Things I Forgot To Say: Becca's Garden

While I can remember freakishly minute details of things that happened years ago, I am horrible at remembering practical things.  You may say I'm much too young, but I, with startling regularity, will walk into a room and not remember why I am in there.  Lately, I've even been forgetting a thought mid-sentence.  I chalk it up to mommy brain, but feel free to diagnose me otherwise.  


But the point is that this forgetfulness has affected my blogging.  There is so much that I meant to tell you about in 2010 that I simply forgot to mention.  I mean, I definitely remembered these things a lot, even writing posts in my head, but I never remembered then at a time when I could actually sit down at the computer and write.  Oops.  Some of these thoughts and stories will fall by the wayside, but there are some that I'd like to document - like, say, Becca's 2nd birthday!  (Yep, never got to that one...got caught up in the hospital drama, then traveling, etc.) So for the next few weeks, I'll be running an oh-so-creatively-named series called "Things I Forgot To Say."  Might as well call it like it is.  :)  So first up:  Becca's new bedroom.


When we moved to Spring Hill in June, we bought a house, which meant that, unlike living in a parsonage, we could do whatever the heck we wanted to it.  And what I wanted was for Becca to have a cozy, magical room for her pre-school years.  Lucky for me, our friend Jeannie has the talent and kindness to make my dream come true!  For Becca's birthday present, Jeannie painted a mural in her room - on all four walls!  John and I painted the walls "twilight purple" and Jeannie transformed it into a gorgeous garden at dusk.  


It is so beautiful.  It's cheerful and calming at the same time.  I love it so much that when Becca isn't home, I sneak in there to sit in the rocking chair and read.  When I was rearranging Becca's furniture last week, I took the open-walled opportunity to snap some photos of it.  It's a small room (and I'm not a great photographer), so I wasn't able to get pictures of entire walls, so you'll have to use your imagination to picture how it all comes together.  But trust me, it's awesome.  


First, let me tell you about the decorations.  Since the walls themselves are so beautiful, we choose not to hang many of the pictures that were in Becca's room in Bethpage, but we kept a couple of things.  Here are the BECCA letters that Aunt Robyn made for her (and Becca can name each of the letters now!):  

And this next piece of artwork makes me cry a little (in a good way).  You've heard me say before that we had the BEST primary nurses when Becca was in the NICU.  One of these five amazing nurses, Stacy, is also amazingly crafty.  Since she worked nights, when the NICU is calmer, she had a little more time to "play" with the babies.  Every month, she took footprints of Becca's tiny feet, heels touching to make a heart shape.  She matted and laminated them and left them for us to take home.  I saved everyone of the them and had them matted and framed, along with her crib card that I count as a badge of honor, bearing Becca's tiny statistics at birth.  I love how it turned out, and I will be forever grateful to Stacy for taking the time to make such a special keepsake for us!  Here's a picture of the entire piece:

And one of the crib card:

And one of her first footprints next to my thumb for size reference:

And then the last footprints taken shortly before we brought Becca home:

Okay, without further ado, here is Becca's garden!  (The pictures go around the room clockwise.)

(I'm posting this one mostly so you can see the funky cut-out over her closet.  What do you call that?  When I get my act together, I'm planning on draping some flower garland off of it.)

(Note the gorgeous curtains that were passed on to us by my friend Scottie - so perfect!)

Becca's crib now sits right under this tree.  

I think it will be especially cozy when she moves to a big girl bed!

 See the handprints at the bottom of that bush?  Here they are up close.  Jeannie and Nana Dana surprised me with this detail, which is SO precious!  Becca loves to put her hands on them and give herself five.

 I mean, seriously, you want to move into her room, too, don't you?  Stacy, Robyn, Scottie and, most of all, Jeannie, thank you SO much for making Becca's space special!