Shhhh....A surprise

I know that my daughter doesn't read our blog and those of  you that do probably are good with keeping a secret.

A number of weeks ago Kezia had written a list of things that she would like for her birthday, which is coming up in a little less than a week. She wrote this list numerous times and left it all over the house. That's her thing; she writes us notes like "Mom, can I have dulce de leche for my sandwich?" or "I used the last of the band-aids, " or even better "Mom, I'm feeling so sick so I'm laying in my bed and didn't have the strength to put away my clean clothes. I promise to do it when I have rested a bit....".

Okay, so we noticed all these lists all over the place and we also took note at what was the top of every single one. 1) Own Room

Now she shares with her younger sister and her youngest sister has the smallest bedroom, but doesn't have to share. Over the last few months I have noticed that the two littliest girls are usually playing in Asha's and Kezia's room and that leaves Kezia very few opportunities to be by herself. She is our introvert in the household; she desperately needs space to be alone. Plus the fights over the mess that one particular sister leaves all over the room are becoming more frequent.

We had plans to move all three girls to the two rooms upstairs, giving the oldest girl her own room where Joel is now, move Joel downstairs to Elena's room and make a playroom in the basement. Well, that all hinges on finishing the basement, which probably won't be happening very soon. So Carl and I got to thinking after all these notes left over the house....

There's a new loft bed that is sitting in the garage that Kezia passes every day and has no clue what is hidden in the plain cardboard box. She hasn't noticed the rolled up mattress in the tight plastic roll, nor has she wandered in the basement to see the wooden nameplate that says KEZIA in yellow and purple. She has no clue that this Sunday I plan to go to Ikea and purchase some yellow and purple bedding. Oh this is going to be so good.

Here's the plan. On her birthday she will gone from the house for at least 12 hours since she has gymnastics from after school until 8 p.m. So Carl may go home on his lunch break and take down the crib (which will impact the youngest and her Mama, sniff sniff) and put up the railings on the bunk beds for Asha and Elena. Once we drop Kezia off to gymnastics after school we will switch clothes of the youngest out of the room and replace them with Kezia's. We'll put up a mirror, the name plate a few other personal items and set up the bed and move in her desk.

Our hope is we'll have it all done by the time she is picked up in the evening and Elena won't be bauling at being ousted from her crib and room on such short notice. I'm sure that Elena and Asha will love sharing a room; not much sleeping going on in the beginning, but they play in there all the time and making a mess together. Asha was barely two when she moved to share a bunkbed with Kezia in Bolivia. It'll all be fine.

Kezia will be floored. I'm tempted to set up a video camera inside the room to capture her reaction. And just to make sure no one spoils it, you are the only ones we are telling. We're not even telling Joel.  I just love surprises like these!