A Room for Boone...

When we found out we were expecting Boone we were SO surprised.  We sat on that news for a bit, just Ryan and I, and we let the idea settle in.  We were thrilled, of course, but also taken aback.  I don't know why, exactly -- it's not as if we have EVER been able to plan the arrival of all our little miracle babies -- but still; we thought we had arrived at "our complete family" - so it took a moment.

Once we wrapped our brains and our hearts around the arrival of another sweet baby boy - my mind immediately went to a nursery.  Is that a thing?  Like a little girl who dreams about her wedding day? I propose it is an actual thing.  When you learn you'll be welcoming a baby, your mind goes to "that space" you'll create for them.  That magical spot you carve out in your home where you will rock them and feed them and swaddle them and change them.  I am a lover of a good nursery... so there went my heart and my hands, to creating a perfect one for Boone.

I started off with an idea and some things we had (which wasn't much).  We had a crib... Hallelujah! We had a European mount of a deer, thanks to RyGar.  It was hanging in the storage room and every time RyGar went to fetch a can of chicken broth for me, he mentioned it in terms of "what a shame to hang that thing in our storage room".  I know - I know, poor baby.  :)  And we had a rocking chair.  A nice, leather, plush number that was holding Ryan's jacket in the corner of our room.  Lame sauce. We also had a feminine little white dresser that held off-season clothes in the guest bedroom.  It was far too sweet and girly, but it could be used if the right transformation took place.

And then I had a vision.

We went to Wayne County in the fall before Boone was born.  I had long had on my list of "things to do in Wayne County" a "lumber jack trip".  In case you didn't know, this is where your hubs packs his chain saw, and his mini lumberjacks watch in awe as he falls a dead tree and cuts it up for firewood, etc.  I requested a stump.  A perfectly aged, round, 36 inch high stump that would act as a side table in the corner right next to the aforementioned rocking chair.

What mama wants - mama sometimes gets.  :)

And now it sits -- oiled and weathered, holding a framed picture of my Baby Boone in it's perfect spot next to the rocker.  I LOVE it so hard.  Every time I look at it I will think of that brisk fall day when RyGar and I took the boys, along with Grandpa Hooky and Grandma Gail, to our mountains... and we snacked on roasted peanuts - mixed with saw dust.  Good times, guys.  Good times.

Boone... we didn't know how much we needed or wanted you.  Baby love... we do now!  We would build a thousand rooms to welcome you, little man.  You have brought so much love into our home and your brothers demonstrate the purest form of it toward you every day.  It is the best kind of magic to watch people interact with you.

So, enjoy your room.  It's full of some old things, some new things, some inexpensive things, some splurge things, some sentimental things, some cozy things, some things we made in anticipation of the arrival of something we really, really love -- You. 

This is your place.  This is your family.  We're so glad you're here.