Painting Gabriel's room

Last week we began to move Gabriel into his own room. He'd had a random selection of rooms through the holidays, hotels, Nanna's... and so the dislocation was less substantial. Just one more move (or so we kept telling ourselves...)

Flavia and I had talked about jungles, pictures of smiling lions or big trees or something. But we couldn't agree on scale - was it going to be wall-paper sized stick-on animals or a big tree, or lots of thin ones? In the end, our trip North for Christmas decided it: it turns out Gabriel loves wheels, cars and mechanical stuff in general. So we painted hills (see pictures). And a road, for some wooden cars we'd found. The cars are glued directly to the wall: it is my philosophy that should anyone ever buy this house, they'll be welcome to take the kids wall decorations off with a chisel.

Of course, Miss 3 assisted with the rollers (green), and some sponges on the road. Then she decided that stacking the paint tins, and painting on paper on the floor was much better than keeping within the lines on the wall. Small dude was ever present... surely, if Dad and Miss 3 were getting messy with green paint, he'd be allowed too..... he particularly liked the acoustics - empty wooden room, big echoes, lots of "Aahh!     aah? Aah!"

It's now a whole 24 hours since we finished, and both Miss 3 and Small dude are asleep in their respective rooms. Our bedroom feels oddly empty....