Ever since Sophie helped me decorate for a family birthday a couple years ago, she’s been obsessed with decorating the house. Lacking streamers, balloons and our birthday banner, she improvises with her dress-up clothes and, occasionally, toys.
This is creative, yes, and she enjoys it. But she decorates everything. Furniture, doorknobs, light fixtures … The little plastic monkeys from the popular barrel game hang all over the gate blocking the stairs. Puppets are placed precariously on the rocking chair. Disney princess figurines are lined up the arms of chairs.
Every time we paint a room she gets upset with us, because we never paint it pink or purple or red or better yet, red with glitter. She was downright mad when she realized our kitchen was going to be green. So I guess this is also her way of making up for it, by littering the house with butterfly wings, animal masks, purses and baseball hats.
But it does create problems. (1) The boys love to take down her decorations. This does not go over well. (2) I certainly don’t try to keep a clean house—in terms of toys—throughout the day. But her “decorations” are everywhere. You have to constantly watch where you step and what you touch, for fear of toppling a tower of decorations that took a long time to create. (3) She’s much more enthusiastic about decorating than she is about putting everything away. Statements that include ridiculous things like “but it’s just too heavy!” as she laboriously lifts a scarf are all too common.
Sometimes I wonder what our house would look like if she were given full responsibility of decorating. I imagine it would make my head hurt—but I also imagine it would be a lot more interesting.
“I deeply believe that a beautiful decor can have a beneficial influence on our lives.” —Albert Hadley