We're home...

We spent the last week basking in the sunshine & beauty of ARUBA!! We went with my parents & had such a relaxing good time. It really hit the spot :)

On the flight there I felt the baby move for the first time (& knew what it was)! What a strange but amazing feeling. Cyrus was able to feel it this past Tuesday too which was really exciting. Now he gets to have a bit of an idea of what's going on in there :)

My camera died while we were gone so all of our pictures are on one of my Mom's cameras. They are lucky enough to be there until Friday so I'll post some pics once they get back.

Some other fabric options...

Step 1 complete...

Our carpenter, Joe, finished the nursery in a day & we love it!! He rounded the edges & made it look exactly like we wanted. And he was able to move the thermostat down so that it didn't interfere w/the ledge. He changed the outlets to white also. Check it out...

Now it's painting time - white wood & navy walls above. Hopefully that will be done by the end of April.

Furniture shopping...

So we went nursery furniture shopping this past Saturday. Our first stop was in Gaithersburg, MD at Great Beginnings Design Center. No luck w/furniture there but we did get to check out a lot of gear - strollers, Pak-n-Plays, car seats, etc. What is up w/everything being brown? And the only other choice besides brown is gray - weird.

Our next stop was in Manassas, VA at Baby-2-Teen. Yay - we found a crib & dresser w/removable changing station! We decided against a convertible crib for the first baby at least. And we really wanted 2 pieces that matched each other so we were really happy to find these...




We haven't purchased them yet b/c we wanted to make sure that they would fit in the room well & we haven't decided on the wood finish yet. But at least we've made the big choices :)

Cyrus's parents came to our house yesterday to paint the inside of the closets that Patrick & Cyrus fixed up. The carpenter is there today installing the wall panels & trim so this evening it should be ready for some color! I'll post the pics tomorrow...

Moms everywhere...

This pic was taken near the end of February - (from right to left) Kelly had just had a baby, Jen had a baby about a week later, and I'm expecting in August!

Nursery update...

After starting to get semi-frustrated about the much-sought-out fabric, I emailed the designer of the blog that I found it on to ask her about my search. She was great & said that it had been discontinued but that she had some of it that she would sell me! So, even though she doesn't have a lot of it, we are going to buy a few yards & make it the accent fabric. YAY!!!

While we were in Maryland this past weekend with my family, we all stopped by a Babies'R'Us. This was our first trip into one & I was excited to look at furniture. Apparently it was a smaller store so they only had a few crib sets on the floor so it didn't turn out to be as interesting as I thought it would be but at least we started :) Cyrus & I are going up around DC this Saturday to go to one of the huge stores & hopefully we'll find some things that we like. Did I mention that we're going with dark wood? I am a white furniture lover but we decided that dark wood would be better for either a boy or a girl. Cross your fingers that we find just the right stuff!

New due date...

So I forgot to mention before that they moved our due date up 2 days so now it's August 2!

18 weeks and counting...

So I was mistaken about my appointment yesterday - no blood sugar testing but we did have an ultra-sound. And we were amazed at the baby's growth - fingers & toes & even a nose :) Everything looked exactly as it should so we were able to breathe a sigh of relief. We brought home pictures of the bottom of a foot, the head, a forearm w/an index finger & thumb forming an "L" (so cool), and then 2 full body profile shots. The baby had its legs crossed in front of its lower body so it wasn't obvious what the sex was thank goodness for us! It kept moving around and Cyrus sat there saying, "that is so crazy" over & over - too cute. Now I can't wait for the next ultra-sound in 10 weeks!
Oh - and I gained 2 lbs. - finally!

Success...

Whew - I finally found it! After much searching, this is (in essence) the look we're going for:

Now I just need to find the fabric so we can do it ourselves - ugh!





Tomorrow is my 2nd - and longer - blood sugar test but I'm really excited to get to see the baby again. There was such a drastic change from the first ultra-sound (just a dot) to the second (look it's an actual baby!) that I can't even imagine what this one will look like. My Mom is out-of-town & my Dad's going to meet her tomorrow but is going to wait until after my apt. so that he can take the new pictures to her :) Tomorrow we could also find out what sex the baby is - very tempting but we're still holding steady in our decision to not find out. Hopefully I've gained some weight!

We'd like to congratulate our friends Jen & Jon on their new arrival! Austin James was born on Sunday at 9:44 AM weighing 8 lbs., 1 oz.. We are so happy for them! Babies babies everywhere :)