Room for improvement

My daughter's room decorating skills include putting a lot
of her things into one corner.

When my daughter was 2, my husband and I hauled all of the furniture out of what had been his home office and moved it into the smallest of the three bedrooms in our home. My home office, which had been in the smaller room, moved into the living room.

And then I started painting his former office a light shade of yellow. I bought wall stickers featuring Minnie Mouse and pink flowers, which my daughter and I posted along two walls.

My husband moved in a dresser, her toy box, a book case, a toy kitchen, and just like that, my daughter had her own room.

It's become more cramped over the last four years as she's collected more books and toys and we switched out her toddler bed for a twin, but for the most part, the furniture in her room has remained where my husband and I first put it.

Until about a month ago.

It began with her pulling down all of the Minnie Mouse wall stickers. She said she doesn't like Minnie Mouse anymore. Apparently, Minnie Mouse is for toddlers only, not first-graders.

And then slowly, she started moving the smaller things around in her room. She moved her toy box from one location to another. Then she moved the kitchen. She wants to switch where the dresser is with the location of the bookcase.

She has been switching around every item in her room that isn't too heavy for her as she tries to find the best way to make all of the pieces fit together, as if her floor were some giant jigsaw puzzle.

She has even asked me to paint the walls. She's tired of yellow; she wants purple, she says. (I told her I'd think about it, but I don't see that happening until she's old enough to paint the room herself.)

She has changed her room from a toddler's room to a big-girl's room, just one of many still to come.