We Have a Date AND a Name!

November 6th. Mark it on your calendar. Baby P will make his appearance that morning. Now that we have a date, the time is quickly pressing upon me. With Emma, we had a crib set up before we even knew she was a girl. That nursery was painted pink practically the day after we found out she was a girl. Baby P however, well, that has been another story entirely. I am realizing that chasing a one year old (holy buckets, how did my sweet baby get to be one year old??) is more time consuming than I thought.
Three weeks ago, while Emma was down for a super long Children's Ibuprofen induced nap (she had a fever and was cutting 4 molars, what do you want me to say??), Jeff and I power painted the nursery. And when I say power painted, I mean it was fast. We spent the best $4.79 we have ever spent and bought one of those edge painter thingies. Think As Seen On TV. Billy Mays in his blue shirt at his finest. I tossed the gadget in our basket hoping it would pay off and not be wasted money. Oh BABY was that thing worth it! See, when Jeff and I paint (which we have done numerous times together) I’m the detail girl and he’s the bulk guy. I do all the cutting in and “hard” parts and he covers the masses. It just works better that way. But usually I end up taking forever because of that whole perfectionist thing I’ve got going and he’s standing around waiting for me so that he can cover the walls and do his part. Not so this time my friend! I had to wait for him! That four dollar gadget saved me time and made my edges look amazing. Not so much paint on the ceiling this time, which is a bonus, and we have a chair rail in this bedroom so you can imagine what that would have taken to accomplish with a brush. We will be keeping the Shur-Line Paint Edging kit my friends, and using it every time we paint. Worth more than its price, it is one of those things that everyone should own. I’m just saying.



So back to the actual nursery. We’ve gone with a very masculine sports theme and we love how it’s coming together. The walls above the chair rail are khaki, the walls below ended up looking surprisingly Aggie Maroon (I promise I didn’t do this on purpose, but now that we’ve got that element added, I’m thinking some Aggie stuff may have to make its way into the room! WHOOP!) and we’ve added navy accents. We painted the dresser navy blue with white drawer pulls and I painted red stitches on the drawer pulls so that they look like little baseballs. Totally Jeff’s idea. Isn’t he creative? I’m so proud.
Last weekend we got the crib and it’s all assembled, waiting for a mattress and some bedding to help finish it off. We also lucked out by overhearing a lady at Babies R Us say that she heard of a promotion to get 20% off of a new stroller by bringing in your old stroller. Jeff’s radar ears snapped to that bargain and we stopped to listen to the “fine print”.
Bring in your old stroller to Babies R Us. Check.
Choose from a select line of vendors. Graco is included, that’s what we wanted. Check.
Cashier issues a 20% off coupon. Wait, that’s it? All we have to do is turn in our old stroller and we can get 20% off of the double stroller we want?? SWEET! Put that box in our cart kind sir!




So with Jeff’s wheeling and dealing, the ongoing furniture sale, the stroller deal we stumbled upon, and our official discount for buying off of our registry, we ended up making out like bandits! We’re super happy with our stroller (we took it on its maiden voyage last night and Emma seemed to enjoy it – Mamma certainly enjoyed the ease with which it steers!) and bed. We’re getting closer to being ready for this sweet baby to arrive.
So to address the name portion. He will be named Alexander Scott Parnell and we shall call him Alex. Alex and Emma. Alex Parnell. We love it. Now I just need to get some letters so I can put his name over his bed like we did for Em.

Now let me end on this humorous note:
A Daily Conversation in the Parnell Household
Heather or Jeff: Emma, I love you!
Emma: [grin]
Heather or Jeff: Emma, I love you!!
Emma: PUPPY!!