But it's only a tiny little person!!!

Andy and I have been very productive in the last couple of days! He had a half day off on New Year's Eve (which was a pleasant surprise for him) so we raked up the majority of the leaves in our front yard and he took down the Christmas lights. Yesterday was really cold and windy, so I'm glad we got these outside projects done the day before.

Yesterday, we got a ton of items off of our to-do list, including cleaning out closets, the basement, and a lot of stuff from the "office" to prepare for it's transformation into a nursery. We re-filed things into a compact system, instead of a bulky old file cabinet, cleaned out the bookshelves and took a lot of the stuff we don't need access to regularly to the basement and the spare bedroom, and threw bag after bag of stuff away, as well as filled a few bags with stuff we can donate. I have a feeling this tiny, little person will take up more space than we can imagine, so it's good to get started on this stuff. Our plan is to get carpeting laid in the nursery, hopefully in the next 4-6 weeks, so it was good to start getting stuff out of there. Our spare bedroom will be undergoing a transformation as well, so we've started to plan for that.

We also purchased our first item for the nursery; a changing table! This is especially exciting for my husband because it means much less work for him that we'd envisioned. We have this ancient, huge desk that I've had for probably 10 years, and I'd wanted to turn that into our changing table. This would have meant stripping off several coats of old paint, sanding, re-painting, new hardware, drawer liners, etc. I just don't like the idea of "disposable" furniture, and to me, that's what a changing table kind of is! What else can a changing table be when you no longer have kids that need changing? Not so with a desk. Anyways, as we started talking about the time and cost involved in making this piece of furniture into a different piece of futniture, I agreed that if I could find a reasonably priced changing table that I liked, I'd be willing to consider that instead. Well, after my cousin Jyl mentioned a nice consignment shop on the east side of town for baby/kid stuff, I went there, and lo and behold, I found a gorgeous dark wood changing table, modern looking with plenty of room for storage, and with a pricetag of $40. I called Andy, and said, "Sweetie, it's your lucky day..."

We'd planned on buying a dark wood-stained crib anyways, probably a convertible-style, so it can be used (hopefully) for many years to come and not look like nursery furniture, so this will match beautifully. Also, I'll be getting a rocking chair from my parents (actually the one my father bought for Mom when she was pregnant with me), and this is a dark wood-stain as well. It's starting to come together!!!

For any more recent readers who may have not been following this since the beginning, this blog was/intended to primarily focus on pregnancy- related things, and not be a summary of everything going on in my life, so if it seems like I'm only focusing on this one area, I am, but I assure you, I'm still holding down a regular job, spending quality time with friends, etc. I'm sure any of you who've been pregnant, though, know how much of a challenge it is to think about anything else when you're growing an entire person. So, anytime the baby stuff gets to be too obnoxious, feel free to stop reading, and check in via e-mail or myspace instead. If you know about this blog, it's because you know me and I love you, but I also love hearing from you, not just updating you from time to time, so stay in touch!!!