And Then There Were Seven

 

 

So, for the last 9 months or so, I’ve been busy housing a human.  And on June 29, Miss Harper Grace graced us with her presence.  She was about 2 and a half weeks early, weighed 7 pounds 2 ounces, was 20 inches long and is perfect in every way.   And in the time leading up to her arrival, I’ve been busy pink-ifying everything…obviously.  In case you didn’t know, it’s kind of my favorite color. 

From the second we found out we were having a girl (even before, actually), I knew I wanted gray & white stripes on one of her nursery walls.  And the plan was to  just do gray on the other walls.  And after about 20 trips to stores looking for furniture, I decided on gray furniture...and then I decided to put the crib on two walls...and one would have a window on it...and with these decisions I decided all gray walls weren't going to work.  And that's when I came up with this great idea to do polka dots.  It's a great idea...but the actual application hadn't really been thought through yet.  

 

After some research, I came up with a plan and got buy-in from the hubs, and together we created a nursery that far surpassed my expectations.  I love, love, love it! 

 We bought this thick-ish brown paper, did a lot of measuring (because my circles had to be perfect and a perfect distance apart for it to work for me...a hodge podge of circles all over the wall wasn't what I was after) and made a template (the first of many).  And then we started the taping and painting.

 

 

 

 And here is the finished paint job.



And then it was time to start the pink-ifying.  I decided to be crafty (and Lindsay and crafty do NOT go together, so this could have been a disaster) and make some fabric poms.  But, again, I was so excited with how well these turned out.  See, I CAN be crafty. 

I bought a lot of fabric and my very first hot glue gun, cut a lot of circles, glued them to make 'petals', glued them onto a Chinese lantern, put some ribbon on them for hanging and TA-DA!  A couple weeks later, I had 4 fabric poms.

  

 

I ordered these super cute tulle letters from Etsy (click here for listing)...

 

 

And got this super fabulous signed card for Mother's Day from Mr. Ben Harper himself.

 

                                                             AND IT'S COMPLETE!

Whew!!  I couldn't love it any more!  And here are some pictures of the sweet girl who will be occupying this space.

 

 

 

And her brother who is so glad she finally came out to play.  I am over the moon in love with these two!

Holy F’ing Heart Attack

We moved Keller into his big boy bed a couple weeks ago (I have mixed emotions about it, but I’m surviving, thanks for asking).  Prior to the big move, we got him all excited about getting a new big boy bed and made it clear that the only rule was, he was not to get out of bed on his own.  He still needed to yell for mom or dad when he was ready to get up.  We keep his door closed at night mainly because we have 3 big, dumb animals that would be in his room all night trying to climb in bed with him and 3 animals and a tossing toddler fighting for space in a miniature toddler bed is just asking for trouble. 

So the first night, he was so excited about it he climbed right in.  He didn’t want me to read or rock or anything.  Just climbed right in and told me good night.  I really tried, too.  “Are you sure you don’t want me to read to you?  You can lay in bed and I’ll sit on the side and read to you.” “No mama, turn on the light (he meant off).  Night, night.”  I’m not gonna lie, I was a little sad about it…might have shed a tear.  But I digress.  He did great that first night.  Slept all night and stayed in his bed yelling for “mama, dada” when he woke up in the morning.  I knew he would…he’s such a good little boy.  The next night, the newness of the big boy bed had worn off, so we were back to reading and rocking (thank goodness!).  Everything was going great, even better than anticipated.  And then it happened.

Fast forward a week.  My alarm goes off in the morning, as normal.  Sweet, it’s just the first time…I have 45 minutes of snoozing left.  I glance at the monitor before going back to dreamland and I don’t see Keller.  Hmm…I better take a closer look.  Pull the monitor to my face and squint so as to see better and still no Keller.  He’s probably at the other end of the bed, where the monitor doesn’t quite reach I tell myself.  But I’m a worrier and there was no way I was going back to sleep without confirming my suspicions, so I trudge out of bed in the dark, no contacts and quietly open the door to his room.  And there I see it.  Keller’s blanket in the middle of the floor, no Keller in bed or anywhere to be seen, like something straight out of a Dateline episode.  I start saying his name quietly “Keller?  Keller?”  I think “He’s probably behind his chair, sitting and hiding, knowing he’s not supposed to be out of bed and whenever I look back there he’s going to be looking up at me with a big grin on his face.”  I look, no Keller.  And that’s when I go into panic mode.  I know he can’t get out of his room because he can’t open the door, so clearly, a kidnapper must have come in and got him.  Clearly.  The thoughts that race through my mind next are full of fear.  “Oh my God, where is he?  Where did they take him?  Who could it have been?  I need to call the cops.  Should I call 911?  Why didn’t they take his blanket with him?  He’s going to be so sad without his blanket.  This can’t be happening.  I can’t live without him.  I’m going to have to be one of those parents on a news conference on TV begging some dirtbag to please bring my baby back and we all know that never works.”  And then starts the screaming.  “KELLER!  DUSTIN, KELLER’S GONE!  HE’S NOT IN HIS ROOM!  KELLER!”  And then I spot him…

As soon as you walk into his room, on the left is a bookcase and then is his closet, with sliding doors.  On this morning, his closet doors were open just enough for his head to fit in.  And so there he was, head in his closet up against a wicker basket, the rest of his body curled up right there on the floor.  Holy f’ing heart attack…and sweet relief.  Those 30 seconds felt like 30 minutes.  Second scariest moment of motherhood so far (the 1^st was his battle with the stairs…at least this one didn’t end up in any broken appendages).  My first thought was “Thank the lord!”  My second thought was “I should go get the camera and take a picture.”  And my third thought was “Quit being an idiot and pick your kid up off the floor.”  Obviously I should have listened to my second thought.  This post would be way better with a picture.