Saturday, March 19, 2011

Crib review

We finally assembled our crib! We got the Graco Lauren in Cherry from Wal-Mart and so far I could not be happier. We did the "ship to store" option so the shipping was free and the pick up process was incredibly easy and stress free.

The box was pretty huge (45" by 60") my parents took me to the store in their Acura while Scott was at work. Dad was able to manuever the 49 pound box by himself which was a huge relief. Scott then got home from work and moved it upstairs.

Then life got busy again, and a few weeks later we finally got around to assembling it.

Here is the box. I was incredibly impressed with the packing job for the crib. Thick styrofoam surrounded the edges of the box and the individual crib pieces were protected with a thin foam packing material. The hardware needed to assemble the crib was well packaged/labeled and it was probably easier and quicker than putting together IKEA furniture, which is well known for its ease of assembly.





I think the animals are finally realizing that something big is about to happen. Anytime we find outselves doing something related to the baby they are right there the whole time. Demon took it upon herself to personally inspect each part of the crib and supervise the entire assembly period.


The entire assembly process took us about an hour and was really user friendly. Instructions were very clearly written and the images included were awesome. All you needed to assemble it was the allen wrench and screws included which was a definite plus. The crib seems very sturdy and the screws are easily accessed for easy tightening which is great.
Obviously we haven't tried it out yet, but so far I give this crib and Wal-Mart an A. Easy to purchase, easy to assemble, hassle free shipping and a gorgeous finished product.

A little bit of everything update.

It has occurred to me that I don't think I've ever shown the finished product of the dreaded salmon staircase! When we moved in our front entry way looked like this.




Take special notice of the salmon colored pink, which then went to a green/beige wall, which then goes to what Scott called "military camo green". Interesting color combination to be sure, but not exactly our style. With the help of my parents we painted the entire thing the same "white tinted with green" color that we used for the dining room, living room, and hallway.







I think it turned out pretty well. The entrance way looks incredibly huge now and has very clean lines. The only decoration we've got up so far is our lovely $20 Target mirror with key hangers but I love it. Eventually we want to paint the door molding a deep cherry brown so that it will pop from the entrance way. I also bought some gorgeous red and black fabric and will one day (maybe?) turn it into cafe curtains to go over the windows on the side of the door.


Now, the plan for today was to get a ton of baby stuff done. Then I proceeded to wake up at 1pm. Oops...of course having slept for 12 hours meant that I woke up with a raging headache because my body is used to having at least 6 glasses of water by 1pm and was not happy with this new situation. I downed some water while Scott took out Katie and then it was crib time (nothing more fun than building a crib at 1:30pm on a Saturday while still in your pjs!)


We purchased a Graco Lauren convertible crib from Wal-Mart and so far I could not be happier. We chose the "ship to store" option so we had free shipping and didn't have to worry about the crib being outside until one of us came home. The crib arrived within 48 hours and the people at the pick-up desk were incredibly helpful. I'm now planning on doing as many of the big things this same way because it was such a smooth process. Our Serta mattress is currently on it's way so hopefully it will fit in our crib!

Sunday, March 6, 2011

Got bit by "it"

I'm not sure if it is spring cleaning, or if it is nesting, but "it" got me cleaning today. It started off that I was just going to do some laundry that had been sitting around for a little while. Demon helped by holding the laundry basket down so it didn't run away.




Then she decided I need to work on my sock drawer instead of putting away my husband's socks and effectively blocked off his sock drawer.







So I decided to take some time and fully go through my sock drawer. Here is how it began
Just a few socks. I probably wore about half of them. Off the socks went into piles. Work socks, fun socks, and discard socks. If they had holes, felt "crunchy", or looked horrible into the trash they went. I think most of these socks are at least 5 years old so I figure donation places would not want to take them in.




What spurred this insane cleaning you might wonder? Well, a couple things. First I realized that as much as I may laugh at the concept of "pregnancy brain" it is, in fact, a reality and I am not immune to it. For the first time in years I completely forgot to play a bill, and I finally caved in and got one of these little pill boxes because I kept forgetting if I took my prenatals or not.






It was also spurred on by the massive amount of baby clothes currently hanging out on my kitchen table! Part of my birthday present from my sister-in-law and mother-in-law was a shopping trip for baby clothes as well as some maternity clothes for me. (Oh yeah, and today was my birthday. Not only did I forget that it was my birthday, but I forgot how old I was, oops!)


I was so grateful to have my SIL in the store because it took me a whole 2 minutes to realize I have no clue what the baby needs as far as clothes. We got a wide assortment of clothes from 3months up to 12 months. I'm also going to be picking up some newborn to 3 month clothes from an old high school friend in a few weeks. I think it's safe to say the baby now has twice as much clothes as I do!


This is still my favorite one though. See, when I was 7 weeks pregnant I had to go the ER for spotting. At 8 weeks I was back in the ER for heavy bleeding and I thought for sure that was it. When they pulled up the heartbeat and image on the ultrasound I think my husband and I both cried because there was a perfectly healthy baby the size of a blueberry. After that she became our little Blueberry, who quickly grew into just The Berry. Nevermind that she is now Banana sized, she's still The Berry. So I couldn't resist this little strawberry set. The onesie has "I love mommy" and the sleeper has "I'm berry sweet". What can I say, I'm a total sap and this little mini-me has stolen my heart.







And here is me now with my little Berry.