Goodbye Inanimate Object

On Friday this cot went to a new home. I felt slightly taken aback about my sudden sentimentality about it. I should have known better.

So here is a note to our cot.
You've been hanging around, dismantled for a while now with no where to go. Annoying me in the corner of our bedroom and then moved from there to the spare room, onto to the landing  and back.  But now your stacked up ready to leave this house and suddenly I'm thinking about what that means.



I'm remembering when you first arrived - a suddenly essential item. I'm remember all the times that I lent over your side, trying to sooth someone. Feeling your top edge pressing against me as I slowly, every so slowly, try to put a sleeping baby down. Then watching, holding my breath and hoping that the beautiful eyelids will stay shut.



I remember not knowing what to do when Coco got into the habit of trying to climb out of the cot in her baby sleeping bag, and not knowing how to stop her from standing up.
I remember the night we left her sleeping bag somewhere so she graduated to a double duvet in a cot instead… and Hugh had to go out the next day to buy her little duvet. Why did Hugh have to go? What was I doing? I can't remember that.



And then Henry came along and he got the cot; first in the corner of our room, then with Coco and then on his own for a bit when they kept waking each other up. For a year or so I'd have to wake him from his nap everyday to take him to collect Coco from school. He was never very happy about it (and I blogged about it - which is why I've got these photos).



I'm remembering putting Henry to bed and him telling me to 'shut the door' (now, he gives me a complex set of instructions  - the outcome that he hopes to achieve is the bedroom door is not shut).
I would tell him "I love you" and his response was "I love it" - so wrong but so right.

Eventually as Henry grew and we debated what beds to get next we modified you - removing a side and making you into a sort-of bed... until Henry really was too big for you anymore. So now we have no need for a cot. You've gone to a new home.** Getting rid of you feels like a milestone. They'll be a day that we pack away the bunk beds that have arrived in your place, and then maybe I'll feel nostalgic for now, for the feel of the wood on the instep of my foot as I stand up on the lower bunk so that I can adjust Coco's covers on the top bunk before I go to bed, of ducking my head to sit and read with Henry in his bunk... I just hope that day doesn't come around too fast.

** We gave our cot away via Kids Company - they needed a cot and for us it was great as they came and collected it right from our doorstep. They have a wish list on their website of items that they need if you are in a de-cluttering mood!