Baby Room & More.

As you may have read in the latest blog entry, I made the decision to leave Little & Company after 6 wonderful years. Although, it was a tough decision, I'm looking forward to my next opportunity. I'll be working at Target in their in-house agency where I'll be doing account work, similar to what I'm doing now. And, yes, this means Trav and I will be working together! We're not worried at all because Travis has been a client of L&Co.'s throughout the years, so we're not scared. Before I start working at Target, I will be enjoying 2 weeks off in order to work on a few miscellaneous projects and to research daycare for Baby R.

Some of you have been asking what our baby room furniture looks like. We're waiting on one more delivery from Baby Grand, but other than that the room will be pretty much ready for delivery day. Once the room is complete, we'll take another pic and show you the finished look. Enjoy!

CRIB - Two tone white and mocha finish (ignore the bedding, this is not what we chose. see below.)

DRESSER/CHANGER - Two tone mocha and white finish

GLIDER CHAIR - Charcoal Gray Pillow and Chair

BABY CRIB BEDDING SET -  Reversible set. The solid side matches the wall color and the dots will pull colors out of artwork we're using from Trav's Grandpa's children's book. We plan to scan in the artwork and create canvas art using the illustrations.

CURTAINS - I'm almost finished making new curtains. The pattern is a bit wild even for us, but we're loving it! The faux wood-grain pattern pulls from the yellow-green dot in the bedding and will play off the children's book imagery. The book theme images, mentioned above, are illustrated as "camping" and styled like Dick, Jane & Spot.

Fruit-o-Meter #12.

Hello good people. Sorry for the lack of posts lately. It's been a crazy week of work w/ Katie's last day at Little & Co. and Travis' new job. Busy times. Well, here's the latest news at this, our 25th week: "Head to heels, your baby now measures about 13 1/2 inches. His weight is a pound and a half-- isn't much more than an average rutabaga, but he's beginning to exchange his long, lean look for a more rounded one. As your baby gains weight, his wrinkled skin will begin to smooth out and he'll start to look more like a mini newborn. His hair is probably recognizable now in color and texture, although both may change after he's born." No clue what a rutabaga looks like? Ahh, here ya go...

Happy times.

The weekend was pretty hectic to say the least. On Saturday, we attended a really beautiful wedding of one of Trav's college friends, Tim Puder. The wedding was at the St. Paul Cathedral with the reception at the Nicollet Island Pavilion. It was soooo great to see old friends and catch up. {Hey Jim/Jen/Shimon- peep our web gallery to download pics from the wedding and upload your pics too.}On Sunday we had another big day, celebrating the baptism of Peggy Yurk-- our new Goddaughter! That's right, we officially became Godparents to Sarah and Todd's baby. (Prompting Travis to do his Marlon Brando impersonation all weekend long.) Peggy looked so adorable and was an angel throughout the whole church service. {For family who attended the baptism, you can download/upload your pics here on our web gallery.}

Fruit-o-Meter #11.

Here we are at 24 weeks. On Friday, we had our 23-week appointment and Mama Bird is healthy as ever. The BabyCenter update we received: "Your baby's growing steadily, gaining  about a quarter of a pound since last week, when he was just over a pound. Since he's almost a foot long (picture an ear of corn), that makes a pretty lean figure, but his body is filling out proportionally and he'll soon put on more baby fat. Your baby's skin is thin, translucent, and wrinkled, his brain is growing rapidly, and his taste buds are developing."

Monkey see.

The people have voted and I get the hint: y'all think my monkey is creepy. So Katie let me get a new monkey while we were at Baby Grand picking up our bedding, and this one has a cool goatee made of yarn. He's one funky monkey. Travis Jr. is going to dig him, for sure. Especially now that he has 2 monkeys to be buddies with. ;)

Weeeee!

We had Kris and Alissa (or as they're affectionally known: "Akrissa") over on Saturday for some dinner and shenanigans. Katie had a fun time partaking in the Fre White Zinfandel (alcohol-free) so we had to capture some pics of Mama Bird hittin' the bottle. We played Wii Bowling and Boxing, and surely convinced Alissa that they, too, need to get a Wii. Fun, fun.

Advice-a-thon.

So as you probably know, when you're having your first baby, everyone shares their parenting advice. I received this offering today from one of my best friends Gary and told him I'd be sharing it, whether he wants me to or not. Gary says: "Kids are the best thing in life. One thing I heard and will never forget is: "There is no success in life that will compensate for failure in raising your kids." Think about that one for a sec. Maybe it's the double-negative, or the fact that my brain is an acorn, but this one leaves me wondering. That one's deep Gary, confusing, but deep.

Fruit-o-Meter #10.

Now at 23 weeks, this edition of the F-o-M focuses more on weight than length: "Your baby is more than 11 inches long and weighs just over a pound (about as much as a large mango)."

Books, yes. Bowling, no.

We just returned from a fun and random Tue night event that's definitely worth sharing with you in this here cyberspace. It's called Books & Bars. Sponsored by The Onion funny paper, this literary hootenanny happens once-a-month at Bryant Lake Bowl in Uptown. Our friend Jeff Kamin is the M.C. of this Oprah's Book Club + beer + laughs + hipsters gathering. Definitely worth checking out in person (and at the very least, on their worldwidewebsite). "But don't just take our word for it." The Star Trib ran this article.

Spring showers...

... bring baby showers! This weekend we celebrated Baby Wanning. I co-hosted a baby shower at our pad with some college girlfriends (Megan, Mindy & Sadie) for our great friend Emily. Included excellent food, fun games and fantastic fellowship. Congratulations Em, can't wait to meet him/her! Here are some pictures from the party.

  

Award winning.

If you are considered a 'blog stalker' of ours, you are most likely familiar with our great friend Melissa Stockwell. This last weekend she competed in the Paralympics trials for swimming and continued to break personal records. Now that results are in, Melissa made the USA team! It's also a big deal because not only does Mel L-O-V-E America, she is also representing her country again as the first Iraq war veteran to be selected for the Paralympics. Congratulations Mel, you deserve it! Better start learning Chinese! If you haven't already, check out the Beijing Paralympic official website.

   

One little monkey...

Hello again. Hope your weekend was wonderful. Just wanted to post about an old/new addition to the nursery-- my (Travis') vintage sock monkey. I found it in a box of my childhood stuff and I had to bring him back from the 70s. Fun Fact: this same sock monkey was the inspiration for a Target GiftCard I created a few years ago. Found this vid on YouTube.

Golden.

Tonight was a really special night because K's friend Melissa set a new American record in the 400M Freestyle swim event! We arrived late b/c of work, but we got to celebrate with her firsthand and see her smiling face. Mel hopes to set more records tomorrow in her other two swim events (and we're definitely NOT missing those). If all keeps going this way, she'll be representin' the U.S. of A. in the '08 Beijing Paralympics. Phenomenal. We're so proud of you, Mel! Oh, and by the way, she was featured on the front page of the Star Tribune today...click here.

Fruit-o-Meter #9.

It's Thur so you know what that means: spaghetti squash. "Your baby now looks like a miniature newborn, checking in at 10.9 inches (the length of a spaghetti squash) and almost 1 pound. His skin will continue to appear wrinkled until he gains enough weight to fill it out. Your baby's eyes are developed, though the iris (the colored part of the eye) still lacks some pigment. Your baby's lips are becoming more distinct, and the first signs of teeth are appearing as buds beneath his gum line." 22 weeks and counting!