Before Reni Arrives (3)
The heart of this "project," underway before the new family member arrived, was the separation of space.
I wanted the children to understand, from early on, the difference between a place to study, a place to play, and a place to sleep — and to make tidying up a habit while they were still young. Of course, my own convenience factored into the plan as well.
For starters, I decided to swap the functions of the second bedroom, which I had been using as a workshop, and the master bedroom.
Originally the second bedroom had a partition wall set up in front of the wardrobe, dividing the space into a dressing room and a workshop. Ever since Luca's separation anxiety had started, though, it had been little more than a storage room.
So I planned to leave the dressing room as it was, pull out the desk and bookshelves, and turn the workshop into a bedroom. The second bedroom was a bit smaller than the master, but that only made it feel cozier — which seemed fine to me.
"Hmm..."
Scratch, scratch.
A new idea struck me, and I added a little more to the sketch.
Since I was moving the bed anyway, it seemed worth replacing the frame too. At first I had built a low-profile frame with Luca's safety in mind, but...
If I pushed the bed against the wall and put up short partition walls on either side, the kids wouldn't be able to fall off anyway. Better to raise the bed and make a storage frame underneath.
Day by day the household goods kept multiplying, and storage space — no matter how much you had — was never enough. It would be perfect for out-of-season bedding and things we didn't use often.
While I was at it, I would put casters on the storage drawers so they could slide in and out easily.
I needed a spatial divide on top of the bed as well. Of course, once the kids were older I would give them beds of their own, but for now the best option seemed to be splitting the bed lengthwise — half for me, half for the children to share. I would set a firm, long cushion down the middle as a divider.
Then I would lay out small pillows and blankets sized for the kids on their side. That way, they might feel a little as if each of them had a bed of their own.
As an extra touch — the last time I met Reni, he had been wearing a T-shirt covered in stars big and small. Pure guesswork, but maybe he liked stars. If I made him some cushions shaped like stars and moons and clouds, he might be pleased.
"Uung..."
"Mm, is our Luca awake?"
"Uung..."
The baby looked up at me with an expression that said, Why is Dad up earlier than me for once?, then gave a tiny yawn.
"Luca, when you look at me like that it makes Dad seem like a lazybones... and that is a deeply unfair accusation."
I stroked the soft hair of the baby who still seemed to be weighing whether to go back to sleep for a bit, and sped up my sketching.
"Luca. We're going to move your play mat into this room. That's okay, right?"
"...Uung."
Into the master bedroom once the bed was out, I planned to put the play mat currently claiming the dead center of the living room, and beside it build a toy cabinet-slash-bookshelf for the steadily growing pile of toys and dolls.
"Our Luca likes picture books, doesn't he?"
"Mm..."
Even half-asleep, the baby answered dutifully.
Luca liked picture books, and I had a feeling Reni would like books too, so I would build the shelves generously with room for growth. Enough to fill one wall, maybe. Since we might rearrange the bookshelves as life went on, I would break them into modular units as much as possible...
Once Reni started kindergarten, notebooks and stationery and everything else would keep multiplying. There would be plenty of crafts coming home from school too. So I would add hooks for bags and the like...
And across from the children's play area, I decided to put my own workspace.
"Making things is Dad's kind of play, after all... So having Dad's workshop right there in the playroom should be fine, right?"
"Mm..."
Besides, I couldn't do a thing outside Luca's "surveillance" range. That was why I had always hauled the workshop desk out into the living room to work.
Against the windowless wall I would put a multi-purpose storage unit, and arrange two desks in an L-shape. In front of that, a low partition and a door — so the kids and I could see each other, but they couldn't come barreling through.
That way, sleep and play would be separated; close those bedroom doors and step out, and you would have the kitchen and living room for family time...
In the living room I planned to put a solid-wood sofa and bookshelves I had never managed to place before. True to form for a publishing editor, Evan kept dropping off a book or two every so often, and the house had been accumulating them. Some kind of personal apology, maybe...
Anyway, until now guests had only ever sat at the island table and left. It was high time we had a proper living room that could actually host people.
A real sofa, and seating for the kids too.
"Our Luca can sit and read books now, right?"
"Mm."
"Oh — looks like our baby is fully awake."
At the clear, bright voice I glanced over, and sure enough Luca was staring at me with wide, sparkling eyes.
"Then just hang on a second, Luca."
I hurried through the last of the sketch.
For the living room I planned a little kids' table where Reni could sit and draw and read. Luca would be able to sit in a chair eventually too, so two chairs for now... What if he brought friends home from kindergarten? We might need more chairs...
For the children's furniture, I would copy the best-looking designs I could find online. Thankfully the product pages listed wood types and dimensions in detail...
"Ah!"
With a little grunt that said he was done waiting, Luca flipped himself over in one smooth motion.
"Mm, alright. Dad's done too."
I closed the notebook. The mountain of work ahead of me was enormous.
"Aaa!"
"Yeah — should we start with some breakfast?"
I fed the baby, finished the SketchUp plans for the furniture I needed to build, and ordered the lumber and other supplies.
It was a shop I had been using since the old house, and the owner was so diligent that the wood always arrived within two or three days — a blessing.
Until the lumber showed up, I planned to sew bedding and clothes for the kids.
When I searched for little formal suits for Reni to wear at the christening, there were so many adorable designs. I picked one and, in a couple of hours, produced a neat little suit. Long live a craftsman's skill, yet again.
I held the newly made clothes up in front of Luca and showed them off.
"How about it, Luca? Pretty, right? This is what your big brother is going to wear this weekend."
"Uung..."
What was that. That almost disappointed-sounding voice had to be my imagination... right? Because it wasn't his own clothes? But there was no way he understood that...
"Our Luca is getting baptized that day too, so should Dad make you an outfit as well?"
"Uung...!"
Luca beamed and babbled.
"...Yeah. Dad will make Luca a pretty outfit too."
The moment I finished speaking, Luca gave one satisfied little smile, as if his business here was done, then shot off toward his toys on his belly.
You... you don't actually understand a word I say, do you...
After that, truly busy days rolled on without end.
Every day I ran the sewing machine in every spare moment like a hamster on a wheel, and once the lumber arrived I threw myself into furniture-making from morning till night.
And then, on the Saturday morning when I finished everything I had set out to make—
Thud!
"Aigoo, I'm dying."
The moment I heaved the big mattress up onto the finished storage bed frame, a groan escaped me of its own accord.
"Appu!"
From the bouncer chair where he had been watching the show, the baby let out a determined little babble.
"Yeah, Luca. The house is a disaster, huh."
Everything had been hauled out into the living room for the room swap, so it looked no different from moving day.
"But once we tidy up we're done, so just a little longer..."
Knock-knock-knock.
The sound of Greg at the door gave me a small boost of energy.
Forgetting even a hello, I yanked the front door open and pulled him inside. He had agreed to help with the house cleanup before he left for his performance that day.
"I already cleared out the master bedroom, so start by vacuuming in there."
"Yeah, good morning to you too... Whoa, what is all this?!"
Greg's eyes went wide at the staggering amount of new furniture that had appeared in a single week.
"Chop-chop."
I pressed the vacuum into Greg's hands, settled Luca into the stroller parked by the entryway, and closed the canopy.
I didn't want the baby wandering over while we moved furniture, and I wanted to cut off the dust from the cleaning at the source. Still, the canopy was clear, so Luca could watch Greg and me scurrying around — he wouldn't get bored.
"Aaa..."
"Yeah, Luca — if you need anything, call Dad, okay?"
"Uung...!"
I charged about, directing my one-man army of Greg as if we were heading into battle, when it suddenly occurred to me that it had been over two weeks since I last contacted Kelly about the recipe book.
...It was probably still fine.
I still had zero ideas for the second recipe, but that was a problem for next week's me!
A Saturday I could barely remember flew by, and Sunday morning dawned.
I dressed Luca in his newly made clothes.
In the soft, faintly crisp white fabric, he looked for all the world like a little angel come down from the sky.
"Aigoo, look how pretty our baby is. Whose baby is this, to be so handsome?"
"Kyaa...!"
Whether it was the new clothes he liked, Luca smiled as sweetly as an angel.
I held him tight and looked around the living room, soaking in the morning light.
The polished solid-wood sofa and bookshelves drank in the sun and glowed with a warm color.
The little desk and chairs in front of the sofa seemed to sparkle with anticipation, waiting for their owner who would arrive today, and the airy chiffon curtains danced in the breeze as if singing.
"It feels like we just moved in. Doesn't it?"
"Uung."
The face of our home would keep changing from here on out.
A house that had held a family of one, then two, and now three. As the children grew the furniture would shift, rooms would change purpose, and someday we would need to look for a bigger place — but still...
Today, our home felt truly good.
"Luca, when Reni comes, you two have to get along and not fight, okay?"
"Mm."
"Our Luca isn't just saying yes, is he? You're really going to get along with your big brother?"
"Mm."
"You know, answering so fast and easy is making this dad a little suspicious."
"Mm."
"Alright — so Dad should brace himself for hard times ahead, huh?"
"Mm."
I settled my angel of a son — who was spectacularly good at answering and nothing else — into the stroller, picked up the bag I had packed the night before, and headed down to the lobby.
It was time to go meet our new family.