DIY Baby Book

You might remember my post a few months ago about my difficulty finding a decent baby book for Clementine.  I ended up deciding to make my own and am so glad that I did.  I had a lot of fun picking out all of the supplies for the book.

It was a great project for my last couple of weeks before Clementine was born and I got to completely customize the book.  These aren't great photos of it, but you can see that it contains most of the standard pages (baby showers, about my parents, birth story, height and weight chart, firsts, traveling, school, etc).  I also added pages for pregnancy, where we live, baby's daily schedule, and lots of room for photos and other mementoes.

Easter Bunnies

One of the reasons I always loved Easter as a kid was due to a tradition that my mom started.  Nestled in each of our Easter baskets, amid the Peeps, colored eggs, and chocolate bunny, would be a special bunny for each of our collections.  I remember proudly displaying my bunny collection on my dresser up until I was 10 or 11, and then the bunnies went into a box.

I found my bunny collection not long ago and decided to start using it as Easter decor.  It's a bit kitchy, but I knew Cole wouldn't mind since the bunny may be her favorite animal (next to the narwhal, of course).  Having these bunnies out makes me think of my mom, too, and that's fun.

I'm going to keep this tradition alive by starting a bunny collection for Clementine this year.  Here are a few bunnies in the running to grace Clementine's Easter basket:

{bunny in shawl and gown, found here}

{tiny sky blue bunny and egg, found here}

{little brown and white rabbit, found here}

I think it'd be cool to include in Clementine's collection not just ceramic or wood bunnies but also knit or paper.  Maybe next year I'll have the time and gumption to make one for her!

Clementine Joyce Has Arrived!

Stationery Card

View the entire collection of cards.

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