Nesting

When I was pregnant with Emma, my idea of nesting was going shopping. (Ah, the glory days of 2 salaries and no kids.) Emma had a fantastic wardrobe, and I prided myself on finding cute things on sale. (Again, another advantage of being a teacher and having the entire second half of your pregnancy off because of summer break.) I didn't really decorate her room, which was already painted yellow and went just fine with the bedding I had chosen.

This time around, I haven't done too much shopping because I already had a lot, even though the girls will be born in opposite seasons. However, I have been into decorating--just not the baby's room. I feel like the baby really won't care or notice or spend time in her bedroom, besides being confined to the crib for sleep.

But I have been excited to do Emma's room for some time now. And with the bar exam FINALLY over, we've been rushing around to try to finish projects. First on the agenda: painting Emma's room a lovely shade of light pink. Dave was against it at first, citing the perfectly good (if beige) paint job that has only been on the walls for six months. But I used my powers of pregnancy persuasion and my painter's tape skills and convinced him to do it, and I'm so glad that I did. A splash of color makes it a much happier room, if you ask me. And I talked it up to Emma so much that she is (pardon the pun) tickled pink about it. I got pink Roman shades and a pink coverlet for her new, big-girl, queen-sized bed. (Yes, I know it's huge. But it also will serve as the guest bed for now).

The result? Emma loves it and has not missed her old room (or crib) at all, and now refers to it as "tiny baby's room." She has taken more easily to the new bed than I could have hoped for. The first couple of days she stayed in it after she woke up, singing songs and waiting for us to come get her. I wasn't sure she knew she could climb out of it, and wasn't about to shatter the illusion. But by day three, a cloudy Saturday morning when Dave and I were happily sleeping in, we heard our door turn and you-know-who climbed up into our bed. That night she also escaped, running around upstairs in her padded, pajama-ed feet. But after one talking-to, she has stayed put. She has not run around at night again, and in the mornings she comes down by herself, but only after I yell upstairs that it's okay to come down. (I know, I'm lazy, but I am 38 weeks pregnant, after all.) I love that she loves her room, and it makes her seem so big yet so little (in the middle of a queen-size bed) at the same time.

Now on to get the baby's room ready.

PS. You may notice the lack of furniture in Emma's room. A white dresser is on its way and should be here by sometime next week. I will eventually get her a nightstand too, once I can be assured that it will be more than something for her to bonk her head on when she eventually falls out of and/or jumps on the bed. There's a lot more that I want to do (read: buy) for her room, but one must spread out one's economic stimuli.