Nora tipped over her rocking chair and made a bed for herself on the back of it, right NEXT to her actual bed. This is why I ignore loud thumps during naptime (at least the ones not followed by screaming).
I bet those spindles are just comfy!
You guys probably haven’t noticed (because I can’t imagine that anyone really cares), but I have been checking stuff off my before-the-baby-comes house list like crazy. Blake has been awesome, and Sarah and E have helped a ton as well. Thank goodness for tax refunds, too.
I took some (confusingly blurry) photos of Nora’s spruced-up room with her new bed and rug. I haven’t reassembled the crib yet to put in there, but we have measured everything out and the new furniture arrangement will fit the crib if we take out the rocker and the easel. I’m not sure if the magnitude of this discovery is clear, but our rooms are pretty tiny and I am VERY excited that it’s going to work to have the girls share the upstairs bedroom.
As a reminder, the before photos are here. It’s not so much a redecorating as it is a rearranging. Still, it means a lot of work and Nora is super excited about her big bed (and about her future roommate).
Sacked out at naptime with Bedhead and Buster Brown.
This might be my favorite Nora purchase EVER. The cutest little-girl shoes I’ve ever seen, and nary a licensed character. My online shopping skills are unparalleled.
I think every kid with a Mr. Potato Head has done this. It’s a rite of passage.
Sometimes you have to sneak in and take a picture of your kid while she’s sleeping, because it’s just too sweet and cute.
Plus, this is an excellent opportunity for you all to meet Chester, a souvenir Grandma brought Nora from New York (and an adorably creepy littlemissmatched sock doll). Sometimes Chester gets nervous at night, and Nora has to hold his hand to make him feel better.
I name all of Nora’s toys. I figure you have to refer to the toy somehow, and it’s easier to say “Hey, Blake, will you grab Simon?” than to say “Hey, will you grab that sort of gender-confused but snooty-looking white teddy bear on the shelf in Nora’s room? Or maybe on the dresser?” Plus, I think finding the right name to fit the personality of the toy is fun.
If you’ve met some of Nora’s toys before, you might already know their names. Here’s a chance to test your knowledge (or guessing skills). Click on the thumbnails if you want a close-up of the toy for your in-depth analysis, but don’t click on the names unless you think you’ve already figured it out.
a. 
b. 
c. 
d. 
e. 
f. 
g. 
h. 
1. Lulu
2. Belinda
3. Rolf
4. Oscar
5. Sadie
6. Ruby
7. Kenneth
8. The Nemesis
When I hung up the letter hooks in Nora’s bedroom, it started an addiction that could only be fed by adding more hooks. Blake hung some little brass hooks in my craft closet for me that are now holding gift bags, and I ordered three more hooks from Restorers (through Amazon) for Nora’s room.
I knew I wanted to hang her blessing dress and the gorgeous handmade blanket she got from her anonymous “secret grandma,” but that left one empty hook and a long narrow space in the middle. With Sarah’s help, I brainstormed an accessory holder.
Here’s the result:
I’m really happy with how it turned out, and the whole thing took less than two hours to make. Endless variations are possible to suit your needs and tastes. Instructions and the materials I used are after the jump, if you’re interested.
For better or worse, the nursery is pretty much put together! It feels good to have that task done. The polka-dotted fabric bin on the lower shelf of the white table holds board books and tub books. You can see the Boppy pillow hanging out on the seat of Blake’s grandpa’s rocker.
The dresser is full of baby clothes and linens that have been washed with Dreft, folded and sorted by size, and put into labeled drawers. The IKEA frog is sitting in a Bumbo baby seat next to George and Martha and a sweet little baby sock sorting thingie I found at HomeGoods. I made the print over the dresser in my letterpress class–it features my favorite quote from Peter Pan.
The top two shelves of the bookcase are full of baby supplies, and the bottom shelf is picture books. The art is two pages from an advance copy of You Were Loved Before You Were Born, written by Eve Bunting and illustrated by Karen Barbour. The book is due out in January.
Under the window you can see the gift Marci got us–the first baby item Blake and I picked out together. Above the crib are the letter hooks I talked about here. Since I took these pictures, I got some big clear totes at Target to go under the crib: one for extra diapers, one for blankets, and one for stuffed animals. We’re still waiting for our Sophie bumper and crib skirt to arrive from Pottery Barn.
The light must have been a bit different for this photo, because the wall color here looks closer to how it looks in real life. Anyway, you can see we’ve been messing around with the toys on top of the bookcase and on the shelf above it. We swapped out the fancy (and arguably creepy-looking) dolls I had when I was younger for the Cabbage Patch Garden Fairies I adopted in college. And of course we had to dig out my Boo doll and press her belly a bunch of times. The soccer-playing Build-a-Bear was a gift to Blake from the girls he coached one year, and the other one is Olivia, who Blake gave me for our anniversary three years ago.
TA-DA! She’d better friggin’ love it.
Back in June I mentioned that I bought some letter hooks for the baby’s room. I got them hung on the wall over the crib soon after that post, but it’s taken me a month and a half to download the pictures from my camera. AT LONG LAST, here are the hooks in their natural habitat:
Here’s a closeup of the hooks. I want to get some prettier hangers, but these work for now.
And this is why everyone keeps asking me if I’m having twins:
