Nursery: Final Reveal

It's been 5 months since Pace arrived and I JUST realized that I never showed you final photos of the nursery.....EEK!  I was doing some cleaning and organizing in his room this afternoon (he is growing out of clothes so fast that I can barely keep up with retiring the old and bringing out the new), and realized that the last nursery posts (here, here and here) left out a few details.

So, without further ado, here is Pace's completed nursery:

 

 

No big changes or additions, just a few finishing touches to the walls and the bookcase.  He received sa ton of wonderful books and learning toys from friends and family (which is amazing) as well as a few different personalized banks (pig, noah's ark, elephant and a british mail slot)....I guess people were trying to send him a not-so-subtle message.....SAVE, PACE, SAVE (and don't put it in that crazy market...haha)!!  The bookcase is coming along really nicely.  It's even a little crowded at the moment.  I need to weed out some stuff that he can use now and put away a few things (books & toys for older kid, etc.).  We use a large majority of the books though, so I might just need to stack them differently!  Pace loves when we read to him.  I had heard that babies love when you read to them even before they can understand what you are saying, but I was always skeptical.  But, Pace has proven me wrong....he will sit in my lap and just stare at (or grab at) the book while I read it to him for quite a long time.  We always do a book before bedtime, but I'm finding that he likes to sit down and relax with a book before his naps too.  Hopefully he will grow up to be a book-lover like his parents!  :)

But enough about that, moving on to the other additions to the room:

I made this little piece of artwork just a few days before Pace arrived.  I had planned on blogging on it the day that my water broke....oops!  I had pieces of yellow and white craft paper in the house from an older project and an IKEA Ribba Frame (8x10).  It took me two tries and a lot of patience, but I finally got all the letters to fit in the frame.  All I did was draw out an 8x10 border and measure out equal horizontal lines on the white paper.  I had to sketch and re-sketch the letters a few times to makes sure they would fit in the space, but when it finally came together, it only took about 15 minutes to cut out the letters with an exacto-knife.  I then traced the 8x10 shape onto the yellow paper and glued the individual letters on with rubber cement.  All in all, it took me about an hour (since I also did a second one that finishes the little song, "you make me happy when skies are gray", but decided that I liked the one by itself.   I still have the other one lying around in case I change my mind though (which isn't likely since I had to squeeze those letters a little more and I don't think it looks as neat as the other one).  Only cost about $20 for the whole project because I had most of the supplies at home (and the frames were $9.99/ea). 

We had these letters from Michaels since the second trimester, but since we were keeping the name a secret, we didn't put them up on the wall until after he arrived.  We just eye-balled the spacing when we put them up.  The "E" looks like its a little too high in this picture, but maybe its just the angle of the photo.  Hm.....that's going to bug me!!  Hahah!!

So, that's it folks.  The final nursery reveal.  I am really happy with it and it seems like Pace likes it as well (although all he really does in the room is sleep, so I'm not sure if that is a good thing or bad thing).  I'm sure it will grow and evolve with his little personality over the years, but for now, I think its a great little space for him.


And just for a little perspective, here is a quick before and after:

Before

After

Before

After

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And speaking of growing....he is just getting so big so fast.  I can't take it!!!

These were taken a month ago, so he is even bigger now!!  I have to take some 5 months shots, so I will update you with new pictures of him soon!  :)

And I apologize for the lack of posts during the holiday season.  People warned me that it is crazy when you have kids and everyone wants to see him.  I didn't believe it, but I do now.  It was a blast but I am a little glad that it's over and we can get back into a normal routine!  YAY!  Happy New Year everyone!!