a lovely little life

I got a Kindle!!

2012-01-31T21:07:00.000-08:00

It's awesome! Now that I'm trying to watch less TV and read more, I decided to invest in an eReader. I got this one. I was dubious about them before Jerod got a Kindle and loved it. Jana also has one and says it's awesome, and she goes through like 17 books a week so I trust her opinion. I've downloaded a bunch of books from the library already, and it's rad because the books automatically return after 14 days so I don't have to get my butt down to the library to avoid fines. Score!

There are a few books that I want to read that the library doesn't have a Kindle version of, or they have a big waiting list, so maybe when I'm bored with their selection I'll buy a few off Amazon, or sign up for Amazon Prime so I can access the Kindle Owner's lending library which has a ton of free books. I'm really happy with it, fun new toy!

So sleepy...

2012-01-30T20:18:00.000-08:00

4 eyes!

2012-01-30T20:15:00.000-08:00

Time for new glasses! I got my "at home try on box" from Warby Parker in the mail today (they send you 5 frames of your choosing to try on for free for 5 days) and two were duds, but the other three I'm having a hard time choosing between. Soooo... votes! Let me know which pair you like best on me.

#1- Pierce in "Greystone" which is a tortoise, but in gray. Really pretty color.

#2- Beckett in "Revolver Black" which is a matte black. Super cool.

#3- Webb in "Crystal". I love clear plastic frames. My last pair looked like lab goggles (and became Jeff's sunglasses) but these ones are cuter I think.

And ignore my crazy hair. I'm a mom that works full time. I don't have time for blow-outs. I put on lip gloss at least!

Long Beach Aquarium

2012-01-25T14:07:00.000-08:00

We got our family pass to the Long Beach Aquarium this past weekend when we went with our friend Joie and her two crazy cute daughters. That place is awesome!! It's so great that it's like 5 minutes away from our house and full of under the sea wonderment for the baby. Jeff carried her around in the Baby Bjorn so she could see everything and she seemed to be into it. It's going to be another great spot for Jeff to go with the baby during the week when I'm working when there's nothing much to do.

That's a giant sea bass!

Above the shark tank. You know, no big whoop.

Elsa is so blase about the sharks.

See? Super cute kiddos. Future BFFs for Elsa.

Jellyfish are my favorites. So pretty!

I see many more trips in our future... and unlike Disneyland, I can go too!

Shhh... the baby is sleeping...

2012-01-25T13:44:00.000-08:00

So our lives got dramatically better in the past week. The baby is sleeping!! Like really sleeping. Like 12 hours of sleeping at night and several 30 minute to 1 hour nap chunks a day sleeping. I was totally pushing off sleep training Elsa for several reasons:

1) She still seems so little so I thought the several feedings a night were because she needed the nourishment. The pediatrician confirmed that this is not the case, she's a healthy weight, and at this age babies can go for 10-12 hours stretches of sleep with no feedings. They'll eat if you give it to them, but that's for comfort and not necessarily because they are hungry.

2) I liked having her in her bassinet close to our bed, and even liked having her sleep on me. She's a warm, adorable, good smelling baby. Why wouldn't I want her on me cozy in bed together? Oh right, because she woke me up every 20 minutes moving around or wanting to nurse. Still, it was hard to let go and have her sleep in a different room from me.

3) I was frightened of long nights of her screaming with us going in and out a million times comforting her and not getting any sleep for weeks.

It took a pediatrician appointment, a book recommendation from Amy/Lynne, and a gentle hint from Jerod about baby brain development needing deep sleep hours to get me serious about teaching Elsa how sleep should work. Jeff and I both read "Good Night, Sleep Tight" and started putting Elsa in her crib for night time sleep and regular naps. It's been over a week now and I am so thrilled to say that she is sleeping so well now. The crying is minimal, and it's usually just sleepy whines until she soothes herself to sleep. We get up a few times a night when she starts really crying to check on her and give her the dropped pacifier and that almost always does the trick and gets her right back to sleep.

I think she was really needing this deep sleep and is why she's taken to it so well. Jeff and I didn't have high hopes for this working out this easily, so we're pretty damned pleased with ourselves now! We're amazing parents.

Playtime

2012-01-18T16:05:00.000-08:00

Etsy favorites- 2012 edition

2012-01-15T14:38:00.000-08:00

Sundays are meant for blogging, baby watching, cleaning and Etsy trolling. Here's what's catching my eye this afternoon...

These toddler dresses from Wild Things dresses. This picture is adorable but my favorite dress is the badger.

This gold glitter twine from Knot and Bow:

This gold dipped geo bead necklace from A Merry Mishap (the matching earrings are rad too!):

This sewing pattern for baby harem pants from Too Sweets Patterns:

This Meowby Dick embroidery pattern from Studiomme:

Hey little girl... want a candy cane?

2012-01-15T11:19:00.000-08:00

Jeff has been accused once before of looking like a creep walking up and down our neighborhood streets at all hours of the day while carrying the baby in a pouch. I didn't get it, and thought it was mean for anyone to think that, until I saw this photo:

I get it now. CREEP!

Tyr's poo streaks

2012-01-15T11:16:00.000-08:00

*art by the awesome Nathan Spoor

This post title was the title of the email Jeff got from our vet this week. We had to take in a shapoopie sample from the litter box to try to diagnose the problem that results in Tyr leaving dingleberries and poo streaks all over the house. Gross! The sample came back with a diagnosis of Giardia. Awesome. Treatable though, so we're back to squirting medication in their mouths. This time it's a thick toothpaste-like medicine that they are NOT happy about taking. At least it's just once a day for 5 days. Could be worse I guess.

Being this pretty sort of gives them a free pass to leave poo streaks all over the house.

Recent acquisitions

2012-01-15T11:03:00.000-08:00

Our annual conference that I organize is this Monday and Tuesday so I make it an annual event to treat myself to something pretty to wear to the meeting, to make it slightly more fun to look forward to. Elsa and I went shopping yesterday and I found this gem at Old Navy.

And if you can't make out that print, here's a close-up:

CATS! Uh, sold. It'll look fabulous with some black dress pants and red heels. Watch out Scientists.

Then for Elsa, because of course she needed a little something too, we got this stripes and chambray dress (H&M has a lame website. They have a ton of baby clothes in the store, and like 5 things on the website. The dress I bought her is shown on the website on a "model" but not for purchase. Dumb.):

I also got a new timepiece, because my old Swatch watch was falling apart and I grew tired of having to dig out my phone from my purse to tell the time. I was actually just looking for an excuse to buy one of the awesome new Swatch jellies. It was tough to pick a color, but I'm happy with the blue. It's kind of sparkly which you can't tell from the website. It was down to that, the mauvey pink, or the gray. I'm kind of shocked I didn't go with the gray actually. Look at me being colorful!

And lastly, some pretty notebooks to start the year off fresh. I love these notebooks and used them in my xmas gifts to friends. I got jealous so I bought another for me.

Shopping is fun!

I have no teeth...

2012-01-10T16:31:00.001-08:00

Just cuz it makes me laugh.

Good kitty.

2012-01-06T14:36:00.000-08:00

Elsa is really starting to take notice of the cats now. We have to watch those grabby little hands...

Thanks Karen!

2012-01-03T22:07:00.000-08:00

Elsa in her new sun hat, photographed by Karen...

2012

2012-01-02T11:55:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!

We rung in the new year in style (Jeff wore a tie!) at Andy & Kim's annual bash and had an awesome time with the baby and friends. Elsa was a doll and let mommy and daddy have fun.

She was in love with my necklace.

I neglected to mention one of the top 10 highlights of 2011 in my last post; Lynne moving back to California!! And like 10 miles away from us too no less. So of course it made the start of 2012 even more amazing to have one of my oldest and dearest friends there to celebrate with. Even if she's trying to steal my husband and baby.

Peace.

Mandy and Seth looking smashing as usual...

And the next morning. Feeling good and getting use out of the Baby Bjorn Karen handed down to us. Elsa loved being in it and helping Jeff make us breakfast. This thing is going to get a lot of use. (P.S. We got fake tattoos at the house party next door the night before, so the panther Jeff is sporting on his neck in this photo is no longer on his neck)

What better way to start the new year than with ebelskivers, family, and 80 degree SoCal sunshine? It's going to be a good year...

2011

2011-12-31T13:02:00.000-08:00

At the end of each year, it's nice to flip through my old posts and reflect on what the year brought us. Here are my highlights:

On January 5th I got to announce to the blog world that I was pregnant! I was about 14 weeks along and pretty dang excited.

In February there was the Suggestivism show with Jeff's mockingbird piano on display, and we found out Elsa was a girl!

March was a big month. We took our first big family vacation to Maui, Jeff became famous, and the garage to studio conversion got underway!

April was my sad month. We lost our beloved Lily Mae. I'm still choked up over it. I also started my third trimester, we celebrated one year of owning our happy home, and Jeff's bird piece went on display at the LB Museum (prints are still available here!).

In May, Mandy and I (as We Like Flowers) did one of our biggest weddings yet, and it turned out FABULOUS!! I was also thrown an amazing baby shower up in San Jose by our moms, we chose and announced Elsa's name, and I had another 4D ultrasound which looking back at shocks the crap out of me at how exact those pictures were to what she looks like.

{photo by EP Love}

In June we were thrown a second amazing baby shower (thanks Kim, Karen and Mandy!) which included a horrifying awesome fetus cake, Jeff and I celebrated three years of marriage, our dear friends Jerod and Karen brought their sweet baby Jude into this world (!!), and I finished Elsa's nursery.

July. The biggest and most important month of my life. My precious little Elsa was born healthy, pink, and safe. That's everything. We also found out she had hip dysplasia and got her fitted with her little parachute harness.

In August we settled in to being parents to a newborn, Elsa had her first smile, and we took more pictures than we've ever taken in our lives.

In September we adopted the boys!! Our family became complete. Elsa also got her harness off for the first time, allowing us to give her the first bath.

In October we took Elsa on her first trip up north to meet the rest of the family, Jeff and I got our new iPhone 4S's (yes, life changing), and Elsa met Mickey for the first time.

In November, tummy time was big, I started a YouTube channel for Elsa's videos, Elsa had her first solid food, we hosted Thanksgiving, and I turned 32 and celebrated with babies.

And December of course our first Christmas as a full family.

All in all, 2011 was pretty amazing for us. We are SO freaking thankful.

A Holiday Re-cap

2011-12-31T11:46:00.000-08:00

We were back home up north for Christmas and spent a week eating, sleeping in, and passing off the baby to some very open arms. It was an awesome holiday and made us feel pretty dang blessed with all that we received. Pictures will tell it best...

Elsa was SO good the whole week, sleeping in until 9:30 and hamming it up for everyone (and then promptly turned into a whiny little beast that doesn't sleep as soon as we got home! What's up with that??). She was an angel with the great grandmothers, they loved holding her.

I think my dad clocked in the most minutes spent nuzzling the baby. I'm surprised she still has skin on the back of her neck from all the mustache rubbing that went on back there.

See? Everyone loves to sniff a baby. Except Jan. He doesn't get the appeal.

My mom crocheted Elsa some holiday hats, as if she didn't look Elvish enough to begin with. Super cute.

My mom also crocheted these Rasta hats/dreads for the boys. Not as cute as Elf baby.

These were the two hits, the MamaRoo and the American baby doll. The MamaRoo was passed on to us from family friends (thanks Monica and Bob!) and is a high-tech piece of baby happiness making machinery. Grammie got Elsa the doll and she lights up every time she sees it. I think she thinks it's another real baby. Big hit.

It looks like she's spanking the doll here. She was just excited.

4 generations!!!

Huh, just realized Jeff didn't make it into this one. Ah well.

Oh there he is.

And home sweet home! Andy and Kim took care of our boys while we were away and we swear Thor put on some weight. I think ditching that infected fang did him a world of good. He's back to being show cat quality. They seem happy to have us home and we certainly missed him.

If Jeff stays out with the baby long enough, I'll put together a 2011 recap post, because those are always fun.

Where's the baby!?

2011-12-22T07:48:00.000-08:00

I've done quite a few non-baby posts lately... the grandparents must be going through withdrawals. Good thing they get to see her in the flesh soon!

Snaggletooth

2011-12-22T07:45:00.000-08:00

My poor little vampire lost his tooth. Thor was hacking the other day and I was one hack away from jumping in to give the Kitty Heimlich when he coughed out his left top fang. It was the one that the vet said we'd probably have to get extracted so Thor took care of business and saved us a few bucks! I was worried about him but the vet said they lose fangs all the time so we just needed to keep an eye on him to make sure he was eating okay and looking healthy. He's been fine ever since and still chomps down on Tyr when he's getting crazy.

Here's the fallen soldier:

I'm going to make a necklace out of it. Just kidding.

Santa brought me Noguchi!!

2011-12-21T17:11:00.000-08:00

We got a new coffee table. It happens to be a Noguchi (sort of, a repro of a Noguchi. CLOSE ENOUGH.) and it happens to have been free. Jealous??

Back when I bought my womb chair from Alex at Modern Chair, there was a mix-up with the container space during the shipment and my chair got left behind. Womp womp. Because I had to wait an extra 6 weeks for my chair, Alex so generously made up for it by giving me a free coffee table of my choice! I've always loved this Noguchi one but never loved the $1400 price tag it comes with at DWR, so I was pretty thrilled to order this one up.

It's got a walnut wood base, and the tempered glass top weighs more than me. It's a solid table. Jeff loves it too so it's here to stay!

Alex also gave me this mini Eames chair as a Christmas present, and it looks great next to the mini guitar Jan gave Jeff. I like mini things.

My mid-century modern house dreams are coming true!!

Merry Christmas to ME!

2011-12-21T16:59:00.000-08:00

Lynne is kind of an amazing gift giver. She should take pride in her work, she does such a good job. I think it goes back to the birthday parties she had when she was a kid and the awesome goodie bags her mom would send us home with. They were themed to match the theme of the party. I mean, c'mon. Bonus points. Her mom taught her well because look at the gold she gave me for Christmas:

No, your eyes do not fool you. That is a ceramic sculpture of a classy Victorian lady bird wearing a crown. Genius. By artist Robin Van Valkenburgh (she IS The Runny Bunny Lynne!).

WHAT!? There's more?? Yes friends, we also got this awesome eco-orb terrarium. So cool and prickly! She got it from her friend Amy's store in San Diego called Pigment, which I *may* be dying to go to now.

WAIT, WHAT!? MORE?? No. This one I bought for myself. How loser-ish is that? I bought a friendship puzzle necklace for myself. I told Jeff I bought it for us and that he gets the You necklace and I get the Me necklace and he believed me for a few minutes. UGH. Men in gold necklaces. No thanks. I'm going to give one to Elsa when she's old enough to wear jewelry without trying to eat it. I got it from Anthropologie during one of their Extra 50% off Sale items sale! Those always get me, especially when paired with free shipping.

This is what made me do it:

It was 86% off!!!! Yes. Originally $548 (!!) marked down to a cool $75, much more in my price range. It's the A.P.C./Anthropologie collaboration quilt and I'm dying over it. It's beautiful. We have several really crappy old blankets we make our guests sleep with but no longer. Those are getting chucked and this beauty is taking their place. Or it may live on our bed depending on how crazy that pattern looks with the cheetah piece over our bed. Either way- score!!

It'll be an heirloom. I'll lie and tell everyone I made it and they'll think I'm amazing.

My little workshop

2011-12-21T16:40:00.000-08:00

Some of the Christmas crap I've made recently:

Lavender scented sachets with Nani Iro fabric and gold pleather.

Sachets bundled with a Rifle Paper Co. Botanicals collection notebook and these fabulous watercolor bird gift tags by Becca Kallem (free to download!).

Fabric basket made from IKEA black and white striped canvas and gold pleather, housing a little goodie.

And I also made a bunch of these almond butter blackberry jam thumbprint cookies. You need a gallon of milk to drink while eating two of these.

We (I- as if Jeff helps with this stuff) didn't decorate too much this year. No tree because of the Siamese rascals, plus I didn't need one MORE thing to clean up after this week. I had a few special ornaments I wanted to show off so I made a Christmas chandelier. Why not? I hung my favorites from it, including my birthday present ornament from one of my favorite artist/friends Mr. Nathan Spoor! It's double-sided and has Siamese cats on it. I *may* love it more than the baby. Just kidding, but seriously, it's close.

Siamese cat painting the walls with cat turds. Because that happens.

And Tyr and Thor teaching Elsa about science. Could it be more perfect?? No. No it couldn't.

And of course our Christmas Cholo. Back and bustin' heads!

Christmas in Sweden

2011-12-17T10:40:00.000-08:00

This is putting me firmly in the Christmas spirit. Anna from Door Sixteen posted this with a link to download the album for free! It's really sweet, I'm liking it. I think I might spring for the She & Him Christmas album too while I'm all spirited.

Hail!!

2011-12-15T17:31:00.000-08:00

God is pissed. Like 2 minutes after I asked Jeff to take the baby for a walk because I needed to get a little work done in peace, the sky darkened and Mother Nature let her rip. Luckily they were able to make it back to the house before it started to dump buckets of frozen rain from the sky. Tons of lightening and scary thunder too! Jan is so bummed they didn't get it in Torrance. Everyone who doesn't live in California is going to laugh at these pictures, but it's serious for SoCal!!

Christmas cards!

2011-12-14T20:34:00.000-08:00

Our Christmas cards 2011, practically free thanks to the Gap/Tiny Prints special offer cards I snagged a month ago while picking up some cute baby fashions. $70 off!! With expedited shipping (since I'm a wee bit late ordering these...) it came out to $21 for 15 cards of the first design and 10 cards of the second design plus matching address labels! I'm such a bargain shopper. BOOYAH!

Special thankies to Karen for coming over today for our little photo shoot! Photographing a 5 month old and two cats and getting a non-blurry shot is near impossible. But she came through. Thanks friend!

Carrots

2011-12-08T17:01:00.000-08:00

It's been over a week since the first sweet potatoes, so we're branching out into carrots. Verdict- Elsa loves them! The Beaba is fun. You can watch the video here: http://www.youtube.com/livctrondsen

Another for the collection.

2011-12-08T16:57:00.000-08:00

We hung our brand new Bakofsky in the kitchen, love it!!

Topless Thursday

2011-12-08T15:51:00.000-08:00

Not me, the baby.

These boys are such models, honestly. I walk into the room and they're just sitting like this staring at me, begging for a photo to be taken.

Elsa and I walked down to our favorite little vintage shop this morning, Magnolia and Willow, and the sweet owner was there hanging on to a gift for Elsa! i forgot the name of it but it's a train of awesome ABC's. Let's just call it that. You put in the letter blocks into the slots and it tells you the letter and a word that the letter starts with. Fancy! It lights up and makes crazy noises so I'm sure she'll love it.

I bought a bunch of buttons because I couldn't resist.

And my birthday Etsy package came!! This was a gift from Grammie so I'm going to make her something special with the Nani Iro fabric. Those bias tapes are so pretty too!

Stolen from Jeff's phone

2011-12-03T12:10:00.000-08:00

My brain is slowly growing back after Elsa the Fetus sucked it out of me when I was pregnant so I'm still kind of forgetful. Case in point- I had to go to Philadelphia this weekend for a clinical trial start up meeting for work and about five miles away from LAX I realized that I left my phone hidden under the comforter of our bed. D'oh! So I made Jeff give me his and we essentially swapped lives for two days. It was fun going through all his stuff. These are some of my favorite pictures I found:

Gaaaahhh... her face in this one is so dang cute. I know exactly the HMMMSPPIIITTTRAAZZ noise she's making here too.

This was her Thanksgiving outfit. A denim Baby Gap jumper over a light pink onesie and maryjane sock knee highs.

Lynne requested the head flair. Jan's going to look at Elsa's thighs here and go "Ugh." He thinks she needs to work out.

This crocheted hat was labeled on the Baby Gap website as a "penguin". Um, no. You are a lamb. Isn't her Pooh sweater cute?? Thanks Joie!!

Andy is such a nice person. Anyone that lets a baby put their clammy spitty hands all over their face is a really nice person.

Karen and Kim are also really nice people because they make cakes and host dinners for my birthday. Here's a close-up of the cake Karen made. Such a cute little Happy Birthday garland!

It was a poppyseed cake with a sherry icing. Sooo good. And pink! Winning.

Henry was charming Elsa and she ate it up. I wish I was there to see this in person.

I'm going to trade phones with Jeff more often. This is fun!

Gimme Gimme Gimme

2011-12-03T11:45:00.000-08:00

J.Crew has taken over Anthropologie in the Battle of Liv's favorites. The new catalog gave me shopping shivers. Here's what I want, feel free to buy any of these for me:

Girl's Buffalo Check Collarless coat. The benefit of being the size of an 8th grader is that I can fit into girls and women's clothing. Size 14 baby! This is such an awesome and cheery coat and I love the collarless style and shorter sleeves. So chic.

Wildcat dress. Yup, that's the name of it. Roar. My mom and I both swooned over this one. Leopard print that isn't skin tight is so versatile. The shape of this dress is perfect, and I'd wear the shit out of it. I'd wear it so much people would roll their eyes when I show up yet again wearing it.

Mona oxford pumps. Can you see the glitter? Look closer. The black parts are glittered! I love these very much. They also have them in flats but where's the fun in that?

Glitterati flats in Cherry. Okay these flats are way fun. Because they're red and sparkly. These in high heels would be a little too Dorothy. In flats they are perfection.

Marc by Marc Jacobs rose gold heart earrings. These aren't J.Crew but they are rad and I want them so they make this list.

Finally! A post that isn't about babies and cats! Lynne will love it. The rest of you will complain. Okay twist my arm. I'll do a baby post next.

Bed head

2011-11-29T21:27:00.000-08:00

It's kind of impossible to be a sleepless grump when you have this to wake up to. I love her.

32!

2011-11-26T22:01:00.000-08:00

I had SUCH a good birthday this year, and was so spoiled! It's a perfect weekend, and on top of the festivities, the weather is gorgeous and feels like summertime. My favorite. I was gifted with some birthday money so my Etsy cart I've been virtually filling got purchased and I made use of my JoAnn's 50% off coupons with a little spending spree. I can't wait for things to arrive in the mail! And the best part of the day... playing with the two cutest little babies!

Look who found her feet today!! I took off her sock so she could have the full toes experience.

Thanks everyone for all the sweet birthday messages, gifts, and love. 32 is going to be a good age, I can feel it!

The morning after...

2011-11-25T11:46:00.000-08:00

The plumbers are here unclogging our drains, the cats are basking in the sun, I'm Black Friday online shopping, and Elsa is sleepily enjoying all that's going on around her.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-25T11:43:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was Elsa's first Thanksgiving, and our first Thanksgiving with a baby. This year we were thankful for Lynne and Karen making most of the meal we invited everyone to while we juggled taking care of the baby, hosting, and dealing with a clogged and overflowing sink. Good times. All in all though, it was awesome having a house full of close friends, good food on the table, a happy baby, and a giant bottle of Prosecco.

Elsa's holiday attire for most of the day was a sweet little denim jumper and pieces of head flair. Jeff thought three was too many so we narrowed it down to just one.

Lynne got MVP of the day. She was a baby whisperer, mimosa maker, chef, and dishwasher and we probably couldn't have done it without her.

Nice shot Jeff. Not like you actually want to see us or anything. I think he was channeling my Dad's photography framing here. It's hard to tell but that's Lynne, Jan and I. And I'm wearing my beautiful new Moth sweater from Anthro Lynne gifted me for my birthday. It's navy blue and the back is a sheer navy blue and white polka dotted chiffon. It's gorgeous.

Karen and Mark came through yet again and brought this beautiful bird. It was the star of the Thanksgiving table.

And more of the baby because she's cuter than a turkey.

New toy! Karen brought over this new gem for Elsa to play with. It secures really easily to the door jambs and she seems to enjoy bouncing in it. Carrie also lent us a crazy looking exersaucer thing that we haven't tried out yet, but looks promising. Pics of that later.

I hope everyone had a fun Thanksgiving, and celebrated the many things we have to be thankful for. I know we did.

Merry Christmas!! Love, Elsa and her new plaid dress.

2011-11-21T16:21:00.000-08:00

Little bugger wouldn't hold still for her Christmas card portrait.

Elsa's first non-titty milk food!

2011-11-19T08:02:00.000-08:00

We had Elsa's four month check up with the pediatrician yesterday and here are her stats: 11 lbs 2 ounces (below the 5th percentile! She's mini), 25 inches long (between the 50-75th percentile), and 40 cm head circumference (between 10-25th percentile). The doctor said she looked perfect though and had a perfect physical exam so we're not worried about her midget stats. She got my little genes.

Excitingly, the doctor said it would be okay to start trying a little rice cereal for her in the hopes that the boob milk and cereal mix will stick to her ribs a little more and give us a little more time in between feedings, especially at night. We gave her the Earth's Best whole grain rice cereal because it's organic and the box is pretty. You can see a video of her first feeding on my YouTube channel.

I'm really excited to break out all of Elsa's eating-related gifts. We have a big bag full of gifts given to us to assist in the job of feeding the baby. All of the little bowls and spoons and sippy cups and snack traps and food mill and Beaba are going to start coming into rotation. Fun!

She still has her tongue thrust reflex so a lot of the cereal ended up on her face and bib, but she swallowed a little bit of it. It was less of an eating experience and more of a rub it all over your face and make funny sounds and take pictures experience. We watered down the leftovers with more milk and gave her that in a bottle which she took down like a champ, and then she slept for a solid 5 hour chunk!

Jude dude!

2011-11-19T07:39:00.000-08:00

Jerod and Jude came over yesterday to see my mom and hang out a bit. The babies were old enough now to stare lovingly at each other. It was so fun holding Jude, he's such a sturdy little man. Elsa feels so mini and wiggly compared to him.

Jude loved Thor! And I think Thor returned the affection by not moving away when Jude grabbed handfuls of his fur.

My little troll

2011-11-17T21:09:00.000-08:00

My cousin said that Elsa looks like one of the cute trolls in Norwegian folklore. I can see it, especially when she wears this sweater.

Look how little she looks in her IKEA highchair! We put all of her toys on the tray and she stays entertained for about 38 seconds.

It was chilly here this morning so we put her in the sweet little hat Hallie's grandmother knit for her. I love the colors of it, so cute!

Crafts!

2011-11-17T21:03:00.000-08:00

Elsa's first visit to JoAnn's! She loved it. She's going to be crafty.

Here's a sneak peek at some of the fabrics I'm using for the Christmas presents I'm making.

My mom cross-stitched this one and it's so rad. It's on a shimmery metallic cross stitch fabric, and the colors are amazing. I hope she forgets it here and I get to keep it.

Kitties, Jeff and baby

2011-11-17T20:57:00.000-08:00

Our boy Thor has been fighting off kitty bronchitis, so he's been a little wheezy and dropped some weight, but he's on antibiotics now (Jeff is giving him the meds since I took care of Lily Mae... it's his turn.) and he's looking and sounding much better. He'll be ship shape in no time.

My mom is here visiting for the week (SO AWESOME having her here all week. She's cooked, cleaned, and taken care of the baby the whole time she's been here, it's going to be hard to say goodbye!!) and she's such a sucker for the cats. Thor has been on her lap pretty much every second she's been sitting down without the baby, and I think that's sped up his recovery a bit.

And here's Jeff looking like a model holding Elsa. Hot.

Sleep sack perfection

2011-11-10T17:24:00.000-08:00

Okay all you enablers out there... tell me how much I Elsa needs this. It's starting to get chilly and baby needs a snuggly sleep sack. I entertained the idea of making one but I have Christmas crap to make. I don't have time. And this one is perfect. It's even her little elephant pattern!! And a luxurious thick flannel on the inside, all organic fabrics, all snuggly. The details are really well played too. I like the snaps, the light blue polka dot fold is sweet, and I like this style of sleep sacks more than the ones that zip up the front. Only problem? It's silly expensive. I really love everything that the Organic Quilt Company on Etsy does though. Just lovely.

New Hipsta prints on their way!

2011-11-10T16:42:00.000-08:00

I just ordered more from the Hipstamart... love them!

YouTube

2011-11-10T16:37:00.000-08:00

By the way, I'm uploading videos of Elsa to my YouTube channel if you want to check her out in action. It will mostly just be Elsa, maybe a cat puking video every now and then. www.youtube.com/livctrondsen

Tummy time

2011-11-10T16:34:00.000-08:00

Ta-DA!!

Baby must haves

2011-11-04T19:07:00.000-07:00

A few good friends of ours are newly pregnant (yay!!) so I'm starting to think of baby goodies we've felt have been essential to manage Elsa, so I can pass along some tips. It's laughable how much stuff you "need" to take care of mini people, but seriously it makes it so much easier having all of this stuff. Here's my list that I've been thinking about recently, but I'm sure there is more...

Our Aden + Anais swaddle blankets. These are big, super soft, light but warm when you fold them up, easy to do the swaddle with (although E only got swaddled for a week before being fitted with her hip harness), and she's wrapped up in them constantly. I line her bassinet with one, and cover her with a second one folded to keep her bare harnessed legs warm. Sometimes I steal them to snuggle with at night for me too.

Elsa was 7 lbs and 9 ounces when she was born, and then dropped down to 6 and change the week after, so her teeny little butt didn't fit into her puffy BumGenius diapers or G diapers. She was also flying through about 12 diapers a day when she was a newborn, so we had her in 7th generation newborn disposable diapers for the first month. They're made without chlorine and other nasty chemicals and she hasn't had even the slightest tinge of a diaper rash in them. They're a very stylish unbleached coffee filter brown, but they're eco friendly and they do the job. We still use these for overnight, because they're so absorbent and she won't wake up if she wets herself in them, unlike with the cloth diapers. They seriously weigh like 3 lbs when we take them off in the morning. She destroys them.

While her disposables are pretty sweet, we are super happy we went the cloth diaper route. Who knows how much money we've already saved with them. Everyone was skeptical about us hanging with the cloth diapering system, but it's really been no big deal. We do laundry every other day (easy) and changing them outside of the house is no problem. We use Baggu large zipper bags as wet bags and just dump them in the wash when we get home. We use their other bags as quick diaper bags when we're just going out for a quick errand and need a mini bag of supplies. The alpaca one is my favorite:

I love the G Diapers system that we went with (using cloth inserts, not the biodegradable inserts) and the colors really jazz up her outfits. This was especially important to me when she was in her harness and unable to wear leggings. At least her panties were pretty! She's still easily fitting into the small size that we got her, and probably will for at least another month so they've been well worth the initial expense (even though we got a bunch as gifts!). We won't get her any more, and will retire the G's when she grows out of the smalls because her all-in-one BumGenius diapers are rad, and we have enough of those. She almost never leaks out of them, and they're pretty absorbent. Also cute, and the snaps make putting them on and taking them off a breeze. We also picked up a few GroVia's because I'm sort of obsessed with cloth diapers. They're really great too, although I think I may prefer the Bums. You can read all about my cloth diapering choices here.

Mark and Karen gave us Henry's bouncer, which was a DwellStudio for Target bouncer. He hated it but Elsa adores it. It vibrates and plays an MP3 player but we stopped using those functions after the batteries ran out. It's practically in every picture I take of her because she's sitting in it often. When we're not holding her, she's either in this thing or her swing. She watches us make meals sitting in it on the kitchen island, chats with me in it in the mornings while I put on makeup and get dressed, and falls asleep in it in the evenings while we're in the living room hanging out or watching TV. It's very useful.

Her swing is another favorite. She chills and rocks, chatting with me and herself, as I work at my desk.

She also likes to grab Miyim organic cotton lovies and shove them into her mouth while hanging in her bouncer or swing. We usually have one of these close by to "kiss" away her never-ending flow of drool, and they're handy for quick cleanups when she spits up all over my face, neck and chest.

I can't imagine what life would be like without our Ergo carrier. I carry her in this sometimes, but it's mostly Jeff's thing. He walks literally like 6-9 miles every day with her in it. He'll take her in the morning while I get another hour of sleep, he'll take her to Disneyland in it, and anytime she's melting down and hysterical, the carrier will ALWAYS calm her down. It's amazing. Don't forget to buy the newborn insert for it though! We didn't realize this even existed until she was 6 weeks old. It props her up a lot higher so she can look at what's happening around her when she's not sleeping, and so we don't have to constantly look down paranoid that she's smothering herself.

A key component of calming the baby down while being walked in the carrier is her having a Nuk pacifier in her mouth. I wanted her to only have the cute natural rubber pacifiers but these ones are her favorites. We have like 13 of them, and I've sewn little fabric leashes that clip them to her shirt so one is always handy.

I love my Brest Friend. I use it every time I nurse her, and I keep her nail clippers in the little pocket so I can give her manicures and pedicures while she eats. The back support is really great, and not something you can get with the Boppy which is why I love it more. It also clips on to you so you can get up and walk around with the baby propped up on it. Super helpful when you sit down and start nursing and realize the TV remote is across the room.

In the beginning we were naive and cleaned everything the old school way by boiling water on the stove top. Then we realized Quick clean steam bags existed. They make sterilizing all the breast pump pieces and bottles and pacifiers etc so easy. Plus you can use them 20 times per bag (and you only need 2 ounces of water in them) so they're not very wasteful.

When I went back to work, Jeff started feeding Elsa my pumped milk in bottles. I read good things about these Breastflow bottles, which are supposed to mimic nursing at the breast so the baby doesn't become a fiend for the bottles and shuns the breast. We had a very easy time transitioning between bottle and breast and she takes both like a champ, and I think these bottles had a little something to do with that.

Karen gave me her awesome double pump-in-style which I use everyday, but I also recently bought this hand pump for convenience sake. It's kind of a pain to plug in the electric pump and get everything all hooked up, so it's nice to have this small manual pump for pumping in bed, at my desk, on the couch, and whenever the mood strikes (or the milk flows). A bonus is that I have incredibly strong hands now. I can snap a lobster in half no problem!

These are a big must when breastfeeding: Organic cotton nursing pads. You wear them constantly so disposables become expensive and super wasteful. Plus these ones are nice and soft and don't make that crinkly diaper sound like a lot of the disposables do. I have 6 pairs which seems to be just right, considering how often we do laundry these days.

The Majamas nursing bras are the best. Love love love them. Super comfy, easy access, inexpensive, and not horribly unattractive.

We have a little stockpile of milk in the freezer for when I'm not around, and I use Lanisoh freezer bags now that I discovered they're great and way cheaper than the Medela ones.

Man, that's a lot of products. And those, no joke, we use every. single. day. I'm telling you, registry must haves!

So fun!

2011-11-04T13:49:00.000-07:00

Elsa got to meet our friends Heidi and Joe recently, and they were so sweet to gift us with a Beaba Babycook!! I had this on our registry for a few minutes but then took it off because I felt guilty about its fanciness. I'm so excited we have it now though! They also got us little baby food freezer containers and a cookbook of purees to make her. She's been exclusively breast fed since she's been born and we're hoping to keep that up until she's old enough for solids, so that's going to be an exciting day when we can fire this puppy up and give my boobs a break!

Thanks Heidi and Joe!!

Disneyland

2011-11-04T13:38:00.000-07:00

Busy busy bees

2011-11-01T09:21:00.000-07:00

So much work! No time for many words, just some pictures of what's been happening around the homestead...

Seriously. How pretty is she?

Until she's pissed. Then she's not so pretty.

But then she's cute again.

Thor and Tyr made some new friends... They were loving on Roger for awhile.

And then when Roger got up to tape roll all the cat fur off of him, Thor moved on to his next friend, Andy.

Halloween was phoned in by me this year. There was a lot going on and I just couldn't get it together enough to make costumes and do anything fun. At least Elsa is too little to know her mom was a Halloween Scrooge this year. I did buy her a sweet little skeleton onesie (glows in the dark!) to be somewhat festive.

Jerod, Karen, Kurtis, and baby Jude went the whole 9 and went to the Long Beach Zombie Walk. I think this is the coolest family picture EVER.

Milestone somewhat reached! She can sit up alone in her Bumbo! She doesn't flop over but she's not exactly rigid either. We're practicing though.

And this one just because Jan and I look awesome in it.

Yeah this is fair...

2011-10-27T14:56:00.001-07:00

Jeff is at Disneyland with Elsa while I'm working on research protocol submissions to our IRB in the office. Someone got himself an annual pass for his birthday but I don't begrudge him that one bit. He's a good nanny and deserves it.

TMDUP

2011-10-25T14:49:00.000-07:00

Jeff declared it TMDUP today (Tuesday Morning Dress Up Party) and got into my craft supplies...

The baby being cute...

2011-10-25T14:47:00.000-07:00

These noise canceling headphones were a gift from Jill and Warren. So awesome! Now we can rock out like we used to. Jan said it looked like Elsa was having a double stroke here. Sad.

She's such a mouth breather! She falls asleep with her pacifier in and then it falls out and her mouth stays like this. It's sweet.

This was taken just after I told her how many diapers she goes through in a day. She too was shocked and befuddled.

Babies sleep in the weirdest positions. That can't be comfortable...

Hipstacats

2011-10-21T13:03:00.000-07:00

Fall boots!

2011-10-21T10:00:00.000-07:00

Hello score! These boots were only $26 at Old Navy with their 25% off promotion going on right now on top of their sale price of $35. Pretty dang cheap for a pair of boots! I saw them in the store and liked them and the online reviews are really good too. They're faux leather which I appreciate and I like the minimal hardware detailing. And the gray color is just what I was looking for. I already have a pair of black leather flat boots (which always prompts my boss to ask if I rode my horse to work that day) so these will be another good option for rainy and cold days.

Stuff on my baby, part 2

2011-10-18T15:53:00.001-07:00

New Hipstamatic shots

2011-10-16T20:14:00.001-07:00

Because they make me happy.

Sleepy...

2011-10-15T22:44:00.001-07:00

Zara for babies

2011-10-15T09:21:00.000-07:00

Be still my heart. Zara now has baby clothes and they are so dang fashion forward, I'm dying. Again, I want these all in my size. Too pricey for baby clothes (for us at least) but good inspiration for when I start making Elsa some fashions!

I love piping details, and anything corduroy.

The shoes are awesome. Those leopard print maryjanes above would be favorites and the hi-tops below are too cute.

Corduroy leggings!! Say no more.

The leather pockets on this jacket are so sophisticated! And if it's one thing a three month old's jacket should be, it's sophisticated.

The dresses are making me hyperventilate. I want to cancel all plans for this weekend and call in sick to work next week so I can figure out how to make all of these.

The wavy collar? I die.

Okay no. Just no. It's not right for Elsa to be that much cooler than me with her fashion. Cuter? Sure. I'll give her that. But cooler? No.

The end of the fourth trimester

2011-10-12T21:12:00.000-07:00

Elsa is three months old today! And is down to only 8 hours a day in her harness. Yay! One more month and it's gone for good. She celebrated with her Bigfoot booties:

And with her monkey in the swing:

Nathan called this the Siamese recharging station. Love it.

Stuff on my baby!

Happy baby!

Elsa's announcement

2011-10-11T11:13:00.000-07:00

I wish we could have sent these to everyone, but stamps add up! Between thank you cards, these announcements, and the upcoming Christmas card season, I'm getting a little overwhelmed with mailings. I need to get Jeff in on all this, or teach Elsa to address envelopes. Still though, I love my paper products and it was fun making these. I think I'm going to use Tiny Prints for our Christmas cards (these announcements were through Shutterfly) because they have awesome looking cards and I have a bunch of $35 off coupon codes that I can apply towards them. (Let me know if you need one and I'll send you the code- the sweet girl at the Baby Gap gave me a whole stack of them!)

The babies love it!

2011-10-07T17:42:00.000-07:00

He's here!! Kevin* the Elephant is now a part of our family, thanks to some very generous friends and family up in San Jose (thank you Dianes D. and C., Judy, Aunt Ida, Richard & Linda, Chris, and Grammie!!). Elsa and Jude obviously love it and beg to ride him all the time. Okay, maybe not yet, but eventually I'm sure. Until then, he's waiting for Henry to come over and rock and is a pretty nursery fixture. Kevin* looks like the Eames elephant that I also of course wanted but reasoned it was more for me than the baby (which this guy certainly isn't since I can't ride him). We purchased Kevin* from Ecobold, a rad website specializing in wares that are earth friendly, and he was the last one left and priced at a significant discount from what Amazon was selling him for. It was meant to be.

Thanks again everyone for making my Elsa's wishes come true!

*He is named Kevin until Elsa is old enough to choose a name herself. Because it's her elephant. I guess.

Thanks Steve Jobs and Jerod!

2011-10-07T10:59:00.000-07:00

*pic from Design Mom

We pre-ordered our iPhone 4S's this morning and sold our old 3GS's on Gazelle.com this morning (they gave us $121 for each of them!!) and I. CAN'T. WAIT! I use my iPhone so much now, between work, taking pictures and video of Elsa, and entertaining myself during the hours and hours I spend nursing a baby, that I really do need something zippier and with more functionality. So thank you Steve Jobs for making Apple all that it amazingly is, and Jerod for telling us about Gazelle and saving us some monies! Now I can buy this:

I'm going to make a pattern with my name on it and then make my mom embroider it. Cool!

Um, these are adorable.

2011-10-04T23:28:00.000-07:00

And I'd be lying if I said I didn't want them in my size. I guess they're cuter on a 3 month old than a 31 year old though. And only $5.94! Deal! Elsa better get her butt down to Old Navy!

San Jose Part 2

2011-10-04T22:53:00.000-07:00

Party at Sue's! A ton of family and friends came through to meet the munchkin, and I'm happy to say that she was so well behaved for it! It was a long day and we flew out late that night, getting home to our boys around 11:30. It was a great weekend, but oy, babies tagging along on adventures requires a lot of thought and planning.

Pappy giving her a bottle. She made him sweaty with all her baby heat.

She looks so little in Richard's lap!

My mom's top is almost upstaging the baby here. It was really pretty. I'm jealous.

Monica the baby whisperer. We dropped Elsa off with Monica for an hour so we could pound a few beers in the backyard.

Hilary and Jack gave us that awesome wood toy rattle atom thing I'm holding. The bonds squish and flex, it's really neat. I threw away the box so it would fit in our luggage and I forgot who made it and the name of it!

A minute after I handed Elsa off to Linda, Jim swooped in and stole her! This is Linda's sad face:

And this is Jim's happy face:

Presents! I swear, it was like the baby shower all over. We were also gifted some money ear marked for a special something that I ordered yesterday. I'll share when it arrives!

Great-aunty Jane and Elsa:

And while we were up in San Jo playing with the baby, Uncle Jan was at our house taking care of the boys. We were nervous leaving the social butterflies alone for three days but we didn't have to twist Jan's arm too hard to get him to catsit. I think the boys liked him. Thanks Jan!

Almost Christmas...

2011-10-04T18:44:00.000-07:00

You know what that means... the sewing machine will be revving up to be the MVP in my holiday sweat shop! I'm bookmarking ideas for little prezzies and going through my drawers of fabrics to make them with, but despite my fabric hoarding, I keep finding new ones I want! Here are the latest ones I'm trying to keep my credit card away from:

Lotta Jansdotter's new fabrics!! The day is finally here. Well, October 10th at least. These two are my favs:

Nani Iro fabrics from the Miss Matatabi Etsy shop:

Man. SO lovely, and so many possible things to make with them. The wheels are spinning.

San Jose Part 1

2011-10-04T18:32:00.000-07:00

We were up in San Jose for the weekend to introduce Elsa to the family and had a lovely quick trip. The flights were birthday presents for us from Sue, so thankfully we didn't have to drive 12 hours with a baby over three days. Thanks Sue! Elsa was a champ on the plane too, just crying once on the descent on the way into San Jose. She was zonked out the entire flight back into LA so that was one more feather in Elsa's cap.

Friday was spent with the grandparents, Saturday at my parents house, and Sunday at Sue's. Thanks to everyone that came out and saw us!!

4 generations! And Jeff.

The baby was ON all weekend! She gave some impressive performances, most importantly for our grandparents, Noni, Marmie, and Pappy. Everyone said we made a very cute baby (exquisite according to my mom) and Jeff and I were like "duh."

We yet again got a lot of very sweet and generous gifts (seriously- babies are cash cows. Not a good reason to have a baby, but an awesome perk). This Pink Floyd onesie is going to be perfect for our laser light parties. Thanks Mark and Lisa!

The weather was fantastic in San Jose too, so hanging out in my parent's newly made over backyard was perfect. I wish we could have taken Elsa in the pool for her first swimming lesson (and an excuse to put her in the baby bikini Matt and Jana got her!) but it was kind of windy and everyone kept insisting the baby was freezing to death because they were touching her clammy little cold spitty hands.

Party at Sue's is up next!

Baby gym

2011-10-03T15:19:00.000-07:00

She's interested in new things every day. It's pretty awesome to pull out a toy that she ignored a week earlier which she now smiles at and interacts with. This baby gym from IKEA has kept her interest for more than 10 minutes at a time when we play with it. She likes the noise the wood pieces make when they clunk together and I wrap her mini fingers around the ring and she'll hold it for a few seconds.

DogCatJeff

2011-09-27T10:49:00.000-07:00

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

Baby and kitties. What else is new?

2011-09-26T09:26:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-24T10:17:00.001-07:00

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Morning!

2011-09-23T08:55:00.001-07:00

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

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Walking Elephant

2011-09-19T18:10:00.000-07:00

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...

2011-09-19T18:00:00.000-07:00

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!

2011-09-19T14:50:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-17T09:52:00.000-07:00

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!

2011-09-16T12:47:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-14T12:45:00.000-07:00

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!

2011-09-14T10:32:00.000-07:00

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!

2011-09-13T08:58:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-12T12:27:00.001-07:00

Snapped by Jeff this morning...

Siamese and my baby. I'm happy!

2011-09-11T10:03:00.000-07:00

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??"

Our boys are here!!

2011-09-10T17:32:00.000-07:00

Tyr and Thor made it safely down from the Bay Area to their new home of Long Beach today, and we are SO thrilled to have them. Tyr has settled in quite nicely and has been exploring the house, sitting on Jeff's lap, and rubbing all up on Jan. He even sniffed Elsa's head and seemed to think she was alright. Thor is a little more shy and is still hiding under our bed, but he also was a little love bug in the beginning when we got acquainted. I'm sure by the evening he'll be out and about with his brother, making himself at home.

He IS a lap kitty! His claws are like Shun knives though so Jeff had to put down a towel. I see a pedicure in his future...

Tyr had no problem with us putting on his snazzy new red collar either. The bell didn't seem to bother him at all, and I think he looks dashing in it. Thor gets a blue one when he comes out.

We may or may not have bought their love with tuna.

Thor's first hiding spot. It took us forever to find him! So sneaky. It wasn't even unzipped like this. The sides were zipped up and the bag looked empty until I noticed the white fur on the outside of it. I peeked in and saw his skinny little body. Check out his fangs!!

Vampire kitty. Here is where he is now, underneath our bed. We took out the storage drawers for easy access to the kitty. Hopefully he comes out soon. Tyr keeps going over to check on him, as if he's saying "Dude. They're cool. You'll like them. There's tuna out there."

Gimme Gimme Gimme

2011-09-10T10:36:00.000-07:00

I'm in a shopping mood. Baby products are pretty irresistible, and I find myself wanting to shop for Elsa way more than for myself. Maybe this is the start of me letting myself go. :) I need something to distract me though. Our boys, Tyr and Thor, are arriving today! We were supposed to pick them up in Pasadena around 10, but the foster mom driving them down from the bay area got stuck north of the grapevine because of the power outages and nowhere to buy gas. Triple A is on the way to help her, but it'll delay things until the afternoon. I want them now!!

Anyways, here is what's on my Amazon wishlist right now:

Wee Plush by Bunnies by the Bay. I had a stuffed dog that I LOVED for years and years before my mom threw it away (just kidding, we still don't know what happened to it. I probably left it somewhere.) and I want Elsa to have the same comfort. I like the painted blush cheeks on this guy, and his sewn on face.

Sewing with Oilcloth book. Sooo many projects!!

Beaba Babypote. This is what I was talking about Mom! More eco-friendly than the disposable puree snack bags everyone is squirting into their kids faces these days. Plus you can fill them with pretty much anything. Elsa can't have anything but breast milk for another 4 months but I can start pureeing Jeff's meals so he can have them in squirtable form.

This Totseat looks great, especially since our Phil & Ted's MeToo chair got recalled. :( Once Elsa has neck control over her giant noggin we can put her in this thing when we go out to the bars.

I love Plan Toys, and this Woodpecker Walker takes the cake. So cool.

This Playful Learning book. I want to develop Elsa's sense of joy and wonder. I don't know if we really need a book to do that, but it'll help on the lazy mommy days.

And these next two are for me. The Design*Sponge at Home book. I love and read her blog everyday, and can't wait to see the book. So much eye candy.

These Minnetonka moccasin slippers in gray. They look so comfy, perfect for my work at home days.

Just got the call, kitties are on their way!!!

Two months!

2011-09-08T12:17:00.000-07:00

I can't believe my tiny little baby is already two months old! Everyone is right when they say the time flies by. I'm already back at work! My maternity leave ended last week so I'm back in the work saddle, but luckily allowed to ease into it with a part-time working from home schedule. Jeff takes care of Elsa during the day while I work and then we switch and he gets to head to the studio in the evenings. She's been waking up crazy early this week which makes things a little difficult, but hopefully it's just a bad week. She's been a sleep champ for a solid month before this so fingers crossed she realizes that sleep is a good thing and goes back to that.

I didn't get the best shots of her on her two month birthday on the womb chair, but at least this depicts real life. Happy with her pacifier, pouty lip when it falls out.

Sweet gifts!

2011-09-08T12:10:00.000-07:00

We have such stylish family and friends! Elsa was recently gifted these adorable fashions. The crocheted slippers will fit her on Monday when her harness comes off (part-time)!

These dainty little orange slippers were a gift from Jeff's cousin Kristin and her husband Chris, and they were packaged so beautifully. First in this awesome little twine box, and then again in a pretty blue shoe box. I'm a sucker for great packaging.

These little booties came all the way from Portugal! My aunt and uncle Britt and Rui sent them for Elsa. I was worried she'd grow out of them before even getting to wear them (thanks to the stupid harness) but her little tootsies are still tiny. Yay! I love the printed bag they came in too. So colorful.

Sean and Gretchen gave us the awesome high top converse sneaks (and Max gave her red low top ones!) to go with this delightful seersucker number. I want her to stay little for awhile, but I'm looking forward to her being big enough to wear this!

Love the bow detail, and how the buttons keep the bow from flopping over!

And just when Jeff and I were starting to feel left out... Marlene and Herb sent us the sweetest card, congratulating us on making a baby, and including a gift to treat ourselves to a nice dinner out! Which we will be doing as soon as Sue our babysitter/Noni arrives this weekend! We're very much looking forward to her visit, not just so we can have a date night, but we miss seeing the grandparents fawn all over Elsa. It's in the top ten of Best Things Ever.

Thanks everyone!!

Liking the hoodie progression

2011-09-05T16:48:00.001-07:00

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Sampler!

2011-09-01T15:19:00.000-07:00

Squeal! The postman brought us this goodie today! My mom cross-stitched this sampler for Elsa commemorating her birth the good old fashioned way. I love it, it's so special and will be something we will always have up on our walls to honor our first baby girl.

In the traditional sampler way, Marmie started with the alphabet and numbers, and then personalized it with the waves symbolizing her beach hometown, hearts because she's loved (what do you stitch when they're not? Daggers?), her name (in ombre thread!), her date of birth, pink bows because she's a girl, her birthplace, daisies for our home, siamese kitties for her first pets (Tyr and Thor are coming on the 10th!!), a saying for her day of birth, palm trees for Long Beach, her initials, her birth flower- the larkspur (I totally didn't even know we had birth flowers- wonder what mine is...? I didn't get a sampler for my birth, btw.), and the dorky saying she used to always say to Jan and me whenever we parted ways with her- "Be a good citizen! Be prudent!".

Close-ups. Her stitching blows me away, it's so exact! Did you know you always are supposed to cross the stitches in the same direction? Every single one of them?? Yeah I knew that, but I choose to ignore that suggestion. She does not.

I might still move it somewhere but I really like it here in her nursery. It's next to the bird print and above the rocking chair so we can look at it often. My mom suggested hanging it in the sewing room (soon to be playroom I'm sure) or a hallway but the colors are too perfect for it not to hang in the nursery.

Such a special gift! As soon as Elsa can talk Mom, I'll make her thank you for it. We love it! Now make one for me and one for Jeff, and two for the cats. Thanks!!

Back by popular demand...

2011-08-31T20:11:00.000-07:00

Elsa was fussy today and not being able to understand her cry (we're using the Dunstan language method), I ran down the list checking her diaper (clean and dry, for once!), the clock (fed her less than an hour before, and she had napped right before that), her clothes (adorable- and not twisted or too tight), and I tried burping her. She wasn't screaming so I knew it wasn't gas so I was at a loss for what the crap her problem was. Jeff said "She's probably just bored." Maybe so?? We haven't really played with her very much because she's just a newborn! I don't know any newborn games. She has been noticeably more alert and interactive the last two weeks though so I pulled out her little IKEA play gym and parked her under it on a soft blanket. She loved it! For two minutes and then started crying, but still. We can play with toys now! Milestones every day I tell ya.

P.S. The countdown until baby jeggings is on! She gets to start taking her harness off for 8 glorious hours of bathing and pants wearing a day starting next Wednesday!

Too much baby?

2011-08-30T20:57:00.000-07:00

Yeah, I know, this is totally turning into a mom blog. The cats arrive on the 10th though!! Elsa will be old news then. Babies will be out and Siamese Wedgeheads will be in! Until then, here is the baby today, 7 weeks old, with a faux-hawk, big girl diapers, and cooing!!

Morning smiles

2011-08-29T08:56:00.000-07:00

See!? Told you she smiles.

We figured out that lightly blowing on her face delights her to no end. It's pretty cute, so of course I made a video:

Two Vikings

2011-08-27T20:43:00.000-07:00

Jan The Terrible and his niece, Elsa the Destroyer (of diapers).

**Viking "helmets" crocheted by my awesome pseudo-Valkyrie mom Diana. Thanks Mom!

Indestructibles!

2011-08-27T11:35:00.000-07:00

Seth and Godmomma Mandy bought Elsa the cutest and smartest books! I'd never heard of Indestructibles before, but they're pretty genius. They are made of Tyvek but feel like paper and are chew-proof, rip-proof, nontoxic, and 100% washable. Pretty brilliant, right? You can take them anywhere, even bath time! The pictures are so well done and with lots of really saturated and pretty colors. The one that they gave us last night (Frere Jacques) doesn't have any words, so you can make up your own stories to go with the pictures. They also got us Jungle Rumble and this morning I bought Mama and Baby (Karen- you have to see this one!) and Flutter! Fly! because I can already see these books coming very much in handy. Thanks Mandy and Seth!!

6 weeks old

2011-08-23T21:20:00.000-07:00

We went for a walk in the big El Dorado park this afternoon and I rode in the back with Elsa. She makes the cutest faces, sticks out her milk tongue, crosses her eyes, and makes funny noises. We had a little photo shoot, and I shot this video of her adorableness:

Otter vase

2011-08-23T13:00:00.000-07:00

I pinned this Leif Otter Vase on Pinterest and now I can't stop thinking about it. It's so awesome. And would be perfect with a mini succulent planted in it. Now I just have to trick Jeff into buying it for me.

The elusive smile...

2011-08-22T06:50:00.001-07:00

So hard to capture in the wild on film! But she smiled at Jeff two days ago when he was grinning down at her and I think his world exploded. He even got teary eyed over it. Me too, it was a pretty special moment. I can't wait to get more smiles out of her, but for now, here are some of our morning shots:

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HipstaMart

2011-08-19T13:24:00.000-07:00

I really love the Hipstamatic app on my iPhone, despite the name. It takes such cool pictures and was only $1.99. I was lamenting the fact that we only had digital pictures of the baby the other day so imagine my elation when I discovered the HipstaMart on the app, where you can order prints of the pictures!! I was thinking they might come out shitty but I just received our order in the mail yesterday and they look SO GOOD! I got 24 four inch square prints for $9.99 which I don't think is a bad deal at all, especially since you get to select your favorites to be printed (unlike a film camera where you get what you shot, regardless of whether it was a good picture or not). You can get 96 for $34.99 (36 cents a piece for those that suck at math), and you can also get them in seven inch squares, ten inch squares, or a whopping 30 inch square! Oh the possibilities! The printing and shipping were lightening fast too, I ordered them on Monday this week and got them on Thursday in the mail. Not bad for shipping that was only $1.28.

I should be their spokesperson.

The new neighbors!

2011-08-19T13:02:00.000-07:00

We hit the awesome neighbor jackpot! The neighbors we had to the left of us recently moved out so Jeff and I have been crossing our fingers all week for a nice family to move in, and our prayers were answered! We met them yesterday and guess what?? WE ALREADY KNEW THEM!! We met several years ago at a tiny restaurant in Long Beach where you're pretty much eating dinner and sharing conversations with everyone around you since you're seated so close together. They were hilarious and super friendly and we had a fun dinner with them. We even became Facebook friends with them but never met up again in person until yesterday! We were all dumbfounded and grinning at our small world luck. Bradford and Donnie are married and they have two awesome dogs and are already planning their new landscaping (including the plants on our property that faces their house! Score!). Every year they are known for their Halloween and Christmas decorations too so we're going to have to step up our game this year.

So now we're surrounded on both sides and in front of us with amazing neighbors. Moving to Wrigley was a good decision. :)

So squishable

2011-08-18T08:40:00.001-07:00

I love me some baby toes...

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Still sleeping...

2011-08-17T23:08:00.000-07:00

It's 11:00pm and she's still sleeping. Hour 4 of peaceful sleeping baby. Which makes me nervous, because now it's sort of time for us to go to bed, and her falling back asleep like a little angel after nursing after an epic nap is historically unlikely. What to do...? Wake her up to nurse, or wait for her to wake herself up? Oh babies.

These were from earlier today:

Our friends are the best.

2011-08-17T23:00:00.000-07:00

UPS delivered a huge box of baby awesomeness today, from our wonderful friends Joie and Matt. They have two little girls that have gotten chubby enough to outgrow and pass on their baby fashions to Elsa. There are so many cute pieces, I can't wait play dress up with her! We even got a bunch of shoes, including pink baby Uggs, which I never thought I'd like but in mini size they're pretty damn adorable. Whoever has a baby girl next in our friend circle is going to get hooked up! Thanks so much friends!!

Heart --> melt.

2011-08-15T15:30:00.000-07:00

So snuggly!

The Bird print is up for sale!

2011-08-13T10:28:00.000-07:00

The first edition print is now up for sale at PaperTigerStore.com! We put one of the artist proof prints in Elsa's nursery and it looks gorgeous. They came out so beautifully, all of the tiny details are super clear and the colors are super rich and true to the original piece.

Product Description

Artist: Jeff McMillan

Title: Birds Fly By Flapping Their Wings

Edition Size: 50

Print Size: 24"x36"

Signed and Numbered Edition Giclee Print

Printed on Archival cotton rag fine art paper