Saturday, November 21, 2009

Daddy's Girl

Over the past few weeks, I've seen something really neat happening. Back in October, we reached the point where our baby girl would have grown enough to recognize different voices, even from the womb. I thought that was cool, but I always wondered - how in the world could people tell that? Are doctors just guessing based on the level of brain and auditory development?

And then it started happening. I promise, it DID. Our little tiny girl started responding to her daddy's voice in a way that she responds to nobody else. I guess she hears me talk all day, so I probably sound pretty boring to her, but it amazes me that of all the other people she hears talk during the day, she knows James! He isn't even around as much as some of the other people in her life, since he has to work all the time. (He's currently in a stretch of 3 weeks with no days off.)

I'm 25 weeks along now, and when I got to about 18 weeks or so, I started to realize that every time James starts to talk around the baby, she kicks. HARD. It's like she's excited that her daddy is here, and she's trying to get her his attention. It's amazing...she sleeps a lot and will lie still for hours, but as soon as James comes home, suddenly she can't sit still.

And now, she's doing something else! As she gets bigger, her kicks have started to hurt more. I guess her feet are bigger, and she wants more room. So when James comes home and she gets excited, I know that my belly is about to get really uncomfortable. Well, a couple of weeks ago, James started trying to calm her down. He put his face right against my belly, put his hands around her, and started whispering to her that she needed to calm down and stop kicking her mama.

AND SHE DID.

I'm not kidding.

I thought it was a coincidence, but it seems to work every time now. It's so cool to get to know this little personality, even before she is born. Of course, James seems to be the one with all the influence, but he's so good with little kids that it's not much of a surprise.

Isn't that cool?

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Nursery Furniture

Well, we finally got some furniture into the nursery! My parents got us our crib, and we saved up and bought the changing table, so both of them were delivered this weekend. Now the only furniture that we need is the rocking chair that we've picked out.

James has been on call all weekend, so he hasn't been home since 5:30 a.m. on Saturday morning...which means that I put the furniture together myself. No problem! Here's what we've got so far...

This is our crib! It's a Babi Italia Pinehurst lifestyle crib, which means that it will convert into a toddler bed and an adult bed if we buy a couple more pieces. At first, I didn't care about that, but I'm starting to think that it might be kind of nice. I put some of the crib bedding inside so that I could see how it looks in the purple room, and it's cute!














Here's the changing table. I'm so glad that we were able to get one with drawers for storage, since there really isn't anywhere else to keep this little girl's clothes! The changing pad on top came from Meghan, the wipe warmer from Kathy Greco, and the diaper pail from Patti McFarlin, so things are coming together!

Sunday, November 01, 2009

Shower

This weekend, I had a baby shower at the Jacksons' house. It was so much fun, and it was wonderful to see all of the sweet ladies from my hometown of Covington, Georgia again. I have missed them since I've been living in the midwest, so I had a great time catching up with everybody.

The beautiful table, all decorated in the famous style of Sandy Jackson...














Carrie and Linda Parker, some dear friends from childhood.














Rachel Choe with Isabel, who was our tiny little belle of the ball!



















Mrs. Sally Nichols, who as been a close family friend since my earliest memory.



















Mom and Meghan in the kitchen














SO many presents for our little baby girl!!














Sandy Jackson and Kathy Greco














Tiffany Howard with her adorable little Tallis, Me, Natalie Whitworth, and Meghan














Connie Musselman and Carrie Parker with Carrie's sweet little boy.














I loved these little cakes with the pink baby booties on them














Madeline made the baby this soft little pink pillow, and I love it!!














Opening gifts



















A picture with the hostesses - Sandy, Lisa, and Meghan