Are there places to buy kids clothes that don't have them strictly separated into the Kingdoms of Pink and Blue?   Especially for the young kids, it just seems so ridiculous and commercial.

That's my haul from Ikea last night.   I wavered about doing it right now, thinking it might be premature to get everything, but since J&J and the blue girl will be staying with me at the end of the month, I need a crib set up anyhow.   And having a twin bed set up will be useful for people staying over too.  And given that I was planning to use the delivery service (which is a flat fee no matter how much you have delivered), picking up the buffet I planned to get "sometime" made sense. (That gold cylinder you see is a lampshade that wasn't on my list, but was on sale!  That said, I didn't pick up even a fraction of the extra impulse stuff that I usually do when I'm there-- having a list and being on a strict time-table was key!)

I want to paint the wooden bed before I put it together, which more or less means painting it tonight.  Not sure of color, though-- possibly just out of same color of cheery green that I've been planning for the dining room chairs?

Signed up for pre-service training last week-- starts on Sept 6th, should be done by the start of November!

Also got tickets for Italy in October, to do that trip before I have a chance of placements.

Moving and travelling has been eating up my time lately-- the fact that I'm still not set up enough in the new place to feel "moved in" is frustrating, but I remind myself that I've been out of town for a LOT of the last month + a half.  Last night was a huge step forward, though-- got a few things (knife holder, pictures, etc) attached to walls.  Crazy what a difference that makes!