The Prince on His Throne

Ayden's rocking chair sits in the corner to the right of his crib. My parents' neighbor, the Kolettis Family, gave us the white rocking chair, and my daddy, more famously known as G-Daddy, reupholstered the footstool. Bryan's mother, Gran, recovered the rocking chair pillows, and she made the Hungry Caterpillar pillow as well.

Bryan humored me a great deal with the white shelves in Ayden's room. I kept looking at a big blank wall, and I felt overwhelmed about how to make the space fit into the children's book theme. Once I decided on shelves, I then began asking, What color should they be? What length, depth, and height? What kind of molding is appropriate? Of course, the more questions I asked, the longer the contemplating became. Once the decision was finally made, the shelves had to go on the wall. Oh, but wait. When we got them home, the shelves were two different colors, white and cream. And when we got that corrected, it took the better part of a day to get the shelves on the wall. Bryan was such a trooper with the ordeal. He even helped me place things on the shelves, which was yet another task in and of itself. (Did I mention that I am a perfectionist?!?!)

Bryan and I purchased some of these shelved items, but friends and family also contributed to the room's theme. The pewter bunny came from my cousin Cory and his girlfriend Stephanie. The book, Guess How Much I Love You, came from one of my literature students, a fellow reader and writer named Harrison. That book's matching stuffed rabbit was given to Ayden by my cousin Madison. My mama, Ayden's Grancee, gave him 1, 2, 3 to the Zoo with lion hand puppet. Bryan's favorite book when he was a child was Jumanji, so you not only see the book but also a picture of Bryan and me reading Jumanji to Ayden while I was thirty weeks pregnant with him. Liz Power, the mother of one of my close high school friends, took the maternity pictures in Chattanooga. (She also took our wedding pictures.) The little mouse down by the floorboards was painted by Jim at my request. When I was little, I was obsessed with finding the mouse on every page of Goodnight, Moon. Courtney made the Roman shade to match the bed linens.

Above Ayden is looking at me. Below he has discovered a far more fascinating object, the ceiling fan. Ayden's is newly mesmerized by ceiling fans.

What do we do all day? We watch Ayden sleep (and him smiling while doing so).

Bryan boils the syringes we use for drawing up Ayden's medicines. He once told Havilah that this process makes him feel like a "germophobic heroine addict." She responded, "Isn't that an oxymoron?" Yes, yes, it is.