my baby's room: the before

This post has been a LONG time coming.  I took the first photos of the disaster area office / pre-room conversion in January.  But then it took SOOOOOO long to clean out that I felt it was embarrassing to never post the update.  There was a good middle ground around Spring Break where I made a lot of progress, but then the room was on hold again.  It's been in good shape for a couple of weeks now as we are just waiting for Mr. Simon to arrive.  Today I took pictures of the after.  Here is how we created a nursery / office share in am approximately 8 x 10 room in our 700 sq ft NYC apartment.

Evolution of a Room
chapter 1

This room tends to end up as storage.  With only two people, the extra bedroom is a great place for storage.  Some of you may recall that this is what the room looked like when Rob first moved in back in 2007.  It's where everything that wasn't furniture (except the chair) or needed immediately (like clothes and dishes) went.  Over 5 months or so we sorted through this mess.  The artwork was eventually hung and the family photos sorted.  Around 3 months in, there was a clear enough space for the office to become an office and the desk and computer were moved in.

January 26 I convinced Rob to let me paint and the room became blue.  This was the same weekend he proposed!  (The proposal meant I would officially be living there soon, so I had the leverage to paint the whole apartment!)

The office was an office / storage space for about a year.  I moved in and the closet in this room became mine.  Then there were a few months where my brother-in-law lived with us and I gave up the closet and the office moved to behind the couch.

Eventually it was just the two of us again, and the room reverted to it's office / storage room / closet status.  Again, I am a little embarrassed that at times there was barely room for Rob to make it to the desk.

see the craft table in the corner - i really wish we had room for a real workbench...

Anything we didn't know what to do with went in this room.  I don't know how I got to my clothes.  I climbed?  Oh right, and I was pregnant when these were taken, and only had a few things that fit.  I kept them in the dresser in our bedroom.

When we found out we were going to have a baby it was time to start thinking about another room evolution.  How were we going to make this work?  For starters, returning the Zappos box of shoes I wasn't keeping.  I need to stop taking their 365 day return policy literally when I buy multiple pairs of shoes to try on...  We needed to organize our closet storage and start putting things away.  We needed to purge.  We needed to find a place for everything in the white utility cabinet that would be replaced with a crib.  We needed to do a LOT of work.

Next up - my baby's room: the during

Wordless Wednesday: 39w2d

Ten Things about Summer

 

Rob has a green thumb.  The strawberry plants are actually producing tiny strawberries.  I didn't think it would happen.  But now I'm thinking another transplant is needed.  In March we moved the six plants into two bigger pots.  But now they are looking crowded.  Two plants per pot, or one?  And will the budding berries survive a transplant.  For sure it will happen in the fall.

 

I have a green thumb too.  My two Cherry Tomato plants have about 15 maters growing.  I am a bit worried about the yellow leaves.  One of the plants is almost half covered in yellow leaves.  At first i thought maybe over or under watering- but it's just one of the plants and they are in pots right next to each other.  However the yellow one seems to dry out faster than the other.  Any advice?

 

Rosemary, Thyme, Oregano, Parsley, and Mint are doing great.  One parsley plant is here, and the rest in the hanging box.  The lettuce from last year started coming up again and rather than dig it up I put one of the parsley plants here.  The Basil in the other hanging box is doing well also.  The two small pots on the far left have flowers!  Mostly I plant things we can eat.

We've been using the herbs a lot this spring and now into the summer we go.  It's fun to go out and pick and chop fresh herbs for cooking.  And because we have it we are finding more ways to incorporate herbs into cooking.  Rob is really good at putting things together to use up our CSA vegetables. It usually involves a lot of onion, garlic, and whatever herb goes best.

The Mint is nice in water or tea.  Just drop in a leaf and go.  Mint is also like rabbit-nip.  If you put your fingers by his nose after handling the leaves he will lick your fingers.  And we give him the occasional leaf.

Summer has also brought the first day that I've swollen enough to lose an ankle.  Just the right one is gone today.  I am sitting with my feet up as much as possible.  And really I can't complain.  My sandals are a little tight, but until yesterday I have been able to wear sneakers as long as Rob was around to tie them for me.

I spent two hours outside on the balcony this morning with my coffee reading.  It was delightful.  I love our outdoor space.  Over the weekend Rob said he really wanted to go to a cafe and sit outside and drink coffee, but that he didn't want to spend money.  I reminded him that we have a balcony and cafe table, he can do that for free here.  We are lucky.

Simon will be a summer baby.  I am only a pretend summer baby since today is technically the first day of summer.  Happy Solstice!

It's been pretty nice, weather-wise.  On days it isn't too hot I take a long walk and try to do one neighborhood errand each day.   The round trip is about a mile.  Almost every evening when it cools off, Rob and I take another long walk.  This is putting me at walking around 2.5 miles each day.  Exercise!  That isn't too taxing.  And it's nice to get out of the apartment.

Iced tea is one of the world's greatest inventions.  We are drinking lots and lots of it.

29

I did not give birth on my birthday.  Those of you who suggested it are funny people.  And for the record, I am going to try (like I actually have any control over it) to not give birth on Rob's birthday either.  We like our birthdays as our own - as evidenced by Birthday Week.

Here's what we did do on my birthday:

 

First thing in the morning the doorbell rang.  It was the mailman with a present!  From my Dad.  Notice how only half the present is actually for me.  And the rest is for the baby.  Dad says he's weaning me from ever getting anything for myself again.  I still felt the love.

 

Rob made breakfast and we ate outside.  This is crunchy French toast with bran flakes (we like them better than corn flakes) and strawberries from our CSA share.  I'm also drinking raspberry leaf tea (one of many old wives tales for getting babies out - and my doctor said go ahead and try them all) daily.  If it does nothing else it is delicious.

 

Rob says 29 is not too old for a little silly.  And I post this here because there is a comparable one of Rob later in the post.

 

My hair is doing really crazy things.  Rob did not alert me to this at the time.  So we move on.  After breakfast I did some crafting things.  And Rob baked me a cake.  He really is pretty awesome.

After an afternoon nap we took a walk.  It ended up being a very long outing.  We went to Michael's and got a couple of things I need for the quilt I am starting.  I figure I have 1 - 2 years until the baby will actually need it on his bed, so I have time.
*Gratutious belly shots forthcoming.

We also went to Best Buy to spend the $30 reward card we have.  What is annoying about these is they are free money but they expire.  So we spent as close to $30 as we could, buying Harry Potter 7.1 Blue Ray and DVD (which was on sale) and some more rechargeable batteries.  We paid $1.06.  The guy at the register was impressed.

My other birthday present was received in the mail Friday afternoon.  This shirt I'm wearing from Aunt Cynde.  She knows exactly how I feel, where I don't have many things that still fit, but am reluctant to buy anything new for only a few weeks.  This shirt is awesome because it fits now, but will also totally work post baby thanks to the elastic neckline!

At 37 weeks 5 days I feel like my belly looked small yesterday, but I think it's the pattern of the shirt.  Baby can come anytime he's ready...

After the long walk, which was long because of the 45 minutes we waited in line to check out at Michael's, we dropped off our purchases and went to dinner.

We discovered Mojave in Astoria on our first anniversary.  Pretty delicous southwestern cuisine.  I love the blue crab quesadilla.  This time we also tried the empanadas, we got the chicken and the plantain,  and I think I have a tie for favorite dish.  Rob got some tacos and french fries.  It's great to get lots of options and share.  The fries were covered in roasted garlic and pretty delicious.

 

I think this last picture should be Rob's new profile pic.  He is not too old for a little silly either.

When we got home we watched a little tv and Rob worked some.  Then it was time for birthday cake.

I love my pink cake.  Since it was just the two of us, and I had already changed into pjs I decided to forgo the candles and just eat.  It was delicious.

And lest you think no one sang to me, Mom, Chip, Emily and Scott sang to me via phone and Skype (we only have video for some reason, so we use speaker phone and video...) And Alison, James and Andrew called to sing as well.

I think 29 is going to be a pretty good year.

New Pink Shoes

For my 26th Birthday - I call it the pink birthday - Rob got me a pair of pink shoes.  (He also made me a pink pony cake.)

These shoes have been loved.  And worn well.  But they are starting to fall apart.

 

So when Rob asked what I wanted this year, new pink shoes were on the list.  And I ordered the replacements.

When I opened the box I saw this.

And I was confused.  Because it looks like a gift message from Rob, but how? Since I placed the order.  Then I realized it was just the name of the guy who packed my order.

When I opened the shoes I asked Rob if I got a different color of pink?  He said my old ones were just that faded.  Wow.

And now I have new pink shoes.