timeline and limitations to our adoption hopes

Brad and I sat down the other night to talk about some logistics. It wasn't the easiest conversation, but it was needed. Needed to move forward and make sure we're on the same page.

Here's the ideal:
We welcome an adopted child or an adopted sibling set into our home in April 2014.
About 2 years from now. Meaning, at the end of the summer, we'll start the adoption process. All three or four kids share a room, that's the only way. We'd make it an awesome kids cave, with two bunk beds, lots of toys, and a closet packed to the brim with clothes. It would be crazy, but it would work.

Here are the concerns:
We're a young family.
We already have two kids.
We live in a 2 bedroom house.
Those might be factors that limit our adoption hopes.

It worries me and frustrated me that something as small as 1 bedroom may inhibit our adoption plans. We just bought this house and can't move for a number of years. If we had 1 or 2 more kids biologically, they'd all share a room, and no one would say "Boo", but with adoption, the hard part is that you don't decide everything. Others have a say in things like discipline and the living space for the child. That makes sense and I support it, guidelines are the best way to make sure these children are in safe and loving homes, but it's hard.

Anyway, that's our plans and hopes as well as our fears and potential limitations!
Would love your prayers and advice if you've gone down this road before :)

soon and very soon...

• i'll be in a new home
• i'll be lounging on THE UNICORN
• i'll be decorating for Fall
• i'll be getting ready for Christmas
• i'll be mummer to another little one
• i'll be drinking a margarita (or a glass of wine or a 1/2 pint of beer...)
• i'll be up all night and practically all day
• i'll be a Plateau-dwelling lady
• i'll be giving birth (can.not.wait.)
• i'll be recovering from giving birth (can.definitely.wait)
• i'll be attempting breast-feeding & giving it my best shot (again)
• i'll be living farther from my friends
• i'll be amidst far more French
• i'll be watching hockey
• i'll be wearing non-maternity clothes

lots (good & bad) to look forward to in joy and anticipation and just a smidgen of fear.

Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, 

for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. 

Sufficient for the day is its own trouble

- Jesus (Matthew 6:34) 

moving while pregnant?

In 4 weeks, we're moving.
In about 10 weeks I'll have another lil baby in my arms.
I say another because Lily still feels like a baby, even though after Saturday when she turned 1, she's officially a toddler. She's still under 20 lbs and has just 2 teeth and doesn't say much, so to me, she's still a baby. Our baby, if not a 'baby' to anyone else. Which brings me to the question on my mind:


How do you move in/out with a baby? 
Or while very pregnant?

Realistically, I won't be able to do much. I can't paint or lift heavy boxes. I can sort, organize, and best of all, boss people around, but I can't do much. I'm just too dang pregnant! And Lily... well she'll definitely need an all-day babysitter...for a few days. I have a few local friends who I'm sure wouldn't mind watching her, but I just don't think there's another way - so they will be asked (you know who you are!)

My goal is to have the house painted and large furniture moved in by September 30th, giving us a full 4 weeks in the house to actually make it a home (decorating, settling, etc) before LG's arrival.
Assuming he doesn't come early.
Assuming everything goes through with the house.
And assuming the final weeks of my pregnancy I'm healthy.
Assuming.

Advice, please!

25 things to do:

To-do lists are my favourite thing.

Crossing them off is therapeutic and making them makes me feel so much less overwhelmed, no matter how long the list is. I just saw the one I'd made for Lily's nursery this time last summer and smiled. It always gets done, even though it sometimes seems like it won't :)

This time around, we'll be in the process of finding and buying an apartment, so I can't do anything to the actual nursery/bedroom until we're settled in the new nest (and no one knows exactly when that will be... August? September? October? God-forbid November?). But there's lots of other things I can do to prepare for the boy's arrival and the room Lily will now be sharing...

1. buy fabric for his quilt

2. buy fabric for his blanket

3. sew his blanket

4. 0-3m clothes (fall/winter)

5. 3-6m clothes (winter)

6. 6-9m clothes (spring)

7. 9-12m clothes (summer)

8. 12+m clothes (next fall)

9. wash + organize by month LG's clothes

10. crib bumper in green

11. IKEAwooden train set

12. wooden toys - blocks, etc

13. find/buy dresser for Lily (LG gets her old one)

14. paint/refurbish dresser for Lily

15. find/buy bed for Lily

16. paint bed for Lily

17. find/buy mattress for Lily

18. find/buy bookshelf

19. paint bookshelf

20. find/buy adorable children's rocking chair

(thanks mom!)

21. find/buy some boy's burp clothes

(they're ALL pink)

22. buy spice racks from IKEA for book shelf DIY

23. paint spice racks from IKEA

24. make fun mobile for kid's room

from http://www.annaleahart.com/

25. find/buy/make LG a sock monkey

(if it's less than $10 or $15 I'm just buying it)

So mostly it's a LOT of painting and up-cycling of furniture.

Plus some sewing and a couple of purchases that aren't urgent.

Wonder if my dad will be up for painting some beds this summer?

co-ed nursery/bedroom

decorating and DIYing for Lily's nursery last July and August was so fun. We chose gender-neutral green and orange so we would only need to make minimal changes come baby no. 2 just in case it was a boy. And God has indeed blessed us with a healthy baby boy (who is 21 weeks in utero today!) so those minimal changes will be taking place after all :) Head over to {our nest in the city} to see the beginnings of my plans for the co-ed nursery/bed room, starting with the furniture.

My inspiration for their room is this fabric:

"Spotted Owl" in "Natural" by Alexander Henry

And this gorgeous co-ed children's room:

Sunrise Ruffalo's home tour from Domino Magazine

Also check out my pinterest (linked on {our nest in the city} for more nursery ideas under "kid's decorating"

baby mobile idea

we already have one... but for anyone interested.... i found a beauty FREE mobile download. just add a branch + string :)

Thanks, CHILDREN INSPIRE DESIGN!

https://childreninspiredesign.com/content/free-download

a little behind...

For many reasons (i.e. traveling for 2 months this summer, visiting family in Ontario for weeks after that, not knowing if we were staying or moving apartments, etc) I am feeling very BEHIND.

I know the baby won't notice if her room is finished or not (but I will) but it's more than that... tonight we're starting our FIRST labour and delivery class of four, the last being precisely two days after our due date... The reason being, the class we should have taken was happening while we were in Africa this June. Apparently the last class should be exactly 1 month before your due date... Oops. Dropped the ball on that one!

I need to sit back and RELAX and enjoy these last few days/weeks before a baby infiltrates me and Brad's tight knit home and becomes our never-moving-out roommate that we love so much, we barely have time to think... I am so excited for her to come though that all I want to do is prepare FOR her instead of enjoy this time without her while it's here.

In reality, the things we have still to do aren't urgent (which is probably why they're not done) but to me they are because I want everything done and done right before she's born...

* we still need to buy between 6-10 more cloth diapers, but we're not starting cloth diapering until a month AFTER she's born

* we still need to get her correct crib in our nursery and assemble it, but she won't be sleeping in the crib until a month or even two AFTER she's born (bassinet will take care of that)

*we still need to take these labour and delivery classes, though my doctor's assured me that she knows what to do (duh) and the nurses and doctors are there to HELP me, so I won't be up a river with no paddle if I don't watch some terrifying video in the local health clinic with a bunch of strangers who are far less pregnant than me...

So really the things I'm behind on aren't something to stress about... I'm just stressing needlessly. But it's so hard not to! Stress is sometimes the easiest response when things don't go my way... Faith being the hardest and the most necessary.

Nursery {part 2}

I'd say we're in the "calm before the storm" stage, wherein we are getting ready to re-do two rooms in our home and expecting a baby any week now... but really it's already a storm!

My nursery TO-DO list is slowly getting accomplished, but not without leaving the rest of my house/life in it's wake!
Good thing I'm on maternity leave and have the time, if only the energy! So here's a glimpse into what we've done so far:

{fabric hoops wall-art}

• used left-over fabrics from the quilt my sister made
• bought fabric hoops at Fabric Ville, about $2 each
  
• this is actually the arrangement they'll hang on the wall in
  

{empty frame wall art}

• inspired by pictures like this and this
• bought all frames at Dollarama + spray paint

Stay Tuned!

baby's back!!!!

...and I am too, but normally people want to hear about MM far sooner than me, guess it's part of the glorious territory of having kids :)

I have SO much to say about my African and European adventures whilst prego and will be doing so with lots of future blog posts but for now here are some possible post titles to keep you interested:

"My Trip to the Arab-Speaking-Only OBGYN"
"Yes it's a Girl, and no it's not a shame"
"First Class, thank you"
"I thought barfing was done with..."
"Yes, I'm married. I know. Go Figure."
"4 Countries, 3rd Trimester"

And just in case you're not counting,
did anyone else realize that MM is due in 60 DAYS!?!?!
Because I JUST did, and it's freaking me out!
(In a good way)

blog for later:

{our nest in the city}

see button with attached link ------------->

the post-bump blog is up, but will be rarely updated since my life revolves around this bump and I don't have enough spare time to host TWO blogs. But I'll keep this one even after MM is born for MM2, 3, 4 (God-willing).

To be honest, I always thought blogging was kind of ridiculous, but once I actually started READING them (yes my judgment was based on no experience whatsoever) and writing one for myself, I began to love it. I love that my community from back in Ontario can read here and know what's going on. I love that I have it recorded so I won't forget. I love that I can have a place to write my thoughts instead of them crowding up my packed head.

So, a blog for later has begun :) A blog about my relatively new life in the city, Brad and my journey as new parents, new home owners (hopefully soon!), new full-time job (on maternity leave), new LIFE period.
Hope you'll read it :)

Question:

Why are ALL the baby items (i.e. strollers, car seats, cribs, crib bedding, decor) so UGLY? Everything is pastel with bunnies or some retro plaid, and I've never seen more frills in my life!

Call me crazy, but Baby Olivia (Loni's new bundle of joy) doesn't even see colour yet (unless it's a recent development) and she doesn't have strong vision beyond what's immediately in front of her. So why oh why do we decorate entire baby rooms in these cartoon-y baby colours that I'd never put in the rest of my house? The baby can't even SEE the colours or theme most likely. The parents are the ones who spend most waking time in the nursery and have good vision (with the aid of contact lenses!) so why not decorate in a way that can please both baby and parent?

I really like what Andy and Loni did with their kid's room. It's covered in toys - after all kids LIVE there and no one's expecting a baby room to not have toys, but for the most part, it's not overly "baby" or "kiddie". It matches the rest of their house. The walls are a mix between beige and olive green, the furniture is white and wooden, and their bedding is gender neutral - maybe partly because Matty and Dahlia switch bunks often :) The point is, I LOVE it that I walk into their fun, warm, kid's room and it's not like chuckie cheese or baby land, after all they're only babies for a short time and there will likely be more than 1 child in the room at a time, so for us, it's got to be universal.

Like these:

In the trail of my addictions...

Lately I'm hooked on candles. I blame Jamie, who needs one burning to survive. She especially introduced me to the scented jar candles that we found for $5 at Zellers, but their much-longer-burning-higher-class counterparts are from Yankee Candle. Either way, I'm burning them often and ending up with unburned wax and empty jars galore.

Enter the creation of scented wax tarts and more storage for my kitchen!

The wax melts really evenly, I use muffin tins but would use mini muffin tins if I had them. Make sure you don't put too much wax in each because the wax may melt over once you put it in the tea-light holder. Those were form Dollarama for $1 by the way.

So just put them in the oven at 150 or 200 for 10 minutes or so and let them harden afterward for at least an hour or pop them in the freezer and voila!