A B C, It’s Easy As 1 2 3

Hello Everyone! I’m sorry for being MIA for the past couple of weeks. I hope you all managed to find something else to read and entertain yourselves with.

Richard and I have been very busy these past couple of weeks getting ready for Baby Kopp’s arrival. Only three weeks until our due date! Now that we’re full term, our doctor gave us a “When To Call” sheet with instructions on what to do when labor begins. I’ve posted it on our fridge, like our doctor told us to. Now every time I go to get something to eat or drink, I see the sheet and feel a panic attack coming on. There’s so much left to do…I can’t go into labor yet!! I’m hoping Baby Kopp likes it where It is and stays there for at least three more weeks.

I’ve discovered that there are a few standard questions that people always ask a pregnant woman. Here are my answers, in case you’re curious:

1. “Are you ready? I’m sure you can’t wait for the baby to arrive!”
Actually, as I mentioned above, I’m not ready and I can most definitely wait another few weeks. I’ve found that the end of pregnancy is much more enjoyable than the beginning of pregnancy, and therefore I’m not in any rush to deliver. Sure, it’s a bit more difficult to sleep comfortably, but I know it will be even more difficult to get rest when Baby Kopp is here.

2. “What do you think it is, a boy or a girl?”
I have no idea. No gut feeling or instinct for me.

3. “What are you going to name it?”
Richard and I finally narrowed down our choices for names. Now we’re just going to wait until we meet Baby Kopp before we make our final selection. We also decided to keep our name choices between us, just because we don’t want anyone else’s opinions influencing our pick. I can tell you that It will not be named Oscar or Felix.

We only have a couple more things to complete for Baby Kopp’s nursery so I’ll probably be sharing photos of the final reveal of the room soon. It’s looking pretty good, if I do say so myself. Most recently, Richard and I finished up the artwork for above Baby Kopp’s crib. Richard is turning out to be quite the handyman and he did a great job with this project that I came up with and forced him to do.

Since we don’t know the gender of our baby and, thus, don’t know Its name, I thought it would be fun to hang letters and numbers – A, B, C and 1, 2, 3 – instead of the baby’s name in the nursery. The only problem with this is that the Jackson 5 song gets stuck in my head everytime I see the alphanumeric characters (hence the title of this posting). But anyway, here’s how we created our letter and number wall art.

First, I found a set of six white vintage frames on Etsy.com. My idea was to hang each one of the letters and numbers in the center of one of the open frames on the wall above the crib. I measured the inside of each frame, so I could determine the sizes for the letters and numbers that would fit the frames.

Then, I created paper stencils for all six letters and numbers. I picked a different font for each one, to make it even more fun and interesting (and more difficult for Richard).

Richard traced the stencils onto a piece of sheet wood. Then, using a Dremel and a jigsaw, Richard cut each letter and number out of the wood. Not an easy task because A.) Richard had never cut anything out of wood before and B.) I picked intricate fonts. However, Richard was a natural with the power tools. He cut each letter and number out in only one try.

Once each one was cut out, Richard sanded the edges. Then I took over with the rest of the project. I picked six different sheets of scrapbook paper. Using spray adhesive, I glued the paper to the front side of the letters and numbers (basically I wallpapered the wood cutouts with scrapbook paper). Next, I cut the letters/numbers out of the paper using a razor blade to trace around the wood cutout glued to the paper. This part doesn’t have to be done perfectly, because you can simply sand any areas that need to be smoothed.

We then put adhesive wall mounts on the back of the letters, so we could hang them on the wall along with the frames.

And here it is, folks! The finished artwork.