What's the Deal With All the Hedgehogs?!?

People ask me a lot, and not uniquely in reference to the blog, Why hedgehogs?

I wish there was some grand tale behind it, but there really isn't. When I was pregnant I spent alot of time on bed rest which meant a lot of on-demand TV and internet. The first baby item I decided to online shop for was a mobile.

It was a frustrating venture. They were drab colors, oriented the wrong way for the baby to see anything or just plan ugly. I was bummed. I had already decided the nursery theme would be dragonflies and we would tweak colors once we knew the gender.

After a few hours I found a hedgehog mobile. It didn't match my nursery plans at all. It was in all shades of brown, but they were adorable. While I didn't buy the hedgehog mobile (instead I commissioned Mike's artist mother to make me a dragonfly mobile), but that is when hedgehogs become the official mascot of my pregnancy.

I decided for the baby shower invitations I'd have a stork carrying a pumpkin in its beak because Riley was due in October. Mike designed a tri-fold card so that when you opened it the stork had dropped the bottom half of the pumpkin and a baby bounced out. I didn't want a picture of a strange baby on my shower invitation so we used a baby hedgehog in a diaper. No, the baby shower was not hedgehog themed.

So, there was my shower invite, my baby website and blog, and Reggie! Mike picked up this incredibly soft curly brown fabric and exclaimed "I'm gonna make the baby a teddy bear." I shook my head at that plan because you can buy a bear anywhere if you're going to make a stuffed animal you should make something harder to find. That way when the baby grows up and people ask where she got her usual animal she can tell them her daddy made it. Three guesses what the animal of choice was. Remigius, Reggie for short, the hedgehog turned out super cute. Photo Credit: Lara (Horn)Coughlin. Reggie even stayed with Riley in the NICU once she made it to the step down unit. Reggie came home and sat in the corner of her crib. He has since been given a prominent place on her big girl bed. The bedding on her big girl bed features owls and other woodland creatures including a happy little hedgehog.

People gave me things here and there like a little newborn size outfit with blue and green hedgehogs on the shirt from her Aunt or a wooden set of adorable Hedgehogs to display. The Mommy hedgehog is the one Riley's examining on my blog banner. I just want to be clear Riley doesn't have a hedgehog themed room, wardrobe or toy collection. It's more like an inside joke type of thing. I'm glad I landed on hedgehogs because they're difficult to find so people don't tend to bombard us with them. We only get the cutest stuff.

When Riley was 3mo old her Daddy proposed to me on Christmas Day by putting the ring in the smallest of a set of Hedgehog nesting dolls. Which was amazing and special, but then came the ultimate hedgehog-centric event...

Riley's first birthday! I actually titled the blog about it Hedgehogs, Hedgehogs Everywhere.. I knew I wanted hedgehogs so we started with the invitations. We did homemade pop-up purple and green hedgehogs. I wanted the party to be bright colors. I also wanted the invitation to look like a child's drawing. Here's the front, he's playing peek-a-boo. Mike drew him based on my specifications and designed the pop-up hedghog inside. The poem inside said: "Come have a roly-poly day with me. We'll tumble and laugh and play with glee.
I'll have some cake to share and wear. So don't get prickly, don't despair.
With the 52 weeks of life I've had, I'm pretty sure I'm as old as dad!
Don't curl up and hide in three quarter's crescent. Come to the park on the fifth and bring me a present."

I wanted to order her this little red hedgehog dress I found on Etsy, but it was shipping from another country and shipping would cost as much as the dress. It's cute, right? Well, it became our inspiration when Mike decided Riley would have a red hedgehog party dress after all. He bought a pattern, some light corduroy and a hedgehog patch. As you can see from the post about her birthday it turned out beautifully. We also used the dress again for her professional one year photo session, which was the last time it fit her.

We recruited a talented friend of mine (and her in-laws) to make our gorgeous hedgehog cake and smash cake. I really can't express how much I loved the cakes. I was like one of those weepy people on Ace of Cakes when I saw them. We also had a watermelon carved like a hedgehog, with straws instead of tooth picks for baby safety, care of Mike's Mom. The cakes and watermelon are also pictured in the birthday post.

We had a whole picnic shelter to ourselves, potentially room for 3 birthday parties. So we pushed all the tables around the perimeter and put the Superyard up in the middle. Creating a baby play area inside the Superyard that included a hedgehog fort. We bought a fort structure which we built into the igloo design (which resembled, you guessed it, a hedgehog). We got some soft, pretty purple and green fabric to drape it with and foam for Mike to carve into a hedgehog head. The kids loved it.

Mike wasn't the only one to attempt an unfamiliar sewing project for the party either. I decided to sew little hedgehog finger puppets for the babies party favors. It was my first sewing project as an adult. I think they came out great. Not bad considering my complete lack of experience. They went into goodie bags with bright colored, light-up, squishy, spiky balls (one of the other Mommies dubbed "Hedgie") and twisty straws for the babies. Big kids got mini koosh ball critters that may have been hedgehogs and temporary hedgehog tattoos.

For her birthday Riley got a little stuffed hedgehog, a hedgehog puppet, a hedgehog Zhu-Zhu pet and an absolute ton of non-hedgehog related toys, books and clothes.

There you have a very detailed answer to a very simple question.