Today Ellis is two and a half weeks old. My water broke at 7:30 pm on March 19th and I was in active labour by 9:00 pm. We made it to the hospital quickly and Ellis was born at 2:59 am on March 20th (the first day of Spring) after only 20 minutes of pushing. These first few weeks have been so special and are a time in our lives that we will always cherish. We adore our little El and are enjoying every moment with him (even the 3 am feedings.)

Ellis Benjamin Kelly Halperin: Born on March 20th, 2014 at 2:59 am. Weighing 7lbs 7oz and 21 inches long. 

Ellis 
Origin: English // Meaning: Kind & Benevolent and The Lord is my God 

Benjamin 
Origin: Hebrew // Meaning: Strength & Virtue 

Kelly 
Origin: Gaelic // Meaning: Warrior

While in Arizona this past Christmas David and I had maternity photographs done by Brittany Mahood. It was a truly beautiful day and I am super happy with how the pictures turned out. It will be nice to have them to look back at in years to come.

As many of you know my father passed away suddenly 2.5 weeks ago. His sudden death has really shaken me and my family. In order to distract myself from the pain I decided to work on a blog redesign. I have been wanting to change my blog for a while and this horrible situation gave me some time to work on it. The new site is simple and clean in design and I will most likely still make some subtle changes to it in the days to come.

Boy!!! David is over the moon with excitement. He would have been happy with a boy or girl, but he was really hoping we were having a little guy. The baby is perfectly healthy, which was a big relief to me since I didn’t take folic acid or prenatal vitamins prior to getting pregnant (we weren’t planning on having a baby for a while.) I have been reading about all the things that can go wrong and feel so blessed that the baby is doing well. I can’t wait to start shopping and decorating. I am finally starting to feel more like myself, just in time to do all the fun things that are involved with being pregnant!

We broke the news of the baby’s gender to my family by ordering cupcakes from Crave Cookies and Cupcakes. They were filled with baby blue butter cream frosting – as soon as everyone took a bite they knew we were having a little boy. My parents have 2 daughters so they couldn’t be happier to be having a grandson (this little guy might get pretty spoiled.)

It has been so much fun dreaming about whether the baby was a boy or girl. Now that we know I can’t wait to meet the little guy and to start shopping!

I think he even has David’s profile.

Whimsical Woodland

1. Young America 2. Kari Herer 3. Sunday in Color 4. unknown 5. Darling Clementine 6. Rifle Paper Co. 7. Dwell Studio 8. Restoration Hardware Baby and Child

Urban NYC Inspired

1. Young America 2. Oeuf NYC 3. All Modern 4. Crosley Radio 5. Young America 6. Unknown 7. Darling Clementine 8. Restoration Hardware Baby and Child 9. Dwell Studio

The past couple of weeks I have been playing around with themes for the babies nursery. I want the room to be colourful, functional and something that the baby can grow with. I have looked online and at a bunch of stores in Calgary for a crib and I think I have finally decided on one called Lyric from the furniture company, Young America. The crib grows with the child and eventually becomes a toddler bed and later a double bed. It is available in a bunch of beautiful colours and finishes and would work well for a boy or girl.

Finding the right crib bedding has proved to be a huge challenge. This weekend I stumbled upon a company called Dwell Studio. The baby bedding is colourful and whimsical but not too juvenile. The girl’s bedding is called Meadow and is inspired by Scandinavian design and the boy’s is called Skyline and has an urban NYC feel to it.

I thought it would be fun to lay all the furniture out and see how everything is going to fit into the room. Below is a layout that I did through the website Urban Barn, it is super easy to use and you can arrange your furniture in the exact dimensions, so you know how everything will fit before you buy any of the pieces.

We find out on Wednesday whether it is a boy or girl, so I will not know which theme we will go with until then. I love both of them equally and can’t wait to start decorating!