nursery adventures

It's been a productive weekend in the world of Mike and Hilary--we are nearly finished with Moohoo's nursery! We had a LOT of stuff to put together (crib, glider, swing, bookshelf...), so Mike spent most of yesterday climbing in and out of boxes to drag various wooden and plastic pieces out for us to somehow put together correctly.



We were dreading the big job of putting together the glider and ottoman, but it turned out that most of the pieces were already put together. We had to affix the arms and secure some cushions, but that was about it. We may have gotten a little too self-assured at that point, becoming foolishly confident that all of the various projects would be this simple. We were wrong. Very wrong.

The worst offender of the day was the Graco swing... we have learned through this new stage of parent-preparation that, while Graco is a reliable and safe brand with attractive must-have gadgets, they have cut some costs in the instruction manual department. Most of their instructions (including those for our stroller, pack'n'play, and the dreaded swing) consist of vague, unlabeled pictures beside only the word "SNAP!" in multiple languages. Somehow we managed to figure it all out, with only a few major mistakes, tense moments, and unsavory words. All of our hard work has paid off, as the nursery is now nearly complete. I already love peeking in from the doorway or sitting in the glider, imagining what it will be like to have a little person making use of all these headache-inspiring assembly projects.

My mom and dad got us this little Iris welcome sign for Christmas, and the purple and green colors are a perfect match for our nursery.

Our biggest challenge in the nursery has been finding practical, handy places for everything. We bought some coat hooks this weekend that I spray painted purple to match the crib bedding, and we've started hanging them throughout the room to give a home to things like diaper bags and baby carriers.

One of my favorite features of our former guest room is the built-in storage space of these drawers and cubbies. They're the perfect place to put baskets filled with burp cloths, hats, bibs, receiving blankets, and more.

Poor Mikey had to give up most of his closet to make room for Moohoo's ever-growing wardrobe. We came to a compromise of installing a small dresser and some shelving for all of her clothes, and Mike and I are still able to use about half of the closet for our own stuff.

This picture shows a couple of little adorable items that are less "must-have" and more "too cute to pass up." We picked up a little easy to assemble shelf to store some of Moohoo's shoes and books, and found the sweet little butterfly bookends randomly at TJ Maxx. Love them. Another great TJ Maxx purchase? The cute little purple and green steps shown in the foreground of this picture. Completely impractical at this point, but someday Moohoo may be able to use them to help her reach high-up items. And in the meantime, they're just fun to look at!

The changing table we picked out has plenty of shelf space for wipes, diaper cream, extra blankets, and all of the random stuff we couldn't fit anywhere else. Moohoo's Uncle Harper got us the sweet "Family" picture frame, which also fell prey to my spray painting binge this weekend. I can't wait to have pictures of us with our little girl filling the individual frames!

The crib and glider were the largest items to put together, but actually were the easiest to assemble overall. My mom and dad gifted us with the crib, and Moohoo's Aunt Becky and Uncle Jonathon got us the beautiful lilac and green bedding that fills it up. Mike and I have both taken turns rocking in the glider, admiring the room and imagining the late night feedings and soothings that we'll be doing in that same chair very soon.

It's been a huge undertaking, and we're still not quite done, but it's also been such a fun and exciting weekend in baby-preparation-world. My back is killing me, our trash is overflowing with plastic and packing peanuts, and we're still waiting on a few key items to arrive in the mail... but it feels so worth it to see everything put together and ready for our baby girl. We can't wait to have her puking, pooping, and crying in every corner of the place, filling it with her sounds and smells and more clutter. This will most likely be the only time the room ever looks this organized and neat, and that's just fine with us.