The day we lost our living room

Let me start this post by saying: Babies need an incredible amount of stuff. It's amazing really. And yes, I understand that they don't ACTUALLY need all of the things that we have created a necessity for as parents but a lot of these items do make my life a heck of a lot easier, so they are now my must-haves (like my double boppy pillow!!!!!). It isn't true that you need two of everything with twins, however. We make do with one of a lot of stuff like a play mat, or a rocking seat. Some we were able to have only one of until recently like a crib (now they are bigger and moving a lot so they sleep separately). But it just seems as if the bigger the girls get, the more crap they need.

Today is officially the day that Jose and I lost our living room to the babies. We have surrendered, hoisted a white flag and become resigned to the fact that it is really no longer our space. You have to understand that our apartment (like most throughout Europe) isn't large. We have about 90 square meters of space split between three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen and living room/dining room. 

I actually don't mind living in a small place since I grew up in what is basically a cottage by anyone's standards. The one thing I do miss here though besides having some more storage is an outdoor space of our own. Our complex does have a pool during the summer and a play place for kids, plus we live right on a long, beautiful boulevard but I do wish we had a green space, especially now with the babies.

Laura and Vera are just now starting to seem like they want to be mobile. Vera is rolling all over the place and I wouldn't be surprised if she was crawling any day now. Laura is a bit slower but is now rolling as well. We can no longer trust that if we put them down somewhere that we will find them in the same place a few minutes later. We needed to give them more space to be on the floor and to move around. Our floors are marble tiles which isn't exactly the most baby friendly. So we bought some squishy puzzle squares to cover the floors and make it more comfortable. Adios to more than half of the living room.

We also recently acquired two high chairs from IKEA. I don't recommend trying to push a double stroller through the IKEA. By the end of our trip I was basically just mowing people down. But, IKEA sells stackable, not ginormous high chairs so a trip was needed.

All of this is in addition to our double stroller which has always been parked in the middle of our living room since it's the only place it will fit. This hasn't really bothered me much since it fits nicely in a space net to the couch and is mostly out of the way.

We also have a mini-crib tucked into another corner in our living room for when one of the girls falls asleep out here. This is mostly Vera who takes a bit longer to fall asleep. It is crazy to think that both babies used to fit in this little crib. Now they hardly do at all and certainly not to sleep.

Do you remember when they looked like that??????? I don't. It feels like they have always been this big.

Needless to say, we are quickly outgrowing our space. I am hoping we will be like goldfish and stop growing in accordance with our area. I doubt it though. That being said, there are a few improvements that I would like to make to our apartment this year, like adding some storage and taking out the wall which separates the kitchen and living room. I am hoping that by doing these few things it will make a difference. Plus I know this loss of living room is only temporary....who am I kidding right? Soon Jose and I will be relegated to just our bedroom for space.