The Bedroom

This is a photo of one small area of Daniel in his room. Over Christmas break we added the mirror to the back of the dresser. We've had the mirror for, well, longer than Daniel's been alive. But since we have been in this house, it's been under the bed in the spare bedroom. In place of the mirror he had a poster of Thomas the Tank Engine, James and Percy. Yea. Time for that to have been gone, long ago. He still loves those trains, but we wanted to take down the poster, to well, help him have a (bit) more of an age appropriate room. The kid loves a mirror more than anything. So we thought that was a good compromise. He sits in front of his closet door, which is mirrored and imitates all the characters he knows. He loves Stromboli in Pinocchio and will quote the whole scene of Stromboli yelling at Pinocchio ending with "you will make good fire wood!". The kid does AMAZING voice impersonations. I've always said, Jim Carrey should watch his back.

Over break we convinced him that having a mirror would be the most wonderful thing EVER! He agreed! Then came the (nearly) impossible task of getting it attached to his dresser. Impossible because, well, please reference the dresser in the photo. This is after we, ahem, "cleared" it off. Yes, this is after we got rid of a bunch of his, um, collections. Not got rid, just moved to a less visible area? It is serious business, this dresser. When he gets anything he immediately finds a spot, "on the dresser". Everything on the dresser has a very specific location. Because of this, I rarely touch anything on it. Because of this, everything tends to get a wee bit dusty. OK, it's a disaster. And, as I'm realizing writing this blog, I realize as usual I get to the point that I have to get to myself worked up where I can face the music and go tackle that room! He used to get really upset. Now he just leaves the room, or I do it while he's gone. Then I (attempt) to put things back where they should be. I am never close. He comes in when I'm finished and puts everything exactly back where it should be. Then he is actually happy it's clean. I do not do this often enough. But it's nice when it happens.

So when the mirror was attached we had to clear the dresser. This was quite a process. It also turned into cleaning behind the ridiculously heavy dresser, bolting the mirror on, dusting all the crap, I mean, treasures on top of it and putting it all back. AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.

You may notice that hanging from the mirror is Pinocchio himself. It is an actual hand carved marionette. This is what he asked for from Santa last year, "A Pinocchio puppet carved out of wood". Um yea. No problem for Santa right? You notice he is now prominently displayed. Santa was working ebay for weeks on that one! I believe I heard he even threw himself on the mercy of a seller trying to get it. But I digress. The reflection in the mirror also shows Daniel's collection of cuckoo clocks. This also is a Pinocchio fascination. He loves the beginning of that movie when Jiminey Cricket crawls into those clocks that Gepetto so lovingly carved, along with his puppet Pinocchio. It's funny, someone once compared Zachary to Jiminey Cricket. Forever the conscious of his school mates, whispering the right thing to do in their ears. Does that make Daniel Pinocchio? With Zachary guiding him on the straight and narrow path, helping him learn the ways of the world? Could be. Could be.