Naturally Optimistic

Since Baby's B's room has a "jungle animal" theme going on and since we don't know the sex, Laurie chose an entirely WAY too cute shower invitation that featured a giraffe with lots of bright colors. I loved it. At the shower, there were lots of jungle animals - particularly giraffes! Gift bags, clothes, toys, stuffed animals. All so cute - giraffes on outfits, elephants on sleepers, monkeys on toys, full jungles on blankets, etc. The irony of it all is that Steve and I's collective height is about 10 1/2 feet. ha!

I had a baby shower today! It was so much fun. Steve's Aunt threw it for me & Baby B. There were good friends & family there, lots of yummy things to eat and cute baby things too. A couple of difficult games (!) and the unsettling realization a couple times (internally) that this was a baby shower FOR ME! Weird. The Chick Pea was showered with many very useful gifts - from a diaper pail full of diapering necessities (thanks, Mom!) to a fabulous glider for rocking & nursing (thanks MIL & FIL, SIL, et al) to cute things for the nursery. I am feeling so much more in the mood to get things squared away in the baby's room now. Eeeek! My friend Sarah came up yesterday to hang out and she helped me clear out the last few things from the baby's room. Now we just need to put the molding up and remove a bookshelf. I feel like we're on the right path (lots still to be done, but the right path nonetheless). We had a good time hanging out - we talked a lot, went for ...

Okay - I'm trying to wrap my head around the "baby gear" thing and I'm not getting very far. There are a few things that I know we need/want and those specifics I can figure out. There are some things we have, some things we're getting as hand-me-downs from family & friends and then there is.... THE STROLLER/CAR SEAT Neither Steve nor I are big fans of the HUGE STROLLER syndrome that sweeps the nation. We're both kind of smallish people and drive smallish cars and I can't imagine trying to get one of those monostrosities in my vehicle. Then again the stroller we think we really want is more like this: But then what to do about the car seat conundrum? Do you buy a separate car seat (which hopefully can go from infant to toddler in convertible style so you don't have to buy something new every 6 months)? Or do you bite the bullet and buy the "travel system" to have the infant car seat/carrier and THEN the convertible car seat/booster for ...