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??"

Our boys are here!!

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

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!

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!

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

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Sampler!

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!!