Calvin's Nursery

Some time after Calvin was born I finally finished putting together his nursery. (Sort of. We still need to finish putting shoe molding on the baseboard and paint all the trim.) He had been in a bassinet in our room so it hadn't been a big deal anyway. And then I never took pictures because I had other priorities. I finally got around to it yesterday. The furniture has already been rearranged, and the picture quality is terrible, but that's all you're going to get. Behold. The before and afters. 

. I painted it the same color as the bathroom, primed all the trim (that used to be a pastel purple, even though you can't tell in the pictures) and left the original chandelier. I couldn't find any curtains I liked for cheap so I decided to get crafty and make my own. I bought white Ikea curtains. $5/panel can't be beat. Then I made a stamp out of a wood block and foam. They came out better than I expected and some day I plan on doing it again for the master bedroom.

 I found this rocking chair and drum on Craigslist when we first moved to Seattle, and had basically stored the rocker dreaming of the day I could put it in a nursery. I made the pillow out of scrap fabric and paint. The teddy bear blanket was made for my brother Scott when he was born. The print (and it's partner on the bookshelf) we got from an artist at Pike Place Market.

 I love books. Can you tell? There's about 10 more that don't fit. I have to get another shelf at Ikea so I can continue my collection and give them all a home. One of my favorite and most useful purchases was the fox night light from Restoration Hardware. It was a pricey $40 I think? But I allowed myself one splurge as I couldn't find anything else I liked that let off enough light. This one was and has been perfect for night time feedings and diaper changes.

Here we have another craigslist purchase. I got this dresser and its brother (our bathroom vanity) from the same lady for $50.

 The picture/painting was my first craft project for the nursery. Made from scrap wood and an old frame I had, I was 1 month pregnant and couldn't subdue my excitement for baby decorating any longer. And the mobile I made out of pine cones from our yard and driftwood from La Push beach on the Olympic Penninsula.

 It's a small and eclectic room, but I loved getting creative and combining new with old meaningful things

Thanksgiving and eating and sleeping and eating and sleeping...

We took our first trip with Calvin down to Salem, OR to visit the Maughans for a pre-Thanksgiving. He did awesome for the 4 hour trip, sleeping or eating the whole time.

From then until Christmas we spent our time trying to fatten up our skinny babe. He started off a little slow and HATED the boobs. After days of frustration and a not growing boy I had switched to pumping and bottle feeding. Calvin and I's lives pretty much revolved around milk and sleep, but it sure made for one cute chunk. (Pumping is the worst,but it worked. After a few months Calvin finally managed to switch back to breastfeeding so I could finally quit. Whew! Props to moms who do that for longer. I think I did it for 2-3 months and it was HARD.)

And now, onslaught of Calvin pictures. 

Helpers and Halloween

And now we get to the really difficult part of blogging - narrowing down 10 million adorable photos to just a few. We were really blessed after Calvin's birth to have a great group of helpers. My parents drove to Seattle as soon as they heard I was in the hospital. They came and helped us continue to work on our house while we were busy trying to figure out how to parent. Then Rachel came up and helped with cooking and cleaning. And after they all left Josh's mom came to continue the work and kept us alive with a whole bunch of dinners. They were all heaven sent and we were so so grateful to have them.

Here are the "narrowed down pictures of the tiny guy. It's so hard with digital cameras these days!

A month later we Tyler and Lisa got to come back out. Lisa brought us our AMAZING Halloween costumes and Ty helped Josh fill in a kitchen/living room pass through, tear down our kitchen/dining room wall and put up a beam.

Before

After

Just before Halloween we had Mindy and Ange come out for a visit too. It was so much fun to have our babies together!

We 100% had to do Calvin and Hobbes for Halloween for Calvin's first year. We had a hard time deciding what I would be and finally settled on one of the snowmen Calvin builds. I looked great but most everyone thought I was Olaf. Ah well. Josh and Calvin were adorable anyway.