Hello! It's Friday again - unbelievably - and I am, fully, in the throes of nesting. All I want is for my ENTIRE house to be spotless and organized RIGHT NOW. It turns out that it takes quite a bit of energy for things to be spotless and organized, but I'm undaunted. Today's the day. At least the kitchen is going to get a good deep cleaning. Do you hear me, kitchen? Prepare thyself.

Sorry. Seriously. The week has been good - we've been tooling away overtime - and still I don't have some dramatic unveiling, because a lot of that tooling away is on incremental stuff. Nonetheless, I'm happy with the progress, pleased with my doctor's assurances that she doesn't expect this baby to come early (which was keeping me up at nights) and in general ready to treat myself to a clean house and a mani/pedi.

I'm only giving a little peek of what's going on in babe's room, but I did think it would be fun to take a trip down memory lane and see what Lou's little nursery was like! I only have these few iPhone shots, but they at least get the gist across.

So, I definitely had a "more is more" mentality, and I wasn't in the least concerned with gender neutrality. I had discovered those floral curtains at a yard sale and fallen deeply, madly in love. I made them into the valances you see here, and then threw every other pattern combo I could think of at the room. Of course, everything but the crib was thrifted, so it all felt like so much kismet when I put it together and it (sort of) worked. I wish I had taken closeups of some of the stuff. The little pinboard held extra special baby shower cards, then later first birthday cards, and then second birthday - her last in that house. I loved changing them out each year and seeing them as daily reminders of how very loved Lou has been since Day One.

I distinctly remember painting that tree when I was 9 months pregnant, painstakingly cutting out the leaves from different card stocks, and deconstructing a flowered garland to add the flowers. You can just barely make it out in the bottom photo, but I also remember paying full price for that owl light switch at Anthropologie because it was so very necessary. So was the vintage rocker - I did NOT want a glider - and the perfectly-sized dresser I dug up at a thrift store and repainted to serve as the changing area. I got so much push back for not buying a real changing table, which I think is funny in retrospect. Maybe people thought I was just going to stick her on the hard dresser top and walk away? (I also got a lot of concern that our cats were going to smother her in her sleep. Looking back, I think people may have had some generalized anxiety about our parenting, no?). I was also really proud of the little station I set up on the wall to hold all the diaper accoutrement - a system I've replicated for the new wee one.

Well, this is a ramble, at this point. I'm going to clean my house! I know this is perverse, but my birthday is this weekend, and I am excited to treat myself to a clean house. That I scrub myself. While listening to "Damn, I Wish I Was Your Lover" radio on Pandora. It's just a weird, hormonal situation over here guys. Wish Bret and Lou luck. Thanks for reading and we'll chat on Monday!