Little angel card

Cute Bridal Shower Card Image

I love old cards. I save them...I am kind of a hoarder of ephemera. I just scanned this image in and am posting it in my blog for everyone else to steal/enjoy.

Love.

Mr. T. says...

Haunted PBJ

Arthur loves scary things. Haunted Mansion at Disney World, Scooby Doo monsters, The Dark Crystal, Goey Ghost (his creation), scary Lar-Lars (also his creations), and Halloween...he adores them.

Two dresses for LuLu

Taeh and I had a sewing + brownies night. I made a couple of little tiny dresses based on a pillowcase dress pattern for my little LuLu, inspired by the little pillowcase dresses we made at my friend Valerie's Little Dresses for Africa party.

This dress is repurposed fabric. I loved the original dress for ages. It was vintage and beautiful, a long 1970s hippie dress. I wore it until the seams fell apart, then sewed them back up until I knew it was time to throw in the towel. 

Taeh sewed a little "L" on the back of the dresses, for "Lucy," of course.

I love the little flower applique I made for this one. The best part about these dresses is they will stretch for the better part of her first year, maybe two, just by letting out the straps. Sweet little Lucy, can't wait to meet you!

C-section packing list

We're two months out with absolute certainty that Lucy will be born via c-section. It's a bit scary to think about, especially since I had such a yucky chain of events when Arthur was born, but I am handling it in the only way I can, micromanaging every little thing. I am working on fixing up the Ultimate PostPartum Chillspot in our house. Hubs even has plans to install a satellite dish for me so I can have good TV at 3 AM feedings without going through the drama of Netflix-via-Wii (somehow I tend to choose the most disturbing films anyway: Precious and Iowa, for example, when I need more zone-out type of viewing, just enough to keep me from nodding off since breastfeeding always was a soporific experience for me; the minute baby's head touched boob, I was out).

I am also working on the ultimate packing list since my last stay, which I expected to last about two-three days, turned into weeks, ultimately stretching from March 20th until the end of April--among the many bad things about that, perhaps one of the worst was that I couldn't go get the crap I wanted. Thank heaven for my parents' super-flexible schedule; they were constantly running for special shampoo and body wash, magazines, clothing, makeup, you name it. This won't need to happen again. I'm packing early just in case and making sure that I have everything I could possibly want with me. I don't pack light--honestly, I don't get why people do. In my mind, I classify light packing as valiant but wholly optional asceticism alongside natural childbirth and undergoing a root canal sans medication. Believe me when I say I still respect my natural birthing girlfriends who have their babies at home (Miranda and Brook), but in much the same way I respect the folks who climb Mt. Everest or run 10K marathons--I don't understand it and I've stopped trying, but I am sure there's a really, really good reason, one which I will never, ever understand.

Here's my list so far.

*bath robe & comfy lounging-around robes
*cute pajamas (to allow for incision checks and for boob access)
*nursing cover
*cloth nursing pads
*lozenges for after-surgery throat
*deodorant
*cellie
*charger
*laptop
*wireless card
*extension cord
*phone list
*portable DVD player
*DVDs
*CDs for CD player in room that I won't be able to reach
*nursing pillow
*nice pillows for me and hub
*extra, more acceptable blankets (2--1 for me and 1 for hub)
*camera
*batteries
*cherry blossom shampoo and conditioner fr/ Bath and Body Works
*smell-good spray
*mints
*cute nursing bras (purchased at Target)
*baby book
*clean tees and unders for man
*Vitamin Water
*snacks
*candy
*collapsible cooler (won't have my man eating junk food and need something extra in case they hit me with a Hot Pocket again)
*frivolous literature
*list of postpartum demands (sushi being the number one)
*fancy shower gel
*hair brush
*cute hair stuff (must look fly for pics)
*makeup (I found I felt about sixty percent less like crap when I threw on some makeup last time I was in the hospital)
*dry shampoo
*webcam for video diary
*back scratcher
*frivolous literature (I have two Choose-Your-Own Adventure books in my bag right now)
*magazines
*nail polish and removal pads
*framed photo of the fam since they won't be with me the whole time
*jacket in case the weather changes before we leave
*big brother gift for Artie when he comes to visit so he feels special
*handmade thank-u cards for the nurses/doctors/assistants
*toothbrush
*toothpaste
*cute but dark panties (I don't care what those other mommies say...I am simply not wearing ugly grannies or mesh hospital undies. A big part of my recovery is always making sure I don't feel like a slumpish sloth, which starts with cute panties. I always wear cute panties because I believe a happy attitude starts with lace on the hips. Try it...you'll be a convert.)
*glasses case
*lens cloth
*contact lenses for if I feel up to it
*cute but flowy outfit to wear home
*shoes suitable for walking the halls but that still look hottie hot
*decent feminine products (This is another one I disagree with the other mamas on. They will tell you just to use the hospital pads, but frankly, those are gross. I even saw where some suggested Depends...ick!!! As a person who hasn't worn pads since I was a kid, I find this sort of appalling. Unless you have some bizarre health issues and plan on practically bleeding out postpartum, both Kotex and Always make some nicely thin and yet crazy absorbent products that don't make me feel like I've just given up and stepped onto the fast track to frumpy old housewifery. I also packed a bunch of Always Clean wipes to clean things up a bit--highly recommended. These products worked well for me last time and I plan to use them again).
*change for the vending machine
*face wipes
*tweezers so my brows don't get shabby
*pens and paper so I can keep track of important ideas like a list of people who pissed me off while I was incapacitated, artistic renderings of hot pockets, things I want to say and blame on the percocet, etc.)

A nice cold bath...

This is ice, which I found in our bath tub this morning as I was getting ready for work. The ice is from having left our faucet dripping, as the news reporters always suggest. Apparently this is only useful to a certain temperature below ) fahrenheit. At present, it's 8:35 AM and still -5 degrees F outside. I just keep loading and reloading the weather forecast for next week, when highs will be in the 70s.

I must remember this in August when we've been sitting at over 100 degrees for several weeks.

Where our bed moved

Remember when we were living in the living room? It's hard to really get anything done when you have to move around a bed every time you walk through the living room. But we are still out of a bedroom, so we moved into my boudoir, which is up for remodel, too.

Sorry for the lo-res pic. Our camera is still down, thanks to our blizzard.

Imagine lugging a big pregnant belly through a room full of baby storage into this one. Now imagine...part of that wall is coming down in the next month. The clock is ticking and time is running out! Will we have a bedroom big enough to put a bassinet in? Will we have a room to put Lucy's belongings in?

First look at new blue

I've been using these snow days to paint, paint, paint. I can't post pics of the whole kitchen yet because we still need knobs, handles, and a tall or non-pregnant-with-ladder person to finish the work, but I am happy with what we have so far. Here's a little sneaky peek of the windowsill, which makes me happy.

Arthur's Blythe dolls

Arthur was helping me shop on Etsy before Christmas and went nuts over a Blythe doll. Unfortunately, we couldn't afford one and I didn't really want a knock-off.

We were wandering through the store tonight with Taeh and Arthur declared, "I want that one!" and pointed to a little Blythe doll smack in the middle of the Littlest Pet Shop dolls (which we also really like). He picked out two; one came with a scooter. They are little bitty versions of the originals, but he is super happy and up way too late playing with them.

He named this one Alice Annisenis.

And this one is Pepper.

Lucy at 29 Weeks

Snow Day

This is the first storm I remember being officially classified as a blizzard. It's still coming down pretty hard, so who knows how much snow we'll have in the end. It certainly is beautiful.

Nothing like a nice cup of cocoa after a cold romp in the snow!