Kate's Photo Project: Months 13-18

I gave a lot of thought as to whether or not to continue Kate's photo project into her second year (see Year One here).  When I happened upon a precious pink smocked dress in the same shade as her Year One onesie, I took is as a sign that clearly I should continue.  While I have given up on the monthly posts, I thought you'd like to see her monthly pictures anyway.

Here, I've combined months 13-18 in one.  You'll notice Kate embraced the busy movement of toddlerhood and with it a lack of interest in sitting still for Mama's silly photoshoots.  Most months, I only captured half a dozen pictures and was lucky to have more than one in focus.

I'm so glad to have continued to document Kate's growth through this project this year.  It's fun to reflect back and see her spirit and spunk each month!

A year in review: One - Twelve

I couldn't not wrap up Kate's monthly photo project without one picture to capture her growth!  As I said in the previous post about her party, I printed one picture for each month to hang on the bulletin board.  I also printed outtakes and attached them to smaller cards indicating the month each was taken.  Those were tucked randomly on alligator clip picture holders along the party tables.  While seeing the pictures randomly gives you an idea how much Kate grew in her first year, I think the most impressive view is this one:

I graduated her little pink onesie after the eleventh month (really, she outgrew it long before) and used her party romper for that last picture.

For those wondering, I decided to continue the project into Kate's second year, using a light pink smocked dress I bought for her second Easter.

Kate's first birthday party

We had the wonderful good fortune to have delivered Kate on a Saturday evening (and not in a leap year) so her first birthday fell on a Sunday.  Why do I consider this good fortune?  Because our little miss was quickly dubbed the "parish baby", and a Sunday birthday allowed us to celebrate her after church services on the actual day.
Back in November of 2013, I took Kate to have her silhouette cut.  I'm not entirely sure why, but I'd so looked forward to having this done (since long before she was even a glimmer in our eyes!) and the experience truly exceeded every expectation!  Then, I used the silhouette as the theme for her entire party.  From the invite (which I didn't get a picture of to share) to the favors, her sweet baby profile, together with a light pink/sage green color palette, tied the party together.  A few pictures are below:

I hung light pink lanterns to draw the eye to each "station" around the parish hall.  On several, I added Kate's silhouette.

I sent the silhouette to the good folks at Victor Trading Company in Colorado, and they sent back a hand-made cookie cutter in the exact shape!  I made tons of sugar cookies using their simple recipe and iced in light pink royal icing to give as favors, shown here.  I also used the cutter to cut out the benedictine sandwiches we served.

Decor was fairly simple.  Above, I covered the bulletin board with black paper and hung each of Kate's monthly pictures.  Those pictures now hang along one wall in our family room.  Below the pictures, guests left "wishes for Kate".  Below, we brought in Kate's green chair for guests to take pictures with her.  A simple light blue piece of fabric mimics the blue wall behind the chair in Kate's monthly pics.

We kept the food fairly simple and tied into our pink/green theme:  Hot ham and (white) cheese sandwiches, benedictine (made from scratch--so much tastier than store bought!) on wheat sandwich rounds, fruit salad of green grapes/watermelon/strawberries, candy cane beet salad with arugula and pistachios.  We served pink lemonade and cucumber water from glass drink dispensers.  As I said, above, I made sugar cookies for favors, and we also put several out on a tray.  I did make a small cake for Kate to eat which turned out really well.  I bought the antique high chair from a local resale shop and left it at church.  Kate loves her little chair!

A friend suggested buying a book that went along with the party theme and asking guests to sign it as a guestbook to keep.  To our good fortune, the gentleman who cut Kate's silhouette wrote a children's book about a shadow searching for it's person.  We left Kate in the high chair with her cake while I read the story to the older children.  This was great, because once all the eyes were focused elsewhere, she was able to really dig into her cake!

I'd hoped to include a picture of the "gift table" but cannot seem to find in on my computer.  Because we were inviting the whole church, as well as friends and family, it didn't seem appropriate to ask for gifts, but we also understand that birthday parties are typically gift giving occasions.  So, we turned into an opportunity to begin teaching Kate about philanthropy and asked folks to bring (if they felt so inclined) a book for us to donate to Baby Health Service, a local nonprofit organization that provides free medical visits to children without health insurance.  After each doctor's visit, every child (birth-18 years) is sent home with a book, as long as they have books on their shelves.  We were delighted to take 50 board and picture books to Baby Health after Kate's party!

Twelve months

Bloggers note: Yes, we disappeared for months on end (just about nine months, I guess).  Much has changed.  I'll try to catch you up.  I may not keep at this long enough to catch you up completely, but will do my best!

March 9 marked twelve months since our Miss Kate made her arrival (detailed here) in our lives.  Because of her convenient Saturday arrival, her first birthday was celebrated on a Sunday with our church friends (where else would the "parish baby" celebrate, after all?).  I'll stick to the pertinent details here and follow up with a separate party post.  Kate finally tipped the scales over 20 pounds this month and is almost 30 inches tall.  She uses every inch to reach for things she really shouldn't (but thinks rather strongly that she should).  She is such a determined little girl, and I often find myself remarking that this is a wonderful trait in an adult and that we must nurture it (but, oh, what a trying trait it is in a toddler!).  Kate is quite an adept walker these days, and works on her climbing skills daily, much to mama's dismay.  She does fall often, as one might expect of a toddling baby, but rarely cries for more than a whimper.  We are grateful for her sweet temperament.

Without further ado, Kate at ONE:

We asked Abby Laub, who captures our annual anniversary pics, as well as Kate's newborn pics, to document her at this occasion, too, and were so pleased with how they turned out!

Eleven Months

Oh y'all.  I'm suddenly starting to suffer from the whole "my baby is growing up and I might break into tears at any moment" mama thing.  I think I've gotten through much of the last (almost) year without that feeling, but this month, as I watched my baby start the transition from 'infant' to 'toddler', it's gotten tough.  

So here is a rundown of Kate's eleventh month:
The biggest news this month is that Kate is walking!  Remember last month how she spent two weeks taking one step?  Two days into her eleventh month, we took Miss Kate to Gymboree for a trial class.  There were children aged ten through sixteen months in the class, and Kate was the only non-walker.  By the end of the class, it seems she forgot that she didn't know how to chain steps together and all of a sudden she took four steps in a row as she raced to join the others.  Needless to say, we joined Gymboree on the spot and enjoy taking Kate a couple times a week to play and learn.  We love seeing her make friends and learn new skills like climbing steps and ladders (of course, she has been eager to practice those skills at home, too).

Kate continues to be an inquisitive child.  Late this month we invested in locks for the kitchen cabinets, which she was not terribly pleased about. Speaking of the kitchen, Kate also continues to be a great eater.  We have been very pleased with Baby Led Weaning, and are so glad we chose this method to teach her to eat.  She enjoys feeding herself with her hands, as well as helping us guide forks or spoons into her mouth.  

It has been an extremely cold and snowy month, and we have had fun playing in the snow.  While she doesn't care for the cold, Kate does like the snow and loves her little sled.  The cold has led to many inside days.  Luckily, we have several instruments (and other household items that double as instruments when pressed into service by our little musician).  Kate loves music and especially likes hand bells, jingle bells, maracas and other shakers.

After learning to walk, the biggest change for Kate this month has been sleeping in her own bed. Kate had   been bed-sharing with us since six months when she became too active to sleep in her bassinet in our room. While we weren't ready to move her upstairs, she was certainly ready to sleep by herself. We used the long MLK weekend to introduce her to her crib, and were pleasantly surprised to find that she acclimated quickly to the new arrangement.  She quickly transitioned from waking several times a night to waking just once and often sleeping through the whole night (ten to seven or so). We haven't transitioned her to the crib for naps  yet; maybe next month!

After the two expected pictures above (the progression picture shows months 1-5 on the left and 6-10 on the right, by the way), I had to share this one more.  This is the first month in several that I managed to get a picture of Kate laying down in her chair.  Of course, she wasn't exactly a fan of that, but when I looked back, it seems she wasn't a fan of that in her first month, either.  So I give you Kate today, and Kate ten months ago:

Same chair, same onesie, same adorably miserable expression. 

Ten Months

Kate's tenth month was a big one for her and our family.  We celebrated her first Christmas in lots of ways: Kate was an angel in the church pageant a couple weeks before Christmas, she visited Santa with friends, we attended our first Christmas Eve service at St. R (especially special because two of the other babies born at St. R in the last year were there, too), J and I had our first experience putting together a toy the night before Christmas, we enjoyed Christmas dinner with one of Kate's godmothers and her family followed by Christmas dinner for the three of us at a local Chinese restaurant. After a couple days to recover from the excitement, we were off to celebrate the New Year!  Kate got a lot of practice walking in her new shoes at JE's parents' house where JE's brother and his family were also visiting.  A quick trip to Nashville to celebrate New Year's Eve with J's old friends D & E (and their wives and growing families) followed. Thankfully Kate continues to be a great traveler.

The most exciting developmental change of the month happened late in the month when Kate took her first unassisted step, moving between J and his secretary while she visited daddy for lunch for December 27th. We expected that first step to be followed by several more, but instead, she spent the remainder of her tenth month practicing that one step.  If she couldn't reach an intended target after one step, she would quickly drop to her knees and crawl the rest of the way.  She does walk especially well when holding something, pushing something, or hanging onto the fingers of someone she loves.

The most interesting thing we learned about Kate this month is demonstrated in her unwillingness to do something just because we ask for it.  Kate does things in her own way, on her own time.  We shouldn't be surprised, of course.  Our baby knew when and how to be born, and it seems she knows when and how to do everything else--in her own time.  We hope this stubborn determination will be a valuable personality trait later in life, but it seems likely to frustrate us in the short term.

Nine Months

Nine months--both the shortest and longest period of my life!  On the one hand, March seems like years ago.  On the other hand, this time has gone by so quickly that parts of it are a blur, almost as if they passed by in my sleep and all that remains is a sweet dream memory.

This month's picture of Kate is not the most technically perfect (even by iPhone picture standards), but it does capture Kate exactly as she was in her ninth month--

Standing!  (and very excited about that fact)  Kate is a great stander.  She didn't learn how to stand this month, but she has been working to perfect it.  She pulls up on everything--furniture, strangers' legs, walls, she stands herself up in the middle of the room by herself--a sign of great core strength, we've been told, she even stands (with some success) on soft surfaces like our bed and the couch.  While she doesn't stand for long periods of time, she has started to perfect what we call the 'baby squat'.  After standing for a few moments, she will drop down to a squat or crouch for a second, then stand back up. It's insanely cute, and I am sure that our unencumbered enthusiasm each time she performs this skill explains her own enthusiasm for practicing it.

Kate continues to grow along her own curve, adding almost another pound this month (she is nearly 19 pounds now) and measures 28 inches tall.  She uses the words mama and dada (sometimes with intention) and babbles a great deal, too.   She is learning to ring handbells, and still enjoys her weekly music class (though we missed a couple weeks due to Thanksgiving and mama's work schedule).  Here is Kate in her nine-month progression (months one through four on the left and five through eight on the right).

Eight Months

Our precious baby girl is eight months old today--how on earth did that happen??  Kate is such an active, curious child, and we are so incredibly blessed to have front row seats to her discovery of the world around her!

Kate gained another pound this month and is right on track.  Still no "official" numbers as we graduated to a three-month check-up.  We did have a quick doctor's visit at the end of the month to confirm that her mama and daddy are paranoid first time parents.  All is well; we are.

After the major movement milestones of last month, Kate's motor skill development slowed this month.  Her biggest efforts in this area were put into finding her balance.  She stands independently for about 3 seconds (sometimes up to five; more often more like 1.5) every day.  We started music class one day a week last month, and late this month, she met two goals as a result: first, she played with the jingle bells briefly before chewing on them (typically, this is all she does) and second, she clapped on her own one night.  We clap a lot with Kate, both in and out of class, so it was very exciting to see her clap on her own while we applauded something she did.  

In place of rapid movement developmental changes this month, Kate has devoted her developmental efforts to verbal skills.  She says mama and baba regularly, though I don't think she has said either with intention.  Also, she has learned and uses correctly the sign for milk.  Her face has become so expressive, and I almost can't wait to hear a little about the thoughts going on in that little head.  As you can see in the progression picture below, she is eager to tell us all about it!

The other big milestone this month is societal, rather than developmental. Kate was baptized in the Episcopal Church this month.  She did great, and we were so happy to share the experience with family and friends (and friends who have become family)!

So that's our eight-month-old!  We certainly have much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving!

Getting crafty with pumpkins

So y'all know we love a good trip to the pumpkin patch (see these posts from 2008, 2009, and 2011...how did I not blog about the 2010 trip? and how did I miss the pumpkin patch altogether in 2012??).  Anyhow, this year brought an extra special opportunity--Miss Kate's first trip to the pumpkin patch!  The places we've visited previously sort of specialize in more grown-up fun (corn mazes, etc), and I knew this year was really more of a photo-op kind of trip, so we chose the patch that I see most often in pictures on Facebook--Boyd's Orchards over in Woodford County.

From a picture taking/fall foods purchasing standpoint, it did not disappoint.

(Yes, that's a butternut squash in our cart.  It turned into a most delicious butternut squash soup later that day.) Honestly, from a 'fun to be had' standpoint, I wasn't particularly impressed.  The play area had a ton of fun looking things to do (huge slides, swings, and hay pyramids), but they charge $10 per kid and $7 per adult to get in and the adults can't even take part in the sliding fun.  Obviously we didn't pay $25 to watch other people's children play, but I'm not certain we would be up for spending that much when Kate is old enough to play there herself.

It might be worth going back for the pictures, though.

And the yummy fall food.  We ended up buying three pumpkins--one large one for the front porch and two small pie pumpkins that serve as the subject of today's post (I'm getting to that)--as well as the butternut squash and a small gourd that Kate took a liking to.  Oh, and a half dozen pumpkin donuts and a half dozen apple cider donuts.  Mmmmmm....

So anyhow, back to that craft I mentioned. We aren't typically pumpkin carvers around the MP, but I felt like we should have pictures of some sort of pumpkin related thing for Kate's first Halloween.  After a quick google search, it became clear that knives and babies don't really mix, but that water-based craft paint and babies totally do.  So I grabbed a bottle of black craft paint from my craft room, prepped one of the pie pumpkins with a contact paper stencil and let Little Miss go to town.  Dear Lord, it was a mess.  I spent more time in the bathtub cleaning her up than she spent "painting".

At least the picture turned out well, right?  Also, on the right, you'll see the pumpkin that I had a little fun with after Kate went down for her nap.  (We did buy two pumpkins, after all.)  These pumpkins will be sitting out looking seasonably festive for a couple weeks then we'll wash them down, roast them up, and enjoy some pumpkin pie!

Oh, and a little bonus craftiness--after picking out Kate's outfit for the day, I decided she looked like a little boy.  So I grabbed some purple tulle and black ribbon from the craft room and folded/stitched it together with a couple buttons to make a cute little "girl" hair bow.  Kate did a great job keeping it on her head!

Seven Months

Kate is seven months old today! She is (unofficially) 27.5" long and 17 pounds. 

You'll note she is standing up in this picture.  I didn't do that.  Our little nugget is particularly mobile, now able to roll, sit herself upright, crawl and pull herself to standing (it was a busy month in terms of movement milestones!).  She is working on cruising--stepping sideways while holding onto furniture or the side of her pack n play.  

Kate likes to babble and is quite conversational.  She also loves eating and is quite the social eater! She is a very curious child, which seems to have something to do with both her early mobility and interest in eating.  She is still exclusively breast fed for nutrition--food is just for fun (and to ease teething pain which we have faced a fair bit of--Kate's first two teeth popped through her lower gums this month!). 

We still love her cloth diapers, too, though adding solid food to her diet has certainly made them more interesting.

Kate's favorite toys still include Sophie the giraffe, Lambie the Lord's Prayer lamb, and Murray the sock monkey. She also likes her collection of board books which she particularly enjoys gnawing on and a set of magnets that we call her chemistry set after Fr. Johnnie stayed with her one day and taught her how to make molecules with them!

Here is our progression picture--months one through three are on top and four through six are on the bottom.

Six months!

Our little nugget is six months old.  Half a year!  How on earth did that happen?  It's not just the sleep-deprivation, I'm sure, that makes this time feel as though it passed in the blink of an eye.

We will get 'official' numbers at Tuesday's doctor's appointment, but Miss Kate has unofficially reached her goal milestone for weight (twice her birth weight) and loves playing with solid food which we started introducing a couple weeks ago.  J and I are using a method called Baby-Led Weaning, which is really more about baby self-feeding rather than any kind of weaning.  For now and the foreseeable future, Kate will continue to receive the majority of her nutrients through breast milk.  The motto we've adopted is that food is for fun until baby is one.  In other words, we give Kate what we're eating, or even order her own plate of food at restaurants.  She plays with the food, figuring out how to feed herself and if anything goes down, that's great.  If not, it's no big deal--she still relies on mama for her nutrition and I'm okay with that.  At some point we'll introduce utensils and let her figure those out, too.

I'm almost surprised to report that Kate is a scooter, but not yet a crawler.  She has been on the verge of crawling for two weeks now, slowly figuring out the different parts of crawling, but not having put those parts together.  I don't suspect we will make it another month without reaching that milestone.  She does roll over almost immediately when laid on her back, which led to a rather interesting photo-shoot this month.  In fact, the big picture below happened right after I laid her on her back for our standard photo.  There were no back pictures to be had this month.  Every shot I tried resulted in her rolling over before I could sit down to snap the picture.  In fact, many of the pictures were taken much closer as I was afraid she would tumble off her chair with me just out of reach.

Join us in celebrating six sweet months!

Five Months

Yes, I'm writing Kate's five months post at five and a half months.  I figure that's close, right?  Kate turned five months the day she and I (JE) left on our first road trip without Daddy along to help out if things went poorly.  It went really well, but I didn't get right to her post and then it quickly fell to the bottom of the list.  

So first, let's look at the progression picture:

The top two pictures (left to right) are her one month and two month pictures.  The bottom two are (left to right) three and four month.  I picked that four month picture because she'd just discovered her toes and kept grabbing them.  If I could have gotten one, her five month picture would have shown her toes in her mouth, as they spent much of her fifth month that way.  I chose the center picture for her five month picture because, in fact, she spent the month with whatever she could get in her mouth.  Fingers (her and everyone else's), toes, teething rings of all kinds, and even chair arms are likely to end up in her mouth!

Kate's fifth month was mostly one of recovery from her busy fourth month.  We did take a weekend trip to Nashville to meet her uncles D and E (J's best friends from childhood) and their wives, children and their mom, as well as another of J's friends from college and his wife.  By Sunday's drive home, Miss Kate was rather worn out, and we had our only rough road trip.

At five months, Kate was 15.4 pounds.  She is quite vocal, having discovered her shriek.  Mama's not exactly a fan of that. She also started to enjoy Sophie (her rubber giraffe) and Lambie (her Lord's Prayer stuffed lamb) more.  Kate finally settled in to going to work with Mama every day, together with Thomas (our mother's helper/babysitter) on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  She loves the volunteers at church, and is fairly sure that people come to the church just to see her!

Four Months!

Happy July, everyone!  Our little four-month-old had a busy month--she's learning to grasp, practicing sitting and standing with some assistance, talking (a. lot.), and perhaps cutest of all:

She's found her feet!!  Seriously, I had no idea that this discovery would be as darling as it is!  Kate's personality reveals itself to us every day.  She is very independent, and I suspect we have years of "I can do it myself" ahead of us!  She prefers to hold a bottle herself, though she did give in and let Daddy help this weekend when she wanted to eat and play with those toes at the same time!

Kate's four-month doctor appointment is scheduled for later today, so I'll be back with official measurements then! In the mean time, enjoy this collage of her monthly pics--

Top left = 1 month; Top right = 2 months; Bottom left = 3 months; Bottom right = 4 months

Three Months!

So...welcome to our baby blog!  I promise, there's more going on around here than twiddling our thumbs until the ninth of every month so we can take a new picture.  Maybe someday I'll even get around to writing it all up!  Without further ado...

If I thought the weeks between Month One and Month Two passed quickly, I had no idea how quickly the time would pass as we moved to Month Three.  I suspect it will only move more and more quickly now.  Miss Kate is (according to our not terribly accurate method of measuring) about 25 inches long and (according to our slightly more accurate method of measuring) weighs about 12.5 pounds.  She's become quite talkative, and rolled from both front to back and back to front this month.  She'd only done this one time each until this weekend, when she performed both tricks a few more times for my parents. She also enjoys pushing up with her hands so she can look around better and occasionally standing with balance support from J or me.

For comparison, here is a side-by-side of our sweet girl--

Two Months

It is hard to believe that I'm posting Kate's two month picture, as it seems like I posted her one month picture just last week!  Without further ado, I present our Miss Kate, who celebrates her two month birthday today!

Miss Kate is now 23 inches long and a couple ounces shy of eleven pounds.  She likes to coo and smile at us, and she is quite determined to stand up on her own!  It is so fun to watch her turn her attention when she hears J's voice--she is certainly Daddy's girl!  Luckily, she seems to like her Mama, too.

For comparison, here is a side-by-side from last month with today!

Introducing...

Yes, it has been entirely too long since we updated here.  I thought we were only a month off, but it turns out that it's been nearly two months.  I blame the first three weeks off on the rush of work and volunteer obligations I wanted to finish before taking off on maternity leave.  I blame the last month on this little one.  I'm sure you'll agree she is worth the absence.

J and I are thrilled to introduce Kate to you all!  She was born Saturday, March 9 after a blessedly short and easy labor and delivery experience.  We suspect that 'short and easy' part was due in large part to our childbirth course, Hypnobabies.  The course focused on relaxation and visualization, and we highly recommend it to prospective parents, particularly those hoping to go med-free.  While our short labor after arriving at the hospital didn't leave us with much opportunity to put our lessons into practice there, I am confident that our preparation was key in getting us to the hospital after a pretty easy (and also short) laboring time at home.

The last month has been quite an adjustment for us, but honestly, we are very aware how easy a baby Miss Kate is.  She sleeps well (and often!), has a sweet temperament when awake,  and seems to be hitting all of her developmental milestones right on schedule.  We are certainly blessed!

If you're interested in the chair above, you can read more about it in this Furnishing Friday post. The chair now lives in her nursery.  I'm planning to take a picture of Kate each month (ideally on the 9th, but we'll see how that goes)  in this chair to document her growth.

We've managed to knock out a few projects around the MP, too, and I promise to take pictures and get those posted sometime (hopefully soon!).

Full Term!

Every week for the past 33 or so I've taken a picture to map the little one's progress.  While I've not been sharing them online, I thought today's might be a good one.  Why?  Because today is the important 37 week milestone!  Now, I could totally get into a lengthy conversation about how that isn't technically right, but it doesn't matter. As far as the doctor's office is concerned, the parasite is 37 weeks 'old' today and has reached Full Term!  That means that, while we'd prefer she 'bake' at least another two weeks if not three or four, she could arrive at any moment and not be considered a preemie. 

For those of you who celebrate these things, today is also Ash Wednesday.  You might remember that last year, I gave up sweets and added steps every day to my walking regemin.  This year, neither of those seem practical (well, giving up sweets might be practical, but no one is going to hold a pregnant lady to that).  Instead, I've decided to strongly limit my facebook time and to be more intentional with the time saved through that.  Will that mean more blogging here?  I expect so.  I expect (and hope) that it also means more time reading books, more time devoted to keeping up my commitments, and in a few weeks, more time devoted to staring at a sweet little face.  I'll try to share that with y'all, too!

P.S.  J is giving up meat and cokes.  Pray for us both! :)

Almost done collecting furniture...

So as of today, we're seven weeks or so from adding a little person to our home, and as you may have noticed in last Wednesday's post, little people come with lots of stuff.  We'd already bought a baby bed, and we've moved two chairs we already owned into the nursery.  A bookshelf/future dollhouse is in the design stages (thanks, Dad!), and a hope chest has been identified (J's grandfather's grandmother's cedar chest!).  Really, all we have left (we think) is a dresser to hold the ever-growing pile of itsy-bitsy diapers and socks and onesies, etc.

I had a picture in my head (y'all know this never ends well), and had visited several retail establishments in town and online searching for an option.  The options generally fell into one of two camps--too expensive and too modern--though many also fell into the 'cheap, fake wood' camp, an option shared by both the expensive and modern dressers, though those descriptions also apply to real, solid wood dressers, too.  My mom and I visited a used-furniture store where I mused that perhaps I could find something like the picture in my head and paint it.  She pointed out that the picture in my head might be too ornate to paint.  She was probably right.

Monday, I popped into another used-furniture store right as they were closing and asked about dressers.  The lady didn't have anything like what I described, but commented that if I was willing to paint, I should "check out Uncle RayJay's".  Who? Where?  Uncle RayJay's, it turns out, is a relatively new used furniture/appliance shop in town that seems to deal a lot in solid wood used furniture.  I had time, and it was kind of on my way, so I drove over.  And found this:

Now, it's not as ornate as the picture in my head, but it has some pretty, girly lines to it.  And, should I decide to paint it, it's not so ornate that I can't easily do that.  I probably will paint it, as it is fairly beat up and has an ugly burn on the top, but the burn mark will be living under a changing pad for the next couple years anyway.

Also, it came with a mirror attached that won't fit in this room, but will be nice in some other room in our house.  Oh, and we will be swapping out hardware, which works well because I think those four drawer pulls across the top two drawers will work really well in the library on our built-ins!

The best part?  The entire dresser, plus delivery, cost us $130 (Uncle RayJay starts negotiating when you pull out cash).  As I told J, the mirror alone would have cost that at our local big box hardware store, and the dresser would have been twice that at any other used furniture store in town.

So that's the story of how we've finished collecting furniture for the nursery!  I think we'll end up with a basket or two for blankets and toys, as well as a small table and an ottoman for the reading corner, but it's so nice to have the big things out of the way!  Next up for the nursery: painting!

Blank slate

Back in 2008, when J first bought the MP, we knew that the smaller of the two rooms upstairs would be my office/eventual craft room.  We didn't really have a purpose for the other room.  When J received a bunch of UK-related framed art, I hung those on the walls.  Over time, it became an 'overflow guest room', with an air mattress or two ready to blow up as needed.  Finally, at some point, I started to think of the room as the future nursery, and eventually I pulled together an idea (a picture in my head) of what it might look like.

As time continued to pass, I finally broke down and started to fill the mostly empty room.  Left my 'real job'?  Well, those boxes from the office need to go somewhere...  New part time job comes with boxes and catalogs?  Well, there's room upstairs for that...  Don't feel like sorting through Christmas decorations to make new for the new ones?  Just store the new ones upstairs and pretend the old ones don't exist anymore!

You can imagine what the 'nursery' looked like once it was actually time to use it for real.  Lucky for me, my mom was in town this weekend and offered to stay over an extra day to help me sort through things.  Actually, she ended up serving as a runner while I touched each and every object in the room.  Do you remember that old show on TLC where they set up a Toss, Keep, Sell/Donate pile?  It was kind of like that, except I had a donate box, a trash bag, a box to send to my new office, a box to send home to mom and dad, and boxes for each level of the house.  Other than a break to run to Goodwill and the county electronics recycling facility, we spent most of the day sorting and cleaning.  By the end of the day, this is what we had:

Actually, at the very end of the day, this is what we had:

I'm kind of excited to have baby things in the baby room, and nothing else!!

Thanks, mom!

Election Day!

I remember going to the polls with my folks long before I was old enough to vote myself, and I look forward to continuing the tradition with our little one!  Here we were yesterday just after voting: