Getting Ready- its amazing what can be accomplished in an "unplanned" weekend

Its amazing how nice it can be to do nothing. Now, I shouldn't say "nothing," because in fact, we did a lot. We just didn't have a lot of planned activities. We've had quite a run of non-stop weekends, which have been a lot of fun. This weekend is one we decided to "take off" per say as we gear up for our last 3 out of town weekends before we put our suitcases to rest for a little bit. So nice-- we did run a lot of errands and did a lot to get organized, but it was on our schedule (which wasn't really scheduled at all).

We made trips to Home Depot and Mike got a bunch of small projects done around the house. I ran out to Babies R Us to pick up a Pack-N-Play with some of the gift cards we have received from our showers-- so nice of our friends and family to be so generous. This was one of the bigger items that we'll need to have from day one. So, now its purchased and soon to be assembled. I also picked up some other essential odds and ends that I know we'll need.

We set up the upstairs bathroom to be baby-ized....meaning all of Little B's towels, wash cloths and bath toys are washed, folded and nicely organized. Little B's baby bath tub is also ready to go. We washed all of the blankets we've received. We're definitely all set in both the bath and blanket department-- which is important and just fantastic. I've put together little baby cloth crates of diaper changing "stuff" and clusters of blankets for each floor (this was a great suggestion from Jenn-- thank you :). The new nursery items, the wallhangings and matching (absolutely adorable) jungle lamp are now in place. They look just cute as can be. We put together the Zanzibar bouncing chair and its ready for Little B in our finished basement, which will surely be a place we cozy up in this winter. Our combo changing table/dresser is now looking more like a changing table than just a dresser now that the changing pad and supplies are on top of it. I still can't get over the nice gifts that have been sent our way. We're quite lucky.

So, there are still bags of stuff all over our house, but I will also point out that much progress has been made. And we even snuck in a dinner with our friends and played cards last night. That was really nice as well.

Yes, we may seem really organized now, but this will not at all thwart off the craziness that will be coming our way this November. Its the good kind of crazy as our worlds change and baby chaos moves in, but its nice to know that we've done everything we can to get ready. What happens after that is something we'll take hour by hour and day by day--and truthfully, I'm looking forward to it all.

I think Mike & I have decided to put treads on our hard wood steps that go from the first to second floor. I love the hardwood flooring we have throughout the first floor of our house, but the steps, well, that could present a hazard. I know its kinda a feux pau to take a perfectly beautiful (and recently re-stained) staircase and gunk it up, but safety is way more important and those steps can be quite slippery. We'll have none of that. This is really the last thing we'll need to do in terms of getting the house ready.