Nursery Item Number One

Jenn and I still have approximately 6 weeks before the little one arrives but yet I find myself in the nursery almost daily. This started about three weeks ago when Jenn finally made some baby furniture decisions. After weeks and weeks of "this looks good but this might look better", the decision was made. A few days later we had boxes and boxes sitting outside our front door. Now the great thing about having all of these boxes was that it gave me the chance to use my hands in a constructive manner, which I feel I rarely have the chance to do these days.

The first box that arrived was the crib (thanks Grandpa Rick) and I could not wait to bust into this box and get to work. To my surprise, Jenn wanted to help but I was not sure how that was going to work. Then I realized that her definition of helping was to sit on the floor and tell me what I needed to do. So the work on the crib began and it started out very well (meaning everything was in the box for a change). I was able to get the base put together, then I attached the first side wall. Next I installed the front and back side panels and then I inserted the spring frame. The last item to attach was the second side panel and I will be damned if I got to the last screw when Jenn noticed that I had the side panel on backwards. No big deal, a minor hiccup, so I took out the one screw I had in and flipped it around. Having that taken care of I put the last four screws in, excuse me, three out of the four. As I got to the last screw I could not get it to go in, so after several (several) minutes of moving each piece of wood around in order to get the last screw in, I caved and took the other three out. After removing the panel and inserting the uncooperative screw to make sure it did work without the panel, I got back on track. A few minutes later I had the first item up in the nursery, the crib. Here it is:


Only a dresser, six boxes of a shelving unit, a swing, a bouncer, and a pack 'n' play to go...

Mr. Leavell Joins the Blog

If you have visited our blog before, you probably already know that all of the posts have been written by Jenn. Well, that is about to change. Please give a warm welcome to Mr. Leavell.

My previous obligation to this blog was simply to read the posts after Jenn wrote each one. Now if you think you are going to get the wit from me that my wife brings to the table, you are in for a huge disappointment. All I plan to bring to the table is my day-to-day experiences that you will hopefully enjoy reading about.

As you may already know, Jenn and I are expecting our first child next month and I will be the first one to say that I am very excited about it (the one downfall to not knowing the gender--we have an "it" baby) but extremely nervous at the same time. I am still wondering what my reaction is going to be when the baby arrives, and even though I don't know what that is at the moment, everyone around me seems to have that figured out already. Those reactions have varied from, "Cool, now what's the Colts score?" to "Awesome, let's go home" or me simply passing out. Well, if the baby arrives on a Sunday, then that first one might be accurate, but I will do my best to put the Colts on the back burner for at least one Sunday.

Even though I don't know what my reaction is going to be, I do know this: I can't wait for our first child to arrive. I can't think of anything else that could possibly bring all of these emotions going through me all at one time: scared, happy, nervous, excited. These past 8 months have been incredible and as the last one creeps closer and closer I can't help but think about one thing all of the time: how amazing my wife is and how lucky I am to have someone like her in my life. And soon, I'll have two.