Talmage's bigger boy room

It struck me pretty hard that our little Talmage is going to soon be the big brother to two little sisters. That's a big deal! He's got to learn to be the protective one...the example...the responsible child (oh my..). Later on- of course! Right now he's still the wild, imaginative, adventurous little dude that we love with our whole hearts :) And that's why I knew that his room would be centered around one thing...

ADVENTURE! What else?

I mean, really...when you think about it...
things Talmage loves the most: getting into trouble, building things and tearing them down, anything with a motor and wheels, going on trips, and trying new activities. He is one adventurous little guy.

For his room, I only wanted to vamp it up a little. He already had the bed, bedding, tent, and curtains. And for his birthday in April we got him three long shelves for his Lego creations (these have been so nice for keeping them organized. Yes, you CAN be a Lego mom and not have tiny lego bits threatening your life everywhere.) 

There wasn't much else to do, really. I started with taking down his nursery stuff, just like I did in C's room. I saved all the important stuff but threw away some less significant things. Talmage never really had one color scheme in his room but after we got his bedding from Ikea a while ago, they became royal/navy blue, light blue, bright green, and orange.

Okay...now this is where I get a bit nuts and judge me if you will...but I love organization in all aspects. I divided up his lego characters into these perfect-sized containers (also from Ikea) and labeled them. Nothing fancy- just paper, sharpie, and clear tape on top. Such a simple thing that brings me so much happiness when I see them :D And when Talmage just wants his lego ninjas, for example, it's easy for him to find his little box of ninjas instead of digging through the hundreds of lego peoples...

So he has this ugly brown blanket that he calls his "cozy". It's been in his bed for a long time and since he wrapped it around his body in his diaper-wearing days I just haven't been able to wash out the "pee smell". I know...gross. Well, a few weeks ago we forgot to put a diaper on him and in the morning he was actually DRY.

So I said to him, "Let's try this again. Do you think you can stay dry another night?"
He was all, "Yeah! I can do it!"

Sure enough, every single night since then he has stayed 100% dry! We have him go right before bed like we always have done, except now he wakes up at about 6 am and goes potty again! Unfortunately he doesn't go back to sleep, but oh well. Once he even woke up at 2 am to go potty, which I was super impressed by. Where has my baby gone?!

ANYways...we got rid of that old, ugly pee blanket and replaced it with a super soft one from Ikea that was $3 on clearance. He LOVES his new "cozy". And it smells much nicer.

To open up some floor space, I moved a bunch of his bigger toys to his closet. I also snagged some extra storage buckets from Ikea (can you tell we love that place?). We love these buckets because they look cool, they stack, and they roll around! This is a must when transporting Legos from bedroom to living room ;)

I sorted the toys he plays with the most into these buckets- cars, blocks, extra legos, figurines, etc. Now this little corner of his room is for toy storage, to spread across his floor as he pleases :)

Under his bed he has his books and other small toys. This is where we make caves/forts/tents. He calls it something different each time but basically we just tuck a big blanket into the top of his bed. haha. And he thinks its the best EVER.

The navy rug is the same rug that C has, just a different color. We got the rugs at the same time for a discounted price and it was so worth it! I love the trellis pattern and Talmage likes to line up his cars on the white lines...haha.

Talmage has never had a dresser of his own- he and Charlotte have always shared. And this has been just fine because kids don't really need a lot of dresser space anyways. But, now that Talmage wears underwear day AND night we wanted him (and us) to be able to change his undies and clothes in the middle of the night if needed without going into C's room. (She's an incredibly light sleeper!) He hasn't had an accident yet but I know it will happen here and there. It's also nice for him to have a dresser in his room because it encourages him to dress himself when he wakes up.

We found this one at Ikea for a pretty decent price. I love the natural wood look. Someday I'll replace the knobs with sturdier, more colorful ones.

For the wall space above the dresser, I got some cheap plastic frames from Ikea and made prints of some of our favorite "adventure quotes". Excuse the quality of these pics...this wall is on the darker side of his room. They look much cuter in person!

These frames are hands down my favorite part of his room. They just fit his personality to a tee!

All that's left is to find some kind of lamp. I'm picky about lamps, and since they're kinda pricey they haven't been my biggest priority for the kids rooms. I would love to thrift some lamp bases and just buy new shades. But that's for another time :)

This little guy is ready for so much. For kindergarten next year, for dressing himself (in underwear AND shoes!), for his first Primary talk on Sunday, for no more bibs when he eats, and for another baby sister! He really is growing like a weed right before our eyes and I LOVE seeing his personality change. Through it all he's still the same sweet, tender-hearted, caring kiddo. We love our Talmage!