Focus on the Nursery

Last weekend Jack and I were running around town tracking down our crib and trying to take care of various baby related errands. It's hard to believe that an interesting picture could come out of this, but we took a break at a Barnes and Noble and Jack captured this special moment:

One week later, Jack assembled the crib while I knitted a tiny hat for a friend. (No picture of the hat just yet.)

We are going for a woodland theme for the nursery, but Jack and I could not resist the canvas bins you see at the bottom of the changing table. We received the giraffe at our shower and went back to the store to buy more.

And now we are even closer to a finished nursery! (And the tiny hat is complete.)

It's a Boy!

At the Michigan baby shower, they had Anastasia and I cut into a cake to find out if the inside was pink or blue.

Blue!

The Reveal

On December 28, 2010, a baby shower was held for us in Michigan by Anastasia's friends and family.

As mentioned before, we'd decided not to find out the sex during our ultrasound, but rather to have the tech write the sex down on a card and seal it in an envelope. We then sent that envelope off to Stasia's parents in Michigan where the secret would be reveled to us in some fashion at the baby shower almost two months later.

Upon hearing this plan (LOTS of people asked what the sex was after the ultrasound), reactions generally fell into three camps: either "Wow, that's a really cool and unique way to find out! You guys are really cool and I feel cooler for knowing you." Or, "Really? That's weird." Or, Mouth open, head cocked sideways, eyes squinted, looking like a confused dog.

Even though I had my occasional moments of really wanting to know (Anastasia says she could have easily gone to term without ever knowing), I still loved the idea and thought it was a fun way to involve her parents since they live so far away and don't get to take part in their daughter's pregnancy as much as I imagine they'd like. And it was a perfect compromise between having it be a surprise, but also knowing a couple of months prior to delivery.

Now without further ado... HERE'S the video!

Bloggy Blog Blog

So we've started this new blog with the idea being that it will be our family blog. The place to go for pictures, videos, news, and any other fun bits about our growing family. I imagine it being like the living room of our online house with corridors leading off to other rooms like our Flickr photo page or Anastasia's personal blog or my own personal blog (links to these also found on the right side of the page).

For a time I wondered if I should just ditch my personal blog. How many blogs does a person need anyway? But I realized, not only do I have a lot on there which I wouldn't want to lose, I also have my ruminations from time to time that are perhaps not fitting with the intended context of this page. I can have my own room to do my thinking and my tinkering. And Stasia can have her own room for her cooking, her knitting, and her many other talents. And we can open the doors to these rooms every so often when we have something to share.

For instance, a couple months ago I wrote a little about how I was coming to terms with all the changes heading my way. If you're interested, here it is. I'll hold the door open for you.

24 Weeks and Nursery Progress

At 24 weeks I took this photo of Stasia in our newly painted nursery. At this time we still did not know the sex, so we painted the room a fun green color, considering that pretty gender-neutral.

Annabelle looks a bit worried about being usurped as the primary attention-getter in the house.

Utrasound

On November 1st, 2010, we had our first peek at Baby Hollenbach.

Here is the profile. We love how clear this shows the outline of the little one's face:

Foot!

Prior to the ultrasound, we asked the tech not to tell us the sex, but to write it down on a card and place this in a sealed envelope which we then sent off to Stasia's parents in Michigan. The plan was to have the sex revealed to us later during a baby shower to be held by her family when we visited them during Christmas. More on this later!

We're pregnant!

In early July, 2010, Anastasia and I learned that we are going to have a baby.

It came as kind of a shock to us both. Sure, we'd been trying, but not for more than a few months really. On a Saturday night, Anastasia took a pregnancy test. It showed a positive result, but I was skeptical. She took another test the following morning. Also positive. And still, I had a hard time accepting that this little plastic thing was telling us the truth. Eventually, reality settled over us and we were very happy and couldn't wait to share it with our families.

Later that same day, we invited Anastasia's parents in Michigan to a video chat and we broke the news. The following weekend--because we wanted to tell them in person--we had my mom, my sister and her boyfriend over for a barbecue to tell them.