And the winner is...

Turns out it's a good thing they let me come home because some of my ideas would definitely not have worked in that room! For the moment, the nursery is actually my room since I'm not allowed to do stairs... which means I've been spending A LOT of time looking at those walls.

It's a decidedly smaller room than Zoe's and as much as I LOVE the idea of the green and chocolate color combo, those colors will be WAAAAAY to overpowering all over the walls. It will make the room feel even smaller and that's not what we want. Yet I still really want to use those colors and keep my jungle theme.... sooooooooo...

Behold, the winning design solution:


It's perfect, I get my colors, my mural and I won't turn my son's room into a tiny cube that will leave us all feeling claustrophobic. We're not going to paint the main walls white like they are in the sample pics, we're going to leave them the 'Haze' color they are now, which personally, I think will work better. We're also going to do different curtains and stick with the wooden blinds, which I think will look awesome. I LOVE the rug in the sample room and I actually found it, but damn, it's expensive!... Ouch!... Still trying to wrap my head around that decision.

I can hardly wait to get started :)

Bed Unrest

Most of you know by now that I'm sentenced to bed "rest" in the hospital, at least for now, while Lucas "cooks" a little longer. Thankfully, he seems to be doing fine and I'm so relieved that he's not the source of the problem. My body just seems to think it can do whatever... stupid body.

They seem to have halted the process for now, but unfortunately, the damage is done, which means I have to be really careful. I'll find out on Friday if the rest is helping and if I'll be allowed to go home, on parole so to speak, or if my sentence will be extended. I'm so torn because I want to make sure we do what's best to keep Lucas safe, but at the same time, I miss my family so much and want more than anything to be with them again.... Not to mention all this "free" time is giving me WAAAAAY too much time to think about things... For example, the nursery.

Prior to my 'incarceration', I was pretty sure I knew what I wanted for the nursery and was quite happy with our choices. The room was my office but conversion plans had already begun. The room is painted a lovely pale beige (Behr: Haze to be exact), and has a chair rail dividing it. A while back, Robb had found an awesome paint swatch (I'm way addicted to paint swatches by the way), called Summer Dragonfly..a BEAUTIFUL pale blue. The exact blue used in this picture actually:

We thought it would be neat to paint just the top half of the room with this cool color (thus saving us 1/2 the work since we weren't painting the whole room), maybe add some clouds and call it a day. Those of you that know me, know I LOVE dragonflies, so the name alone seemed perfect.

We actually bought the bedding and some general room decor a while back on a sojourn to St. Joseph... At the time it seemed like quite the score on Craig's list!... Here's a stock photo of the set: (Not the crib, but the bedding, mobile, a hamper, some wall hangings, frames, a trash can, etc... it really was a good haul).



So it seemed the room was pretty well set. Obviously we needed to get furniture for it, but we were well on our way.

We had started looking at cribs and actually found one we both really liked for a really good price too. Lucas's room is a bit smaller than Zoe's... Not too small, but we definitely had to keep space in mind, so we were excited to find a crib/changer combo that would free up some space in the room for other stuff. Given how long it took to get Zoe's furniture once we ordered it, we decided not to wait... (Guess that was a pretty good decision, huh?!)

Ironically, the crib was delivered the same day I was brought to the hospital. I'm just glad Lucas wasn't delivered that day as well! Here's a pic of the crib we bought...

The changer can be detached and the crib can convert to a toddler bed, then a full sized bed, so we really got an awesome deal!

So we're good, right?... Wrong... stuck in bed with a laptop means lots of time online. Lots of time online means lots of browsing and finding new, fab designs for the room.

It all started with this picture:

I LOVED the idea of the green with the bamboo blinds creating this jungle like room for our little monkey. I started thinking that maybe I just had my heart set on the Summer Dragonfly because of the name and not the color... Of course I was second guessing myself, what else could I do? This was all happening the first couple of days I was here when I couldn't get up at all and I was very heavily medicated, so I couldn't really focus on much... just think and wander aimlessly though cyberspace and my own cloudy mind... It was not pretty.

But I already had the bedding... Granted, it's a jungle theme, but it's somewhat on the pastel side... Suddenly I was sorry I bought stuff so early, but I still really love a lot of what we got (the wall hangings, frames, etc)... And then I found this!

The clouds parted, the heavens shone down and the angels sang as I realized this one simple blanket summed up exactly what I wanted his room to be... and this one simple blanket would bring it all together... With one other small modification... We needed some chocolate. Suddenly, we weren't going to paint just 1/2 the room anymore, were we? Oh no, suddenly, the hunt was on for the perfect green and the perfect shade of chocolate to paint each 1/2 of the room... Poor Robb.

And what's this? I can order the paint swatches online?? They can send them right to me with just a few magical clicks?... Glory, hallelujah!!.. One step closer to making yet another decision. The rich colors mixed with the bamboo blinds and soft bedding topped off with that beautiful blanket?... OK, I think I'm lovin' it...

Then I saw this....

Crap... uses all the colors I want, keeps the theme, is simple and really cool!... What to do, what to do?... If we do incorporate a mural of any kind, definitely something like this! I can almost see it now... Leave the Behr Haze on the top half and paint this mural above the chair rail... then below the chair rail we paint it either chocolate or green... Definitely open to feedback on this one... Cause my brain is starting to hurt with the possibilities!... Hell, just describing the original design and posting the pic of the Summer Dragonfly and all had me pause for a minute to reconsider it... then I said Naaahhhhh... One theme at a time, damn it!... plus I found a super cute monkey clock that will just make the jungle monkey theme for my little monkey...

*sigh*... I'll have to decide soon, damn it... but at least I know whatever we settle on, he'll have a loving place to come home to once he's ready. If he does come early, which the doctors think is likely, he'll most likely end up in the NICU. I just hope he won't have to be there too long. You hear that kiddo?... hit that snooze button!

That's My Kid

It was a dark and stormy night... OK, not really, it was a mildly sunny afternoon, but that doesn't sound quite as spooky. It was another afternoon in the hospital and away from my family... Granted, I have Lucas with me, but he's been doing his own thing, you know, growing and all.

Getting to see my family is definitely the highlight of each day for me, and yesterday was no exception. The first few visits were kind of rough. Zoe had no idea what was going on or why mommy wasn't home with her. The first room I was in was full of monitoring equipment, which clearly looked fun to play with, much to Robb's dismay. My new room however, has less dangerous stuff for her and more room to run around my bed and climb on me. A definite plus.

While yesterday's visit was kind of a zoo... literally, it was so much fun. It was Halloween and I was bummed I was going to miss out on trick-or-treating with them. Plus, it's not like I'm going to WANT to be a large round pumpkin next year when I'm NOT pregnant... *Sigh*

Zoe was dressed as an adorable, sweet little autumn butterfly. She LOVES butterflies and even has a 'friend' butterfly that comes to play with her in the yard. No joking. She's our little butterfly whisperer. There she was, looking all sweet and pure, until she saw it... OMG, what IS that awesome toy mom's been hiding? Yup, it was none other than a remote control zombie... complete with brains. Keep in mind, the 'brain' is the remote control... Zoe would turn it on, let it loose, then hurl the brains across the room and squeal in delight. She would them retrieve the brains, and repeat... See:

Being a zombie lover myself (yes, I heart zombies), I couldn't help but feel a sense of pride that my twisted love for the undead has been passed on genetically to my daughter. That's my kid!

The surrealism of the afternoon continued as our friends Nathan, Christine and Auggie also came by to visit, dressed in safari gear with Auggie the lion. They were all too cute! (Pics of them will have to come later, I only have a few pics that Robb emailed me last night for now). Mom and Robb were also there of course, but the real star of the day was my uncle Barry, who dressed as Elmo much to the delight of every child he passed! I think by the end of the day he was giving out autographs and scheduling interviews, hahaha.

I was sad such a fun visit had to end, but there was some serious trick-or-treating to be done and I certainly didn't want to stand in the way of the candy harvesting!.. And so they were off to raid the neighborhood of it's confections...

Even the cat got in on the festivities...

After the neighborhood stores had been looted, the family retreated home to give a little back to the community, so to speak... I'm not sure if it's because it was a Saturday, or if having our front porch more festively decorated made a difference, but apparently we had a TON of trick-or-treaters this year. Actually went through all the candy we had bought for a change... I'm glad it could be such a special day for them...

Me, I took delight in the time we had here, the awesome pics Robb kept emailing me and the REAL clothes I was finally able to put on. Awesomely comfy new stylin' black PJs and a pedicure were just what the doctor ordered... really, it's on my chart ;)

Hope everyone else had a fun and safe Halloween too!