But the good thing about it is that I’m no longer just dreaming, I’m also doing.

Thanks Pinterest!

We looked high and low on the internet and party supply stores for ready-to-buy all orange party supplies. Found a few orange items, but not enough for a two birthday. We came up with the theme “Orange You Two”, and incorporated that through a banner-style sign we used above the party food. We cut the letters by hand and used various orange patterned scrapbook paper and glue and ribbon to put it together.

We made tissue paper orange and white flowers, incorporated orange and white balloons, used white carnations for flowers and strived for all orange food.

Robert designed water bottle labels and we made tiny signs for the food and stuck them in giant gumdrops.

The party was a super fun success. Lucy loved the singing of the birthday song and requested a second singing. Our families all were here and the day was joyful and fun. No one ate the circus peanuts. If you’re looking for an orange party, our advice is, make one yourself!

I’ve emerged from the shell of the first two years of motherhood. Welcome back to me!

I know, I know. it’s been way too long since I’ve posted to my little blog. But I have a perfect excuse – we had our baby on May 4. It’s taken me 8 weeks to finally get the hang of motherhood.

Lucy Margaret joined our family on May 4, 2009 at 9:37 PM. She weighed in at 9 lbs, 3 oz, and was 21″ long.

Labor lasted about 22 hours. I was tired, and I’m still tired. But she was worth every gosh-darn minute of pregnancy and labor.

But overall, time is flying by in the domino world of Pam and Robert and future baby. The countdown is on to the big day, and we can’t wait.

Meanwhile, we’re hard at work on the nursery. Well, when I say “we”, I mean “Robert” because the only thing I can do at this point is point.

Robert installed the nursery closet – we went with an IKEA closet – the Stolmen. It was super-easy to install, and it is modular, so we can add to it as the baby grows into a kid into a teenager.

Here’s a lovely photo:

The closet turned out great, and so did the bright green carpet.

Here’s a photo that shows the wall and trim colors, along with the carpet. This is a photo of the baby’s room corner – “nobody puts Baby in the corner.”

Overall, the nursery is coming along very nicely. We now have a crib, so the baby will have a place to lay its little head, and we have diapers, so we can change the baby, and a car seat, so we can bring the baby home. Now all we need is the baby!

Here’s a series of pictures of the progress Robert made in undertaking this giant task:

First, the demolition:

Robert ripped out the ceiling over two days, and discovered the insulation was old and bunched up, and some of it was moldy. Gross. He also discovered that the ceiling fan in the room wasn’t actually attached to anything (not to the studs up above) and was just hanging from the drywall. Fixed that problem too. Good thing, because that would have been right above the crib – not so good for a baby if a ceiling fan falls on it.

Second, the new insulation was put into the ceiling so the baby can be nice and warm during the frigid Chicago winters:

You can see the giant drywall sheets stacked against the wall.

And last, the completed, beautiful, finished ceiling!

It’s now been primed and painted, and the walls are now painted white. I can’t wait until the nursery is close to being finished and the baby arrives! More pictures to come – it’s going to be beautiful!

As you can see when this photo was taken, it was snowing. We have over a foot of snow on the ground right now, and average snowfall in a normal Chicago winter is 38″., and we’re at a total of 39″ so far this year.

That’s our little detached garage off to the right, and Robert’s trusty shovel leaning against the garage. We don’t have a fence in the backyard yet that separates us from our backyard neighbors, but we hope to someday, maybe by the time the baby starts walking!

I like winter, but this winter of 2008-2009 in the Chicago-land area is getting me down. I think it’s just the lack of sunlight, because we have had millions of cloudy days and not very many sunny ones. And now the freezing arctic cold has set in, when it’s too cold to even venture outside unless you’re seriously in dire need of takeout Chinese food.

I know we’re almost rounding the bases into the home stretch of winter, but it seems endless. But on the other hand, I don’t want it to be spring because we have more and more baby preparations to do! This weekend, the goal is to paint the nursery. At least we don’t have to go outside to do that.

Oh, and by the way? More snow predicted for tomorrow.

It’s fun. At first, it felt like tiny mouses running around on the inside of my abdomen. Now it feels like there’s a person inside there, a tiny person, knocking like on a door.

I really love the feeling. 24 weeks!

I’m so proud of my husband, dear Robert. The baby’s nursery room ceiling is almost finished!

If you’ll recall, over the summer, we had a leaking roof in our library, which has now been specified for the baby’s room.

The roof leaked, the water dripping ensued, and the drywall turned into a moldy mess, along with the insulation above the drywall.

Robert undertook the endeavor of ripping out the ceiling, pitching the drywall, and installing new insulation. Our very good friend Wes came over last week and they put up the new drywall. I’m currently in Philadelphia on a show, and when I come home, Robert says the drywall will be finished and ready to paint!

So the dominoes are getting knocked down one by one. We’re two weeks away from the third trimester, so the countdown is on! I can’t wait to share with you the photos of the finished nursery in hopefully a month or so – it’s going to be beautiful. Hooray Robert!

We’re so excited for our friends and can’t wait to meet the new little guy and hear all about him. Congratulations Anthony and Jodi!

We’re only sad because we live in different states, and wish we lived closer so our babies could be friends, like Anthony and I were as kids living in Chatham, IL. Maybe someday!