My African Weaver Bird

So, I bet you're wondering why I am showing you a picture of the African weaver bird.  Well, it's not to let you know that we're going on an African safari next year (but doesn't that sound fun?).  It's also not because a rogue African weaver bird ended up in our backyard (but how cool would that be?)  Nope.  That little guy is pictured here because he is a metaphor for my wonderful husband Jason.  Did you know that in almost all of the world's bird species, it is the female who makes nests?  Oh sure, the birdy men sometimes help out by collecting twigs or hay or whatnot to help their mate out but that's as far as it goes.  But the African weaver bird is one of very few species where the male actually constructs the nest himself.  Well, evidently Jason is an African weaver bird.  My pregnant self has become lazy.  Actually, that's not true.  In all honesty, my pregnant self is TIRED, CURRENTLY SICK, and, even more so, my pregnant self is mentally OVERWHELMED and DAUNTED at the challenges of Elf on the Shelf, St. Nick's Eve, Chanukah, Christmas, and of course preparing for the little human who will be joining our family in 6 weeks (or less).  It just seems like soooo much to do, in relatively little time, that I can't bring myself to start any preparations, even though I want to/ need to.  Fortunately, I have an African weaver bird as a husband.  Let's examine the evidence.

First of all, Jason has listened to me complain about the ugly ugly dated floral draperies in our living room since the day we moved on. But I didn't take them down because (a) window treatments are expensive, and we've had other stuff to spend money on around the house that took precedence for a long while and (b) I thought blank windows would make our home look like a college apartment. I figured "homey but homely" was better than "spartan and collegiate." But then my BFF Brooke, who is also super talented and loves home decor and design, convinced me a few weeks ago via a phone chat that I should just take them down and that the spartan look is better than dusty 1992 floral fabric. So in a fit of passion, I made Jason tear one down while I was still on the phone with Brooke. And I gushed to Brooke that it did indeed look so much better, and why on earth hadn't she insisted on this last August when we first took residence?  For a few days, I was happier. Then, the nakedness started to really get to me. So Jason and I decided that we must start looking for some budget-friendly curtains. Of course, Mr. Weaver Bird jumped all over this and started emailing me links from Target and World Market and Ikea and etc etc that were all within our budget. This is how Jason works... he takes an idea and runs with it. I, on the other hand, often get overwhelmed and ignore his many emails for awhile.  Eventually, though, Jason actually dragged me out to the shops, and we ended up picking up some from Target that we thought might work. He draped them temporarily from the naked curtain brackets in our living room, and I avoided making a decision on them for over a week because my limited artistic vision couldn't see past the way they were inelegantly slung over the cheapie little metal bracket to envision how they might be hanging on actual cute curtain rods. Mr. Weaver Bird was ready to peck my eyes out... he just wanted to build his nest, gosh darn it!   Make a decision, lady!  So finally, at least partially over the desire to just not be nagged anymore, I decided that yes, I do like these drapes. And bingo, a few hours later, they were artfully hung.  And I am soooooo happy with them!  My house feels like a grown-up's home again, but now it feels like MY home and not the original owners'.  (With truly no offense meant to the previous owners, who did take loving care of this home for the 21 years they lived here).


The "before"... see ugly floral valances to the right of Jason

The "after"... much better, right?

 

After this, my bird man started squawking at me about the need to pick nursery furniture.  We've been casually looking at some cribs and dressers for a few months now, but I haven't felt a real need to make a decision.  After all, Gummi Bear will sleep in our room in our co-sleeper bassinet that sidecars to our bed for at least 8 weeks or so, during which time we will paint and decorate the baby's room (Okay, who am I kidding?  I will probably not be painting or doing other manual labor, other than being the sole food source for another human being, which, trust me, is a big enough job, thank you very much, in addition to continuing to care for a 2 year old and make sure I occasionally feed myself and get a wee bit of sleep).  I really didn't feel the need to make a decision on furniture yet.  To buy myself some time, I told Jason he needed to relocate his home office out of Gummi's room and down to the bowels of the basement before I would worry about furniture.  Now, our basement has been in a state of disarray since early September, when Jason first began the ardous process of priming and painting wood paneling.  So I thought he couldn't get down there on the drop of a hat.  Well, evidently my birdman's nesting instinct takes precedence over all else because he put together his new desk and moved himself right on down to our now-homier, less-woody basement! 

The "before"... this is the previous owners' stuff- pic was taken right before we put in our offer

 

The "after"... wood paneling has been painted a light, calming blue and home office situated in a corner

 

So I had to acquiesce, and we finally decided on and purchased a crib for Gummi Bear.  Which of course I thought it made more sense to just leave in the box (again, the room will need to be painted before the baby ever sleeps in the crib in his/her room). But nope... guess what little project the Weaver Bird accomplished on Monday night?  Here is photographic evidence of his hard work, as well as a video we took of Miri's reaction to seeing a crib (with a sleep sheep just like hers) in Gummi's room.

Then today, I come home from work to see that my weaver bird evidently was listening when I nonchalantly (no veiled hints, I swear) mentioned that we'll need to wash the carseat cover, vibrating baby chair cover, and swing cover at some point soon.  Those items have now been magically moved up from the basement to the baby's room, sans covers, and I hear the washing machine going as I write this!  AND... my industrious little birdie also pulled out our bin of Miri's outgrown baby clothes and the boxes of infant clothes from Robin and has started to pull out the gender neutral pieces that would ideally be washed and ready prior to baby's arrival. 

I bet every pregnant woman wishes she was married to an African Weaver Bird.  This Thanksgiving, I am especially grateful to be married to Jason.  I don't know what I'd do without him (now and always). 

Happy Thanksgiving y'all!  I'll try to do a Thanksgiving recap soon!



 

Halloween 4

No, this has not become a movie review blog. I could not tell you what Michael Myers was up to by the 4th installment. Well, probably murder.

Definitely murder.

But anyways, like I said, this is not a movie review.

The "4" represents the number of Halloween events Miri took on this year. She has come a long way since her first two Halloweens, and is now really understanding the whole concept.

1. Dress up.
2. Ask for candy.
3. Get candy.
4. Eat candy.

And she loves it! (Both the concept...and, of course, CANDY!)

So let's recap her four Halloweens:

Halloween 1
Unfortunately for Miri, Halloween 1 did not include candy. But she did get to dress up like an elephant and go to the zoo to see...monkeys (I was hoping we'd see elephants. Now wouldn't that have just been the perfect photo op?! But, alas, it was too dark.). So, anyways, I took Miri to Boo at the Zoo and met up with Gammy and Grandpa R. Unfortunately, Alli had a continuing ed course in Chicago that weekend so had to settle for a text photo of her little elephant, which I'll now share with you:

 

Halloween 2

This one did include candy...and every one hereafter. We ventured up to Cedarburg to visit Gammy and Grandpa the Saturday before Halloween, as this was the 'Burg's trick-or-treat (TOT) night. I'm not sure why I never thought to do this as a kid. Apparently every town has different TOT days/nights, so we could have potentially TOTed for probably a week straight, sometimes multiple stops in one day if you put together a good schedule. What a haul I would have pulled in! Why did our parents not make us aware of this?? But I digress. So Miri seemed to like the idea of TOTing, but was a bit afraid to actually approach the houses. With some minor persuasion ("these people are friendly"), we convinced her to make a few stops...but not quite ready to be turned loose.

 

Halloween 3

Party at school! Obviously, Mommy and Daddy weren't there for this one, but I did hear there was a spectacular parade (which I'm sure included a light show and special effects, marching bands, and probably Grand Marshalled by a celebrity...like Santa), an amazing spread (Goldfish, string cheese, milk), and her bestest friends (Adelyn, Brookie, Ms Rachel, etc).

 

Halloween 4

The main event...Trick-or-Treating in Germantown on Halloween. This time Miri went through a costume change, and became her beloved Elmo! She was again a bit hesitant to go up to the houses...but things quickly changed, and she was TOTing like a pro! At one house she said, "Trick or treat!", and after receving her candy we said, "What do you say?", and she turned right back around and said, "Trick or treat!". Nice one! It earned her an extra handful of treats...and a high five from Mommy and Daddy (who would later be eating that extra handful of treats)!

So that's the scoop on Miri's 4 Halloweens. Lots of fun, yummy candy, and absolutely no murder!

 

Miri's beautiful, hand-painted pumpkin which adorned our front stoop on Halloween.