,
new IKEA chair (not a traditional rocking chair, but it rocks a *little*)

We hunted across Taipei for the perfect rocking chair and could hardly find any contenders. Apparently, the Taiwanese have yet to be introduced to a good wooden rocking chair on a nice big Southern porch... Thankfully, this IKEA chair is designed with some give and can serve the same purpose.

Wall at Right of Entry: New wall stickers,
dresser/diaper changing station, drawer labels by Mom (me)

I discovered many cute wall stickers online from a Taiwanese auction website and much to my dismay I was unable to order them (my inability to read the Chinese on the website and lack of a local credit card). After resigning to the a room without fun stickers... I discovered the exact set I'd had my heart set on at the nearest night market by our home (RaoHe Night Market)! :)

Removable wall stickers above the diaper changing station ~
baby Gerock already enjoys gazing at them while we change his dipe

I made a few labels for the dresser drawers

For the window I had some new curtains made. I had a blast hunting for fabrics at the fabric market and finally settled on a nice Texas themed country curtain ;) Since we don't really have a baby "theme," anything goes - and I picture us using the curtains as education / entertainment for baby as he learns to look/listen/read/etc. [The bedding came with the apartment, and I have yet to update it...]

New curtains, selected and made at the Yongle Fabric Market

Close up of our Down-On-The-Farm curtains

We picked out a simple table lamp for those late night diaper changes... It gets used a LOT...

Ta Da!

And finally, here is photo of the puzzle we had framed for baby's room. This is buy a popular local artist. The picture is called lucky apple. This was THE hardest puzzle I have EVER completed! I figured I wouldn't have much time for puzzles after baby's arrival. Glad I finished this one in time.

We may not have a theme, but if you know me well, you'd also know I love elephants... What is that you say reaching up into the tree branches on the puzzle?