Product Need

Over the past couple of days I've found out how difficult it is to find a baby book that doesn't blatantly refer to a mom and a dad as the birth parents.  Now, I had a feeling there wouldn't be a huge selection of more alternative baby books out there, but there really is a dearth, which is depressing.  The few that I found (which, to their credit, are cool in that you can order special custom page packs for two moms, two dads, adoptive parents, single parents, etc.) also happen to be severely lacking in the design department.  And that I cannot abide.  I want a modern, bright, clever baby book that just refers to "parents" and provides space to chronicle the milestones of Roo's life.  I want clean fonts and gender neutral colors.

Since my quest for this elusive book has been fruitless, I've decided to make my own book.  I'm a documenter by nature, and I figure my love for crafting, design, and scrap booking will help me in this endeavor.  In a way, this will be much cooler and more personal than any store bought book could ever be.  I'll be able to dictate every aspect of the book, from the album itself to the paper inside to the information that I choose to include.  Instead of pages upon pages of prompts like "A Big Mac cost ____ when you were born" and "The U.S. Secretary of State was ______ when you were born," I can include the things that really matter to us.  I can make sure there's room for all of the wonderful cards we've already gotten at our baby showers and for other mementoes that I'm sure to save.

I think this will be a perfect project for me while I'm off work in the couple of weeks around the due date, since I'm expecting Roo to be late anyway.  It's crafty, creative, and will keep me off my feet.

36 Weeks

I can't believe I'm one month away from my due date!  The more shocking thing is that my stomach already feels so big that I can't imagine it getting any larger over the next few weeks, though I know it will.  I can't even fit into any of my maternity jeans anymore so it's leggings and dresses for me (or loungewear) from here on out.  

The doodles on the chalkboard above are from our baby shower on Sunday.  People seem to be just about evenly matched on the question of whether Roo is a boy or a girl.  I can't wait to find out!

34 Weeks

I'm actually 36 weeks today, but I never posted a 34 week picture.  This is from the photos that Kendra did when we were in Phoenix for Thanksgiving.

Nursery: After

Presenting Roo's room!

Nursery: Before

To ratchet up the excitement level of the two people who might still read this blog, in anticipation of the finished nursery, here's what the room looked like initially:

These are pretty lame photos, but the room just isn't that big and it's hard to get a good photo of the whole thing.

I think we've made a lot of improvements in the last few months, but you be the judge :)

Googleween Recap

Our Droid costumes took the Best Costume Design prize in the costume contest last Friday!

Our antics chronicled in photos, from the costume parade to posing with the Android statues outside the Android building at Googleplex:

{Dancing across the front of the room, droid-style}

{Note the skeleton fetus on my shirt!}

{With Ice Cream Sandwich (latest Android version)}

{Droid Skeleton + Honeycomb}

{Droid Vampire rides a Google bike}

Happy Halloween!

Painting on sugar pumpkins is fun!

Halloween Droids

For the Google Halloween costume contest, two of my coworkers and I decided to be Androids -- but not just any Droids, Halloween-themed Droids.  It fell to me to design and build our Droid heads -- a witch (Melody), a skeleton (me), and a vampire (Freeman).  

Here's the process in photos, from the beginning -- using Rigid Wrap (plaster wrap) around a beach ball to create each head-- to the finished product.

Supplies stand at the ready: beach ball, plaster wrap, water, scissors.

Working with the plaster is extremely pleasing and fun.

All three heads are formed and drying.

An eye slit has been cut in my Droid head.  Cole (who helped me quite a bit on the project) and I went back and forth about how best to cut eye holes, and this seemed like the best option.

Here's the witch Droid looking more like a nonplussed frog.

Vampire Droid gets its fangs (dripping blood, of course).

Freeman cut dowls to size so that I could screw them into the plaster wrap.  It was a fantastic way to attach the antennas.

The finished product!

I'll be back with photos of our entire costumes following the contest (which we'll win, of course) today.

30 Weeks

Hitting 30 weeks seems like a big milestone...not only to be in the thirties, but to realize that the baby's arrival is only 10 weeks or so away.  It makes me very happy that the room is basically done, because we have a lot of other stuff to take care of.

I'm starting to feel tired again a lot of the time, but I'm hanging in there.  I'm hoping that Roo is already in birth position (head down, spine along the front of my belly) because I'm feeling a lot more shifting body movements than individuals kicks now.  We've completed 3/4 parts of our Hypnobirthing class now and couldn't be happier with it.  The final class is on Sunday and a full day.

Owl-dorable

Eileen brought these back from Napa for me the baby.  I was pleased as punch when I opened the box!  I can just see these soft little moccasins paired with a white onesie and leg warmers.  

Roo is going to be quite the fashion statement.

Truth

28 Weeks

I'm officially in the third trimester now!  The most exciting news is that we started our childbirth prep class last night and I couldn't be happier with it (we're doing HypnoBirthing).  Roo is weighing in at about 2.5 pounds and could be as long as 17 inches.  This baby is active!  Constantly kicking, punching, and rolling around...

Whoa.  I already feel pretty big...so the next 3 months should be interesting :)

And one more photo, just for laughs:

I'm not exactly sure how far along my mom was with me here, but I know that she found this photo really comical.  This is what happens when you try to make a non-maternity dress work over a big belly. {I have tried this as well with similar results -- but I made sure pics would not be snapped -- ha.}

Family Rocking Chair

I mentioned in an earlier post how excited I was to be able to use in our baby's room the rocking chair that my mom rocked me in.  

Here's my mom in said rocker:

And here's a peek at the rocker in the soon-to-be-finished nursery:

We went back and forth about painting it white, but I think I prefer it the original dark walnut color.

Best of all, this chair is COMFORTABLE.  I had forgotten just how cozy it is.  Lucky for us since I'm sure both Cole and I will be spending a lot of time in it.

Embellished Onesie

I picked up this brand new onesie at the Goodwill on Van Ness a few months ago, knowing it had the potential to be awesome.  A girl would just have to cover up the mysterious "Fisher Investments" logo (what tool found it necessary to embroider onesies with a corporate name, anyway?  Never mind the fact that I plan to outfit our kid in at least one piece of Google clothing...).  

So here's the before:

And the after:

A bit of fabric, some embroidery, and fusible hem tape is all this took.  Now our baby will never be able to forget what its nickname in utero was.

Must. Make.

Our living room is in dire need of this:

Beautiful, graphic book art.  It's on my craft list.

Pregnancy Journal

I really don't want this blog to be just about pregnancy and babies, but I need to share this pregnancy journal that we've been using and that we love.

I've liked Nikki McClure's woodcuts for awhile now, so I was really happy to find this book.  I would recommend it to anyone who's expecting--it's not cheesy in any way, and it's filled with Nikki's art.

22 and 26 Weeks

I've had a couple of requests for updated photos, so here goes.  I'm not feeling too photogenic these days, and if you could see me right now, you'd see me stretched out on the couch, feet propped up on two pillows and covered with ice packs to combat the swelling that has been going on.  But that's not too exciting.

A more exciting development is that Roo plays with us!  I can sometimes get a little kick or a punch from the wee babe if I talk to and poke my belly.  Same goes for Cole--she was out of town for 6 days last week, and when she came back she started talking to my belly and Roo immediately responded.  So cool!

Here's my 22 weeks photo, taken by Kendra when I was in Phoenix over Labor Day weekend:

Unfortunately, we fell off the bandwagon right around 24 weeks and therefore have no photo!  Blast the luck.

But here's me at 26 weeks, posing with Cole's sweet chalk drawing of my belly:

I can't believe I'm nearing the end of my sixth month already.  Time is flying (despite aches, pains and swelling), and we've made a lot of progress on the nursery, but still have lots of projects to do.  I'm working on embellishing a onesie I found at Goodwill and Cole has a stack of sewing projects.  Pics to come!

{I'm off to eat some Ben & Jerry's.}

20 Weeks

I'm getting this in just under the wire, since I turn 21 weeks tomorrow.  The highlight of the past two weeks has been feeling more and more movement from Roo (our nickname for the baby, aka the little kangaroo boxer inside me who's constantly throwing punches!).  

18 Weeks

I'm actually 20 weeks now, but I fell off the blog bandwagon between work, school, and general pregnancy fatigue and never posted this pic.  My 20 weeks photo will come this weekend!

Sixteen Weeks

Highlight of this week:  potentially feeling the baby kick a couple of nights ago!  I felt a very alien little "pop" on my lower left side.  Most women do start feeling movement between 16 and 20 weeks, so it's a possibility.

Low point of this week:  vomiting into a bush near my office following a tumultuous shuttle ride.  I need the motion sickness to end.

Hammer Time

{I know, lamest post title ever.}

Today Cole built the wood box to go around our purple peppermint willow.  And she did it all by herself.  I am both impressed by her skill as a craftsperson and thrilled with how it came out.

I think I'll add a couple of rectangular planters to two of the sides and plant some succulents in them.  Operation: Beautify 777 Crescent is in full swing!

Bringing a Vintage Crib Back to Life: Part 1

Back in November, during our maiden voyage to Urban Ore in Berkeley with my dad, we happened upon this amazing vintage crib.  Though many layers of dirt and grime obscured its parts, I could tell that this was a special piece of furniture.  It's made of solid wood, with many details, including the sets of red balls that spin on each end to entertain baby.  It still had what looked like the original paint job, complete with toll-painted leaves on each end.  And on top of each side railing, the name "Thayer" was stamped in 1950s vintage script.

After hauling out the pieces and putting the crib together right in Urban Ore, we saw that the crib was missing a couple of key pieces of hardware.  Still, we were not deterred.  We would have this crib.  At $45, it was a steal compared to the price of new cribs today--even boring, cheap, mass-produced ones.  More than that, it would be one of a kind when we were finished with it--and we would be reusing something that already exists in the world rather than supporting a big box store and consuming new merchandise.

That night, I scoured the Internet for information about this Thayer crib and the company in general.  My findings were few and far between.  All I could locate were furniture ads from the pages of Life magazine, but after perusing several of these I was confident that what we had found was a 1950s crib that had probably been part of a larger Thayer nursery set.  Thayer apparently made nursery furniture with a variety of designs, from the orchard-type design of ours, to this lamb design (1955), to this design with a lamb and two bunnies (1954).  Most of them seem to have featured the spinning balls on one or both ends--some with three, some with four, like ours, and some with five.  From the ads I've seen, a Thayer crib cost from $29.95 for a plain one to $49.95 for one with the balls and more details.  Thayer's tag line seems to have been "BETTER LIVING FOR BABIES"--which strikes me as pretty funny.  {I suppose a stylish Thayer crib is a big step up from sleeping in a dresser drawer.}

The crib sat in our garage for a few months, accepting even more grime and more than a few cobwebs.  Then came the exciting day when I hauled it up the back stairs for a thorough cleaning.  It took three large buckets of scalding hot, soapy water to remove years of neglect.  I then detached the hardware and painted the crib with white zero-VOC paint ($18.99/quart).  I also sanded and painted the hardware with 

Rust-Stop Oil Based Enamel paint ($4.99/half pint) and Cole painted the springs with Rust-Stop Spray Paint ($4.99/can).

Voila!  The crib looks so clean and bright in all white.  I especially like how the scalloping on the top stands out now.  Eventually we'll paint the spinning balls on each end the same orange color that we used on the baby's dresser.  We're also working right now to find new hardware to replace the missing pieces so we can put this thing together and see it in all of its restored glory.

To come:  Part 2, in which I'll share the put-together crib, as well as the crib bedding and bumpers that Cole is planning to make.