Olga and I went all over kids’ shops today. So far we are not in a hurry and just checking out prices and what those shops have to offer. We need lots of things – bed, perambulator (aka pram aka carriage), bath, and what not.
We managed to visit four shops before Olga got tired. “Jumbo” is the biggest and the cheapest kids market. It offers best of choice too. Except for beds. Good prices for carriages, clothes and toys.
Than we moved to Agios Filaxios street, where three other big shops are located. “CTX Toys”, “HyppoKids”, and another one which I don’t remember the name. All of these have more children furniture to offer. All of these are kind of expensive.
I was surprised at home few bed designs there are. I mean they are all in the same shape. The difference comes only in color (dark wood vs. light painted wood), rocking vs. wheels, and prices (from 200 CYP to 400+ CYP). At first I thought maybe I am just seeing similar stuff. But I was wrong. I checked the catalog, and all the beds there were of the same design. Really, only minor variations. Boring.
Before making our minds on which furniture we want to buy, we had to decide if we were to make kids’ room. If you don’t know, we live in a two bedroom apartment. One bedroom is used for …hmm… bedroom where we sleep and another bedroom is used for the office. We have all the books, computers, and all sorts of crap there. If we were to make kids room, we would have to get rid of all that office stuff. That means that we have to find a place for two tables with chairs and computers and blah blah blah.
After some consideration, thinking, arguing, reasoning, talking, and some more reasoning we decided that we will make a room for the kid. One of the tables (Olga’s, the big one) will be moved to living room, close to the TV. Both of the computers will be desposed/sold/given away/thrown out. Our home server will be the only computer available for some time. It will be stay connected to TV for DVD/DivX playback, connected to the Internet, and it will be the workstation aswell. With the baby and everything we will not have too much time to use it anyway, and even if we will, one computer will be enough. That is I don’t think both of us will be using computer simultaneously any time soon (after the baby will be born).
Why did we decided to have a separate room for an infant? Well, lots of reasons. Firstly, he will need the room earlier or later. It is easier for us to give it to him earlier than later. We need to get used to the idea too, you know. Secondly, having a single space for all the kid’s stuff is good. I mean, of course, it will not always stay there in a single room, but at least, we will know where it should be. Thirdly, we think that it will be easier for the first few month, when baby needs attention every several hours. One parent can take care of the baby in one room, while another sleeps tries to sleep in another. Otherwise, both will have to wake up, use lights and make noise in the bedroom, which is not good. There are more reasons, but they I am sure everyone can appreciate having their own corner…
Now that we have made our minds, we will have to prepare the room, move things out, buy some furniture, get used to it and so on. I’ll keep you posted. Maybe I will even make a picture.