A new room... and a new clock

Claire's got a new bedroom, and she's very excited about it. Actually, we simply painted her old room to give it the appearance of being a new room. Sort of like putting lipstick on a pig, I guess... although I prefer the phrase "polishing a turd." Anyway, her old room had smudges on the wall that I could not remove. And apparently these smudges transformed into scary dragons or other beasts making it virtually impossible for Claire to sleep in her own bed (but that's a whole other story for a whole other day). I also discovered quite a few holes and other crevices in the wall that required some spackling, so I took care of that stuff while Linda was in Paris. Bogey didn't know what to think of all the activity surrounding Claire's bedroom. He's seen furniture moved out of it, and boxes of painting junk moved in. Claire even instructed him to "Stay out, Bogey! The room's not done!" And if anything can be said for Bogey, it's that he's a pretty good listener (except when he's told to fetch a beer from the fridge). He's steered clear of Claire's room throughout the painting process, and I found him hiding the day Linda and Claire were sanding and cleaning the walls preparing them for paint. Allow me to explain...

First off, I have to mention Claire's "work gloves", which are actually some worn out winter mittens she keeps around - primarily to simulate dusting. Claire also wears her mittens whenever she is hunting and slaying dragons, so it's always a good idea to avoid any confrontations with Claire if you see her wearing mittens inside the house. Anyway, when she saw her momma donning orange rubber gloves and washing the walls, Claire ran out of the room and reappeared moments later wearing her mittens. Claire cleaned walls for about 30 seconds before realizing washing walls sucks. So instead, Linda allowed Claire to play with some paint and make some shapes on the walls. Linda planned to prime the walls, so it was no big deal letting Claire paint for a little while. Well, it was no big deal until it was time for Claire to stop. Following is a serious of pictures I took over the course of Claire's 20 second tirade. Luckily it was a brief tirade, but it was complete with Claire's classic drop to your knees and bury your face in the carpet move. She's really worked hard at perfecting it.

The next day our good friend, Dee, came over to help Linda and Claire paint the room. Dee has some sort of freakish painting fetish because she can always be counted on to come over and paint (and the same goes for our other pal, Julie). I think I even overheard Dee pressing Linda to paint more rooms, so she must be going into withdrawals since we haven't painted anything around here in a while. But I'm not complaining because the ladies always do a great job, and I always love the end result. And so does Claire!

Claire's also extremely excited about her new Hello Kitty alarm clock. In fact, she can't stop telling people about her new clock. It's always my clock this or my clock that. But I wish she'd stop. I really do. It's one thing having a toddler go on and on and on about her new clock, but it's another thing when she has trouble pronouncing her L's...

Anyway - THANKS FOR ALL YOUR HELP, AUNT DEE (Rosemount)!