Grayson's Baby Suite, Part Two

My son, who will arrive in three "short" days, finally has a "bedroom". I use the quotations in the way a person would use air quotes to note sarcasm. Three days isn't short for the person carrying the baby who had pain in their back, wrists, arthritic hand and the lower lady regions. Bedroom is in air quotes because we don't have room to give the smallest person in our family their whole room. He could share with his big brother however at this age that isn't necessary. They'll share when Grayson is big enough to sleep alone in a big boy bed. (Maybe sooner if he drives me crazy in my room)

First let me tell you that I am no swanky designer and won't pretend to be. I also don't have a fancy camera so even though these will go on my pinterest boards, they aren't pinterest photo quality. I am just a working, school attending, mother of almost three who really misses the HGTV show Design on a Dime. There is no better interior designer than Lee Snider. I hope I spelled his name right.

I definitely put Grayson's suite, a.k.a. nook in our bedroom, together on a dime. I was able to pull it off for less than $500. I didn't actually spend that much because the crib and mattress were a gift from my in-laws. The dresser, and the shelf were a gift from my parents. But I bought the curtains, frames, material for the quilt, crib sheet (Organic and only $19 at PotteryBarnKids.com), and the glider chair. I was lucky to get the chair used for cheap from a friend. I couldn't fit the glider inside his small space but it sits right next to it. We spray painted it black and covered the cushions with soft gray material. We used the excess gray material for the back of the quilt. We meaning, my friend Mimi who sewed it for me. You may have seen the previews of that from Part 1 of this project.

It's not a large space, but it's made with love and belongs to our new son Grayson Charles. Mom and dad love penguins and I am glad that we were able to create a penguin theme for his space because there just isn't a penguin nursery set out there that fits for us.

The whole baby suite, face on.

Photos/quotes from "March of the Penguins" altered in Photoshop.

Right side of the suite.

Crib with quilt and sheet. No bumper.

Refurbished glider with pillows I already owned.

Perspective from our bed looking at his suite.

Mini Oreo Cheesecakes & Pumpkin Pie Cheesecake

Last Saturday was our early Thanksgiving. We had to celebrate weeks in advance because my son will be born so close to the real holiday. I wanted to make something from scratch using my new kitchen aid mixer. I LOVE that thing. I realize now that I hated baking because I didn't have the wonderful mixer. My sweet older brother gave it to me and top off its perfection, it's red. Matching my kitchen!

So I finally made something from my food board on Pinterest. I pin a lot of things on there that I will never make so this says a lot about how much I wanted to try my mixer. First up was the Oreo Cheesecakes. Here is a direct link to the recipe.

I crumbled extra oreos into the cheesecake mix because let's face it, oreos are delicious. We didn't add the peppermint sprinkles or extract like the blog mentions. It's not in the recipe and it's just an added flavor we didn't want. They were a huge hit with my husband who almost ate all 24 that were baked. The recipe wasn't very high maintenance at all which is right up my alley. Next round I plan to use a double stuff oreo on the bottom.

After cleaning up the bowls, mixer attachments, and measuring cups, my daughter and I moved on to Pumpkin Cheesecake. I had been dying to make this ever since I had a slice at Olive Garden. Theirs is better but ours still came out delicious. You can see proof from what the bowl looked like when we were done.

I found this recipe on allrecipes.com. The website is awesome and the phone app is pretty amazing too. We followed this recipe exactly and it was delicious. I still love a regular pumpkin pie, but this cheesecake version is just so light and creamy.

Watch out! Now that I have a mixer I plan to bake more. I’m going to ditch the box mixes!

The Book Themed Baby Shower

Library Book Inserts as Invitations

I had a big hand in my baby shower planning. My mom and aunt who were the actual planners would tell you that it’s because I’m a control freak. True that may be however mainly it’s because I love party planning. I haven’t done it professionally, and I’ve never done it with a huge budget or with my hours being paid for. The events are always bigger and better in my brain than when they are executed. My baby shower was an exception however.

 

I’ll start with the theme. Before I knew he was a boy, and therefore would be named Grayson, I knew I wanted to have a gray baby shower. The name Grayson is coincidence I swear. I had googled party images and the grays were always my favorite. So now I needed an accent color and I just loved the idea of orange. Many months ago I saw some pictures of a Harry Potter party and absolutely loved that idea. However it was revised because one, that’s not a baby book, and two because not everyone attending would understand.

So we decided on a book theme shower. There were hardly any touches of “baby” to be seen. I wanted to skip the typical baby bottles and carriages used for décor. I’m just not into typical anything ever. The touches of “baby” were tiny gray baby blocks stuffed into the napkins at each setting, as well as baby photos of me, dad, and our own kids. Everything else was made from books: heart confetti from pages, stacked books as a vase for flowers, book “fans”, book page placemats, book page name banner, book page vases, and other tiny touches. A lot of the ideas came from pinterest and can be found on my board here Shower Inspiration Board.

Like I said, it turned out better than I had thought. I put off doing anything baby shower until after my friend’s wedding. I didn’t want to switch gears in my brain until it was over. So that left us with one month to DIY everything. In that month I was pregnant and going to school on top of caring for two kids. Little time was left for me as well as my mom and aunt to meet together and craft up the décor. While facing those challenges, the fact that it still came out so beautifully leaves me so pleased.

I painted Harry Potter on the Cake.

My friend Brittany baked a two layer stack of books cake. I painted a Harry Potter for the cover. It was the pose from Order of the Phoenix if you’re curious, one of my favorite books. I am lucky to have a friend who likes to bake.

The games were a hit! We only played two because I’m not big on the games, but they were great. One was alternate book titles. I made them up to look like books for each guest however there is a free printable of it online Alternate Titles Game. We also played a game of “Mom or Dad”. I had my mom and mother-in-law tell me stories about me and dad. The cards were made to look like bookmarks and  guests had to guess he or she for each story. Some of the stories were hilarious and some were embarrassing. It was funny to see their faces when they learned that I was the one who used to trade toys everyday on the playground in second grade.

Can I say again I’m happy with how it turned out? I am so happy with how it turned out. I had a great turn out of family and friends in attendance. Appearance wise it was awesome. The games were fun. We received plenty of needed items for Grayson, and I was able to destroy and then re-use books that were wasting space in my closet in a box. I’m a proud kindle owner and therefore was happy to use my books for something more useful than sitting. (Of course I have kept my HP books. Those are special.)

The book vases were so pretty that I kept one as décor for fall in my home.

 

 

 

 

 

                                     

Bring Home the Goodies!!

KIDS!! I have to write about my kids; all the time. Get used to it!

Today I am just anxiously thinking about my baby shower. It is in just two days. I am looking forward to celebrating that my husband and I successfully created a human being who jumps around in my womb. Let’s all jump around in joy for the little boy who will be born in around six more weeks!

This is obviously my second baby shower. Well third really because I had two when I was pregnant with my daughter. I’ll also have a fourth in two more weeks. Who says you can’t do that? I’ve seen on some chatboards that women get uncomfortable having a shower after they’ve had one child. The same feeling some women have about getting to have a second bridal shower or bachelorette party when they’re getting re-married. Who makes these wack etiquette rules? Why shouldn’t we all celebrate joyous occasions in our lives? Besides, my daughter is 6 and I’m having a boy. Was I supposed to keep everything of hers for six years when I truly wasn’t sure I’d get to have more kids? Of course not. Life has progressed and I am excited to have a shower in honor of Grayson.

A piece of this whole experience I hadn’t considered until today is how excited I am to bring Grayson’s goodies home and set up the world he will live in for the beginning of his life.  I’m realizing that it’s different to bring home a baby into your own home and with your husband. It seems minor but I realize just how much it means to me.

A piece of me will carry guilt for not bringing Halle into the world the same way. However that just wasn’t realistic of a twenty year old mom. I wouldn’t take back any of the moments of our lives leading to this point because we are in such a wonderful place now. We can’t control everything that our three kids will be exposed to in life but at least we know that with us they’re in a very healthy and safe environment.

My Tiny Dancer

My “baby” girl is growing into quite the young woman. She is enjoying the first grade and just yesterday started ballet. She is a little bit too advanced for the class I signed her up for. The instructor is going to let her try the Pre-Ballet class on Thursday and see how she likes it. My girl just wants to dance so badly. She won’t care in which class.

Halle has asked me about being able to join dance class since she was old enough to know there were such things as ballet classes. She has danced to movies, radios, and TV commercials since she was a toddler. It hasn’t stopped yet. I refer to her as my “delicate flower”. She has the capability to play sports such as baseball. She throws footballs with Garrick and Isaiah. However her heart is in dance. She is thrilled that I said she doesn’t have to play baseball and can finally dance. Joy just radiates from her.

Her nickname “delicate flower” comes from her sweet yet sensitive personality. She is my cautious, careful, and emotional little girl. Hhmm, does she get it from me? LOL

She has surprised me the last few nights. She hasn’t woken up at night the last week. She sleeps in her own room but if she wakes in the middle of the night she tends to feel scared and asks me to come tuck her in. She has been waking up proud of herself saying “mommy, I didn’t even need you last night. I woke up but I just rolled over and went back to sleep”. I’m sure that her longer days at school this year have a part to play in this. But even so, I tell her how proud I am.

Our nighttime routine is to brush teeth, read a book, and then I tuck her in to bed. At this point, I sit on the side of her bed for two minutes. Just to relax her and let her drift off. It used to be five minutes. It began when we first moved out of my mother’s house. Due to space and so many people who spoil her, she became used to sleeping with someone. When I started “boot camp” in our new place to teach her to sleep alone, this was the compromise. I don’t miss those tough days in the beginning. But I fought through it all and we made leaps in progress.

I’ve been telling Halle that soon she won’t get even two minutes of me in her room at bed time. I’m going to have a new baby that will be quite demanding. She fortunately is old enough to understand this. She also has a baby brother at her dad’s house so she’s familiar with the needs of a small baby. So yesterday morning she says she wants to try going to bed by herself after her book. I agreed willingly of course, but I was a little doubtful. My delicate flower surprised me. She fell asleep and didn’t come to my room until 7:00am to get ready for school. We were both very happy and quite impressed.

My delicate flower/ tiny dancer/ baby girl is a big and brave little woman.