Baby Shower!!

Hi everyone!

As you can see, we had a great time at my Baby Shower last weekend! My friends and Sister-In-Law (who is of course a friend too!) did an amazing job and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves! My Mom provided the location - her community poolhouse/clubhouse, where we also had my Bridal Shower nearly 6 years ago. Shaunna's company, Parties By Panache, did a fantastic job on the catering and decor! Creme Brulee French Toast = YUM-O! Amanda put together some cute games, and Joliene brought an adorable cake (as you can see from the photo above)! Jen made gorgeous centerpieces and decorated my chair to match, so I definitely felt special!

There were tons and tons of gifts! I'll be making another blog post to show how much room they all took up in our living room, and how much progress I've made with getting everything put away. I'm almost done! As many of you know, I love music. So what better way for Kyra to follow in Mommy's footsteps than to start her off early with her very own pink iPod! I've already loaded it with a bunch of lullabies, as well as some Bob Marley and Jack Johnson (his Curious George CD is perfect for kids)! I've gotten a bunch of albums of popular artist's music that's been turned into baby tunes (Madonna, U2, Coldplay, Pink Floyd, Guns N Roses, The Beatles, Bob Marley), so it'll be nice to have some familiar-sounding soothing music to play for her.

After we got all the gifts home and I went through everything, I had a gigantic gift bag full of tiny clothes (lots of pink!), plus an entire storage crate full of hand-me-down clothes from Jen's 3 girls (thank you so much!). I managed to get everything washed, sorted by size, and put away in Kyra's closet and dresser (although I'm still storing some of the older sizes of Jen's clothes for the future, since Kyra won't be wearing those right away). I've already put together a few outfits for each of the various sizes (newborn, 0-3 months, 3-6, 6-12, etc.) that are hanging in her closet to help Geoff if he needs to dress her quickly. And it's also so cute to just see all these adorable things hanging there!

We've put together the strollers, bouncy seat, and most of the swing. Geoff has been particularly fascinated by all of the various items we now have to physically put Kyra in or on - crib, changing table, bouncy seat, swing, bumbo chair, caddy chair, car seat, 2 strollers, pack n play, baby bjorn-type carrier, moby wrap (still on it's way to us from Geoff's cousin Debby!), floor playmat, sling...I feel like I'm still leaving something out! Oh yeah, the shoulder carrier and high chair (we still need to get the high chair from Babies R Us), and probably some others I'm still forgetting. When Geoff was little, his parents took a bunch of pictures of him on all his various bikes and scooters, etc., which they affectionately call "The Transportation Series." Maybe we'll need to do something similar with Kyra's baby stuff!

The kitties have been enjoying spending time in Kyra's room with me! We're trying to get them used to the room being different now (it used to be an office that they were welcome in anytime). The kitties are only allowed in Kyra's room when supervised, and are obviously not allowed in the crib or on the furniture, with the exception of the glider chair and ottoman. They've been getting some good naps on there! I'm not sure how much they'll be allowed in Kyra's room once she arrives, but we'll see how things go. In the meantime, it's their favorite room in the house!

Tomorrow officially marks 1 month until my due date! We have another check-up at the doctor tomorrow, during which I'm sure the doctor tell me again that it would be perfectly safe for Kyra to be born now! She keeps saying that, and it's starting to sound as though she's supposed to be born now, as opposed to 4.5 weeks from now! We'll see when Kyra decides to make her first appearance! She's definitely getting heavy to carry around now and I'm assuming that she officially "dropped" a while ago, considering all the pressure her head is putting on my pelvis and nerves (not exactly comfortable!). I feel like I have to hold her up when I walk now. I'm definitely getting tired out more easily these days, and have been trying to take more naps and sleep in if possible (not that I've ever really been able to sleep in, since I'm usually up by 8-8:30am at the latest).

Watch for another post, hopefully in the next day or so, with some updated pics of Kyra's room and all her new stuff! Once I get all of the baby stuff done, it'll be time to write a huge pile of thank you notes!