DogCatJeff

The latest in Jeff's pet portrait portfolio. Try saying that three times fast!

Baby and kitties. What else is new?

Tyr the professional sun bather. He likes sitting on this little podium of scrap wood I keep forgetting to move to the garage. Cats are funny.

A beauty shot of Elsa, lost in deep thought.

Okay, I'm not trying to embarrass Tyr here, but look how he poops! All four paws balancing at the very edge of the litter box! He was teetering back and forth while Jeff and I watched and cracked up.

I love this little tiger onesie she has, looks so Charley Harper. 

And SO much cuter with little matching orange crocheted booties!

Tyr keeping an eye on the baby, making sure she doesn't bounce off the dining table. (We were there too doing the same thing)

These Trumpette socks kill me. I love them, and I want the t-strap maryjane socks now too. Lynne said it looks like she's going to get up and do a little tap dance in them.

We tried out her Bumbo last night to see if she'd be able to hold up her head in it, and it sort of worked! She's still too little for it, and definitely too little to be left in it with our hands not close by to stabilize her head when she throws it off to the side, but it was fun for a few minutes. She seemed to really like it too.

Recent instagrams because I'm too tired to write a post

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Morning!

I love our mornings. A little less though when she decides sleep is for the birds.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Walking Elephant

So we just saw this piece of awesome in a baby shop on Retro Row in Long Beach, and I kinda fell in love:

It is made by Plan Toys, the company that makes that woodpecker walker that I also wanted (for Elsa). Their description: "The Walking Elephant moves forward in a rocking motion as the child rocks on it. The rocking motion simulates the feeling of riding on a real elephant. This beautiful ride-on is crafted from recycled, natural rubber wood, dyed with vegetable and soy dyes, and assembled in an earth-friendly process." 


Um, yeah. Your toys are perfect. I want them all. For Elsa of course.

All vaccinated and happy...

Elsa went in for her 2 month visit this morning and got all her vaccines. She took them like a champ, crying a little with the first jab, but then was all smiles on her way home. She weighed in at 9 lbs, 8 ounces (without the harness!) and 23 inches long, so in two months she's gained two pounds and grew 3 inches. Not too shabby!

They cracked me up for this one. They were both looking at the opposite wall so I called out to them and they both turned their heads at the exact second and made the exact same expression. Twins!

We don't let them sleep with us at night but we let them in our room early in the morning to snuggle with the whole family as we slowly get our day started. They usually stay on the bed curled up with each other after we get up though.

Jan likes this picture of Tyr. Me too. In the one below, I caught him watching Jeff work in the backyard. Thor doesn't seem to care for the open window as much as Tyr, but maybe he just hasn't discovered it yet.

I love this one! The colors are perfect, and I like how they're crossing arms. These cats are such Kodak moments.

Pets on Furniture!

Does it make me a crazy cat lady to submit pictures of my cats to be featured on awesome blogs? I didn't think so.  *side eye Lynne*

Tyr and Thor were graciously included in Desire to Inspire's "Pets on Furniture" Monday series this morning! If you remember, my darling Lily Mae also graced that feature. The idea is to take a picture of a piece of awesome furniture that your pet(s) just happen to be sitting on. The boys' fascination with my womb chair made for a perfect submission:

Tyr Nimoy

My brother's friend thought Tyr looked like Leonard Nimoy so Jan did a creepy photoshop smash-up. So disturbing!

New jammies, Matthew, and kitties!

Look how happy she is to be footloose and fancy free without her harness! I love putting her in these little sleepers that now fit. This one is a Cheri the Chihuahua Paul Frank sleeper that Karen gave her. It's super cute and soft.

She's been licking and sucking on her little fist a lot lately. It's endlessly adorable.

And Matthew and Kellycopter came to visit! They were on their way back from Disneyland and brought Elsa a Minnie Mouse hat with her name embroidered on the back. So sweet! I'm looking forward to her head size tripling so she can wear it. Here she is being held by my Iron Maiden:

And the boys are still totally hogging the womb chair. They sleep in all sorts of configurations, which Jan called "Meezer Jenga".

My $600 baby

I just got Elsa's birth bill in the mail yesterday... $11,910.85 for the 36 hours I spent in the hospital giving birth to my baby. Wowzas! And that was vaginally without any drugs. I'm curious to know how much an epidural (and the pricey anesthesiologist administering it) would have cost, or the C-section they wanted to do on me.

Thank God though we are blessed to have health insurance, and that nearly 12K bill was cut down to only $250, our co-pay for an overnight stay in the hospital. It's pretty amazing that the medical care I received bringing Elsa into this world, including prenatal visits, ultrasounds, genetic testing, and birth only cost us about $600 total. And I received excellent care. Who knows how much the actual cost was. That amazes me, and makes me so thankful we're lucky enough to have good jobs and that mine provides health insurance coverage for our little family at such an affordable monthly fee. I know many people are not that fortunate, so I'm taking this moment to think about and really appreciate these blessings we've been given.

Curbly and Craftzine!

Jeff was googling himself yesterday to see how famous he is on the internets and came across this:

That's our house! Curbly featured our birch log installation as a DIY project and then Craftzine picked it up as well. Cool!

Baby's first bath! FINALLY!

Elsa got her harness off yesterday for the first time in 7 weeks! That gross sucker had to be on her 24/7 so we have only been able to sponge bathe her up until now. We're starting to wean her off the harness so it's 12-16 hours on a day for a month, and then 8 hours on a day for another month before she's totally free of it. I was SO thrilled to bust out her Puj tub and suds her up!

I wanted her so much to like being bathed, and thankfully she seemed to really enjoy it. She moved her little hand under the running water several times, and didn't cry at all. We got one pouty lip when the shampoo went on, but that went away when I dumped water over her head to wash it off. She liked that!

The Puj tub was great. Squishy soft, but firm, and it fit perfectly into our weirdly sized pink vintage bathroom sink. She seems unsure of things in these pictures, but we got some smiles, and I take no crying as a sign that liked it. Or at least wasn't pissed about it.

Here's that shampoo pouty lip:

We used the Yes to Carrots baby body wash and shampoo on her. It makes her smell SO yummy! And look who's in the background trying to get in on the action...

She either didn't like getting out, or didn't like the towels I sewed her. I think the terry was a little scratchy (should have gone with a thicker organic cotton terry, this was the cheapy stuff from JoAnn's), so I'm going to put it through some cycles with fabric softener to get it more to the baby's liking.

Look at those feet! Free of the dirty little boots. Her legs seem so skinny and pale so I'm on a mission to chub them up and get them nice and fat and pink.

Snuggle-muffins

Snapped by Jeff this morning...

Siamese and my baby. I'm happy!

The cats are acting now like they've been here forever, they're so comfy with us! Tyr went missing this morning and Sue found him in the box above the dryer, filled with our clean (not anymore) dishtowels. It's so funny how they can seek out the perfect (to them) cat bed in the house without you having to show it to them. He probably slept there all night.

Both are total lap cats. But I could still feel Tyr's talons through the towel and my jeans! Will have to take care of that soon...

Lily Mae loved these chairs too! I think they think it's a good hiding spot. It's sweet to see them together, following each other around. This is why we wanted two!

And this morning... Noni got smiles! She was a happy little baby until she decided she was hungry. We got some great shots of her and the kitties. More pics of Sue and the baby later! (This was early morning so Sue had yet to put on her makeup, I cropped her out on her request, I'm not a jerk!)

They love being around the action. Thor (on my lap here) headbutted my hand holding my coffee, getting it splashed all over him and me. Note to self, don't drink hot drinks around the cats.

This warms my heart.

I love this picture of Thor looking at her and Elsa looking at Jeff as if she's thinking "WTF is that Dad??"