Rebecca has been asking me all week what should we do above the baby’s dresser.  We know we want to rock the giraffe sconces, but we’re not so sure what to do exactly in between them.

Do we go with the classic three frame horizontal look?  Maybe one large frame?  We’ve bounced ideas back and forth to one another ranging from absolutely nothing besides the sconces to crazy framed patterns.

Ok, crazy framed pattern really means what you trendy kids are calling “chevron” patterns.  It’s called a zig-zag.  Seriously.  What’s easier to understand, “I think we should do a chevron pattern” or “I think we should do a zig-zag pattern.”  Yup, zig-zag.  Mike 1, rest of you 0.

Anyways, tonight I present you a combination that popped in my head as I was browsing 20×200.

(“Can You Imagine” via 20×200)

On the left, we have ‘Can You Imagine’ which instantly grabbed my attention.  For one, the background scenery reminded me much of our time spent in Hawaii.  And then the typography brought out the aspect of an imagination.  This baby girl or boy is going to have one helluva imagination; especially since he or she will be talking about Macky to friends as if Macky was a non-fur-baby.

But really, I glazed at this picture for a solid five minutes watching the waves grow as they approached me and then watching as they hit against the rocks.  Then I realized nothing was moving in this piece of art work.

(“Baby White Tiger No 5 via 20×200)

And then I saw this baby tiger.  What better way to make The Baby a crazy cat person than to hang a picture of a big cat?  Gotta start them young, right?

I love the simplicity of this piece, a baby white tiger on a simple backdrop.  But more importantly, I couldn’t help but think that this tiger had a piece of all of our cats — small sized tiger with big paws reminds me of Darwin, the fluffy white chest reminding me of Sunny (our precious guy we lost to panleukopenia), the big eyes with a slight tilt of the head reminding me of Mowie and the overall goofiness that Macky shares with this tiger.

In 20 years, you’re going to hear about The Baby having a TLC special about owning too many cats.

(“Closing Credits at the End of a Movie” via 20×200)

And to end, we have some artwork reflecting the geekiness in me.  I love that this really screams our youth while throwing several colors into the mix.  I really want to go play space invaders now.

I’m not sure if we’ll go with any of these, but I figured I’d throw them out there.  Maybe Rebecca will let me mount three LED televisions up there so the artwork can always rotate and be random.

Now that is a great idea.

So I’ve reached the 35 week mark.

It’s weird, I didn’t really feel like I grew that much these past 5 weeks, but when I saw this picture I had a holy s#@* moment. I had no clue my stomach was protruding that far.

I decided not to put my hand over the center of my belly like I usually do so that my hand didn’t take away from the belly. I also decided to take a bonus frontal view this time, since who knows.. this may be the last time!

It’s crazy to think that I’m almost done. So many people now ask me if I’ve had enough… the answer is yes and no. I wouldn’t say I’ve had a rough time, so I don’t feel like I’m at my breaking point yet. I also have a ton of things to do before the baby comes. I know everyone says you’re never fully ready, but I’m sure those people have at least taken their car seats out of the box and have a closet for their baby. I’ve been insanely busy at work and drained on the weekends (which have also been busy), so in my fantasy world I would like to sit in a glider and read some baby books, knowing that everything is settled and mostly put away. I know there’s a fat chance of that happening at this point, but hey, I can dream.

I would like my baby here, that is one reason I’d like this process to speed up. Maybe once I start to waddle I’ll say I’ve had enough 🙂

I’m seriously amazed at how much my body has grown in the past 15 weeks or so. I can’t imagine what a 40 week picture would look like?

My brain hurts today and my to-do list is massive. We have loads of things in the works for the nursery, but nothing is completed for after pictures and stories. So! A random post of what’s going on it is!

First there are the things we’ve sort of done, or rather, started…

1. Buy dresser

(via Ikea)

Two weekends ago we bought a Hemnes dresser from Ikea. Last weekend, Mike started putting it together and did everything but the drawers. I’ll also have to share how we decided on this dresser and my little email exchange with Ikea.

2. Buy mattress

(via Naturepedic)

We picked up a Naturepedic crib mattress since I wanted to give it a chance to air out before the baby comes.

3. Buy changing pad

(via Buy Buy Baby)

We also picked up a Naturepedic changing pad. Both the pad and the mattress were chosen for their non-toxic, safer, compositions. But they’re both still in their packaging at the moment.

In the very near future (like maybe this weekend), we plan to…

1. Stencil the closet

I have a polka dot stencil waiting to take over this closet! I know it won’t take me long, but my energy levels depend on the day. I think taking a break from painting for a couple of weeks should be sufficient 🙂

3. Install Allen + Roth closet system

(via Lowe’s)

We hope to pick this up this weekend so that whenever we’re ready to get it installed, we have it on hand. I went through all of the baby’s things and I’m itching to put it all away somewhere!

3. Install giraffe sconces

(via Macy’s)

Yes, our first nursery purchase is still in the plans! That is, as long as we think they would be okay with the dresser once that’s in position. Hopefully this weekend will tell and all of the electrical won’t be too tricky.

Then there are the things we need to do somewhere in the future….

1. Buy glider…the glider that STILL has not gone on sale. I’m losing my patience.

(via Babies R Us)

2. Make some curtains out of the 10 yards of chevron fabric we bought to complete either one of our color schemes…

3. Find a bookcase, which depends on how much space we have after all major pieces are in the room

4. Add some wall art! I admittedly don’t have any concrete plans for this. I have to see how everything looks, since the room gets smaller with each piece added. Then I can decide if I want to add a canvas, gallery wall, paper laterns… I’m not sure!

That’s not too much for 5 weeks, right? RIGHT?!?

::blows into paper bag::

Sing it, you know you want to!  I am.  Blinddddeeddd by the liiigggghhtt. Bli-bli-bllllliiinndddddeedd.

We had a problem when we installed our diffuser-less light fixture the other day, just after we finished painting the nursery.  The bulb was insanely bright, like sun-spots bright.  I think Rebecca realized this when she caught me staring into the bulb  for a solid 15 seconds.  Her line of thinking was probably, “well if Mike stares into this thing for 15 seconds at a time, then baby will do it for 30 seconds.”  Not good.

I proposed putting the light on a dimmer.  At least with a dimmer, we’d be able to control the brightness.  But then we both realized that when this baby is crying at 4am, neither one of us will think, “oh hey, this light is on a dimmer, let me decrease the brightness before I pick up this crying baby.”  Yes, out went the dimmer solution.

The bulb dips just where the shade ends, so even if we wanted to make/buy/steal a diffuser, we wouldn’t be able to use one.  The bulb would literally sit on the diffuser and eventually we would have a nice fire in our house.  Great.

We begin thinking, I joked about putting in a black light far too often and then we thought, “restaurants often use silver tipped bulbs!”   Oh, if you were paying close enough attention, you saw our solution already in Rebecca’s last post.  But enough about Rebecca.  We headed off to our local Lowes.  No silver tipped bulbs.  We then headed to the Home Depot across the street.  After having the lady search for a solid ten minutes, no silver tipped bulbs either.  We gave up and decided the internet wins again.

We got home, pulled up Amazon and a couple seconds later we bought a 100W half chrome bulb.

Now these things aren’t cheap at almost $7 a pop, but they get the job done.  They fill the room with plenty of light and allow you to look at the bulb if your eyes should cross it’s path.  Boring, if you’re me, but safe if you’re a baby.  Baby 1, Mike 0.

And here is the bulb in all it’s glory.  The chrome actually looks a bit stylish.

On Saturday, our families threw us a baby shower. It took place at the same local bed & breakfast where we got married almost 2.5 years ago.

It was sort of rainbow themed, though my mom, mother-in-law and sister-in-law Jen kept the decorations to a minimum to not take away from the classic house.

My sister-in-law ordered these adorable invites and thank you cards and set them up on the entryway table with favors and candle holders made out of tissue paper.

Yes I blurred out my last name. Not that I necessarily care if you know it, but it just seemed wrong to blantantly post it you know?

On the other side of the entryway were some adorable centerpieces my mother-in-law made with crayons and baby pictures of Mike and I.

I forgot how big the house was. There was no formal seating during the shower and just seating throughout the many rooms of the house (probably about 5 large rooms downstairs?). I opened gifts in this large living room area.

And that seriously ends where Mike took pictures. We were so busy making the rounds that we didn’t get pictures of a lot of things, including the rainbow cupcakes, food, a shot of me actually standing and a shot of us together. Thankfully I did ask a friend to take some pictures while I opened gifts. We received so many amazing things, which was even more apparent when I went through these pictures and realized I am smiling ridiculously huge in most of them.

That’s a puppy cat hat. I’m not sure if it’s a puppy or a cat. I think I decided it’s a chihuahua.

My sister in law painted this wipe case with my favorite, Puss in Boots. It has our last name on the right side so of course I blurred it out, but I couldn’t resist posting my Puss in Boots impression (learned from Darwin)…

We also got loads of baskets full of goodies, which I love (and are generally my gift giving choice when I go to baby showers :)) I wish I had before pictures of how adorable they all looked.

Of course, no baby shower is complete without a poop reference.

The blog wasn’t forgotten at the shower either. My mother-in-law gave me this bib…

I caught Macky wearing it already….

I always love reading about baby gear on blogs and I got a lot of ideas for what to register for by reading blogs. I like seeing what sort of baby stuff people with a similar style to mine find, so I figured I’d share some of our choices that we received on Saturday. Maybe it will help a fellow pregnant lady out? 🙂

1. bumGenius Elemental Cloth Diapers– Mike and are planning to use cloth diapers most of the time. It seems to be one of those topics that fascinate people like how we don’t eat meat…we’re crazy, what can I say? The truth is we try to do the best we can with what we have. We’re not trying to fit into any label or group, but we do what we feel is best for us. We went with the all-in-ones because we think it would be easiest for us. We are thinking of picking up some bumGenius 4.0s also to try while we figure out what we like best. We know it will be a learning process (I mean, what won’t be!?) but we’re confident in our decision.

2. Chicco KeyFit 30 Infant Car Seat in Romantic– I did the usual research, determined this one was safe, easy to carry and a nice classy fabric. SOLD!

3. babyGap Convertible Printed Bundler– Not only does this have an adorable gender neutral star pattern, but it’s super soft and converts from a bundler to a one piece with pants!

4. JJ Cole Diaper & Wipes Pod in Mixed Leaf– I love all things JJ Cole. They’ve managed to make baby gear look super chic. The pattern on this won me over and I thought it would add a nice pop of fun to my solid gray diaper bag (I also got the matching pacifier and bottle holders)

5. Fisher Price Space Saver High Chair– This pattern is sold exclusively at Target and for some reason I love the childish numbers on it. We went with this as opposed to a traditional stand alone high chair because we don’t have a lot of room in our eat in kitchen and we didn’t want an extra giant thing hanging around. Plus we like the idea of taking this anywhere with us, but it still functions exactly like a regular high chair. It even turns into a booster for older kids!

6. Lifefactory Glass Baby Bottle 4 pack (in gender neutral colors)– Mike and I stopped using plastics for our hot food probably over a year ago. Something about the thought of leeching creeps me out. We traded in all of our ziploc plastic containers for glass, so it only seemed right to use glass bottles for the baby as well. We went with these because not only is the colorful sleeve adorable, but it helps protect the bottle from breaking. They also come with solid caps to hold snacks or sippy cup lids so that the bottles grow with the baby.

7. giggle Better Basics Striped Cap– Because it’s adorable, organic, striped and a bright color. We also received the matching bibs, mittens and booties!

8. UppaBaby Vista Stroller in Silver/Mica– Some of you spotted this in the box in one of our nursery posts. I could write a whole lengthy post on our stroller decision, but the UppaBaby won out at the last minute. I was set on a Baby Jogger City Select for months, then suddenly changed my mind. I love that the UppaBaby comes standard with a bassinet and we went with a 2011 model (which were cheaper than the newly released 2012 ones). So I was pretty convinced.

One item I meant to include but forgot is the Ergo Baby Organic carrier. I am totally going to be one of those people that walks around with my baby strapped to my chest (how else will I blog?) and I love this carrier. I’m debating whether to get the infant insert for the Ergo we received at the shower, or go with a different carrier for the newborn stage (like a Moby). Any thoughts?

Sorry I went mommy blogger for a few there, but you can open your eyes now 🙂

Anyway, we are very lucky to have super generous family and friends who not only threw a beautiful shower for us, but made sure our baby was set with a bunch of wonderful goodies. I cannot wait to have the room all ready so I can begin to put some of this stuff away!

ps- The plan all week was to paint the nursery on Sunday, but I was drained after all of the excitement so Mike worked on it solo. Maybe it will be done by the end of the week for a reveal 🙂