i told you the elephant was her favorite

serene

I started painting the nursery in between nap times this weekend, and have all the walls except for the corner with the computer (yet to be moved) done. I absolutely love this color. It's a shade darker than I had originally thought I'd go, but the very slightly lighter shade of the sample paint just didn't show off all the woodwork very well. This one just glows, and looks so great with the crib. I'm really excited about the artwork that's going to hang over the crib - it has so many colors and I think it will look really great with such a calm background. The rest of the room is still a mess - and much more studio than nursery. I haven't given up much space to the baby yet, but small steps. There are only so many hours in the day. And yes, that's the mobile I've been waiting for. Hopefully we'll get that hung sometime this week.

And below is something I've been eyeing for her room as well - at least the tree part. They are handmade with fabric, and adhere to the wall, but can be moved around repeatedly. I was thinking of using them in the room and adding some handpainted touches with growth markers - we've never really had a true growth chart around here for the girls. And since we discovered tonight when we tried on the 0-3 month pajamas on F for the first time...yeah, well...those are going right back in the bin. Apparently we're skipping that size entirely - because growing we are.

sometimes there can be such a thing as too many kisses

But it's all she can do to keep her hands (and lips) off of her little sister. And I'll agree, those cheeks are yummy.

(I apologize for the crazy clash of patterns in the photos - but the baby was just too cute to resist.)

Seven weeks old on this day...

soaking up as much of summer as possible

School starts next Wednesday, so we've been hitting as many morning parks as possible these past couple of weeks. This one is always good for some interesting rides and adventures, and a nice shady spot at the bench for the baby.

more monster progress

We started working on our monster prototypes for the party. They are made out of brown paper and stuffed with plastic grocery bags. They have an assortment of scrap paper from our stash, as well as some things we raided out of the recycling bin. For all our local readers - we're accepting donations of any recycled material that you think might work well on a monster or two. Anything that can be affixed with rubber cement!

new scoots

Thanks to both sets of grandparents, E's got some new kicks and a new scoot to kick around on. Which makes walking in the park with a stroller (at some sort of reasonable pace) much more enjoyable now.

cheap fix

We're trying to figure out what to do at all the windows in F's room - these are south facing and let a lot of light in during the day - too much to foster a lot of sleepiness, and I like those four hour afternoon naps too much. Every solution we've thought of has some sort of glitch - the window hardware, the depth of the openings, the desire to not cover up the trim or to disrupt the simplicity of the arrangement. So we have foam core for now - a quick solution while we figure out the real one. Suggestions welcome...

paint added

Now they're ready...

it's (past) that time of the year again

We wisely decided back in February when we were booking the pavilion for the party, not to book it for E's actual birthday which was just a few weeks after our expected due date. Once we got through the weekends that were already full at the park for festivals and the Labor Day weekend we ended up in mid-September, which is working out much better than August would have. So party preparations have begun around here. We're going low-key, and using most of the things we already have around here. That's how we came to an art party, that's actually a recycled art party - with some monsters thrown in for fun. More posts as the planning and creating continues.

E and I cut out letters for a few days while F napped... I think we're going to splatter some paint across the invitations one afternoon this week, just for fun.

scenes from a week of parks

What a gorgeous week of weather...

this buys about ten minutes

Big sister entertainment


Hard to tell who's enjoying it more...

prudence

Prudence gets a little baby love.

.....

I've realized that this blog is nearly entirely baby pictures this day. Perhaps this is because my days are pretty much all baby. But thanks to my dear husband, long stretches of night are not all baby, and I've been able to get some much needed sleep which has improved all aspects of life around here. Still a ways to go until I start to feel normal again - at least, a "new normal". We'll never get back to where we were, our quiet, peacefully routine, patterned life. And thank goodness for that. Look at what we get in exchange. Thanks for the patience kiddo...

matching monkeys

The girls received matching monkey pajamas. E was thrilled. F was less impressed.

got it!

Since the new kid is starting to show signs of being able to tolerate the outside world without getting completely overstimulated and going bonkers, I thought it might be time to break out the elephant. This was a mobile that was never on E's actual sleeping crib, but came out for some awake time fun. There are actually three animals on the mobile, but it was always the elephant that she followed from day one. Six years later the mobile no longer spins, but the elephant still seems to be the favorite. The giraffe got the pensive look.

And, thanks to a bit of determination and about one hundred shots later...I finally caught the elusive smile. (Thank heavens for the six week mark, when babies show some signs of being a human being one can relate to and not just eating and crying machines.) Yeah smiles. Eat your heart out.

absolutely edible

no shutter speed fast enough to catch the smile...yet

stunned

Who didn't want an erector set when they were a kid?