Nursery: Take 3

Here's an overview of the Nursery as it'll be when Eli gets home next week. After a couple baby showers (thrown by Family, Friends and Co-Workers), tons of shopping, and a few last-minute scrambles at the store, Taryn and I have just about everything we'll need for the Little Man. Of course we're sure that there'll be a hundred more things that we'll need that we didn't think of, or a hundred more things that we already have, but have already run out of - and most likely both. But that's the fun of it, right? (Just say "yes")

Here's a close-up of the crib. You can see the blanket that Cathy has made for us, and the matching bumper will be in soon. We have a few learning toys in there for visual and auditory stimulation, but mostly the Octopus from Lamaze was just so we could accurately position the baby monitor camera on the wall. The mobile is one that Taryn found that is supposed to be great for visual stimulation, and the cards that it contains can be switched out at any time for any number of other ones. It's very colorful and has a lot of different shapes and images.

Our changing table is all set up, with diapers out and ready to go. Also, Taryn found that shag rug, and it's the most comfortable, squishiest thing ever. Freakin' incredible. She's come into the room a few times to find me and Momo sprawled out on it together. Oh, and the monkey's on the chair ...

Thanks Casey for the stuffed animal hammock. We've got the hummidifier, the organizer, the sanitizer and even the Constellation Turtle all set up and ready to go. Niser and Jay, here's a shot of the Pirate Piggybank that you'll find on your doorstep any day now.

Not only do we have a huge stock-pile of diapers, but we finally have enough clothes to make even Taryn comfortable with the amount. And that's saying something, right? I dig the dividers that tell you exactly where which sizes go. I need help like that most of the time.

In the mesh cabinets we even have overflow of everything that couldn't get hung (because we ran out of hangers), and that stuff that just needed to be folded. Lots of beanies, bibs, booties, binkies ... now we just need a baby ...

I had The Matt (Duke Chin to You) come through and visit on his way south earlier today, and he asked if we put "something baby" in each room of the house just to remind ourselves that we have one coming. I told him Taryn was reminder enough, and was extremely thankful that she wasn't home yet. We joke, we kid, but she hits hard. Gotta say this car is pretty sweet though ...

Here's the bouncer playpen springy thing in the other room. I never know what to call these things. We have 50 different versions of what I think do the same thing, or work to the same purpose, until someone (Taryn) corrects me and makes it clear just how far I have yet to go in my understanding of everything baby.

Here's what used to be our dining room. Now it's a warehouse for everything baby. Good thing we haven't yet upgraded from the card table to a real dining set. We wouldn't have the room. I guess we could take down the mounted wine shelves, cork wreath, wall mounted bottle corker and wine rack from the opposite wall to make extra space, but what would be the fun in that? The point is, the highchair is awesome.

And here are our bags. They are packed with everything that we'll need for a comfortable stay in the hospital. We even went out and got some chocolate assortments for the nursing crew to say thank you and butter them up while we're there. Now all we have to do is wait for Eli ...