26+ Weeks

26+ weeks and still cooking. I'll be 27 weeks tomorrow, and Jeff took this picture last night. If I look a little pasty, well...it was a long day. I've started the daycare nightmare (no one told me I was supposed to sign up a YEAR IN ADVANCE), and we had just taken a really intense spin class, so I was feeling a little...deflated.

Dinner and a good night's sleep helped, and I'm trying to stay positive. We have some appointments and good leads, and as always, everything usually works out in the end, so there's no point in worrying about it now.

Nesting

While most people seem very interested/concerned about our progress (or lack thereof) on a nursery for baby Sweet Pea, I'll confess to being much more focused on the rest of the house. To be more specific, I'm trying to figure out how to ensure that the house remains a warm, inviting space for Jeff and myself while incorporating changes that will encourage those traits and Jeff and I would both like to instill in the newest member of our little family…curiousity, creativity, and self-reliance, to name a few.

Right now our house is not what you would call "child friendly." We don't decorate with knives or anything, but we don't really go out of our way to make the place comfortable for people under the age of, oh, 25, either. Because this has to change, I've got a plan for our back room that involves removing the television and turning it into a cozy family nook, with soft furniture, some sort of thick floor covering, and shelving full of books for both adults and kids, as well as baskets to hold age-approriate items for small hands. I think IKEA is going to be the answer to this one, based on what I've seen available lately. I am trying to strike a balance where child needs and adult needs are both met in the same space, without the house being completely dominated by one or the other. I've found this requires a much greater deal of thoughtfulness than I had expected…there is a tendancy to accumulate "stuff" associated with babies that is almost overwhelming in our culture today, and it's difficult to be selective when it seems like you "need" so very, very much. I have been quizzing friends and family alike as to what they really use, what's nice to have, what never sees the light of day, in the hopes of narrowing down our selections to those things that are useful and functional and necessary.

As I've mentioned before, our space is small, but I think if we use it wisely, it can be a place of comfort and enjoyment for all three of us.

Artsy

Jeff and I get a lot of questions on whether or not we've started the baby's room yet. The answer to this is….well….sort of. The future baby's room happens to be our only guest room, and while I'm very much looking forward to welcoming Baby Sweet Pea to our home, I'm still in mourning over the loss of a proper room to house our guests when they come to visit. We're in the process of planning some solutions to address this loss (read: on the hunt for a great sleeper sofa for the back room), but in the meantime I just can't bring myself to give up the guest room until the due date is much closer. Also, we plan to have the baby in our room for the first six months or so, and therefore I'm not really feeling an overwhelming sense of urgency to put up a crib.

However, that being said, we ARE pretty focused on what we want the room to look like when we actually get around to it. We've agreed to keep the color neutral and decorate with as many original pieces of art as possible. Mainly I figure this will be made up of photos that Jeff took around the house this summer, matted and framed in groupings, with the thought of presenting "home" in a different perspective.

And then, we hit the Uptown Art Fair, in all its glory. We were overwhelmed by all the art. We couldn't help ourselves. We just HAD to have a few quirky, well placed pieces for Baby T to feast her eyes upon. We found Anthony Pack's booth, and while we were first drawn to a piece like this:



We decided that perhaps, while whimsical and hilarious, it was a just a touch on the "I bring you nightmares when the lights are off" side for a baby. So we settled for this:



After that, we made our way through the booths, and finally landed on Allan Tegar's famous Bodyscapes collection, which we've been admiring for several years. I find Allan's art to be both provocative and hilarious, and Jeff has long wanted a few of the more iconic pieces for our house. We bought a couple prints for the bedroom, and then Jeff zeroed in on this:



How could this NOT hang in Sweet Pea's room? (Look closely, and you'll see that the hill the stork is standing on has a belly button...)

Jazzy Jams

To deal with the heat this past weekend, Jeff and I employed a dip in, dip out strategy that ended up working out pretty well. A Saturday morning stroll to breakfast was punctuated by pit stops at an estate sale, a small art festival, and the tea store. After a few hours of wandering about, we made it home and curled up in the sanctuary of the air conditioning, Jeff brewing beer while I read on the couch.

That evening the Roots Festival in Lowertown St Paul beckoned, with free bluegrass and jazz in Mears Park. We grabbed a blanket and made our way downtown, arriving to a join a sizeable crowd in the park. We found a place to sit, and Jeff scouted out the food options. We shared jalapeno popper wontons, pulled pork tacos, sweet potato fries, and a bison bratwurst (thanks Senor Wongs and Heartland!). Jeff enjoyed a few glasses of Bell's pale ale, while I was grateful for water and later some iced tea. We relaxed, enjoying the music and the people watching.





Sunday brought more of the same intense heat and humidity. After an early morning spin class, we had to admit defeat, and settled in to enjoy the day inside. My friend Patrick came over to teach me how to make jam. A few hours of mashing and stirring and mixing and we were able to produce a good amount of beautiful banana jam. Delicious with peanut butter or on waffles.

Jeff brewed more beer after that, while I continued to enjoy a good book. Evening came and we made the decision to brave the weather and grill outside. Barbequed chicken, Minnesota sweet corn, and flat bread charred on the grill were a worthwhile payment for hovering over the charcoal. Ice cream cones were an added bonus, albeit enjoyed inside rather than out.

We were domestic (nesting perhaps?) but active, and we have the jars and bottles to prove it!