Nesting

Hi friends!
My first bits of nesting instinct have kicked in. Paige has new goals with her therapists and it inspired me to reorganize her playroom to suit them. I love the changes!
She had a book nook in the corner of the room that we moved out of there and into our family room. She is always so busy playing in the room that she never takes as much interest in the books there. And it took up a lot of space. Now that the book sling and cushion are in the family room, Paige can be found over there reading through all her books aloud and participating in quiet play with her animals and dollhouse. It's much more harmonious and peaceful.




Her play kitchen had been in our family room (we tried to encourage her to use it there to no real avail), so we moved it into the playroom where the book nook was. We moved her table and chairs to the center of the floor in front of the play kitchen to encourage her to "cook" and create tea parties.

The blue bookcase used to hold all of Paige's musical instruments. She just tossed them onto shelves and it didn't make much sense organizationally. So, I put them into a basket on the toy shelf unit and am now using the shelves for all the play kitchen food, utensils, baking materials, etc. All of the kitchen-related items are together in the corner and she's already played with it a bunch of times in one day! Now, she is ready to learn about sequencing and extending her pretend-play story lines to include "filling the teapot" and "setting the table" and "pouring the tea into the cups" and "giving cookies to her guests." You know the drill. For language, she is working on prepositions (in, next to, under, on, below, etc.) and number concepts (a few, many, most of, some of, all of) and we can work on this with the tea party theme too. I will even put napkins in the area for her to work on her folding skills. These are all skills that will transfer over well in social situations with other children when the time comes; AND they are skills that can transfer over to "real life" in the home at dinner time. We're excited!

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It's a....BOY!

Yes, we have a little guy on the way! Here is his first photo.

The ultrasound was done at about 17 weeks. I'm 21 weeks now; I'm sorry it took so long to share! There's been a lot of madness going on and the blog has been a victim for sure. I hope to share more about it soon.
Isn't it exciting? My mind is still wrapping around the idea of a whole other gender! hee hee. Boy clothes, boy issues, etc. etc. It's obviously a whole new thing! I'm excitedly nervous.

Of course, you know me...my mind is on his nursery planning. Obviously, the most important things first, right? Ha! Chris and I have been making brainstorming lists now that we've decided on colors and a sort of "theme." It will be a while before it is done, but I'm excited about it! I've just decided on the fabric for the roman shades, so I guess that will be the starting point. We're also using Paige's original nursery room and are keeping the wall color the Robin's Egg blue. We are full of new ideas and just have to execute them.

For anyone who's asked: We are still putting finishing touches on Paige's new room. I'm still figuring out the last elements of wall decor in there and then we plan to give you a tour! It looks a lot like her old room since we brought over most of the accessories, but there's new twists to it.
So, there you have it!

Wow. A little man on the way; we are blessed.

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18 weeks and Aruba 2011

Hi friends!
We just got back from a trip to Aruba. Not a bad place to spend my 18th week of pregnancy. Now, as I write this I am now 19 weeks along.
I spent the time laying in the shade, playing with Paige, swimming, and napping. Chris did the lion's share of the work with caring for Paige and me. I'm a lucky gal.
Paige did great on the trip and was thrilled with all the wildlife she saw there: Mostly sand crabs, hermit crabs, iguanas, lizards, fish, and the flamingos. Seventh heaven for her. She talks about all the critters like they are her best buddies. The trip did wonders for her as she is now talking up a storm about what she saw and has started singing songs in their entirety...not just lines of songs here and there. Such cool developments!
Here are some photos from the trip to give a taste of our experience; see you soon friends!

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