Arya Adeola.
September 20, 2010 at 9:14 a.m.
6 pounds, 8 ounces, 20 inches.
Long legs and a full head of hair!
Archive for September, 2010
She’s Here!
Sep 21
Ready or Not…
Sep 14
Xander has 6 days left of being an only child. A week from now, his life will never be the same. Rob and I feel led to have a large family so in the future Xander won’t just be a big brother; he’ll be the big brother.
I’ve been trying to get him ready for having a younger sibling, and here are a few things he has accomplished since we found out we were expecting another:
Pacifier-Free – He was seriously hooked. Fortunately for us (and unfortunately for them), he started putting the entire pacifier in his mouth the day we were dropping him off to spend a week with each set of grandparents. It was too dangerous for him to keep having them so we had him quit cold turkey. He came back to us at the end of the two weeks cured of his addiction!
Diaper-Free – Mostly. He still needs to be reminded to go more often than he asks to go, and he hasn’t yet figured out how not to go in his sleep. But he goes all day without accidents. So instead of pulling double diaper duty, I’ll just have to change his one morning diaper.
Verbal Skills – Xander was a late bloomer when it came to talking. He’s still not great at it, but he’s finally at a point where he can express most anything he needs or wants… if you know how to decipher his pronunciations, that is.
And he’s clean, organized, respectful, and caring. He puts his trash in the trash can, his dishes in the sink, and his clothes in the hamper. I think he’ll be a wonderful older (and oldest) brother.
Making the Nursery
Sep 12
Last night the nursery reached the point where I can finally call it complete. I’ll be adding a few things here and there, but I feel satisfied with where it is.
I fell in love with the MiGi Blossom bedding set when I first saw it. The only problem was that outside of the bedding and window valance, there are no matching accessories. With Xander’s bedding set there was wall art, a lamp, a diaper stacker, and even a wall border if I wanted it. So this time took a little extra work. The room and bedding “before”:
After lots of planning and “sketching” – using Photoshop, of course – the nursery project began in mid August. I began by taking a picture of the crib blanket and replicating the bird and flower shapes. Because they’re vectors, I can blow them up to whatever size I need and never lose any quality.
Then I did the little art project I referred to in an earlier post:
By far, the most time-consuming part of this was creating birds and flowers. I printed the shapes out on cardstock and covered them with fabric. I am no good with fabric so this was difficult for me.
Then it was time to paint the walls, trim, and doors. I could not have possibly done this without Val’s help, especially the taping. We used Benjamin Moore colors: Sweet Taffy for the top and Blushing Bride for the bottom.
Taking the tape off revealed a nice, straight line. Phew!
The ladies at church threw me a wonderful shower, and now Baby Arya has all she needs thanks to their generosity. I know matching your thank you cards to your bedding makes about as much sense as making your underwear match your clothing. It makes me feel better; leave me alone.
Some artwork I made for the walls because I didn’t have the patience to find something that matched what I was going for. I had them printed and shipped through walmart.com and then framed them up. The scripture is Psalm 121:5-8. It comes from my dad’s favorite passage, and I thought it was a wonderful promise to place on her wall!
We did the final touches this weekend. Rob did a great job painting a tree branch mural.
Then we added the white stripe. I used Brewster WallPops, and I would recommend them to anyone wanting to add accents to a room. It was very easy to put on, but did require some very careful measuring beforehand.
(The following is a completely staged photo. The stripe was already on the wall; it takes 4 hands to get it on straight.)
How my “paintings” turned out.
Turned a cheap Walmart clock into one that coordinates
I put my fabric birds and flowers on the mural and that’s it! Baby Arya’s room is ready for her arrival in just one week.
The Natural State
Sep 4
Arkansas calls itself The Natural State, which is a nice way of saying “there’s nothing here”.
But when you’re the soon-to-be mother of two young children, “natural” is a wonderful word. When we lived in Cumming, GA I had to drive at least 20 minutes to find a decent park. Here, I can drive about 5 minutes in any direction from our house and find a great place for Xander to run around. And that’s only when he gets bored with the large, flat, fenced backyard.
I love watching Xander discover new things about what his body can do and about the world around him.
