Embracing Our New Arrival

Full disclosure: This post was pre-written. That's because I'm a little busy today, having a baby. I am one full week late and went in this morning at 6:00 a.m. for my scheduled induction.

Three cheers for that!

So, today I Embrace the Camera with photos of me embracing my boys who will today gain a sister.

First, a woodsy snuggle with Eli a few years ago. Look at that little first born. What a gem.


And a lovely little smooch from yesterday with sweet baby A who is becoming a Big Brother today. He is a wonder.
Check back soon for the big news! And, while you're at it throw some good birthing juju out into the universe for me if you don't mind. It's much appreciated!!

Patience, patience, and more patience.

The boys are having much better luck than I am finding ways to entertain themselves while we wait for Lil' Sis' arrival. Now that I've nested all their is to nest and am in the thumb-twiddling phase, I'm going 'round the bend. I'm not so good at the twiddling.

The boys on the other hand, twiddle with the best of 'em.

We have had a bit of action around here. Saturday evening I had a bout of contractions that were consistently 4 minutes apart and over a minute long. So we went in to see if it was go-time.

It was not. The frequency and length of the contractions are good, but they need to get more intense. I should've know that it wasn't it considering how much fun the fella and I were having in the hospital. That's too much laughing for real labor. I do appreciate his dramatic parking job however:

When your wife's in labor, you gotta do whachya gotta do.

But, it seems progress had been made and that I'm on my way and may even pop out my first ever on-time or (gasp) slightly early baby.

We shall see.

Peek of the Week - July 22, 2011

What's Peek of the Week, you ask? It's our Friday feature and it's all about you! I want to hear (and share with my readers) what wowed you this week. It could be a cool finished project, a work in progress, a personal accomplishment, a cute kid moment, or something that surprised you.

If we could peek into your week - what would you want to show us?

Each week I'll share my own Peek of the Week to get the ball rolling, and invite you to link to your blog post about your Peek of the Week. I know y'all are up to cool stuff - we wanna see it!

Ok, me first - and you better get the salts, because this is a good one.

A few days ago I completed for my growing brood Little Sister/Big Brother T-Shirts:
Pretty sweet right? Rarely do my projects work out the way I'm envisioning in my head. But I started dreaming these up a few weeks back and they are perfection.

One for Lil' Sis (can't wait to see her in it! Mostly because if she's wearing this it means she's no longer inside my body).

One for Amos, the magical middle bro.

And one for Eli, big bro extraordinaire.

Now, this might get a bit tedious for anyone who did not birth these children, but here are some select shots from our little shirt photo shoot. They are a plenty.



And...Amos is over it.



But Eli was feelin' the photo shoot vibe.


Man, I must be hilarious.


Such. A. Stud.


Next time you see these little gems it will be on the bodies of ALL my children as the two big'uns are meeting the little'un. I'm super excited about that day.


Now it's time for a peek into YOUR week!
You could get peeking in three easy steps:
1. Blog about your Peek of the Week - whatever it is. Whatever happened that made you proud, laugh, smile, inspired, excited, or just plain happy - now that's worth sharing.
2. Include a link to this blog or put the Peek of the Week button (on the sidebar) in your post.
3. Link your blog post using the InLinkz button below.

If you don't get a chance to get here on Friday, feel free to link your post up later.
The InLinkz button will be active for 5 days.

Lounging

Dizzy's got things figured out.

Does anyone else feel like July has come to an abrupt halt? It's hot. I'm uh...eager...to meet this little babe perched precariously on my bladder, and July has slowed to a crawl.

I've been looking ahead to July 27th for sometime now - it's my niece's birthday, my 38 week appointment, and the grand opening of our IKEA. A big day, you understand. And I feel like it should have come and gone already but no, it's still a full. week. away. And lil' sis' arrival is expected a full two weeks after that. Zoiks.

Most people would be glad to have a little more time to prepare for impending transitions, but I've nearly nested all there is to nest, and it's still not time yet.

I know...Hang in there. Power through. Keep on keeping on. I'm in the home stretch. Keep calm and carry on. Yada yada.
I know. I shall.

Speaking of some of that good old nesting - I finished a project last night that is so cute I might need the salts. I really want to give you a teaser, but I will wait until the peek of the week on Friday. I need to practice my patience. Do come back. You won't be disappointed!

Embrace Busting Out

In the immortal words of Monica: "4 weeks baby. 4 WEEKS!"

Here, for this week's embrace the camera I give you, the 36 week belly. At her check in this week she was:

• still a girl!
• head down with her little hands in front of her sweet face.
• "baby breathing," which apparently is practice and is a very healthy and good thing for her to be doing.
• showing no sign of going anywhere any time soon.

So we sit tight and the hysterical non-stop nesting continues. So far this has included:

• organizing her clothes and her whatnot
  
• adorning her walls with decals of trees, critters, stars and a little gal atop the moon
• cooking up ideas for Big Brother t-shirts
• moving furniture to accommodate her gear
• purchased and packed the boys' required school supplies (1.5 months in advance)
• ordering fabric for her bedding
• packing things for hospital

I'm unstoppable!

While you're here, look back and come back:

• Look back to yesterday's post to enter the 2nd Annual My Birthday Giveaway!
• Come back to tomorrow's post to see this week's Peek of the Week. Fellow bloggers can participate too by sharing a posts about what wowed you this week. Click here for deets.
  

Peek of the Week - July 8, 2011

What's Peek of the Week, you ask? It's our Friday feature and it's all about you! I want to hear (and share with my readers) what wowed you this week. It could be a cool finished project, a work in progress, a personal accomplishment, a cute kid moment, or something that surprised you.

If we could peek into your week - what would you want to show us?

Each week I'll share my own Peek of the Week to get the ball rolling, and invite you to link to your blog post about your Peek of the Week. I know y'all are up to cool stuff - we wanna see it!

I'll start:
Here is the completed project I sneak peeked yesterday. It's project 472 of the baby preparation nest-travaganza in which I am currently engaged.

Disclaimer: Lil's Sis's room is actually a closet - very small, and no window - so the photos aren't great. But you'll get the idea.


I present...Lil' Sis's Wall of Whimsy!:
Eli put on the little leaves at the bottom. I love that he added his own special touches to her space.


I tried to give you the full 360 experience. In fact, I attempted to make a panoramic shot of the whole thing - couldn't be done in such a small space. Alas.

When you enter the room on your left it is morning with trees and birds and dragonflies. Continue around the room and the clouds lead you to a trail of stars onto the next wall where Lil' Sis is perched on the moon fishing for a star. Pretty sweet.

I love decals. I took on a similar project for Eli's nursery in paint. It took forever, wasn't as crisp looking, and I worried what the fumes were doing to him in my belly. Decals are so forgiving. If you don't like a feature of something you've cut out, just try again. I got a lot of good inspiration from etsy (especially the girl on the moon - if you like it you could snag one here), but I made them all myself out of solid colored sheets of vinyl wall decal. Mama loves.

So, what have you been up to? Let's see your peek!
You could get peeking in three easy steps:
1. Blog about your Peek of the Week - whatever it is. Whatever happened that made you proud, laugh, smile, inspired, excited, or just plain happy - now that's worth sharing.
2. Include a link to this blog or put the Peek of the Week button (on the sidebar) in your post.
3. Link your blog post using the InLinkz button below.

If you don't get a chance to get here on Friday, feel free to link your post up later.
The InLinkz button will be active for 5 days.

Embrace the Nest

It's Thursday...time to embrace the camera.

The fella and I were enjoying a kid-free lunch on the patio at Mellow Mushroom the other day and I kept catching a glimpse of how freakishly large my belly looked in his aviators. So he snapped that shot for posterity of the rotundity I'm currently toting around. Remarkable, no? In other news...I wear that shirt a lot - it's been featured in nearly all my embrace the camera posts for weeks.

I've been struck very recently with the intense need to make preparations for this baby's arrival. Like, now. I'm 5 weeks from my due date, and if history is any guide, 6 weeks from delivering this little gem - but preparing for her seems situation critical. Checklists are my friend, as the placenta brain prevents me from hanging onto any one idea for very long. And things are getting checked off.

Much of this nesting takes place in the night. Our room and hers are upstairs where it is blisteringly hot in the day. So when the boys are sleeping and the air begins to cool, I go up and take on a project. I've folded and hung and organized all her little clothes and accessories. Blankets are neatly nestled. Fabric has been ordered for the "bedding" I'm making for her. Her room is so small (literally a closet) that a crib won't fit. So I'm fashioning some cuteness for the pack'n'play and that will just have to do.

I've scoured etsy for some sweet vintage baby gowns, perfect for a summer baby. I've begun putting things aside to take to hospital when the time comes.

I've even gone so far as to get my eyebrows freshly waxed and my pedis cured. Can't go into labor without proper eyebrows. Heavens no.

The fella points out that many of these preparations (like the eyebrows and the toes) will likely have to be repeated before she arrives. And I'm aware with every preparation I make, I'm nearly guaranteeing a late-comer. I know. I know.

But preparations must be made.

I finished off a very exciting project last night. Here's a sneak peek:

Come back tomorrow to see the full project reveal for this week's Peek of the Week. You can participate too by showing us the cool stuff you've been up to this week. Here's the skinny.

Embracing the Bump

I know I already referred to Amos' happy place this week, but he has a couple. He's a happy kid.

One of them is the bump.

Me thinks he thinks I grew this big ol' bump on the front just so he's have a cozy place to pillow up to about 12 times a day. He spends lots of time there.

And even if that were the only benefit to this bump, it would've been totally worth it just for all the snuggles.
It does present a few challenges, like trying to belly up to my sewing table with this bump and that sweet little noggin betwixt Betty (my sewing machine) and me.


But this week it also gave me some inspiration. While flipping through some of my favorite pattern books and looking down at those gorgeous goldie locks, I knew just what my next project would be.

And I've made 4 of them, with 5 more cut and ready to be sewn. Curious? Check back here tomorrow for the Peek of the Week where my newest project (read: obsession) will be revealed. And you can share some of the fun stuff you've been up to. Read the skinny about that here, and come back tomorrow to check it out.

I'm linking this post up to the Anderson Crew blog for the Embrace the Camera feature. It's fun. Check that out too!

Baby Book

A special goody arrived on Friday. Lil' sis' sweet pink birdie baby book from Rag N' Bone Bindery made its way here. Big squeal.

I love the little collection of matching baby books that lives on our book shelves, filled with details of the most altering moments of our lives, and pictures of our fresh, squishy little babes. I can't wait to start filling in that sweet pink one.

Hats Off

Saturday we found more than just biscuits at the farmers market. One of the new booths this year sells the sweetest little crocheted hats. Oh my word.
Little sister got two and a little clippy to add to her accessories shelf. We're praying she has a normal human head (unlike her brothers) and will fit the yellow newborn hat for at least as long as it takes my shutter to click. Fingers crossed.

These sweet little cuties can be found at marilijean.com!

Embracing Two Until it's Threee

I love a Thursday no-brainer. Let's embrace the camera, shall we.


Lil' Sis has been getting a lot of love here this week, since we got to peek in on her and are half way (HALF WAY!) to meeting her. So, for today's Embrace the Camera I want to spread the boy love.

Here are a few of my favorite shots of just the boys and me.



For the next twenty weeks I plan to cherish to pure delicious boyishness around here. We'll play cars and trains, dig in the dirt and construct 'til our hearts are content. We'll do some crafting and other stuff too, but we're going to eat up the locker room vibe until August when lil' sis comes and mixes things up.

We're also planning to cherish the two. I'll be honest, three is terrifying. Don't get me wrong, I can't wait until she's here, but how is this going to work exactly? No really, I'm asking.

Have a lovely Thursday. I'm off to play some trains.

And don't forget to come back tomorrow with your Peek of the Week! To learn what that is and how to participate, read all about it and come back tomorrow to tell us what you've been up to!

Good Things

Baby Tummy:
Tummy Baby: