It's a jungle out there

So we need three photos of the nursery for the dossier. We don't have to have it all done up, but we do need to show a bed. I find that entertaining. I mean, we are providing photos of all the rooms of our house, we are proving our financial stability eight ways to Tuesday, we are spending thousands upon thousands of dollars on adoption-related expenses, and they need photographic proof that we are going to provide a bed for our child. Seriously?

(I just got done doing a happy dance...a big old full fledged happy dance. I called a psychologist to ask about the evaluation we have to have and the assistant who called me back just now knew what I was talking about. They've done this before. !!!!!!!! After what we've gone through trying to find a CPA that will do the certificate of assets, I am so freaking relieved to find a psychologist who doesn't think this is an unreasonable request. Now I just hope the fee will be somewhat reasonable.)

So anyway, I've been itching to get started on the nursery. (Is it really true? Are we really expecting a child? The nursery makes it real.) The photo thing was a great excuse to get C to agree to get on with it, so we went crib shopping Saturday. This was harder than expected. We've been to Babies 'R' Us (BRU) several times, so we started out going to JCPenney. No furniture. Went to Sears. No furniture...just one sample crib and a book to flip through to see other cribs for order. Went to Target. A few cribs on display, none of which were the right color, and a book to flip through for ordering others. Now, I wanted a specific color, so I really wanted to see the actual crib. Dark brown. Not a red (cherry) tone. The plan is for this crib to eventually be used for my daughter and convert into a full sized bed. My daughter will inherit, at the appropriate age, the same chest of drawers and vanity set that I had as a child, that was my mother's and her mother's before her. So I wanted something that will eventually match the antiques.

The only place we could actually look at cribs (other than a few boutiques that carry the really expensive ones) was BRU. Even went to Bassett, since some of the other stores carry Bassett cribs, but the Bassett furniture store doesn't sell them. It was weird. So anyway, we went to BRU, debated between three cribs, picked one, and also ordered a changing table. We are going to try to get by without a chest of drawers because of the antique one we will have in the future. The walk in closet and the changing table shelves should suffice for now.

Here is the crib we chose. It will hopefully be here in 2 weeks or so. We also went ahead and got the toddler bed and full size bed conversion kits.

Then it was time to pick crib bedding. We both really like the sets with animals and neither of us was into the pastel look. There was a great dinosaur set, but it was pastel. (C was really into dinosaurs as a kid.) It came down to two sets and I let C choose between them and I was also leaning toward this one because I was afraid the other one had too much of a green that might clash with the nursery walls. We chose this one. I'm providing a link since the photo at right doesn't really show you much.

If we get boy/girl twins from Russia, it is gender neutral enough for both and who knows, if we get a boy now and a girl later, we may be ready to use this for our girl and get our boy a different themed set for his room. We will need to get new furniture for him when our girl comes along.

Today at target I picked up some cute jungle stuff for the bathroom (photo is below...that giraffe is a toothbrush holder, the elephant is a cup...the shower curtain matches). And I've purchased the valance for the nursery from BRU. I'm using BRU coupons as much as I can for that stuff. I've spent the last couple of days wandering around BRU and Target looking at all things baby and I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed. These are things I've avoided looking at for many years. If I needed a baby gift, I put blinders on, bucked up, hit the clothes sections and maybe infant toys, and that was it. I've never even been down the baby aisle in a grocery store. So far I've had two reactions.

First, how on earth are we going to choose a stroller or a car seat or a high chair? There are tons to choose from. I guess the same could be said for the crib and bedding, but the crib was narrowed down by color and style and the bedding wasn't hard once we ruled out the girly stuff and pastels. We aren't going to need strollers that have the infant seat attachment and that will narrow it down some, but I guess I need to start reading reviews and paying attention.

Second, we know going into this that kids aren't cheap. But the reality of all these sudden expenses is disconcerting. The costs of acquiring one's kids are usually covered by medical insurance. Ours aren't. In addition to all the paperwork fees and travel costs we are and will be incurring, there are a lot of necessities to purchase in the next few months! And not just the big-ticket items. We will be bringing home at least a one-year-old and he will need bigger toys and books and all that jazz. He isn't going to come home and more or less just sleep and lie around for several months like a newborn would. We don't need to have a ton of toys...as some institutionalized children can be overstimulated by a sudden supply of a roomful of toys, but we will need some. Once we meet him and get a feel for where he is developmentally, we can start purchasing those. I can't really do clothes yet, because we don't know size, but at least I can start putting together the nursery now. And the playroom. I know that at the very least we'll need a small table and chairs in there. One step at a time.

You may remember the one set of clothing we got him, that has a monkey on the shirt. And I've knit him a sock monkey (that needs its face embroidered on to be finished). And we bought a very soft monkey at BRU Saturday along with our jungle bedding (that has some monkeys). And today at Target a hooded towel with a monkey face and hands landed in my cart (the big monkey in the picture). I'm sensing a theme here...