Baby’s Closet Makeover

Baby Denbow’s Closet Makeover

Originally uploaded by ::Photo Mojo::
Saturday’s project, check out Chris’ Flickr account for the notes on each picture. We also scored a dresser (from a local thrift shop, it reminds me of the infamous rat poop dresser that was used in my mom’s and my nurseries.. of course it didn’t smell like rat poop at the time) and a changing table from a local garage sale. Now we just have to find out what we are having so I know what color to paint them.

Baby Stuff = A Big Racket

Someone is making a killing off baby merchandise. Think I’m kidding, check out this baby bedding set that’s almost $1,000.

At the moment I’m really frustrated because I can’t find a decent baby bedding set suitable for a boy. I like a couple sets (Babylicious Islands collection for example) but the prices for a bumper, quilt/coverlet, crib skirt and sheet run over $200. What! I only paid $50 for my queen bed set at TJMaxx! Adding to the problem is that I want a bright modern design… no baby blue, no bears driving cars, you get the picture. This really limits my selection. I’ve tried looking for crib separates (since you can’t really use the quilt/coverlet anyway) and have found absolutely nothing, with the exception of a few DwellBaby products (which are modern, just not quite what I had in mind). A few sites, such as modernseed.com had some great clearance prices on Denyse Schmidt bedding, but only on the little girl sets.. GRRRRRRR!!! I might be sewing my own baby bedding (which I’d really rather not do!!).

Of course this might all be a moot point if Baby Denbow doesn’t decide to reveal his/her gender this Wednesday!! Then I might be looking for a gender neutral set (gasp!).

Daphne’s Room?????

Daphne’s Room?????

Possibility for Daphne’s room (yes, that’s our girl’s name of the moment). Trend Lab Tropical Breeze bedding, cute Blik wall graphics… Click on the picture to see it larger in Flickr. Of course since I’ve been able to find all these great girls items this probably guarantees that Baby Denbow will be a boy, but we’ll find out (hopefully) next week!!!

Blik looks like a really cool site.  I’ve seen several of their designs used on HGTV.  And for $25, the price is right.

Hideous Baby Names

I don’t know what’s gotten into some parents lately, but the baby names I see discussed on various baby message boards are ridiculous! I mean, people are just making stuff up. I feel for these kids that will spend their entire life telling people how to pronounce and spell their names. Today I stumbled across a funny item on baby names, “Baby’s Named a Bad Bad Thing” from Not Without My Handbag.

http://www.notwithoutmyhandbag.com/babynames/

Only in Alabama

Well, almost only in Alabama.

While checking out a local calendar recently I realized it was almost time for the Cahaba Lily Festival in West Blocton. Last year Chris & I made the short trip to the river and got some great pics of the flowers. Cahaba Lilies only grow in a few locations in the SE from Mother’s Day to Father’s Day. They require a swift current to survive and the largest stand of flowers is located here in AL. Not the prettiest flowers in my opinion, but very interesting!!

This reminded me of the Discovery Channel special, Planet Earth - Caves, not that there were any Cahaba Lilies, but they showed these weird little Dismalites that only live in a handful of places, including Alabama and New Zealand. (Ok, Alabama and New Zealand, so similar, that makes sense, lol!!) Anyway, if you watched the cave special you saw the dismalites in New Zealand. Chris has done a photo shoot at Dismal Caverns but hasn’t had the opportunity to stay until after dark. Maybe another time. When it’s not hot and I’m not pregnant!

Toddler Chris

Toddler Chris
Chris’ mom has been scanning in old family photos lately and I have a few of Chris on my Flickr account. Chris was such a cute kid!!

A Name for Baby

One of the reasons we were really hoping to find out the sex of Baby this week was so we could seriously start discussing baby names. Since we don’t agree on many, we decided to wait until we know the sex to argue about names. My preference is for a name that everyone can spell (nothing too creative) but not so common that every other little kid on the playground has the same name (no Emma, Ella, Isabella, Olivia, Aiden, of course this is coming from Jennifer- the most popular girls’ name in 1973, and Christopher- 2nd most popular boys’ name in 1972).

Chris has odd taste in names.. for boys his favorite name was Buster, of course he told me this several years ago before we became Arrested Development fans. Yeah, not going with Buster, or Clive, or any of the other weird names he liked. For girls, Chris seems to think of cute girls he dated in the 80’s and likes those names- yeah, too dated.

I like classic names- Charlotte, Audrey, Natalie, Amelia. For awhile we had agreed on Charlotte, if it was a girl. Chris has since decided he doesn’t like the name anymore, and has settled on Elizabeth. Hmm.. too long of a name for a little girl, and I don’t like the nickname options- Lizzie, Liz, Eliza, Beth. I really like Veronica, but then her initials would be VD and I’m not sure how much teasing she’d get on that one. I guess it could be worse, her initials could be STD. Anyway, if we end up having a girl, don’t get us anything monogrammed until the very last second, we will probably change our mind 100 times.

For boys, we have agreed on Jake Ryan D. (Chris pushed for Jake Blues D., yeah, not getting it.) At first we were a little concerned that the Sixteen Candles reference might be a little too cheesy, but so far the only people that have noticed are fellow children of the 80’s, my sister and mom didn’t get it. (Actually Chris was the one that thought it might be cheesy, his response, “Jake Ryan? Why don’t we just name the kid Long Duk Dong…” nice manners babe!) I’m not saying we are naming the kid after a movie character, just that I liked the name Jake and Ryan does go well as a middle name. It’s not like I’m pushing for Lloyd Dobler D. or anything.

So now we have another 24 days to stew over names before finally getting serious. Have any suggestions for us? Send them our way!

Happy Anniversary!

Today is our 11th wedding anniversary. A year ago we were sipping rum punch while snorkeling with stingrays in the Bahamas. This year is going to be more low key, just a nice steak dinner at one of our favorite restaurants. Chris will have to drink the champagne for the both of us (no complaints there!).

Baby the Rebel

Well, today was the much anticipated 20 week ultrasound. We were hoping to get a glimpse of Baby and determine the sex. No such luck. Baby was not cooperating at all. We did however, get a really great glimpse of the back/spine/head/stomach/kidneys/bladder/brain.. just no face or “business” shots. Good news is that both me and the baby are doing great. Development is still exactly what it should be for the 20 week point, so my Sept. due date is still on target. We’ll get another ultrasound in 4 weeks. Hopefully we’ll get lucky this time. Chris said Baby must take after my side of the family (the stubborn Hills).