The crib...Proverbs 14:4

Isn't that just the most pitiful little face? It was the Christmas morning of '73. My big brother is there behind me playing with his new Fisher Price airport (I think that's what it is...someone correct me if that blue thing peeking out on the left side of the oven isn't the airport). We each got new sleeping bags. I am so sad because that thing in my hand is the faucet off my brand new sink. I was turning it and off it came. So sad. Daddy came over and stuck it back on. How about that? Daddy could fix anything.

The sink and stove long ago rusted away, but the matching refrigerator may still be in my parents' basement. Maybe not. I have one of those Styrofoam choo-choo train ornaments in my ornament box. It has been glued together a few times, but it is still there.

See the crib and highchair behind me? They've had a hard life also. They held my dollies. They held me. The high chair has even held my sons once in awhile when they thought I wasn't looking. Here's the crib nearly 5 (?) years later at a slumber party. That's that same Raggedy Ann sleeping bag I got in '73 (which is in my closet now and still used once in awhile) and there is the crib loaded down with some sleeping bags, purses, and whatever is under all that stuff. The crib has been "put away" for the last several years waiting for some repairs. We've never really had time for it and each time we moved to a different home it got a bit more rickety.

Since A is turning 5 on Thursday we thought the time has come. I wanted to make them useful for her while she'll still enjoy playing with them. I took the high chair to the hardware store last summer to get a paint match. While at the hardware store I discovered some of the dowels were cracked. The Man went and got new dowels last week for that and the missing rails on the crib. Monday night we took the crib apart and started sanding to prepare to paint. The end panels (at the top of the pic with the 3 bears) really needs to be painted. I couldn't bear to paint over them so The Man went and got some wood yesterday to make new panels. Silly, I know, but I'm just sentimental that way. The old ones were a bit warped anyway. Maybe I can copy the design on the new panels.

The paneling for the bottom was mildewed and icky. The Man thought he could replace it with something thinner, but I disagreed. It has to be thick enough to not break if A happens to get in the crib. Little girls do that sometimes.