Baby's Room

While we're waiting... (i.e. yes, still no baby) Here are a few pictures of the nursery.


This is the crib, which my grandmother bought for us. Rob put it together last week. The quilt draped over the front is made by my Mom with fuzzy flannel bunnies all over it.


The bookshelf filled with books thanks to everyone at my shower, and the changing table, complete with Bunny chasing the Moon mobile to distract Baby at changing time.


My rocker which you can see is loaded with quilts. Plus you can see Baby's "rocker" which my cousin Katie got for us and I love! The curtains were made by my mom, and that's my hope chest, which I'm giving to Maddie (though it's also filled with my stuff right now).

OK, and I swore I wouldn't do this because I'm not a fan of posting belly pictures, but I promised Hillary.... So here's what I look like as of today:

Must Keep on top of these things!

I just told one of my fellow bloggers that I was glad to see her blogging again and then I realized oh, yeah, I haven't blogged for a while either. So I need to get on that. I had an awesome weekend. This is my niece. She's adorable and I got to hold her and see her lots. I have to use a link to show you pictures because I haven't taken pictures in forever. I actually had my camera in my purse the whole weekend and kept forgetting that I had it. I really need to change that too.

On the downside our car died. On the upside I now have a really good garage and they are quoting us a price that is 1/3 the total of what we paid in Chicago for the same problem a couple of years ago -- so that's pretty good. On the downside we won't have a car for a few days possibly. Which means that should I go into labor I may need to work through the circuit of relatives to take us to the hospital -- but hey, we have relatives here. So that's an upside.

My Hero

This morning on my way to my doctor's appointment, I got a call from my Mom. She said she needed some help because during the night a bat had gotten into her bedroom and she couldn't find it. She needed me to come over and help her look because this weekend, she's going to have baby Annie (my newborn niece) at her house. So I told her I'd come over after my appointment -- then I started thinking, 'oh wait, I already have a baby in THIS house', so what exactly am I going to do? So I went and picked up Rob. Rob grabbed his "bat fighting equipment" which consisted of: a laundry bag, a baseball glove and a stocking hat (so there would be insulation if it bit him) and we headed over to Mom's.

Rob starts looking behind mirrors, pictures, etc... and quickly finds the bat in the curtains -- then he squealed like a little girl and ran away. Then we called Mom's 80 year old neighbor to come kill the bat. In the end, Rob actually ended up saving the day. It turns out that Mom's neighbor couldn't reach the bat because it was too high, so Rob put on his glove grabbed it and dropped it in a coffee can. This story has a humane ending -- the neighbor didn't kill the bat, but released it in the park.

After that I spent all day at the DMV (two different trips mind you) and accomplished nothing. I don't really want to write about that because I'm still too pissed off about it. So maybe I'll write after my third trip to the DMV.

I do have to add that my doctor thinks all you people are nuts with your nesting projections. She's placing her bet on June 1 or 2. That would work for me! But we'll see if maybe you all are right. Anybody want to place their bet? There's a poll to the left!

The Nest

Let's revisit this nesting concept. I just finished hanging a series of wedding pictures along our amazingly long gallery wall. I'm particularly excited about this because it's such an unusual space (my cousin Katie who REALLY should be an interior designer told me she never hung anything on that wall when she lived in this building) and it's a series of 9 frames of various sizes. And I did it! And it looks beautiful. It just fits the wall perfectly and seriously I have never hung pictures so perfectly, all beautifully aligned with perfect spacing. It did take a fair amount of measuring and delicate placement, but I never had to redo a single one, it went that perfectly. I knew I learned something working at that stupid gallery on Oak Street (which will remain nameless, Russell mumble-mumble inspiration for Devil Wears Prada.)

So I was thinking yes, this need to hang photos, etc is probably nesting. But also as I hung these photos I realized that I never hung them up in our last apartment. Truthfully, I never hung anything up -- except a Cubs calendar that got posted up on a nail left by the previous owner. Maybe I'm so excited about hanging stuff up just because it's been so long since I have felt at home anyplace. Those wedding pictures bring me a lot closer I will tell you, because I just LOVE those photos. Best outcome of my wedding (oh, and my husband -- but let's face facts, he wasn't going anyplace.) Plus, I really have been frustrated by how slow the last few weeks have gone in terms of unpacking. Because I just can't do a lot of it. There have been too many boxes just kind of stowed places when I know where they should be or should be unpacked. I just can't lift them. But I can hang stuff up. I can't do any more today though because it's after 5 pm and I don't want my neighbors to hate me.

I will confess to this nesting though. I am not exactly what you would term a neat and clean person. I don't mind picking up -- in fact I generally like to do it. But I do let things accumulate and then enjoy sorting through, not picking things up right away after I use them. I do not clean well. In fact, I don't think I really KNOW how to clean. By this I mean, I see a few spots on the kitchen floor, I get out a swiffer and clean it -- and then I look at the floor and notice that it's still dirty. I think I'm cleaning well and then realize the object of my cleaning is just not clean. So it is rather surprising that I really have been looking at the floors in this apartment and thinking, "Oh, I'm going to sweep/mop/vacuum that." I just bought a new Swiffer yesterday, so let's see if I actually do it well. And this could just be the whole "I live in a new apartment and if I clean as I go it will always be fresh and clean and NEVER get dirty." If it is nesting, I would like to ask if anyone knows of a way to keep the nesting instinct. Anyone?