Sunday, January 29, 2006

Babyville, party of three

This past weekend, Owen and I and our two moms spent incredible time and energy getting the nursery and house ready for Sam. Owen and mom spent all day Saturday painting the nursery and also putting a fresh coat of white on the crib, dresser and a set of bookshelves. Truly defining the phrase "above and beyond," mom got up at 6 a.m. today to finish. Everything looks fantastic. We even had time go paint pottery today while we waited for the last of the paint to dry. Here are some pictures...

This is the more "done" side of the room. We're not finished yet (we don't quite have all our furniture yet!). Things you may notice in this picture: the bookshelf contains "Bear," Owen's favorite stuffed animal from childhood, and "Mousie," who was mine. A discerning eye may also pick out George and Martha, a pair of hippos, and Toot and Puddle, both sets of little stuffed animals from fantastic children's books. The drawer fronts on the dresser were still a bit tacky, and so we left them open so as not to have them painted shut. The red and purple guy is a warthog we bought him in Chicago when we were just 12 weeks pregnant.

This is the crib and some of Sam's new friends. He has two "Ugly Dolls" monsters which Owen and I both love. There is also a little white goat that we bought the day we found out Sam was a "he" and a little bear dressed in blue that we bought for him in Chicago when we went to celebrate our anniversary in September. The purple critter is a dragon.

These are a few of the pictures we're planning to hang when we get more of the furniture in place. The one the upper left is a picture of David from Dave Shannon's No, David! - a FANTASTIC book. The one below it with the couch was a gift to me way back from my German sister, Steffi. I don't imagine she ever envisioned it in a nursery, but it seemed perfect. It's an odd size and they wanted $200 to frame it, so Owen and I cut the mat and framed it ourselves. I think it looks pretty good and cost less than 1/4 to do it our way! I painted the one on the right on a large piece of canvas I bought for $7 on clearance. I copied the cover of Shel Silverstein's The Giving Tree. It's not perfect, but I think it's okay.

You may be noticing that children's books are a bit of a theme for us. We don't really have any one particular thing going, though. Besides the children's books, there are quite a few dinosaurs/dragons/monsters and, to add some interest, a fair amount of baseball items. We decided that one particular theme would be too limiting...and so we've just gone with things we like.

While mom and Owen were painting, Cathy and I spent the day cleaning and reorganizing the kitchen. Our goals were to make it a.) clean, b.) efficient and c.) capable of storing things such as bottles, etc. The kitchen now looks fantastic AND you can eat in it without fear of getting a bacterial infection in any open wounds. I don't have any pictures of that because, really, I know you all only want to see the baby stuff. I know I like looking at it much better. (No offense to the kitchen!)

I want to thank both my mom and Cathy for working so hard and helping SO MUCH. There is absolutely no way we could have gotten this all done so well or so quickly on our own. THANK YOU! I also wanted to thank Owen, because I know how much he hates both cleaning and painting and he did it all with minimal complaining. In truth, he spoils me rotten, tying my shoes for me and getting me snacks and the like so that I don't have to get up out of the chair (it's a bit of an ordeal because we're fudging the coffee table and a huge pillow for an ottoman as I have been ordered to spend more time with my feet up due to swelling).

One final note: Sam crossed the 29 week mark today. The time is simultaneously flying by and dragging by, and I'm not sure if I want delivery day to come tomorrow or if I want it never to come. I am leaning strongly towards the former...we're both so excited to meet the little kicker.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

By the way, Owen, it WAS your side of the crib that had the paint drips on it. NOT mine!

Mom M.

Unknown said...

The Giving Tree picture is great... I recognized it right away (thought it was an actual bought-at-the-store print, not a painting). I think Children's Books is an awesome theme for a nursery. Heck, his room will be filled with them in a couple of years if you're anything like me, and the book clutter will just be keeping with the theme.