shopping, crafting, revealing

In happy contrast to the emotional-cry-fest of Thursday, I'm glad to report that Friday and the rest of the weekend were marked by excited and happy planning for the new babe. This returned sense of confidence was due in no small part to a well-timed 5pm text on Friday afternoon from our baby's mama! As we'd suspected-- she'd been having phone problems, but she texted to say that all was well now, she hoped we hadn't been worrying, and-- best part-- "everything is going great and my decision is still the same" (DIRECT QUOTE). 

Thank you, Jesus.

Exactly the reassurance we needed to kick off a fabulous weekend in Augusta with my family. We headed east as soon as we got off work and got to my parents' house just in time to spend our evening practicing our baby skillz with Carley!

Carley obliged us by giving us lots of solid 'baby situations' to navigate, including projectile spitting up all over my dry-clean-only shirt, crying for no reason, not liking any of her toys, being super cute, and refusing to be put down. In short, it was fabulous. I also appreciated having a couple of hours to get wisdom and tips from Emily, my sister-in-law. 

My sister drove up from south Georgia on Saturday to join the rest of the family. I was super excited because a) I love my sister and b) I really needed a haircut. Sarah's presence meant that my baby-cuddling time got cut in half, but we managed to find a few ways to call a truce and play with the baby together, so that seemed like a real sibling accomplishment. 

Sarah's baby-entertainment skills are like Level 10 Code Red, so I know my baby will be in good hands when Aunt Sarah is around. And if you think it's strange that a grown and fashionable woman such as Sarah is wearing a t-shirt with gold metallic cats on it (stolen from my mom's closet circa 1993), clearly you haven't read this. So fix your ways. 

We spent most of the weekend talking about/planning for my baby (MY BABY!!!!!!) and on Saturday took a family (well, me, Matt, Mom, and Sarah) trip to Buy Buy Baby. Matt and I have done a good bit of online registering already (Target & Amazon), but haven't actually looked at stuff in stores yet. The main reason for this is that Athens is a baby product wasteland. We may as well be in Antarctica or something. The only baby store (besides small boutiques that no one can afford/you can't really register at) is...Target. And about 2 rows inside the nasty, disgusting Toys R Us where you wouldn't catch me dead. We have no Babies R Us. No Buy Buy Baby. Nothing. So...Target and Amazon it is. BUT there were some items I actually wanted to check out in person, so a field trip seemed prudent. Then Emily and my mom and sister convinced us that we really needed to go ahead and register at BBB anyway since people in Augusta will all want to shop there for our shower, etc., so...twist my arm, right? We grabbed the little gun scanner thing and went to town!

It was by far the most fun I've ever had in a baby store (shocking? no.) and definitely the first time in a long time I've even gone in one without crying, so I call it a huge success! I made lots of hasty and uneducated choices about products I know nothing about and we spent most of our time debating the merits of various designer diaper bags, so clearly our hearts were in the right place. 

I had so much fun.

I also managed to walk out of there having spent only $5-- on a two-pack of baby nail clippers. Somehow I just thought that if I didn't go ahead and get them, I might never remember to...and nobody wants a baby to have jaggy nails, right? A girl's gotta be manicured from day 1. So I got them. In green.

Having spent some time at BBB test-driving and discussing various strollers, a subject I actually had done some research about, I left the store lamenting my 'champagne taste, beer budget' (that will be the theme of this 'pregnancy,' I can tell already). Since everyone else had also taken the opportunity to push the different kinds of strollers, I was at least happy to find that everyone was in agreement that the one I wanted really was the best one. And totally worth the extra five billion dollars it cost. And then when we got home, I decided to juuusssst take a little peek and see if it was still marked down on a discount webpage I'd found last week. And it was. And then-- be still my heart-- my Mom offered to buy it for me! I mean, for the baby. I seriously debated it for about 1 second and then took her up on her generous offer. So YAY!!! The Baby Jogger City Mini GT in Bamboo is en route to my house!!!! WOOOOOO! And now I swear we're going to stick to The Plan and not buy anything else. Exxxcccept....

Well, I also have this little issue of nursery decor. Namely, I hate all crib bedding I have ever seen in a store. Ever. All. Pastel colors and cutesy animals are not remotely appealing to my eyeballs. A few years ago we painted the nursery and I made curtains, so the curtains have kind of locked me into a color scheme that I love. Unfortunately, trying to find crib stuff that fits into that scheme has been a huge failure. Until I discovered custom crib bedding on Etsy. That was a huge win. A few weeks ago I found this seller/fabric set and nearly died of happiness. FINALLY! Bright, happy colors and patterns that are not completely lame and matchy-matchy. Heaven. Unfortunately, the price tag and 6-week-wait time were NOT heavenly. Since I don't want to order the stuff til after we know we get to keep Baby, she would be like 5 years old before it ever came in. Not cool.

And here comes my mom to the rescue again.

"We can MAKE the stuff you want," she says with all of the confidence in the world.  Ummm....maybe some people can make it. But not me, I think. But then I remember all the 'easy crib skirt!' tutorials I pinned a few years ago and I start considering that maybe I actually COULD make it. IF I could find fabrics I liked, of course. They can't be lame. Or pastel. They have to match the curtains.

Mom was up to the challenge, so off we went to Joann's.

Lo and behold-- non-pastel, curtain-coordinating, super awesome fabric!

With the help of this YHL no-sew crib skirt tutorial, I kid you not-- we made the dang crib skirt in maybe 20 minutes. WITH NO SEWING. And it cost about $10. I'd call that a win for Team We're On a Budget! My excitement cannot be overstated here. I also have the fabric and materials to make the bumpers, which will be a bit more challenging and probably require a sewing machine, but my confidence has been bolstered (and I have friends that are legit sewers. Whom I will be calling upon.) and I know I/we can do it.

When we finally packed it up and came back home, we brought with us a bookshelf my parents weren't using anymore that will fit perfectly in the nursery-- today I plan to get paint to make it look a little more awesome. We also have a variety of borrowed/gifted/thrifted baby items that we're starting to collect in the nursery. Are you ready for the big nursery reveal?? Brace yourself!!!

I know. It's a lot to take in and pretty super fabulous. Try to contain your jealousy. Unfortunately, although the awesome crib skirt is completed...we have no crib on which to put it. So it's in a bag. Sad face. Oh well. 

You wanna know what else is weird? That pretty much everyone in our families and Augusta knows our baby's name and yet I haven't shared it here, at work, or with people in our church. And not really for any good reason. It's not a big secret or anything. But now it feels weird and like I should do some kind of big reveal or something, but then I feel weirder that when people just ask, I just answer like it's no biggie. Ha. Anyways. Ponder that for awhile. Maybe I'll plan a super magical reveal for this week. Or maybe I'll just be lazy and tomorrow instead of calling her Baby I'll just be all 'when Esmerelda gets here and we do blah blah blah' and then you'll have to think of a nice lie about what a cute name we picked. GOOD TIMES. 

PS. Esmerelda is not actually her name, but three of the letters in it ARE in her first name.