Snow Play Day!

You can imagine how excited we were to wake up the first day of this semester to see this out our window!

It is amazing how being in school makes inclement weather an extra joyful experience.

We slept in and made Dutch Babies for breakfast...it was rough!

Then mid-morning we invited our friends Jake and Cassie out for a walk in the snow by throwing snow balls at their windows.

It worked--they came out to play!

There were many more snowballs thrown, a few snowy bushes which found sudden friends shoved into the center of them and one pregnant snow angel...

...who needed some help getting up!

Then we all went inside and had hot chocolate! Fun, fun, fun!

Noooooooo....!!!!!!!

This little sweater was going to be a competitor in the the 'going-home from the hospital outfit vote.' However,

. . . it turns out that knitting and carpel tunnel (even when it is brought on by the very same little person you want to knit for) are sworn and feuding enemies.

This latest development has put a serious wrench in the knitting. And so the sweater is going to have to wait until my body becomes reasonable again about how much water it thinks it needs on hand. . . So close, yet so far!

Ice and Warmth

It is 8 degrees Fahrenheit outside right now and supposedly feels like -2. I'm certainly not going out to see if they are right or not. The last three days we have have had ice around the window seals, on the inside. It is COLD!

Here's what is keeping us warm:
1. "The little radiator that could": Purchased with our Christmas money, it rolls around from room to room with us, providing economic heat.

2. Projects: I have slippers for Jonathan, a baby sweater and a blanket on the knitting needles. There are baby sheets and a car seat cover in various stages of production under the sewing machine. I've been cooking meals to freeze for later. And Jonathan finishes his translation of 1 John from Greek to English today, so we've set a date to pack our bag for the hospital this afternoon!

3. Presents from friends: Thank you to all of you who have sent things to us for the baby! Every time I see a package at the door, it makes me feel so loved and warm. Here's a piece of art sent to us by my good friend Ella.

Notice how well she painted us, and that the baby's hair color is even mixed between my hair and Jonathan's hair....now that is the kind of attention to detail worthy of the daughter of a medical research scientist! I love it! Thank you Ella!

....aaaand the BabyZ craziness commences

Be warned. I am now done with school, my legs hit the underside of my belly when I try to climb stairs, and I've started grunting unintentionally when I get out of the car (something I said I would never do when I was pregnant!)---all another way of saying "35 weeks and counting...."

And oh boy, are there things I am doing! I had been daydreaming about baby projects during all of last semester, but of course had no time to put any of them into action. (To think that a month ago I couldn't stay awake to read, now I have so much energy for the little tasks I want to do that I have to remind myself to eat!)

Here's the first sparks of my exploding pent up desire...and there will be much more to come!

Baby Laundry!

Of course this task will not always be gloriously fun, but I must admit the sight of all these tiny clothes hanging out with ours on the drying rack made me very, very happy! I knew I needed to post this so that I could remember the joy when I am haggardly doing yet another load of laundry in the future!

Baby Onesie!

I made this onesie out of Jonathan's old junior high swim team t-shirt. The logo didn't totally fit, so I put the remaining part on the hat, which I sewed out of the sleeve.

I love the idea of using this recycled clothing, and giving our new little one something of Daddy's to wear!

Baby Basket!

OK, this is really the best. And for you to understand how best it is, I must tell you the story my Dad told me:

"When you were a baby, you slept in a fishing basket that your mother and I hung over the foot of our bed. We tied a rope to it and put that down the middle of the bed between us. When you woke up in the middle of the night, whoever heard you first would grab the rope and twitch it so that your basket would swing and rock you back to sleep without us needing to get out of bed."

Doesn't that sound like the perfect bed for a baby? Doesn't that sound like the perfect baby bed for tired parents?

As soon as we found out we were expecting, I asked my Mom and Dad to find me a fishing basket in the Philippines. They kindly fulfilled my whim by bringing the basket back with them on the airplane--which I'm told involved a few lengthy conversations and re-tellings of the story to customs officials etc. along the way. But I did get my basket. And yesterday I made the mattress for it.

Here is the plywood insert that strengthens the bottom.

I cut out a couple layers of batting and some 1-inch foam a little bigger than the board.

Then I assembled all the pieces upside-down. The "pillow top" for this mattress was cotton quilted backing I found in the fabric store. That went down first, followed by the batting and foam with the plywood on top.

Using a staple gun I wrapped all the layers snugly and tacked them in with the mattress "pillow top" using staples secure it to the back of the board.

Ta-da! Baby basket with cozy, yet firm mattress in the bottom.

Isn't it inviting?

...stay tuned for sheets and a bumper, z knitted sweater, the going home from the hospital outfit vote, the home-sewn moby wrap, the re-made sweater-fleece bonanza and perhaps even a Christmas re-cap all coming to my blog near you...soon!